Whether you are hosting a quiz night, looking for classroom material, or just want to test yourself, a solid bank of general knowledge questions is the best place to start. The following sixty questions are drawn from the Curiquiz Common Knowledge category, split into easy, medium and hard so every player gets a fair shot.
Each question is followed by the four possible answers, the correct choice, and a short fun fact to read aloud or keep to yourself. Feel free to copy, share, or remix them for your own events.
Easy — warm-up round
1. What is the capital of France? Options: Lyon, Marseille, Paris, Nice. Answer: Paris. Paris has been France's capital since the 10th century.
2. Which planet is known as the Red Planet? Options: Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury. Answer: Mars. Iron oxide on the surface gives Mars its rusty colour.
3. Who painted the Mona Lisa? Options: Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello. Answer: Leonardo da Vinci. He worked on it on and off from 1503 to about 1519.
4. Which instrument has 88 keys? Options: Harp, Piano, Accordion, Organ. Answer: Piano. 52 white and 36 black keys spanning over seven octaves.
5. Which director made 'Jurassic Park'? Options: George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, James Cameron. Answer: Steven Spielberg. It was the highest-grossing film ever when released in 1993.
6. What gas do plants absorb from the air for photosynthesis? Options: Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon dioxide, Hydrogen. Answer: Carbon dioxide. They release oxygen as a by-product.
7. How many continents are there? Options: 5, 6, 7, 8. Answer: 7. Some geographers count six by combining Europe and Asia.
8. Which sport is played at Wimbledon? Options: Golf, Tennis, Cricket, Rugby. Answer: Tennis. It's the oldest tennis tournament, held since 1877.
9. What is H₂O more commonly known as? Options: Salt, Water, Sugar, Hydrogen. Answer: Water. Two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom.
10. Which empire built the Colosseum? Options: Greek, Persian, Roman, Egyptian. Answer: Roman. It was completed under Emperor Titus in AD 80.
11. Which language has the most native speakers worldwide? Options: English, Spanish, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese. Answer: Mandarin Chinese. Roughly 920 million native Mandarin speakers.
12. Who wrote 'Harry Potter'? Options: J. R. R. Tolkien, J. K. Rowling, C. S. Lewis, Roald Dahl. Answer: J. K. Rowling. She started the series on napkins on a delayed train in 1990.
13. How many bones are in the adult human body? Options: 186, 206, 226, 246. Answer: 206. Babies are born with around 270, which fuse over time.
14. What is the tallest mountain on Earth above sea level? Options: K2, Kangchenjunga, Everest, Lhotse. Answer: Everest. Everest stands at 8,849 m above sea level.
15. Which animal is the largest living land mammal? Options: African elephant, White rhino, Hippo, Giraffe. Answer: African elephant. Adult bulls can weigh more than 6 tonnes.
16. How many days are in a leap year? Options: 365, 366, 367, 364. Answer: 366. An extra 29th of February is added every 4 years (with exceptions).
17. What organ pumps blood around the body? Options: Liver, Lungs, Heart, Kidneys. Answer: Heart. The average adult heart beats about 100,000 times a day.
18. Which planet is the largest in our solar system? Options: Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus. Answer: Jupiter. Jupiter is more than twice as massive as all other planets combined.
19. Which gas do humans need to breathe to survive? Options: Nitrogen, Carbon dioxide, Oxygen, Helium. Answer: Oxygen. Air is about 21% oxygen.
20. Which country has the Eiffel Tower? Options: Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland. Answer: France. It was built for the 1889 World's Fair.
Medium — step it up
21. Which Asian country has the largest population? Options: China, Indonesia, India, Pakistan. Answer: India. India officially overtook China in 2023.
22. Which country surrounds Lesotho on all sides? Options: South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe. Answer: South Africa. Lesotho is one of only three enclaved countries in the world.
23. Which director won the Best Director Oscar for 'Parasite'? Options: Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Wong Kar-wai. Answer: Bong Joon-ho. It also became the first non-English film to win Best Picture.
24. Who composed 'The Magic Flute'? Options: Bach, Mozart, Wagner, Verdi. Answer: Mozart. Mozart conducted its premiere in 1791, the year he died.
25. Which painter is most associated with Cubism alongside Braque? Options: Picasso, Matisse, Klimt, Klee. Answer: Picasso. They worked so closely that early Cubist works are sometimes hard to attribute.
26. Which pharaoh's tomb was discovered nearly intact in 1922? Options: Ramesses II, Tutankhamun, Cleopatra, Akhenaten. Answer: Tutankhamun. Howard Carter found the tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
27. Which scientist proposed the theory of general relativity? Options: Newton, Einstein, Hawking, Galileo. Answer: Einstein. Einstein published it in 1915.
28. Which country is the world's largest exporter of coffee? Options: Vietnam, Colombia, Brazil, Ethiopia. Answer: Brazil. Brazil has led the market for over 150 years.
29. Which actor played the Joker in 'The Dark Knight'? Options: Jared Leto, Joaquin Phoenix, Heath Ledger, Jack Nicholson. Answer: Heath Ledger. Ledger won a posthumous Oscar for the role.
30. Which painter cut off part of his ear? Options: Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Manet. Answer: Van Gogh. He did it after a heated argument with Gauguin in Arles, 1888.
31. Which gas makes up most of Earth's atmosphere? Options: Oxygen, Nitrogen, Argon, Carbon dioxide. Answer: Nitrogen. About 78% of dry air is nitrogen.
32. Which empire was ruled by Suleiman the Magnificent? Options: Mughal, Ottoman, Byzantine, Persian. Answer: Ottoman. His reign (1520–66) is often seen as the empire's golden age.
33. Who wrote 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'? Options: Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Isabel Allende. Answer: Gabriel García Márquez. The Colombian author won the 1982 Nobel Prize.
34. Which composer wrote 'Clair de Lune'? Options: Ravel, Debussy, Satie, Chopin. Answer: Debussy. It's the third movement of his 'Suite bergamasque'.
35. Which sea creature has three hearts and blue blood? Options: Squid, Octopus, Cuttlefish, Jellyfish. Answer: Octopus. Two hearts pump blood through the gills, one through the body.
36. Which country invented gunpowder? Options: India, Persia, China, Egypt. Answer: China. Chinese alchemists created it around the 9th century.
37. Which scientist discovered penicillin in 1928? Options: Marie Curie, Louis Pasteur, Alexander Fleming, Joseph Lister. Answer: Alexander Fleming. He noticed mould killing bacteria on a forgotten Petri dish.
38. What is the most abundant element in the universe? Options: Helium, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon. Answer: Hydrogen. About 75% of all normal matter is hydrogen.
39. Which country invented modern football (codified the rules in 1863)? Options: Brazil, Italy, England, Germany. Answer: England. The English Football Association set the first laws of the game.
40. Which philosopher said 'I think, therefore I am'? Options: Kant, Descartes, Hume, Locke. Answer: Descartes. From 'Discourse on the Method', 1637.
Hard — for the brave
41. Which country is home to the highest waterfall in the world? Options: Brazil, Norway, Venezuela, South Africa. Answer: Venezuela. Angel Falls plunges 979 m in Canaima National Park.
42. Which country has the most pyramids? Options: Egypt, Mexico, Sudan, Peru. Answer: Sudan. Sudan has over 200 Nubian pyramids — about twice as many as Egypt.
43. Which European country was the first to give women the right to vote (1906)? Options: Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland. Answer: Finland. Then an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire.
44. Which composer wrote the opera 'Tristan und Isolde'? Options: Wagner, Verdi, Strauss, Puccini. Answer: Wagner. Premiered in Munich in 1865; key for harmonic modernism.
45. Which Renaissance master painted 'The School of Athens' in the Vatican? Options: Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian. Answer: Raphael. Painted between 1509 and 1511 for Pope Julius II.
46. Which year did the Roman Empire (Western) traditionally fall? Options: 410, 455, 476, 486. Answer: 476. Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus in 476.
47. Which artist is associated with the 'drip painting' technique? Options: Rothko, Pollock, de Kooning, Newman. Answer: Pollock. Jackson Pollock pioneered the technique in 1947.
48. Which film won the first Academy Award for Best Picture (1929)? Options: The Jazz Singer, Wings, Sunrise, Metropolis. Answer: Wings. 'Wings' is the only silent film to have won Best Picture (until 'The Artist').
49. Which composer was court Kapellmeister for the Esterházy family for nearly 30 years? Options: Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert. Answer: Haydn. Joseph Haydn essentially invented the symphony as we know it.
50. Which physicist proposed the uncertainty principle? Options: Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Dirac. Answer: Heisenberg. Werner Heisenberg formulated it in 1927.
51. Which subatomic particle was discovered at CERN in 2012? Options: Top quark, Higgs boson, Tau neutrino, Muon. Answer: Higgs boson. Confirming a 1964 prediction by Peter Higgs and others.
52. Which dynasty built most of the Great Wall of China that survives today? Options: Han, Tang, Ming, Qing. Answer: Ming. The Ming rebuilt and extended it from the 14th to 17th centuries.
53. Which famous astronomer first proposed a heliocentric model in print (1543)? Options: Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo, Tycho Brahe. Answer: Copernicus. His 'De revolutionibus orbium coelestium' was published the year he died.
54. Which planet has a day longer than its year? Options: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter. Answer: Venus. Venus rotates very slowly — and backwards.
55. Which 19th-century Russian chemist created the periodic table? Options: Lomonosov, Mendeleev, Pavlov, Botkin. Answer: Mendeleev. He published it in 1869 and predicted unknown elements.
56. Which country won the very first FIFA World Cup in 1930? Options: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Italy. Answer: Uruguay. Uruguay also hosted that first tournament.
57. Which Nobel laureate discovered radium and polonium? Options: Lise Meitner, Marie Curie, Irène Joliot-Curie, Rosalind Franklin. Answer: Marie Curie. She remains the only person to win Nobels in two different sciences.
58. Which 17th-century painter created 'Las Meninas'? Options: Goya, Velázquez, El Greco, Murillo. Answer: Velázquez. Painted around 1656 for King Philip IV of Spain.
59. Which English mathematician helped break the Enigma code in WWII? Options: Bletchley, Turing, Welchman, Knox. Answer: Turing. Alan Turing also pioneered theoretical computer science.
60. Which Spanish architect designed the Sagrada Família in Barcelona? Options: Doménech i Montaner, Gaudí, Sert, Bofill. Answer: Gaudí. Antoni Gaudí worked on it from 1883 until his death in 1926.
Want more? The Curiquiz Common Knowledge category contains 300 questions across easy, medium and hard, all free to play with no sign-up required. You can play solo, challenge a friend, or run a tournament — whatever suits the room.