Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
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98 free Trivia for Adults trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
These trivia questions for adults are the kind you would want at a pub quiz, a dinner party or a long car ride: real general knowledge, not cartoon characters, and trivia for men and women alike. The set mixes history (Magna Carta, Prohibition, the fall of the Berlin Wall), geography (which country has the most time zones, the only non-rectangular flag), science, classic and modern film, sport, food and drink, music, literature and a little art and technology. Difficulty runs from warm-up questions almost everyone gets to a handful that will split the table, and no category dominates, so a history buff and a film nerd have an equal shot. Play it solo to see how you score, or read the questions out and keep tally for a game night with friends. Every answer has been checked against a Wikipedia article or another reference page, and each question shows its source once you have answered, so any argument about a result can be settled on the spot.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which country was the first in the world to give all women the right to vote in national elections?
New Zealand
New Zealand's 1893 Electoral Act, won by Kate Sheppard's petition campaign, made it the first self-governing country to let all adult women vote; Sheppard now appears on the NZ$10 note.
Q 02In which year did the Berlin Wall come down?
1989
The Wall opened on 9 November 1989 after a garbled East German press announcement sent crowds to the crossings and overwhelmed guards simply opened the gates.
Q 03Which English king sealed Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215?
John
King John sealed Magna Carta at Runnymede on 15 June 1215; Pope Innocent III annulled it within ten weeks, and only later reissues made it a foundation of English law.
Q 04Who made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic, from New York to Paris, in 1927?
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis for about 33 and a half hours in May 1927; Coolidge presented him the first Distinguished Flying Cross and, in 1928, the Medal of Honor.
Q 05Suleiman the Magnificent was the longest-reigning sultan of which empire?
Ottoman
Suleiman ruled the Ottoman Empire for 46 years, from 1520 to 1566, the longest reign of any Ottoman sultan and the peak of its military and economic power.
Q 06In which year did the Titanic sink on her maiden voyage?
1912
Titanic struck an iceberg late on 14 April 1912 and sank early on 15 April; her lifeboats left with only about 60 percent of their rated capacity filled.
Q 07In which year did the Great Fire gut the medieval City of London?
1666
The Great Fire began in Pudding Lane on Sunday 2 September 1666 and burned until Wednesday, destroying most of the City inside the old Roman wall.
Q 08In which year was the Soviet Union formally dissolved?
1991
The Soviet Union formally ceased to exist on 26 December 1991, the day after Gorbachev resigned as its president.
Q 09Who is the only US president to have resigned from office?
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon resigned on 9 August 1974 over Watergate, after the Judiciary Committee approved impeachment articles but before the full House voted on them.
Q 10Which amendment to the US Constitution ended nationwide Prohibition of alcohol?
Twenty-first
The Twenty-first Amendment, ratified in December 1933, repealed the Eighteenth; it is the only amendment ratified by state conventions rather than legislatures.
Q 11Who holds the record for the longest reign of any British monarch?
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II reigned for 70 years and 214 days, from February 1952 to September 2022, the longest of any British monarch and of any queen regnant in history.
Q 12Which country was the first in the world to legalize same-sex marriage?
Netherlands
The Netherlands' same-sex marriage law took effect on 1 April 2001, the first anywhere in the world; Belgium followed in 2003.
Q 13Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?
Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon in July 1969; he and Buzz Aldrin spent about two and a half hours outside the lunar module while Michael Collins orbited overhead.
Q 21Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, is in which country?
Tanzania
Kilimanjaro stands in northern Tanzania near the Kenyan border; its summit was renamed Uhuru Peak, Swahili for Freedom, after independence in the 1960s.
Q 22Which US state has a longer coastline than all the other states combined?
Alaska
Alaska's coastline outstrips every other state's put together; the Exxon Valdez spill alone fouled about 1,100 miles of it.
Q 23Which country has the world's only non-rectangular national flag?
Nepal
Nepal's flag is two stacked crimson pennants, the only national flag that is not a rectangle and the only one taller than it is wide.
Q 14During which years was the sale of alcohol prohibited nationwide in the United States?
1920 to 1933
National Prohibition lasted from 1920 to 1933 under the Eighteenth Amendment, an era of speakeasies, bootleggers and gangsters such as Al Capone; repeal came in December 1933.
Q 15What is the capital city of Australia?
Canberra
Canberra was purpose-built as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne; Parliament moved there in 1927 and the city sits inside its own Australian Capital Territory.
Q 16Counting overseas territories, which country has the most time zones?
France
France spans 12 time zones once French Polynesia, Réunion and New Caledonia are counted, one more than Russia's 11.
Q 17What is the longest river in Europe?
Volga
The Volga runs about 3,530 km entirely within Russia to the Caspian Sea, making it Europe's longest river and the world's longest that never reaches an ocean.
Q 18Which is the smallest sovereign state in the world by both area and population?
Vatican City
Vatican City covers about 44 hectares and counted roughly 880 residents in 2024, the smallest sovereign state by both area and population.
Q 19Which city spans two continents, with about two-thirds of its people living in Europe?
Istanbul
Istanbul straddles the Bosporus, with about two-thirds of its residents on the European bank and the rest in Asia.
Q 20Which is the most populous country in Africa?
Nigeria
Nigeria passed 200 million people around 2019 and is Africa's most populous country, well ahead of Ethiopia and Egypt.
Q 24What is the largest hot desert in the world?
Sahara
The Sahara covers about 9 million square kilometres of North Africa; only the cold deserts of Antarctica and the Arctic are larger.
Q 25Which river carries more water to the sea than any other in the world?
Amazon
The Amazon discharges about 209,000 cubic metres per second, roughly a fifth of all river water reaching the oceans and more than the next seven largest rivers combined.
Q 26Which building, completed in 2010, became the world's tallest at about 828 metres?
Burj Khalifa
Burj Khalifa in Dubai opened in January 2010 at 828 metres, just over half a mile; its spire alone accounts for more than 240 metres of that.
Q 27The Swiss franc is legal tender in Switzerland and which other country?
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein adopted the Swiss franc in 1924 after the Austrian krone collapsed and has no currency of its own; the two countries also share a customs union.
Q 28What is the chemical symbol for gold?
Au
Au comes from aurum, the Latin word for gold; the element's atomic number is 79.
Q 29Which planet is the hottest in the solar system?
Venus
Venus's surface sits at about 464 °C under an atmosphere 92 times Earth's pressure, hotter than Mercury even though Mercury is closer to the Sun.
Q 30How many bones does a typical adult human skeleton have?
206
An adult has 206 bones; babies start with around 270, and the count drops as bones fuse during growth.