Science and math
This round moves from lab basics to algebra and calculus. The first questions cover facts most students meet in middle school biology, chemistry and physics, while the later ones draw on cell division and the power rule for derivatives. It works well as a quick review before a science exam or as the opening round of a quiz bowl practice.
Q1.What is the chemical symbol for sodium?Tap to reveal
Answer: Na
The symbol comes from natrium, the Latin name for the element, which is related to natron, a salt the ancient Egyptians used when making mummies.
Q2.Which organelle is known as the powerhouse of the cell?Tap to reveal
Answer: Mitochondria
Mitochondria carry their own small loop of DNA, which is inherited almost entirely from the mother.
Q3.What is the value of pi rounded to two decimal places?Tap to reveal
Answer: 3.14
March 14 is celebrated as Pi Day because the date written month first reads 3/14.
Q4.What force keeps the planets in orbit around the Sun?Tap to reveal
Answer: Gravity
Isaac Newton showed that the same pull that makes an apple fall to the ground also holds the Moon in orbit around Earth.
Q5.What is the only even prime number?Tap to reveal
Answer: 2
Every other even number can be divided by 2, which is why all of the remaining primes are odd.
Q6.What is the SI unit of electrical resistance?Tap to reveal
Answer: The ohm
It is named after the German physicist Georg Ohm, and its symbol is the Greek capital letter omega.
Q7.Which theorem states that in a right triangle, a squared plus b squared equals c squared?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Pythagorean theorem
Babylonian clay tablets show the relationship was being used more than a thousand years before Pythagoras was born.
Q8.What is the pH of pure water at room temperature?Tap to reveal
Answer: 7
Each whole step on the pH scale is a tenfold change in acidity, so a pH of 5 is a hundred times more acidic than a pH of 7.
Q9.What type of cell division produces sex cells such as sperm and eggs, each with half the usual number of chromosomes?Tap to reveal
Answer: Meiosis
During meiosis, paired chromosomes swap segments in a process called crossing over, which is a major source of genetic variety in offspring.
Q10.What is the derivative of x squared?Tap to reveal
Answer: 2x
The power rule brings the exponent down as a multiplier and lowers the exponent by one, so x cubed becomes 3x squared.
History and government
These questions span ancient civilizations, the founding of the United States and the Cold War, with a few civics basics that appear in any government class. Nothing here touches current politics. The final two questions reward students who have studied American expansion and the rivalry between Rome and Carthage, so save them for a tiebreaker if scores are close.
Q1.How many branches of government does the US Constitution create?Tap to reveal
Answer: Three
The idea of dividing power between lawmakers, the executive and the courts was strongly influenced by the French thinker Montesquieu.
Q2.Which ancient civilization built the pyramids at Giza?Tap to reveal
Answer: The ancient Egyptians
The Great Pyramid was the tallest human-made structure on Earth for roughly 3,800 years.
Q3.In what year did Christopher Columbus first reach the Americas?Tap to reveal
Answer: 1492
His first landing was on an island in the Bahamas, and he never set foot on the mainland of what is now the United States.
Q4.Who was the first President of the United States?Tap to reveal
Answer: George Washington
He is the only president who never lived in the White House, which was finished after he left office.
Q5.What charter, agreed to by King John of England in 1215, limited the power of the king?Tap to reveal
Answer: Magna Carta
King John accepted it at Runnymede, a meadow beside the River Thames west of London.
Q6.How many amendments make up the Bill of Rights?Tap to reveal
Answer: Ten
James Madison drafted them, and they were ratified in 1791, two years after the Constitution took effect.
Q7.Which wall, a symbol of the Cold War, was opened in 1989?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Berlin Wall
East and West Germany were formally reunified less than a year later, in October 1990.
Q8.Which ancient Greek city-state is known as the birthplace of democracy?Tap to reveal
Answer: Athens
The word democracy comes from the Greek words demos, meaning people, and kratos, meaning power or rule.
Q9.What 1803 land deal with France roughly doubled the size of the United States?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Louisiana Purchase
The US paid about 15 million dollars, which works out to only a few cents per acre.
Q10.What name is given to the three wars fought between Rome and Carthage, including the one in which Hannibal crossed the Alps?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Punic Wars
The name comes from Punicus, the Latin word the Romans used for the Carthaginians because of their Phoenician roots.
Literature and language
This section mixes titles from the high school reading list with the grammar and literary terms that show up on English exams. Students who have read Shakespeare, Harper Lee or George Orwell will spot the easy points quickly. The last two questions test a classic novel's backstory and a literary term that many adults still struggle to spell.
Q1.Who wrote the play Romeo and Juliet?Tap to reveal
Answer: William Shakespeare
The play is set in the Italian city of Verona, where visitors still flock to a house linked to the story of Juliet.
Q2.What is the term for a word that means the opposite of another word?Tap to reveal
Answer: Antonym
It comes from the Greek prefix anti, meaning against, the same prefix found in antifreeze and antibiotic.
Q3.In which Harper Lee novel does the lawyer Atticus Finch defend Tom Robinson?Tap to reveal
Answer: To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for it in 1961, the year after it was published.
Q4.Which part of speech describes a noun, such as blue or enormous?Tap to reveal
Answer: Adjective
English adjectives usually follow a set order, which is why big red ball sounds natural and red big ball sounds wrong.
Q5.Which George Orwell novel features an all-seeing ruler called Big Brother?Tap to reveal
Answer: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Orwell wrote much of it on the remote Scottish island of Jura, and it was published in 1949.
Q6.What figure of speech compares two things using the word like or as?Tap to reveal
Answer: Simile
A metaphor makes the same kind of comparison without those words, stating that one thing simply is another.
Q7.Which ancient Greek poet is credited with the Iliad and the Odyssey?Tap to reveal
Answer: Homer
The Odyssey follows the hero Odysseus on a ten-year journey home after the Trojan War.
Q8.What is the name for a 14-line poem that follows a strict rhyme scheme?Tap to reveal
Answer: Sonnet
A collection of 154 of them by Shakespeare was published in 1609.
Q9.Which Mary Shelley novel, published in 1818, is often called one of the first science fiction stories?Tap to reveal
Answer: Frankenstein
The creature in the book is never given a name, as Frankenstein is actually the surname of Victor, the scientist who builds him.
Q10.What literary term describes a word that imitates the sound it names, such as buzz or sizzle?Tap to reveal
Answer: Onomatopoeia
These sound words differ between languages, so a rooster that crows cock-a-doodle-doo in English says kikeriki in German.
Geography and general knowledge
The final round blends map skills with the kind of general knowledge teenagers pick up from sports, gaming and everyday life. It is a good way to end a session on a lighter note while still asking students to think. The last two questions reward careful thinking about where continents meet and how the US states are spelled.
Q1.What is the largest ocean on Earth?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Pacific Ocean
It covers more area than all of the land on Earth put together.
Q2.On which continent is the Sahara Desert?Tap to reveal
Answer: Africa
It is the largest hot desert in the world, although the icy deserts of Antarctica and the Arctic are even bigger.
Q3.How many players from each team are on the field at the start of a standard soccer match?Tap to reveal
Answer: Eleven
Under the official rules, a match cannot continue if either team has fewer than seven players.
Q4.What is the capital city of Canada?Tap to reveal
Answer: Ottawa
Queen Victoria chose it as the capital in 1857 over larger rivals such as Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.
Q5.What is the longest river in South America?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Amazon
It carries more water than any other river on Earth, about a fifth of all the river water that flows into the oceans.
Q6.Which video game company created the character Mario?Tap to reveal
Answer: Nintendo
Nintendo was founded in Kyoto, Japan, in 1889 and started out making playing cards.
Q7.What is the smallest country in the world by area?Tap to reveal
Answer: Vatican City
It is completely surrounded by the city of Rome and has its own postal service and flag.
Q8.Which imaginary line divides Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres?Tap to reveal
Answer: The equator
Because Earth bulges slightly around its middle, sea level at the equator is about 21 kilometers farther from Earth's center than sea level at the poles.
Q9.Which mountain range, stretching north to south through western Russia, is traditionally treated as part of the boundary between Europe and Asia?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Ural Mountains
They stretch for about 2,500 kilometers, from near the Arctic Ocean in the north to the steppes of Kazakhstan in the south.
Q10.Which is the only letter of the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any US state?Tap to reveal
Answer: Q
Q is also one of the two highest-scoring tiles in English Scrabble, worth 10 points along with Z.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these trivia questions the right level for high school students?
Yes. They are written for students aged 14 to 18 and follow material taught in typical high school science, math, history and English classes. Each section has about four easy questions to build confidence, four medium ones at grade level, and two harder questions that challenge strong students. For younger teens, start with the easy questions; for seniors or quiz bowl players, skip straight to the harder ones.
How should I run this quiz in a classroom?
Split the class into teams of three to five and play one section at a time. Read each question aloud, give 20 to 30 seconds to agree on an answer written on a whiteboard or scrap paper, then reveal the answer and share the fun fact. Award one point for easy and medium questions and two points for the harder final two in each section to keep every team in contention.
Can I use these questions in class for free?
Yes. The questions and answers on this page are free to read, print and use in classrooms, clubs, tutoring sessions and family game nights. There is no sign-up needed to read the list or to play the quiz version on the page. If you share them with students, linking to this page lets them check the answers and fun facts on their own.
What is the hardest question on the list?
The toughest questions sit at the end of each section. The Punic Wars question is likely the hardest, because it asks for a specific name that many students only meet in world history courses. The letter Q question is tricky in a different way, since it rewards careful thinking rather than memorized facts. Onomatopoeia is also a good challenge if you ask students to spell it.
Where can students play this trivia quiz online?
Students can play the free quiz right here on this page in any web browser, on a laptop, tablet or phone, with no download required. It is a handy option for homework review or a quick challenge at home. For more practice, the free Trivio app offers many more quizzes and lets friends play trivia against each other in real time.
