Pub quiz questions and answers
A complete pub quiz you can run tonight: 80 quiz questions in 8 rounds of 10. Read each question out, give teams a moment, then tap to reveal the answer and a fact to share. Printing it gives you the questions first, then an answer sheet for the host.
Running the quiz
- Teams of up to six work well. Give each team an answer sheet with a box for every round.
- One point per correct answer. Swap and mark answer sheets between teams after each round.
- Let each team play a joker on one round before it starts to double their points for that round.
- For a tie-break, ask a number question (a year, a distance) and closest wins.
Round 1: General knowledge
Which fictional Belgian detective was created by Agatha Christie?
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Hercule Poirot (accept Poirot) Poirot first appeared in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Christie's first published novel, which came out in 1920.
How many squares are there on a standard chessboard?
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64 They form an 8-by-8 grid, set up so each player has a light square in the near-right corner.
What number does the Roman numeral D stand for?
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500
In which Shakespeare play do the characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern appear?
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Hamlet Tom Stoppard later made the pair the leads of his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
Which artist painted The Starry Night in 1889?
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Vincent van Gogh (accept Van Gogh) He painted it while staying at an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. MoMA in New York has held it since 1941.
What name is given to a word that reads the same backward as forward, such as "level"?
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Palindrome The word comes from the Greek palin, meaning "again", and dromos, meaning "way" or "direction".
What is the fear of spiders called?
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Arachnophobia
Who wrote the novel Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813?
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Jane Austen It was published anonymously, credited only to "the Author of Sense and Sensibility".
Which Russian author wrote the novel War and Peace?
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Leo Tolstoy (accept Tolstoy)
In the NATO phonetic alphabet, which word stands for the letter Q?
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Quebec
Round 2: Geography
Which river flows through the center of London?
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River Thames (accept Thames)
Which ocean lies between Africa and Australia?
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Indian Ocean
The Mediterranean island of Corsica belongs to which country?
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France Its capital is Ajaccio, and the Italian island of Sardinia lies just to the south.
Which sea separates the islands of Great Britain and Ireland?
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Irish Sea
Which long, narrow sea separates Egypt and Sudan from Saudi Arabia?
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Red Sea At its northern end, the Gulf of Suez leads to the Suez Canal, which opened in 1869.
Table Mountain overlooks which South African city?
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Cape Town The cloud that often spills over its flat summit is nicknamed the "tablecloth".
Which strait separates Alaska from Russia?
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Bering Strait At its narrowest point it is just over 80 km (about 50 miles) wide.
The Gobi Desert covers parts of northern China and which other country?
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Mongolia
Mount Fuji stands on which of Japan's main islands?
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Honshu At 3,776 meters it is Japan's highest mountain. Its last eruption began in 1707.
Which line of latitude lies about 23.4 degrees north of the equator?
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Tropic of Cancer On the June solstice, the Sun is directly overhead there at noon.
Round 3: History
Which boy pharaoh's nearly intact tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922?
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Tutankhamun (accept King Tut) His tomb, KV62, is in the Valley of the Kings. He became pharaoh at about eight or nine.
Which US president issued the Emancipation Proclamation?
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Abraham Lincoln (accept Lincoln) It took effect on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War.
In which year was the Battle of Hastings fought?
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1066
Which emperor was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba in 1814?
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Napoleon (accept Napoleon Bonaparte or Napoleon I) He escaped about ten months later. After Waterloo he was exiled to Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.
Which Japanese city was hit by the first atomic bomb used in war, on August 6, 1945?
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Hiroshima A second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later, on August 9.
Which English monarch was on the throne when the Spanish Armada sailed against England in 1588?
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Elizabeth I (accept Queen Elizabeth I)
Which Macedonian king, whose empire stretched as far as India, died in Babylon in 323 BC?
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Alexander the Great (accept Alexander III of Macedon) He was just 32 years old when he died.
Which leader, born Temüjin, was proclaimed ruler of all the Mongols in 1206?
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Genghis Khan (accept Chinggis Khan)
Which dynasty ruled Russia from 1613 until 1917?
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Romanov (accept the Romanovs) The last tsar, Nicholas II, abdicated in March 1917.
Which Spartan king led the Greek force against the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC?
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Leonidas (accept Leonidas I)
Round 4: Science and nature
What is the chemical formula for water?
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H2O
How many legs does an adult insect have?
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Six
Diamonds are made of which chemical element?
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Carbon Graphite is also pure carbon, but its atoms are arranged in soft, slippery layers.
What is the chemical symbol for sodium?
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Na Na is short for natrium, a name linked to natron, a salt known in ancient Egypt.
A seismometer records ground motion caused mainly by which natural events?
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Earthquakes
What is the more common name for the clavicle?
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Collarbone It is the first bone to start turning into bone tissue in a developing embryo, at about five to six weeks.
Which organ in the human body produces insulin?
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Pancreas Insulin is made by beta cells in clusters called the islets of Langerhans.
How many teeth are in a full set of adult human teeth, including the wisdom teeth?
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32 Children have 20 baby teeth, ten in each jaw.
Which English scientist set out his three laws of motion in the Principia, published in 1687?
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Isaac Newton (accept Newton)
In plant cells, which structures contain chlorophyll and carry out photosynthesis?
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Chloroplasts They are thought to have descended from ancient cyanobacteria taken in by an early cell.
Round 5: Film and TV
In Disney's The Lion King (1994), what is the name of the lion cub who grows up to be king?
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Simba "Simba" is the Swahili word for lion.
In which fictional town do the Simpsons live?
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Springfield Matt Groening picked the name as one of the most common town names in the US. The show deliberately keeps its state vague.
Which actor plays Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films?
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Johnny Depp The role earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination for the first film, The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).
In Star Wars, what is the name of Han Solo's spaceship?
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Millennium Falcon
Which Netflix series, set in the 1980s, takes place in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana?
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Stranger Things
Which 2009 James Cameron film is set on the moon Pandora?
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Avatar
Which 1972 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola follows the Corleone crime family?
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The Godfather It won Best Picture, and Marlon Brando won Best Actor as Vito Corleone.
Who directed the 1994 film Pulp Fiction?
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Quentin Tarantino It won the Palme d'Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.
The US sitcom The Office was adapted from a British original set at a paper company in which English town?
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Slough Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant created the original, which began on BBC Two in 2001.
In Game of Thrones, what is the name of the ancestral castle of House Stark?
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Winterfell
Round 6: Music
Which singer was nicknamed the "King of Pop"?
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Michael Jackson
How many strings does a standard guitar have?
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Six
What is the stage name of the Detroit rapper born Marshall Mathers?
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Eminem His song Lose Yourself became the first hip-hop song to win the Oscar for Best Original Song.
Fans of which singer are known as "Swifties"?
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Taylor Swift Time magazine named Taylor Swift its Person of the Year for 2023.
Who is best known as the lead singer of the Rolling Stones?
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Mick Jagger
In which country was the singer Shakira born?
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Colombia She was born in 1977 in Barranquilla, on Colombia's Caribbean coast.
Which British singer released albums titled 19, 21, 25 and 30?
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Adele
Which band did Bob Marley form in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1963?
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The Wailers (accept Bob Marley and the Wailers) Founding members also included Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer.
In sheet music, what does the instruction "forte" tell a musician to do?
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Play loudly It is written as f. Its opposite, piano (p), means play softly.
In which present-day country was the composer Frédéric Chopin born?
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Poland He was born in 1810 in a village west of Warsaw and died in Paris in 1849.
Round 7: Sport
In which sport do players score tries and pack down in scrums?
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Rugby (accept rugby union or rugby league)
How many points is a touchdown worth in American football?
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Six The scoring team can then attempt one extra point with a kick, or two points with another play.
How many players does each basketball team have on the court at one time?
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Five
The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy in which sport?
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Ice hockey (accept hockey) Lord Stanley of Preston, then Canada's governor general, donated it in 1892.
In golf, what is the name for a score of one under par on a hole?
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Birdie
In which country did the martial art judo originate?
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Japan Kanō Jigorō created it in 1882, and it joined the Olympics at the 1964 Tokyo Games.
How long is an Olympic-size swimming pool, in meters?
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50 meters
Which city hosted the 2016 Summer Olympics?
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Rio de Janeiro (accept Rio) They were the first Olympic Games ever held in South America.
How many hurdles does each runner clear in the men's 110-meter hurdles?
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10 Each men's hurdle stands 106.7 cm (42 inches) high.
Which French town hosted the first Winter Olympics, in 1924?
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Chamonix (accept Chamonix-Mont-Blanc) Billed as International Winter Sports Week, the event was only later recognized by the IOC as the first Winter Olympics.
Round 8: Food and drink
Paella is a rice dish from which country?
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Spain It comes from the Valencia region, and its name is the Valencian word for frying pan.
Gouda cheese comes from which country?
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The Netherlands (accept Holland) It is named after the city of Gouda in the province of South Holland.
Which nut is the main ingredient of marzipan?
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Almonds
Which spirit is the base of a mojito?
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Rum (accept white rum)
Tofu is made from the milk of which bean?
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Soybean (accept soy or soya)
Which root vegetable gives borscht its deep red color?
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Beet (accept beetroot) In 2022 UNESCO added Ukrainian borscht cooking to its list of heritage in need of urgent safeguarding.
What is the Japanese name for thin slices of raw fish served on their own, without rice?
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Sashimi
Which coffee-flavored Italian dessert has a name meaning "pick me up"?
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Tiramisu It layers coffee-soaked ladyfingers with a mascarpone cream and a dusting of cocoa.
Which type of pastry is used to make éclairs and profiteroles?
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Choux pastry (accept choux) It has no raising agent. Steam from its high water content puffs it up in the oven.
Which grain is mixed with parsley, tomato and mint to make tabbouleh?
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Bulgur wheat (accept bulgur or cracked wheat) Traditional Levantine versions use more parsley than bulgur.
Answer sheet
Round 1: General knowledge
- Hercule Poirot (accept Poirot)
- 64
- 500
- Hamlet
- Vincent van Gogh (accept Van Gogh)
- Palindrome
- Arachnophobia
- Jane Austen
- Leo Tolstoy (accept Tolstoy)
- Quebec
Round 2: Geography
- River Thames (accept Thames)
- Indian Ocean
- France
- Irish Sea
- Red Sea
- Cape Town
- Bering Strait
- Mongolia
- Honshu
- Tropic of Cancer
Round 3: History
- Tutankhamun (accept King Tut)
- Abraham Lincoln (accept Lincoln)
- 1066
- Napoleon (accept Napoleon Bonaparte or Napoleon I)
- Hiroshima
- Elizabeth I (accept Queen Elizabeth I)
- Alexander the Great (accept Alexander III of Macedon)
- Genghis Khan (accept Chinggis Khan)
- Romanov (accept the Romanovs)
- Leonidas (accept Leonidas I)
Round 4: Science and nature
- H2O
- Six
- Carbon
- Na
- Earthquakes
- Collarbone
- Pancreas
- 32
- Isaac Newton (accept Newton)
- Chloroplasts
Round 5: Film and TV
- Simba
- Springfield
- Johnny Depp
- Millennium Falcon
- Stranger Things
- Avatar
- The Godfather
- Quentin Tarantino
- Slough
- Winterfell
Round 6: Music
- Michael Jackson
- Six
- Eminem
- Taylor Swift
- Mick Jagger
- Colombia
- Adele
- The Wailers (accept Bob Marley and the Wailers)
- Play loudly
- Poland
Round 7: Sport
- Rugby (accept rugby union or rugby league)
- Six
- Five
- Ice hockey (accept hockey)
- Birdie
- Japan
- 50 meters
- Rio de Janeiro (accept Rio)
- 10
- Chamonix (accept Chamonix-Mont-Blanc)
Round 8: Food and drink
- Spain
- The Netherlands (accept Holland)
- Almonds
- Rum (accept white rum)
- Soybean (accept soy or soya)
- Beet (accept beetroot)
- Sashimi
- Tiramisu
- Choux pastry (accept choux)
- Bulgur wheat (accept bulgur or cracked wheat)
Need more rounds?
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