Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
60 free Solomon Islands trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Solomon Islands (no 'the', officially) is a chain of six big islands and nearly a thousand small ones north-east of Australia, and this quiz digs into all of it: the Spanish navigator who named them after a biblical king, the British protectorate that ran them from a tiny island called Tulagi, the World War II campaign that turned Guadalcanal into a household name, and the independence that came on 7 July 1978 with a Queen still on the coins. Easy questions ask for the capital, the biggest island and the ocean; the harder ones want the sea god a submarine volcano is named after, the world's largest raised coral atoll, the gene behind the islands' famous blond hair, the futsal captain who scored three seconds into a match, and the two islanders who paddled JFK's coconut message to safety. There is Pijin, shell money from the Langa Langa Lagoon, Ironbottom Sound, the flag's five stars and the country's switch from Taiwan to China. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its islands, its history and its people, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Solomon Islands lies in which region of Oceania?
Melanesia
About 95% of the population is Melanesian, but seven outlying islands, including Tikopia and Rennell, are culturally Polynesian.
Q 02Which Spanish navigator, sailing from Peru in 1568, was the first European to reach the islands?
Álvaro de Mendaña
He came back in 1595 to found a colony, but the settlement failed and he died there in October of that year.
Q 03The islands were named because Europeans hoped they held whose legendary biblical wealth?
King Solomon
Reports of Mendaña's voyage were conflated with the story of Ophir, the land that supplied the king's gold. Mendaña himself never named the group.
Q 04In which year did Solomon Islands become independent?
1978
Independence Day is 7 July. Sir Peter Kenilorea became the first prime minister and Elizabeth II remained head of state.
Q 05Who became head of state of Solomon Islands in September 2022?
King Charles III
The country is a Commonwealth realm, so Charles III succeeded Elizabeth II; a Governor-General chosen by Parliament represents the King locally.
Q 06During the colonial period, which small island served as the protectorate's capital before Honiara?
Tulagi
Resident commissioner Charles Woodford chose it in 1896. It was one of the first places the Japanese seized in May 1942.
Q 07What was the 19th-century kidnapping of islanders for Queensland and Fiji plantations called?
Blackbirding
Jack London wrote about the trade. Missionary pressure to stop it was one reason Britain declared a protectorate in 1893.
Q 08In which year was a British protectorate declared over the southern Solomons?
1893
Germany held the northern islands until the Tripartite Convention of 1899 handed most of them to Britain, keeping only Buka and Bougainville.
Q 09The largest island in the Solomon Islands archipelago is not part of the country. Which is it?
Bougainville
It is an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea. Its 1988-98 civil war sent refugees south and strained relations between the two countries.
Q 10In World War II, the Allied landings of 7 August 1942 opened which pivotal campaign in the Solomons?
The Battle of Guadalcanal
The Japanese had begun building an airstrip there; the Americans finished it and named it Henderson Field.
Q 11Which US admiral said 'The coastwatchers saved Guadalcanal and Guadalcanal saved the South Pacific'?
William Halsey
Coastwatchers were often planters and islanders hidden on Japanese-held islands, radioing warnings of ships and aircraft heading down 'the Slot'.
Q 12After PT-109 sank in 1943, John F. Kennedy's rescue message was carved on what and paddled to safety by islanders?
A coconut
Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana carried it by dugout canoe. Kennedy kept the shell on his desk in the Oval Office.
Q 13Which Japanese destroyer rammed and sank Kennedy's PT-109 in August 1943?
Amagiri
It was running back to Rabaul at high speed on a moonless night. Its captain later claimed he rammed the boat deliberately; his superior said he was trying to avoid it.
Q 21The Solomon Islands currency, which replaced Australian money at par in 1977, is the what?
Dollar
It replaced the Australian dollar at par in 1977. Kina and vatu are the currencies of Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
Q 22Kavachi, one of the Pacific's most active submarine volcanoes, is named after what?
A sea god
Locals call it 'Kavachi's oven'. It has risen above the sea and been eroded back at least eight times since 1939, and sharks were filmed living in its crater in 2015.
Q 23Marovo, in Western Province, is the world's largest example of what?
Double-barrier lagoon
It covers about 700 square kilometres between two extinct volcanic islands and is on UNESCO's tentative list.
Q 14The tiny island where Kennedy's crew first swam ashore is now named after him. What is its local name?
Kasolo
It is also called Plum Pudding Island and is a 15-minute boat ride from Gizo, a popular stop for visiting divers.
Q 15What grim nickname did Allied sailors give the waters off Guadalcanal where so many ships sank in 1942-43?
Ironbottom Sound
Before the war it was Savo Sound. A US ship still drops a wreath there every year on the battle's anniversary.
Q 16Honiara International Airport was known during World War II by what name?
Henderson Field
It was named for a Marine aviator killed at Midway. Whoever held it controlled the skies over the southern Solomons.
Q 17How many stars appear on the flag of Solomon Islands?
Five
They stood for the provinces at the time; the number of provinces has since grown to nine but the stars never changed.
Q 18What is the name of the English-based creole that serves as the country's everyday lingua franca?
Pijin
Only 1-2% of people speak English fluently. Bislama and Tok Pisin are its close cousins in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.
Q 19Roughly how many local languages are spoken in Solomon Islands?
About 70
Most are Austronesian, but a handful, like Bilua and Savosavo, form their own family unrelated to anything else on Earth.
Q 20Traditional shell money is made mainly in the Langa Langa Lagoon on which island?
Malaita
It is made of small polished shell discs drilled and threaded on strings, and can still be bought at Honiara Central Market.
Q 24East Rennell, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, surrounds which lake, the largest in the insular Pacific?
Tegano
Rennell is a raised coral atoll and a Polynesian outlier. Logging threats put the site on the World Heritage in Danger list in 2013.
Q 25Blond hair among Solomon Islanders stems from a mutation in which gene, found nowhere outside Oceania?
TYRP1
The variant occurs in about 26% of the population and evolved independently of European blondness, which is mostly linked to MC1R and other genes.
Q 26Which Australian city gave its name to the October 2000 peace deal between Guale and Malaitan militias?
Townsville
A key Guale leader, Harold Keke, refused to sign, and fighting shifted to the remote Weather Coast until the RAMSI intervention of 2003.
Q 27Which country led the RAMSI intervention force that restored order in Solomon Islands from 2003?
Australia
Operation Helpem Fren brought 2,200 police and troops from about 15 Pacific nations. The mission wound up in 2017.
Q 28In 2019 Solomon Islands switched its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to which country?
China
A 2022 security pact followed, alarming Australia and New Zealand because it allows Beijing to send forces to help 'maintain social order'.
Q 29How many members sit in the country's single-chamber Parliament?
50
Members serve four-year terms and elect the prime minister, which is why no-confidence votes have toppled so many governments.
Q 30Which of these does Solomon Islands NOT have?
A regular army
Two patrol boats operated by the police act as the de facto navy. Solomon Airlines and the Central Bank were both created under prime minister Solomon Mamaloni.