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60 free Steve Jobs trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Steve Jobs trivia quiz follows the adopted son of a Mountain View machinist from a summer job at Hewlett-Packard and illegal blue boxes with Steve Wozniak, through a single semester at Reed College, seven months in India and a technician's job at Atari, to the founding of Apple in his parents' house in 1976. It then covers the Apple II, the Lisa named for his daughter, the 1984 Macintosh launch, the ouster in 1985, the NeXT and Pixar years, the return in 1997, and the run of iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad that made Apple the most valuable company in the world before his death in 2011. The easy questions are ones most people know: who he co-founded Apple with, which animation studio he bought, what he wore on stage. The medium ones cover his birth parents, his education, the Breakout bonus, the Super Bowl ad, John Sculley and Tim Cook. The hard ones dig into Ronald Wayne, Mike Markkula, the calligraphy class, the Whipple procedure, the Half Dome wedding cake and his last words. It suits a tech-history round, a business-school warm-up or anyone who has read the Isaacson biography. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01With whom did Jobs co-found Apple Computer Company in 1976?
Steve Wozniak
A third partner drew up the paperwork and left within days.
Q 02Which animation studio did Jobs buy from Lucasfilm in 1986?
Pixar
He paid $10 million, half of it capital for the company and half to Lucasfilm for technology rights.
Q 03What company did Jobs found in 1985 immediately after leaving Apple?
NeXT
Apple bought it in 1997 for about $400 million, bringing Jobs back.
Q 04In which city was Jobs born in February 1955?
San Francisco
His birth mother travelled there from Wisconsin to give birth and arrange a closed adoption.
Q 05Abdulfattah Jandali, who fathered Jobs, was born to wealthy parents in which country?
Syria
He met Jobs's mother while studying for a PhD at the University of Wisconsin; her father opposed the match.
Q 06What did Paul and Clara Jobs promise Steve's birth mother in order to keep him?
To pay for his college tuition
She had wanted college graduates to adopt him; the couple lacked degrees.
Q 07Which company gave 13-year-old Jobs a summer job after he cold-called its co-founder for spare parts?
Hewlett-Packard
Bill Hewlett himself took the call.
Q 08What illegal device did Jobs and his high-school friend build and sell as teenagers?
Blue boxes for free long-distance calls
Jobs later said that without them 'there wouldn't have been an Apple'.
Q 09Which Portland, Oregon, school did Jobs attend for a single semester in 1972?
Reed College
He kept auditing classes after dropping out, and later credited one of them for the Mac's typefaces.
Q 10Which audited college course did Jobs credit for the Mac's typefaces and spaced fonts?
Calligraphy
He told the story in his 2005 Stanford commencement speech.
Q 11Where did Jobs get free weekly meals while sleeping on friends' floors after dropping out?
A Hare Krishna temple
He also returned Coke bottles for food money.
Q 12Which video game company hired Jobs as a technician in 1974?
Atari
Co-founder Nolan Bushnell called him 'difficult but valuable' and often the smartest guy in the room.
Q 13How long did Jobs spend in India in 1974 seeking spiritual teachings?
Seven months
He came home with a shaved head and Indian clothes; the guru he had gone to see had died the year before.
Q 21Which 1983 Apple computer was named after Jobs's daughter, though the company claimed it was an acronym?
Lisa
'Local Integrated Software Architecture' was the cover story; Jobs later admitted the truth to his biographer.
Q 22What did Time magazine honour instead of a person in its January 1983 issue?
The personal computer, as 'Machine of the Year'
Jobs had disputed a paternity test that put the odds at 94.1 percent.
Q 23Which Pepsi executive did Jobs lure to Apple in 1983 with the 'selling sugared water' line?
John Sculley
Q 14Which branch of Buddhism did Jobs practise under the master Kobun Chino Otogawa?
Zen
Kobun later conducted his 1991 wedding at Yosemite.
Q 15Which arcade game did Bushnell ask Jobs to build with as few chips as possible?
Breakout
Jobs told Woz the bonus was $750 and gave him half; the real figure was $5,000.
Q 16Who was the third co-founder of Apple, who stayed only briefly?
Ronald Wayne
Apple was founded as a partnership on April 1, 1976, in the Jobs family home on Crist Drive.
Q 17Where did Jobs get the idea for the company's name?
An apple orchard at an Oregon commune
He had just returned from the All One Farm when he suggested it to his partner.
Q 18What did Jobs sell to fund the first batch of Apple I boards?
His Volkswagen van
His partner sold an HP scientific calculator; about 200 Apple I computers were eventually made.
Q 19Which semi-retired Intel manager provided Apple's early funding and brought in investor Arthur Rock?
Mike Markkula
Rock started with $60,000 after seeing a crowded Apple booth at a computer show.
Q 20How many expansion slots did Wozniak insist the Apple II should have, against Jobs's preference for two?
Eight
Woz threatened that Jobs should 'go get himself another computer'; the Apple II launched at the West Coast Computer Faire in 1977.
Two years later Sculley's reorganisation pushed Jobs out of the company.
Q 24Who directed Apple's famous '1984' Super Bowl commercial for the Macintosh?
Ridley Scott
The $1.5 million ad ran once during Super Bowl XVIII and was called 'more successful than the Mac itself'.
Q 25On what date did Jobs unveil the Macintosh at Apple's shareholders meeting?
January 24, 1984
The Super Bowl ad two days earlier had promised the launch and that '1984 won't be like 1984'.
Q 26Which early Apple employee conceived the Macintosh project before Jobs took it over in 1981?
Jef Raskin
His co-founder was on leave after a plane crash, making the takeover easier.
Q 27On what date did Jobs submit his resignation letter to Apple's board in 1985?
September 17
Five other senior employees left with him to start NeXT.
Q 28Which billionaire invested heavily in NeXT when Jobs was running out of money?
Ross Perot
The NeXT computer was launched at a lavish gala at Davies Symphony Hall in October 1988.
Q 29What did Tim Berners-Lee invent in 1990 using a NeXT computer?
The World Wide Web
NeXT workstations cost $9,999 and sold only about 50,000 units before the company went software-only.
Q 30What was the first feature film Pixar produced with Disney, with Jobs credited as executive producer?
Toy Story
Released in 1995, it was the first computer-animated feature film.