100 Trivia Questions Only Geniuses Will Get Right
Updated: Feb. 15, 2021From pop culture to geography, see how you fare against these challenging trivia questions.
Trivia Question #2
Which European country technically shares a border with Brazil, because one of its “overseas departments” does?
A. Germany
B. Belgium
C. France
D. Great Britain
Answer: B. KFC
The polish came in two colours—original and hot & spicy—and was exclusively available in Hong Kong.
Learn about the most ironic inventions ever.
Trivia Question #5
Samuel Tilden, Grover Cleveland, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton share what distinction among U.S. presidential candidates?
Answer: They won the popular vote but lost the electoral-college vote
Can you guess the only president Queen Elizabeth II didn’t meet with during her reign?
Answer: B. Robert Burns
The two influential poems were titled “Comin’ Through the Rye” and “To a Mouse,” respectively.
Trivia Question #7
What Indian mausoleum was called a “teardrop… on the cheek of time” by Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Rabindranath Tagore?
A. Tomb of Cyrus
B. The Taj Mahal
C. Tomb of Jahangir
B. Humayun’s Tomb
Answer: B. The Taj Mahal
A mind-boggling 20,000 artisans and 1,000 elephants were involved in the construction of the Taj Mahal.
Check out what the Taj Mahal looked like 100 years ago!
Trivia Question #10
What actor said, “If you had been a public figure since the time you were a toddler… maybe you too would value privacy above all else”?
A. Leonardo DiCaprio
B. Jodie Foster
C. Shirley Temple
D. Daniel Radcliffe
Answer: B. Jodie Foster
The two-time Academy Award winner made her acting debut in 1968 on the television show Mayberry R.F.D. While studying at Yale University, she was stalked by John W. Hinckley Jr., who would later try to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in an effort to “impress” Foster.
Trivia Question #14
Makeup artist Joanna Balkin says she needed 40 bottles of sunscreen per month to protect what 1990s TV show’s cast from sunburns?
A. Law & Order
B. Beverly Hills, 90210
C. Dawson’s Creek
D. Baywatch
Answer: C. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Number one was The Nutcracker)
The other two ballets were Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty!
Trivia Question #16
The three actors who starred as Magneto, Iron Man and Doctor Strange have all played what other character?
A. James Bond
B. Basil Fawlty
C. Ebenezer Scrooge
D. Sherlock Holmes
Answer: D. Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is one of the most-filmed fictional characters of all time. According to IMDb, Holmes has appeared in a mind-boggling 226 films!
Next, check out our ranking of every James Bond movie.
Trivia Question #17
So far, which has been the only FIFA World Cup host not to make it out of the group stage?
A. Sweden
B. Mexico
C. United States
D. South Africa
Answer: D. South Africa (in 2010)
Don’t miss these hilarious soccer phrases from around the world!
Answer: A. The kidney
Your kidneys filter approximately 150 quarts of blood each day.
These new health studies will change the way you live.
Trivia Question #19
What city elected Sadiq Khan, its first mayor from an ethnic minority, in 2016?
A. Liverpool, England
B. Greater London, England
C. Birmingham, England
D. Manchester, England
Answer: B. Greater London, England
Khan is also the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital city.
Check out our countdown of the top London attractions.
Trivia Question #20
The “Tina” in Tina Fey is short for what name?
A. Albertina
B. Valentina
C. Bettina
D. Stamatina
Answer: D. Stamatina
Stamatina is a Greek name—Fey’s mother, who is Greek, was born in Piraeus, Greece.
These are the Latin words you use every day without knowing it.
Answer: C. David Bowie
“Golden Years” was released on November 21, 1975, the first single from Bowie’s 10th studio album, Station to Station.
Trivia Question #23
What French entertainer, activist and secret agent had a pet cheetah named Chiquita?
A. Jacques Tati
B. Josephine Baker
C. Maurice Chevalier
D. Edith Piaf
Answer: B. Josephine Baker
Baker received both the Croix de Guerre (a first for an American woman) and the Medal of the Resistance in 1946, for her work as a secret agent during WWII.
Read up on more incredible women you didn’t learn about in history class.
Answer: D. Mexico
The flag’s eagle relates to the founding of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital.
Trivia Question #26
Russia is the world’s largest country (by area), and its largest city (by population) is its capital. What’s the next largest country for which this is the case?
A. Canada
B. China
C. Brazil
D. Argentina
Answer: B. Copernicus
Copernicus championed the idea that the Sun—not the Earth—was at the centre of the universe.
Answer: D. Kilimanjaro
The pizza took three days to reach its destination, and was delivered at a whopping 19,347-foot peak!
Trivia Question #32
Which event has the longer-distance world record: men’s discus throw or women’s discus throw?
Answer: D. William Shakespeare
Unsurprisingly, these Shakespearean insults still sting today!
Trivia Question #34
What singer was born in Havana in 1957, the daughter of a bodyguard employed by dictator Fulgencio Batista?
A. Gloria Estefan
B. Celia Cruz
C. Jennifer Lopez
D. Selena
Answer: A. Gloria Estefan
When Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba, Estefan, still a toddler, fled to the United States with her family. The rest, as they say, is history.
These are the popular song lyrics that don’t mean what you think.
Trivia Question #35
Although it freed itself from the United States in 1946, what nation’s Independence Day celebrates its declaration of independence from Spain in 1898?
A. Mexico
B. The Philippines
C. Argentina
D. Guatemala
Answer: D. Alien
Said Cartwright in an old issue of Empire: “They have four cameras going. You see this thing start to come out, so we all get sucked in, we lean forward to check it out. They shout, “Cut!” They cut John’s T-shirt a little more because it wasn’t going to burst through. Then they said, “Let’s start again.” We all start leaning forward again and all of a sudden it comes out. I tell you, none of us expected it. It came out and twisted round.”
Trivia Question #38
In 2016, who used his own namesake manoeuvre when he saw that a woman at his retirement home was choking?
A. Dr. Henry Harryhausen
B. Dr. Henry Heimlich
C. Dr. Henry Howard
D. Dr. Henry Hamm
Answer: B. Mammoth
Mammoths went extinct approximately 10,000 years ago, and are closely related to today’s Asian elephants.
Check out the weirdest discoveries archaeologists have made!
Trivia Question #44
Surprisingly, whose team lost a Christmas-decorating contest when she was an inmate at Alderson, a West Virginia women’s prison?
A. Paris Hilton
B. Martha Stewart
C. Lindsay Lohan
D. Michelle Rodriguez
Answer: A. Australia
The platypus is endemic to eastern Australia.
These Australian animal rescue stories will give you hope!
Trivia Question #46
To raise money for charities, who handwrote an 800-word prequel to her bestselling book series?
A. E.L. James
B. J.K. Rowling
C. Suzanne Collins
D. Stephanie Meyer
Answer: B. J.K. Rowling
Rowling’s manuscript, which sold for £25,000 in 2008, was later stolen in 2017.
Did you notice these hidden messages in the Harry Potter books?
Trivia Question #47
According to its former minister of tourism, which country is known abroad for its three Rs: reggae, romance and running?
A. Curacao
B. Bonaire
C. The Bahamas
D. Jamaica
Answer: D. Jamaica
This well-known island nation attracted an impressive 4.3 million visitors in 2017.
Need help refining your bucket list? These are the best places to visit in 2020.
Trivia Question #49
Razzie awards are meant to go to bad movies, but who got nominated for directing the now widely respected film Scarface?
A. Francis Ford Coppola
B. Martin Scorsese
C. Brian De Palma
D. Sidney Lumet
Answer: C. Brian De Palma
Here’s the original 1983 review published in the New York Daily News: “The original “Scarface” ran a brisk 90 minutes, but De Palma drags out the bloodshed for nearly three hours, adding phony church music to give a more serious tone to the movie.” Ouch!
Check out the movies that have hilarious titles in other countries.
Answer: B. The Eiffel Tower
Quirky fact: taking photos of the Eiffel Tower at night is actually illegal!
Trivia Question #52
What movie star uses his middle initial, B, for “Bakari,” to avoid confusion with a retired basketball star?
A. Allen B. Iverson
B. Larry B. Bird
C. Walt B. Frazier
D. Michael B. Jordan
Answer: D. Michael B. Jordan
“We had the same name and I always got teased about not being the real Michael Jordan,” the actor said on Good Morning America in 2018. “Honestly [it] gave me a competitive chip on my shoulder and made me wanted to compete at anything I did.”
Speaking of Michael Jordan, read up on the worst mistakes in sports history.
Answer: A. Scandal
Scandal (2012-2018) was created by Shonda Rhimes and starred Kerry Washington as a Washington, D.C.-based crisis manager.
Trivia Question #56
Queen Mary Tudor of England is better known to history by what name?
A. Crazy Mary
B. Screaming Mary
C. Bloody Mary
D. Crying Mary
Answer: C. Bloody Mary
Queen Mary more than earned her nickname, too! (She had hundreds of Protestants burnt at the stake during English Reformation.)
Check out more royal family scandals that shocked the world.
Trivia Question #58
What two Renaissance artists were commissioned to paint rivalling frescoes at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence?
A. Donatello and Botticelli
B. Raphael and Caravaggio
C. Titian and Masaccio
D. Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo
Answer: D. Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo
As unbelievable as it sounds, da Vinci and Michelangelo really did paint in the same room once, according to historians. These mysteries of the art world are equally as mind-boggling.
Trivia Question #59
What flightless bird, now extinct, was last seen on an island off the coast of Iceland?
A. Saint Helena hoopoe
B. Amsterdam wigeon
C. The great auk (Pinguinus impennis)
D. Jamaican caracara
Answer: C. The great auk (Pinguinus impennis)
The great auk is believed to have become extinct in the mid-19th century.
These are the animals that became extinct in the last 100 years.
Answer: A. Two pizzas
Florida-based programmer Laszlo Hanyecz purchased the two pizzas from Papa John’s.
Trivia Question #61
Arancini is an Italian delicacy. Its name means “little orange” but it’s actually made mostly of what?
A. Lamb
B. Rice
C. Tagliatelle
D. Egg
Answer: B. Rice
Arancini are said to have originated in Sicily during the 10th century.
Master these Italian phrases and you’ll be more worldly in no time!
