Pub Quiz Questions and Answers
These pub quiz questions and answers are ready to run tonight, whether you host a weekly quiz at a bar or want a proper pub quiz night with friends. You get a full evening of adult-level questions with the answers already checked, so there is nothing to write or mark.
Inside there are 32 questions in four rounds of eight: Geography, History, Science and Nature, and Arts and Language. Each round climbs from easy to hard, so every table scores something and the tricky ones split the leaderboard. About half are multiple choice, and every answer comes with a fun fact to read out. That is what makes a pub quiz feel lively rather than like an exam.
Read the questions aloud and let teams write answers on paper, or press Host this quiz live and run the pub quiz on phones with a big screen for the room.
Host these 32 Pub quiz questions and answers as a live game
Players join from their phones with a QR code, no app. Scoring and the leaderboard are automatic. Free for up to 5 teams.
Geography
1.Which is the largest country in the world by area?
Show answer
Answer: Russia
Russia spans eleven time zones, so it can be breakfast time at one end of the country while people at the other end are heading to bed.
2.Which is the smallest of the world's five oceans?
- AAtlantic Ocean
- BIndian Ocean
- CArctic Ocean
- DPacific Ocean
Show answer
Answer: Arctic Ocean
It is also the shallowest ocean, and it stays mostly covered by sea ice throughout the year.
3.Which very salty lake, with Jordan on its east shore and the West Bank and Israel on its west, lets swimmers float with almost no effort?
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Answer: Dead Sea
Its shores are the lowest land-based elevation on Earth, and its water is roughly nine times saltier than the ocean.
4.Which is the largest country in South America?
- ABrazil
- BArgentina
- CPeru
- DColombia
Show answer
Answer: Brazil
Brazil covers roughly half of South America and borders every other country on the continent except Ecuador and Chile.
5.Which city is the seat of Switzerland's federal government?
- AZurich
- BGeneva
- CBasel
- DBern
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Answer: Bern
The Swiss constitution does not actually name a capital. Bern is officially called the federal city.
6.Which river, flowing into the Caspian Sea, is the longest in Europe?
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Answer: Volga
The Volga is about 3,500 km long, and because the Caspian Sea is landlocked, it never reaches an ocean.
7.Which is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea?
- ASardinia
- BSicily
- CCyprus
- DCrete
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8.Counting its overseas territories, which country spans more time zones than any other, beating Russia?
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Answer: France
France has 12 time zones, or 13 if its claim in Antarctica is counted, because its territories are scattered across the globe.
History
9.In which year did the Berlin Wall fall?
- A1961
- B1975
- C1989
- D1991
Show answer
Answer: 1989
Construction of the wall began in August 1961, so it divided the city for about 28 years.
10.Which White Star Line ocean liner sank in April 1912 on her maiden voyage after striking an iceberg?
- ATitanic
- BLusitania
- COlympic
- DBritannic
Show answer
Answer: Titanic
Her 20 lifeboats had room for about 1,178 people, roughly half of the more than 2,200 passengers and crew on board.
11.Which Roman city was buried under ash and pumice when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
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Answer: Pompeii
Archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli found hollows in the ash left by decayed bodies in 1863 and filled them with plaster to recreate the victims.
12.Which Tudor king broke with the Pope in Rome and married six times?
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Answer: Henry VIII
Two of his six wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, were executed by beheading.
13.Napoleon's final defeat came in June 1815 at a battle near a village in what is now Belgium. Name the battle.
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14.Which English king put his seal to Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215?
- ARichard I
- BKing John
- CHenry III
- DEdward I
Show answer
Answer: King John
The charter was later annulled by Pope Innocent III, which helped spark a civil war known as the First Barons’ War.
15.In 1922, Howard Carter uncovered a royal tomb that still held a golden funeral mask and more than 5,000 objects. Which young pharaoh's tomb was it?
Show answer
Answer: Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun became pharaoh at about eight or nine years old and died at around eighteen.
16.Which Roman emperor ordered a great wall built across northern Britain, with work starting in AD 122?
Show answer
Answer: Hadrian
The wall ran for 80 Roman miles, about 73 modern miles, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Enjoying this pub quiz? Play it live with your group
Players join from their phones with a QR code, no app. Scoring and the leaderboard are automatic. Free for up to 5 teams.
Science & Nature
17.How many legs does a spider have?
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18.Which planet is the largest in our Solar System?
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Answer: Jupiter
Jupiter has nearly two and a half times the mass of all the other planets combined, and more than 1,300 Earths could fit inside it.
19.What is the name of the barred spiral galaxy that contains our Solar System?
- AAndromeda
- BTriangulum
- CWhirlpool
- DMilky Way
Show answer
Answer: Milky Way
The name is a translation of the Latin via lactea, and the word galaxy itself comes from the Greek word for milk.
20.Which animal is the largest living land animal?
- ARhinoceros
- BAfrican elephant
- CHippopotamus
- DPolar bear
Show answer
Answer: African elephant
An adult African bush elephant can eat up to about 150 kg (330 lb) of food in a single day.
21.Which vitamin does your skin make when it is exposed to ultraviolet B rays from sunlight?
- AVitamin A
- BVitamin C
- CVitamin D
- DVitamin K
Show answer
Answer: Vitamin D
Vitamin D helps the gut absorb calcium, which the body needs for healthy bones.
22.Which Scottish scientist noticed in 1928 that mould contaminating a culture plate had destroyed the bacteria around it, leading to penicillin?
- ALouis Pasteur
- BEdward Jenner
- CJoseph Lister
- DAlexander Fleming
Show answer
Answer: Alexander Fleming
Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain.
23.Which planet is hotter than Mercury, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun?
Show answer
Answer: Venus
Its surface is about 872 °F (467 °C), hot enough to melt lead, because a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere traps heat.
24.Which metal is the most abundant in Earth's crust?
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Answer: Aluminium
Only oxygen and silicon are more abundant than aluminium among all the elements in the crust.
Arts & Language
25.In which Shakespeare play does a prince deliver the "To be, or not to be" speech?
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Answer: Hamlet
It is set at Elsinore in Denmark and is by far the longest play Shakespeare wrote.
26.Which author wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, first published in 1997?
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Answer: J. K. Rowling
The first print run was only 500 hardbacks, and 300 of them went to libraries.
27.How many strings does a standard violin have?
- A3
- B4
- C5
- D6
Show answer
28.What is the name for the study of the origins and history of words?
- AEtymology
- BEntomology
- CEthology
- DEpistemology
Show answer
29.In Greek myth, which young man flew too close to the sun so that the wax holding his feathered wings melted?
- APerseus
- BTheseus
- CDaedalus
- DIcarus
Show answer
Answer: Icarus
His father Daedalus built the Labyrinth of Crete, and the nearby Icarian Sea is named after the boy.
30.Which writer, born Eric Arthur Blair, wrote Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four under a pen name?
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Answer: George Orwell
He took his surname from the River Orwell in Suffolk, one of his favourite places.
31.Which Charles Dickens novel, published in weekly parts in 1859, is set in London and Paris during the French Revolution?
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Answer: A Tale of Two Cities
It opens with one of the most famous lines in English fiction: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
32.Which surrealist painted The Persistence of Memory, the 1931 picture of melting clocks?
- AJoan Miró
- BRené Magritte
- CSalvador Dalí
- DMax Ernst
Show answer
Answer: Salvador Dalí
The canvas is tiny, only about 24 by 33 cm, and Dalí said the soft watches came from the sight of Camembert cheese melting in the sun.
How to host a pub quiz night with these questions
Pick or copy the pub quiz question set
Open this pub quiz in the editor with the Host this quiz live button. You can keep all four rounds or trim them, and edit any question so the pub quiz suits your regulars.
Open a room for your pub quiz
Start the room and put the big screen where every table can see it. Each pub quiz room gets its own QR code and link, and you stay in charge of the pace.
Let teams join from their phones
Players scan the QR code or open the link on their phones. There is no app to install and no sign-up, so a pub quiz can start a couple of minutes after people sit down.
Run each round from the big screen
Use presenter mode to show each question, then press the space bar to move on. Teams answer on their phones or use the buzzers, so the pub quiz stays quiet and fair.
Score automatically and crown the winners
Scoring is automatic and the leaderboard updates after every question, so nobody argues over marking. The free plan covers up to 5 teams per pub quiz room, and Pro covers up to 300.
Run this pub quiz night on phones and a big screen
Players join from their phones with a QR code, no app. Scoring and the leaderboard are automatic. Free for up to 5 teams.
Pub quiz for bars, friends and quiz hosts
Bars and pub landlords
A weekly pub quiz fills quiet midweek tables. Play two or three rounds with a break in the middle so people can order drinks, and keep the free plan for up to 5 teams while you test the pub quiz.
Friends and small groups
For a pub quiz with friends, aim for teams of three or four and start with the Geography round. Its easy openers get everyone involved, and the hard questions can wait until the pub quiz warms up.
Quiz hosts and quizmasters
Hosts can use this pub quiz as a ready-made base and swap in local questions. Read each question twice, allow about thirty seconds, and use the fun facts to keep the room talking between answers.
Pub quiz team names
A good team name is half the fun of any pub quiz. These clean, original pub quiz team names work for a bar, a birthday or a charity night. Pick one, tweak it, or use them as a starting point for your own.
- Quizzy Rascals
- The Answer Is Pie
- Quiz Me Later
- Pint Break Champions
- Quizzes and Crumpets
- The Quizzly Bears
- Brainy Bunch
- Pint-Sized Geniuses
- Cheesy Quizzers
- We Came for the Snacks
- The Last Round Ladies
- Fact Checkers Anonymous
- Guess Who Knows
- Winging It Since 2020
- Bar None
Frequently asked questions
What are good pub quiz questions and answers for adults?
Good pub quiz questions for adults have one clear answer and can be worked out by a team. Aim for a mix of easy openers and harder finishers across geography, history, science and arts, like the rounds on this page.
Where can I find free pub quiz questions with answers?
You can use the 32 free pub quiz questions on this page, and every answer is listed with a fun fact and a source link. Read them aloud, or host them live for free with up to 5 teams.
How many questions are in a pub quiz?
Most pub quiz nights use between 30 and 50 questions in four to six rounds. This pub quiz has 32 questions in four rounds of eight, which fits a relaxed evening with time for chat between rounds.
How long does a pub quiz take?
A pub quiz usually takes 60 to 90 minutes including a break. With 32 questions, plan on about an hour: roughly one minute per question, plus a few minutes to reveal answers and scores after each round.
What rounds should a pub quiz have?
A balanced pub quiz mixes general subjects: geography, history, science, and arts or language. Many hosts add a music or picture round too. This pub quiz uses the first four, in rounds of eight questions each.
How do you run a pub quiz?
Read each question twice, give teams a short time to answer, then reveal the answers at the end of the round. To host a pub quiz live, open a room, show the questions on a big screen, and let teams answer on their phones.
Can I play a pub quiz online with friends?
Yes. Host the pub quiz live, share the room link, and friends can answer from their own phones wherever they are. No app or sign-up is needed for players, and scoring happens automatically.
What are some funny pub quiz team names?
Punny names work best, such as Quizzy Rascals, The Answer Is Pie or Pint Break Champions. Keep pub quiz team names short so the host can read them out quickly, and see the full list above.
How many teams can play in a pub quiz?
A pub quiz works well with 4 to 15 teams of up to four people each. On TriviaBeam, a room supports up to 5 teams on the free plan and up to 300 teams on Pro.
How do you prepare for a pub quiz?
Read widely across geography, history, science and culture, and split topics between team members. Working through practice pub quiz questions like these also helps you spot what your team knows and where the gaps are.
Can I print these pub quiz questions?
Yes. You can print this page from your browser and use the questions on paper for a pub quiz at a venue with no screen. Every answer and fun fact is included, so the host has everything to hand.
Can I use these questions at my own pub quiz night?
Yes. Read them out at your venue or host them live for free. Every answer has a source link, so you can settle any dispute on the night and keep the pub quiz friendly.
TriviaBeam is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the organizations, teams, studios or brands these questions mention. Names are used only to describe the subject of each question. Every answer links to the source we checked.
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