Bar trivia questions: 2 ready-to-run nights (120 questions)
Round 1: General knowledgeQuestion 1 of 10
Which animal is nicknamed the ship of the desert?
Read it twice. Teams get 60 seconds.
These bar trivia questions come ready to run: two nights of six rounds of ten, a wager final and three tiebreakers. Rounds go from easy to hard, and every answer has a one-line fact to read on the reveal. No pictures or sound clips, so these pub quiz questions and answers work at a bar, in the office or on Zoom.
How a bar trivia night runs
Two hours, teams of 4 to 6, and a scorekeeper beside the host. For one hour, play three rounds and the final.
- 0:00Teams and rules · Teams of 4 to 6 pick a name and get answer sheets
- 0:10Rounds 1 to 3 · About 15 minutes each, sheets collected after every round
- 0:55Break · Mark the sheets and read out the scores so far
- 1:05Rounds 4 to 6 · Same rhythm, scores after each round
- 1:50Final question · Wagers first, then the question
- 1:55Tiebreaker and winners · Closest number wins any tie
House rules to read out
- Read each question twice, then give 60 seconds to answer.
- No phones during a round. A team caught looking scores zero for that round.
- One point per right answer. Spelling doesn't count if the answer is clear.
- Teams hand in the sheet at the end of each round, before you read the answers.
- Final question: each team writes a wager from 0 to 10 points before hearing it. Right adds the wager, wrong takes it away.
- Tied at the end? Read a tiebreaker. Each tied team writes a number, and the closest wins.
- The host's sheet is final. Settle disputes with the answer on the sheet, then move on.
Planning prizes, teams and the room? Our guide on how to host a trivia night covers the rest.
Night 1: 60 bar trivia questions and answers
Rounds: General knowledge, Food, Music, Movies and TV, Geography, Science. Answers stay hidden until you open them.
Round 1: General knowledge
1. Which animal is nicknamed the ship of the desert?
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The camel. Camels can close their nostrils to keep out blowing sand.2. How many sides does a stop sign have?
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Eight. US road rules reserve the eight-sided shape for stop signs alone.3. What does the www at the start of a web address stand for?
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World Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee proposed the web in 1989 while working at CERN.4. What is the fear of spiders called?
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Arachnophobia. It comes from arachne, the Greek word for spider.5. How many years are in a millennium?
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1,000. A century is 100 years, and a decade is 10.6. Which day of the week is named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder?
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Thursday. Wednesday is named after Woden, another name for the god Odin.7. What word describes someone who can use their left and right hands equally well?
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Ambidextrous. It comes from Latin words meaning “right-handed on both sides”.8. How many tiles are in a standard double-six set of dominoes?
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28. Every pairing from blank to six appears exactly once, doubles included.9. The ampersand (&) started out as a joined-up version of which Latin word?
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Et. Et means “and”, and some typefaces still show the e and the t.10. What are the small strokes at the ends of letters in a typeface like Times New Roman called?
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Serifs. Typefaces without them, like Arial, are called sans serif.
Round 2: Food
1. What kind of food is Brie?
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A cheese. It's named after Brie, a region east of Paris.2. What is the main vegetable in French onion soup?
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Onions. It's traditionally topped with toasted bread and melted Gruyère cheese.3. Which bow tie-shaped pasta gets its name from the Italian word for butterflies?
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Farfalle. One butterfly in Italian is a farfalla.4. Polenta is made by cooking a coarse meal ground from which grain?
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Corn. It's a staple of northern Italy, served soft or left to set and then grilled.5. Which green herb is the main ingredient in Argentine chimichurri sauce?
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Parsley. It's chopped with garlic and oregano, then mixed with oil and vinegar.6. Which Japanese noodles are made with buckwheat flour?
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Soba. Despite its name, buckwheat isn't a kind of wheat at all.7. What Japanese word names the savory “fifth taste”?
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Umami. Chemist Kikunae Ikeda named it in 1908 after studying a kombu seaweed broth.8. What does the name of the French dessert crème brûlée mean?
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Burnt cream. The sugar on top is caramelized with a small torch or under a hot grill.9. Which rich Mexican sauce, often made with chilies and chocolate, takes its name from the Nahuatl word for sauce?
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Mole. Mole poblano, from the city of Puebla, is the best-known version.10. Anko, the sweet paste inside many Japanese desserts, is made from which bean?
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The azuki (red) bean. It fills treats like taiyaki and dorayaki.
Round 3: Music
1. What do you call a group of singers who perform together, like the ones at a school concert?
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A choir (or chorus). Choir parts are usually soprano, alto, tenor and bass.2. Which Tennessee city is nicknamed Music City?
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Nashville. It's home to the Grand Ole Opry, the country music radio show that started in 1925.3. Which singer was known as the King of Rock and Roll?
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Elvis Presley. His first single for Sun Records came out in 1954.4. Which orchestra instrument has 47 strings and seven foot pedals?
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The harp. Each pedal retunes every string of one note, such as all the Cs, at once.5. A string quartet is two violins, a viola and which other instrument?
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The cello. The cello is played sitting down, resting on a spike on the floor.6. What does it mean to sing a cappella?
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To sing without instruments. The phrase is Italian for “in the manner of the chapel”.7. Which band released the 1977 album Rumours?
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Fleetwood Mac. It won the Grammy for Album of the Year.8. Which Austrian composer is known as the Father of the Symphony?
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Joseph Haydn. He wrote more than 100 symphonies.9. Which jazz saxophonist was nicknamed Bird?
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Charlie Parker. He was one of the founders of bebop in the 1940s.10. In sheet music, what does the marking pp stand for?
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Pianissimo. It means very soft; a single p, for piano, means soft.
Round 4: Movies and TV
1. In The Wizard of Oz, what does the Tin Man hope the Wizard will give him?
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A heart. The Scarecrow wants a brain and the Cowardly Lion wants courage.2. What is the name of the coffee shop where the six friends meet in Friends?
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Central Perk. Friends ran for ten seasons, from 1994 to 2004.3. What is the name of the space ranger toy in Toy Story?
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Buzz Lightyear. Toy Story (1995) was the first feature film made entirely with computer animation.4. In The Incredibles, what is the name of the tiny fashion designer who makes the family's supersuits?
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Edna Mode. Director Brad Bird voiced her himself.5. Which position does Harry Potter play on his house Quidditch team?
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Seeker. The Seeker chases the Golden Snitch, which is worth 150 points.6. What is the name of Han Solo's ship in Star Wars?
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The Millennium Falcon. Han boasts that it made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.7. Who directed E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial?
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Steven Spielberg. The film came out in 1982.8. Which cartoon family lives in the Stone Age town of Bedrock?
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The Flintstones. In 1960 it became the first animated series with a prime-time slot on US network TV.9. In Citizen Kane, what is the last word Charles Foster Kane says?
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Rosebud. Orson Welles directed, co-wrote and starred in the 1941 film.10. Which two grumpy Muppets heckle the show from a theater balcony?
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Statler and Waldorf. They're named after two famous New York hotels.
Round 5: Geography
1. Which US state is nicknamed the Sunshine State?
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Florida. Its capital is Tallahassee, not Miami or Orlando.2. Which river runs through the center of London?
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The Thames. Tower Bridge crosses it next to the Tower of London.3. What is the largest country in South America by area?
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Brazil. It borders every South American country except Chile and Ecuador.4. Which European capital was formed by joining Buda and Pest, on either side of the Danube?
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Budapest. Buda, Pest and Óbuda merged into one city in 1873.5. Which New England state is the smallest in the US by area?
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Rhode Island. Until 2020 its official name was State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.6. Reykjavík is the capital of which country?
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Iceland. It's the northernmost capital of a sovereign country.7. The island of Bali is part of which country?
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Indonesia. Indonesia is made up of more than 17,000 islands.8. Which mountain range is home to Mont Blanc?
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The Alps. Mont Blanc sits on the border between France and Italy.9. What is the longest river in Europe?
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The Volga. It flows entirely through Russia and empties into the Caspian Sea.10. What is the capital of Mongolia?
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Ulaanbaatar. It's often called the coldest national capital in the world.
Round 6: Science
1. How many planets are in our solar system?
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Eight. Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.2. Which force slows a sliding object when two surfaces rub together?
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Friction. It's also why rubbing your hands together warms them up.3. What is a young frog with a tail and gills called?
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A tadpole. As it grows into a frog, it develops legs and loses its tail.4. Which planet is famous for its wide, bright rings?
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Saturn. The rings are made mostly of chunks of ice and rock.5. What is the center of an atom called?
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The nucleus. It holds the protons and neutrons, and the electrons move around it.6. What is it called when water vapor turns back into liquid, like drops on a cold glass?
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Condensation. Clouds form the same way, high in the sky.7. Which scientist discovered penicillin in 1928?
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Alexander Fleming. He noticed a mold killing the bacteria in a dish he had left out.8. What type of rock forms when lava or magma cools and hardens?
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Igneous rock. Granite and basalt are both igneous.9. Which part of a plant cell captures sunlight for photosynthesis?
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The chloroplast. Chloroplasts look green because they hold the pigment chlorophyll.10. What is the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere, where almost all weather happens?
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The troposphere. The stratosphere above it holds the ozone layer.
Final question: take the wagers first
Final. Which is the nearest large spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way?
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The Andromeda Galaxy. Its light takes about 2.5 million years to reach us.
Tiebreakers: closest number wins
Tiebreaker 1. In what year did the Brooklyn Bridge open?
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1883. It opened on May 24, 1883, after 14 years of work.Tiebreaker 2. How long is an NBA basketball court, in feet?
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94 feet. It's 50 feet wide.Tiebreaker 3. How tall is the Empire State Building to the tip of its antenna, in feet?
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1,454 feet. The roof is at 1,250 feet.
Night 2: 60 more pub trivia questions and answers
Rounds: General knowledge, Food, Music, Movies and TV, Geography, History and sports. Answers stay hidden until you open them.
Round 1: General knowledge
1. How many months of the year have 31 days?
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Seven. January, March, May, July, August, October and December.2. What is a baby goat called?
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A kid. An adult female goat is a doe or nanny, and a male is a buck or billy.3. How many zeros are in one million?
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Six. A billion has nine.4. In Roman numerals, which letter stands for 1,000?
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M. D stands for 500.5. Which letter is used most often in written English?
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E. T and A usually come next.6. How many hours are in a week?
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168. That's seven days of 24 hours.7. What is the name for a word that sounds like what it describes, such as buzz or sizzle?
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Onomatopoeia. It comes from Greek words meaning “name” and “make”.8. What do you call words that sound the same but mean different things, like pair and pear?
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Homophones. The name comes from Greek words meaning “same” and “sound”.9. What does the word scuba stand for?
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Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. It began as an acronym and is now written as an ordinary word.10. What is the word for a fear of the number 13?
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Triskaidekaphobia. It comes from the Greek words for three, and, and ten.
Round 2: Food
1. Which crumbly white cheese tops a traditional Greek salad?
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Feta. In the European Union, feta is a protected name for cheese made in Greece.2. Which fruit is the main ingredient in ketchup?
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Tomatoes. Early ketchups were made from mushrooms, walnuts or fish instead.3. Which vegetable is a dill pickle usually made from?
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A cucumber. Dill, the herb in the brine, gives the pickle its name.4. Baba ghanoush is a dip made mainly from which roasted vegetable?
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Eggplant. The eggplant is usually charred whole, which gives the dip its smoky taste.5. Which red spice, ground from dried peppers, gives Hungarian goulash its color?
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Paprika. Hungarian paprika comes in grades from sweet to hot.6. Which cracked wheat is the grain in tabbouleh salad?
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Bulgur. The salad is mostly parsley, with tomato, mint, lemon and olive oil.7. Which French pastry's name means “a thousand leaves”?
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Mille-feuille. It's thin layers of puff pastry stacked with pastry cream.8. Halloumi, a firm cheese that holds its shape on the grill, comes from which Mediterranean island?
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Cyprus. It's often served grilled or fried, with a squeeze of lemon.9. What is the Japanese name for a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet?
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Tonkatsu. Ton means pork, and katsu comes from the English word cutlet.10. Tapioca pearls are made from the starch of which root?
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Cassava. Cassava is also called yuca or manioc.
Round 3: Music
1. Which brass instrument changes notes with a long sliding tube?
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The trombone. The slide has seven standard positions.2. Which pop star's hits include Material Girl and Vogue?
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Madonna. Vogue came out in 1990.3. What is the person who leads an orchestra called?
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The conductor. Many conductors keep time with a thin stick called a baton.4. The didgeridoo, a long wooden wind instrument, comes from which country?
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Australia. It was first played by Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia.5. In music, which Italian word means getting gradually louder?
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Crescendo. The opposite, getting gradually softer, is a decrescendo or diminuendo.6. Which long-necked string instrument did Ravi Shankar make famous around the world?
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The sitar. It's a classical instrument of northern India.7. Which Russian composer wrote the music for the ballet Swan Lake?
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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1877.8. Which jazz singer was called the First Lady of Song?
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Ella Fitzgerald. She was famous for scat singing, improvising with wordless syllables.9. Which French composer wrote the opera Carmen?
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Georges Bizet. It premiered in Paris in 1875, three months before he died.10. How many half steps, or semitones, are in one octave?
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12. On a piano, each step from one key to the very next, white or black, is a half step.
Round 4: Movies and TV
1. What is the name of the warthog in The Lion King?
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Pumbaa. His best friend is Timon, a meerkat.2. What kind of creature is Shrek?
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An ogre. Mike Myers voiced him.3. Which Pixar film is about a lonely trash-compacting robot left behind on Earth?
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WALL-E. It came out in 2008.4. In Monsters, Inc., what powers the city of Monstropolis at the start of the film?
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Children's screams. By the end, the factory runs on laughter instead.5. Who directed The Lord of the Rings film trilogy?
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Peter Jackson. All three films were shot in his home country, New Zealand.6. Patrick Stewart first played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in which TV series, starting in 1987?
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Star Trek: The Next Generation. He came back to the role in Star Trek: Picard in 2020.7. In Back to the Future, how fast does the DeLorean have to go to travel in time?
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88 miles per hour. The time machine needs 1.21 gigawatts of power to jump.8. Which film studio's logo features a roaring lion?
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). The Latin motto around the lion, Ars Gratia Artis, means art for art's sake.9. In Mary Poppins, what is the family name of the children she looks after?
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Banks. They live at 17 Cherry Tree Lane in London.10. Which 1980s TV private investigator drove a red Ferrari around Hawaii?
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Thomas Magnum, of Magnum, P.I. Tom Selleck played him for eight seasons.
Round 5: Geography
1. Which body of water separates England from France?
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The English Channel. The Channel Tunnel under it opened in 1994.2. What is the capital of Spain?
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Madrid. It sits close to the geographic center of the country.3. Which country's flag has a red maple leaf in the middle?
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Canada. Canada adopted the flag in 1965.4. Which salt lake marks the lowest point on land on Earth?
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The Dead Sea. The water is so salty that swimmers float with no effort.5. Not counting Australia, which is the largest island in the world?
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Greenland. It's a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.6. In which Canadian province is French the only official language?
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Quebec. Montreal is its largest city.7. What is the capital of Vietnam?
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Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh City, once called Saigon, is the country's largest city.8. The Strait of Gibraltar separates Spain from which African country?
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Morocco. At its narrowest, the strait is less than 15 km (about 9 miles) wide.9. Which sea lies between Italy and the Balkan Peninsula?
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The Adriatic Sea. Venice sits at its northern end.10. What is the capital of the Canadian province of British Columbia?
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Victoria. It's on Vancouver Island, not in the city of Vancouver.
Round 6: History and sports
1. In which sport do players score with a slam dunk?
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Basketball. College basketball banned the dunk from 1967 to 1976.2. In 1775, Paul Revere rode through the night to warn that whose troops were coming?
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The British. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Paul Revere's Ride made the ride famous almost a century later.3. Which sport is often called the beautiful game?
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Soccer. Brazilian star Pelé helped make the nickname famous.4. From which country did the United States buy Alaska in 1867?
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Russia. Critics mocked the deal as Seward's Folly.5. In which Olympic sport do athletes compete in the snatch and the clean and jerk?
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Weightlifting. Lifters get three attempts at each lift.6. In which US state did the Wright brothers make their first powered flight, in 1903?
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North Carolina. They flew four times that day, and the longest flight covered 852 feet.7. In bowling, what do you call three strikes in a row?
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A turkey. Two strikes in a row are called a double.8. Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?
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Marie Curie. She won in physics in 1903 and in chemistry in 1911.9. In 49 BC, Julius Caesar started a civil war by crossing which river?
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The Rubicon. Crossing the Rubicon still means making a choice you can't take back.10. Which city was the first capital of the United States under the Constitution?
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New York City. George Washington took the oath of office there in 1789.
Final question: take the wagers first
Final. Most of the Serengeti, famous for its yearly wildebeest migration, is in which country?
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Tanzania. Each year the herds also cross into Kenya's Maasai Mara.
Tiebreakers: closest number wins
Tiebreaker 1. How tall is the Washington Monument, in feet?
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555 feet. When it was finished in 1884, it was the tallest structure in the world.Tiebreaker 2. How many US patents did Thomas Edison receive?
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1,093. They include the phonograph and his improved electric light bulb.Tiebreaker 3. In what year was the first Harry Potter book published?
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1997. It came out in the UK on June 26, 1997.
Hosting a third night? Build it from our general knowledge questions, add a tough round of hard trivia questions or mix in random trivia questions. For themed rounds, pick from 100 trivia categories.
How to run a virtual bar trivia night
The same two nights work on Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet.
- Share the presenter. Open this page, pick the night and share your browser tab. Each answer stays hidden until you tap Show answer.
- Give every team a private channel. Use breakout rooms for team talk, or let each team captain send the round's answers to the scorekeeper in a private chat.
- Keep the bar trivia rhythm. Read each question twice, allow 60 seconds, and bring everyone back to the main room for the answers and scores after every round.
- Split across time zones? Play Night 1 with one group and Night 2 with the other, or run the same night twice and compare scores.
More on breakout rooms and scoring in our Zoom trivia game guide.
Want a host to run your trivia night?
For remote teams, Trivia with a Twist! is an hour of hosted trivia with challenges that use different parts of your brain, played in teams, and Quiz Showdown! has teams racing the clock and each other. Both run on Zoom by default, or Teams, Google Meet or Webex on request. Book about 2 weeks ahead, and teams split across time zones can book two sessions.
At the office, Team Trivia is pub trivia built for teams: the host reads each question aloud and puts it on screen, team captains answer on their phones, and it ends on a wager finale. Blitz-Speed Trivia is the fast version, where everyone plays for themselves. Both come to your office in 17 US cities; see in-person events for the list. For a hybrid party, run one at the office plus a virtual session for remote staff, or one virtual event for everyone.
December dates fill first. Get a free quote with your date and headcount, or see every virtual trivia night.
Hosted trivia, two ways: on a video call or at your office, with today's prices.
