Thirty hard general knowledge questions, each with the answer right below it. None of them are trick questions: every one has a clear answer, but it takes more than what you learned at school. Six questions per field (geography, history, art and culture, science, nature). Cover the answer, score one point per correct answer and check the scale at the bottom.
Prefer to start with something easier? Our 20 general knowledge questions mix levels, and the big set of 100 questions covers the whole range.
Geography
1. Which is the only country in the world whose flag is not rectangular? Nepal. Its flag is made of two stacked triangles, often linked to the Himalayas and to the country’s two main religions.
2. What is the capital of Kazakhstan? Astana. The city was called Nur-Sultan between 2019 and 2022, after the country’s first president, before getting its name back.
3. Which two South American countries are landlocked? Bolivia and Paraguay. Bolivia lost its coastline to Chile in the War of the Pacific, at the end of the 19th century, and still claims it.
4. What is the deepest lake in the world? Lake Baikal, in Siberia. It is more than 1,600 meters deep and holds about a fifth of the planet’s unfrozen surface fresh water.
5. In which country is most of the Atacama Desert? Chile. It is the driest non-polar desert in the world: some areas have gone decades without recorded rainfall.
6. Which European river flows through four capital cities? The Danube: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade. No other river in the world runs through as many capitals.
More geography: our article on landlocked countries goes further than question 3.
History
7. How long did the Hundred Years’ War actually last? 116 years, from 1337 to 1453, with long truces. The name was given long after it ended.
8. In what year did Constantinople fall to the Ottomans? In 1453, the same year the Hundred Years’ War ended. Conquered by Mehmed II, the city became the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
9. Which 1494 treaty divided the New World between Spain and Portugal? The Treaty of Tordesillas. It drew a line west of the Cape Verde islands: everything to the east went to Portugal, which is why Brazil speaks Portuguese.
10. Which country was the first to give women the vote in national elections? New Zealand, in 1893. In the United Kingdom, some women won the vote in 1918, but equal voting rights with men only came in 1928.
11. What was the capital of the Inca Empire? Cusco, in present-day Peru. Machu Picchu, far more famous today, was a royal estate, not the capital.
12. How many wives did Henry VIII of England have? Six. Two of them, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, were beheaded. The first, Catherine of Aragon, was the daughter of Spain’s Catholic Monarchs.
For more history: our world history timeline.
Art and culture
13. Who painted “The Garden of Earthly Delights”? Hieronymus Bosch, a Netherlandish painter of the late 15th century. The triptych hangs in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
14. In which city is the Hermitage Museum? Saint Petersburg. The museum fills several buildings, including the tsars’ Winter Palace.
15. Which composer wrote the “Boléro”? Maurice Ravel, in 1928. Originally a ballet score, it became one of the most performed pieces of classical music.
16. Which architect designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao? Frank Gehry. Opened in 1997, its curving titanium-clad facade changed the image of the city.
17. Who wrote the play “Waiting for Godot”? Samuel Beckett, an Irish writer who first wrote it in French. It premiered in Paris in 1953.
18. In which museum is Picasso’s “Guernica” displayed? The Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. The painting only arrived in Spain in 1981, after decades at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Science
19. What is the chemical symbol for tungsten? W. It comes from its German name, Wolfram. The element was first isolated in 1783 by two Spanish chemists, the Elhuyar brothers.
20. Which planet has a day longer than its year? Venus. It takes about 243 Earth days to spin once on its axis and about 225 to orbit the Sun.
21. What is the longest bone in the human body? The femur, the thigh bone. It makes up roughly a quarter of a person’s height.
22. At what temperature do the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales show the same number? −40 degrees. It is the only point where the two scales meet.
23. Which blood type is known as the universal donor? O negative. It can be given to patients of any blood group in an emergency, which is why hospitals keep it in stock.
24. Which particle in an atom has no electric charge? The neutron. Together with protons, it forms the nucleus; electrons orbit around it.
Nature
25. Which is the only mammal capable of true flight? The bat. Other mammals, such as flying squirrels, can only glide.
26. How many bones are in a shark’s skeleton? None. A shark’s skeleton is made entirely of cartilage, the same flexible tissue as in the human nose and ears.
27. Which tree species is the tallest in the world? The coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), from California. The tallest known specimen, named Hyperion, is about 116 meters tall.
28. Which animal has fingerprints almost identical to human ones? The koala. Its prints look so much like ours that they are very hard to tell apart, even under a microscope.
29. Which bird can fly backwards? The hummingbird. It beats its wings so fast that it can hover in place and move backwards.
30. What color is a polar bear’s skin, under its fur? Black. Its hair is not actually white but translucent: it reflects light, while the dark skin absorbs the sun’s heat.
Scoring
0 to 10: perfectly normal, these are hard questions. Start with our general knowledge quiz by level to build up step by step.
11 to 20: a very good level. Your general knowledge is well above average.
21 to 30: excellent. You are the person everyone wants on their team at a quiz night.
Keep learning
These thirty questions are a good measure of your level, but general knowledge is built in small, regular doses. That is the idea behind SAPIRO: hundreds of questions on geography, history, art and nature, with an explanation behind every answer. For a structured routine, follow our method to revise general knowledge in 30 days.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a general knowledge question hard?
A clear answer that few people know: a precise fact (a date, a name, a number) or an idea that goes against what most people believe, such as the color of a polar bear’s skin.
Are these questions suitable for a pub quiz?
Yes: read them out in rounds of six, one per field. Our birthday party quiz offers a ready-to-use format for a night with friends.
Can these questions help with exam preparation?
They make good training, but exam syllabuses have their own focus. Our article on general knowledge for civil service exams details what gets asked.
Where can I find more general knowledge questions?
In our sets of 50 questions and 100 questions, and in the free SAPIRO app, with questions by topic and level.
