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Use these 50 pub quiz questions for a full trivia night. Each of the five rounds has ten questions followed by its answer key. Use the closest-guess tiebreaker if teams finish level. Read the questions aloud or show them on a shared screen while teams write their answers.

Give each team paper and a pen. Award one point per correct answer for a maximum of 50. Collect each team's sheet before revealing the answers. Accept alternate spellings when the intended answer is clear.

Round 1 — General knowledge

Start with a mix of wordplay, food, and familiar games. Read the Scrabble question twice so teams hear that it’s about the first word.

  1. Which gemstone can form naturally inside an oyster?
  2. In standard Scrabble, what scoring bonus does the starred center square give the first word?
  3. Who wrote the 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables?
  4. What do we call the two dots over the u in the German word über?
  5. In golf, what is the score of one stroke over par on a hole called?
  6. What number does the Spanish word quince mean?
  7. What is the Japanese art of folding paper into shapes called?
  8. Which Italian dessert takes its name from a phrase meaning ‘pick me up’?
  9. Which chess piece shares its name with a member of the clergy?
  10. Which orchestral brass instrument is best known for the long slide the player moves in and out to change notes?

Answer key

  1. Pearl
  2. Double word score
  3. L. M. Montgomery (accept Lucy Maud Montgomery)
  4. Umlaut
  5. Bogey
  6. 15
  7. Origami
  8. Tiramisu
  9. Bishop
  10. Trombone

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Round 2 — Around the world

This round switches between cities, countries, and regions. Ask teams to write only the place requested.

  1. Which Australian city is home to the opera house with white sail-shaped roofs?
  2. Wawel Royal Castle stands on a hill above the Vistula in which Polish city?
  3. Table Mountain overlooks which South African city?
  4. Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest mountain in which country?
  5. Which modern country is home to the Terracotta Army unearthed near Xi’an?
  6. Which Canadian province contains both Montreal and Quebec City?
  7. The Alhambra sits above which Spanish city?
  8. Lake Titicaca straddles Bolivia and which other country?
  9. In which European capital would you find the Belém Tower on the Tagus River?
  10. In which US state is Denali National Park and Preserve?

Answer key

  1. Sydney
  2. Kraków (accept Krakow or Cracow)
  3. Cape Town
  4. New Zealand
  5. China
  6. Quebec
  7. Granada
  8. Peru
  9. Lisbon
  10. Alaska

Round 3 — Film and TV

Give teams the title and year where listed. They’ll need to switch between naming a character, a place, and the person on screen.

  1. What is the name of the rat who dreams of cooking in Pixar’s Ratatouille?
  2. Which 1993 film features a wildlife park on the fictional island Isla Nublar?
  3. In the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, what color are Dorothy’s slippers?
  4. What surname do Jane and Michael share in Disney’s 1964 film Mary Poppins?
  5. What is the name of the coffeehouse where the group usually meets in Friends?
  6. Who plays television weatherman Phil Connors in Groundhog Day?
  7. What is the girl’s original given name in Spirited Away, before she is called Sen?
  8. Who plays Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy?
  9. Which instrument does Lisa Simpson play in The Simpsons?
  10. Who plays Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring?

Answer key

  1. Remy
  2. Jurassic Park
  3. Ruby red (accept red)
  4. Banks
  5. Central Perk
  6. Bill Murray
  7. Chihiro
  8. Carrie Fisher
  9. Saxophone
  10. Ian McKellen

Round 4 — Science and nature

Spell out the chemical symbol as ‘S, N’ when reading question 2. The screen can show the standard capitalization.

  1. How many hearts does an octopus have?
  2. Which chemical element has the symbol Sn?
  3. Which planet in our solar system completes one rotation in the shortest time?
  4. What is the name of the process in which water vapor becomes liquid water?
  5. What hard tissue covers the crown of a human tooth?
  6. Which gas do plants use as a raw material for photosynthesis?
  7. What is the name of Saturn’s largest moon?
  8. Which mineral is rated 10 on the Mohs hardness scale?
  9. What adjective describes animals that are most active around dawn and dusk?
  10. What type of tectonic plate boundary forms where two plates move apart?

Answer key

  1. Three
  2. Tin
  3. Jupiter
  4. Condensation
  5. Enamel
  6. Carbon dioxide (accept CO₂)
  7. Titan
  8. Diamond
  9. Crepuscular
  10. Divergent boundary (accept divergent plate boundary)

Round 5 — One word, two clues

Read both clues before taking answers. Each pair has one answer that fits both clues with the same spelling.

  1. The outer layer of a tree and the sound a dog makes.
  2. The part a bird uses to fly and a side section of a building.
  3. A device that lifts a car to change a tire and the playing card between ten and queen.
  4. A frosted birthday dessert and a word for a solid piece of soap.
  5. A band worn on a finger and the place where boxers fight.
  6. The season after winter and a coil in a mattress.
  7. A shallow place to cross a river and the surname of the actor who played Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  8. A piece of hardware that can slide to lock a door and a flash of lightning.
  9. An unopened flower and an informal word for a close friend.
  10. A slang word for one US dollar and a term for a male deer.

Answer key

  1. Bark
  2. Wing
  3. Jack
  4. Cake
  5. Ring
  6. Spring
  7. Ford
  8. Bolt
  9. Bud
  10. Buck

Tiebreaker

Ask tied teams to write a number at the same time. The closest guess wins, whether it goes over or under.

How many meters long is a standard marathon?

The standard distance is 42,195 meters.

Make custom pub quiz rounds with SlidesPilot

Swap one of the five rounds for a topic your teams will enjoy and keep the game at 50 points. For a crowd of movie fans, try this prompt in SlidesPilot’s AI Quiz Generator.

Write 10 multiple-choice pub quiz questions about movie soundtracks from the 1990s. Mix easy and hard questions and include the correct answer for each.

Read the new round aloud or export it as an editable PowerPoint. If you’re using a screen, show one question at a time and save the answer slides until teams hand in their sheets.

Question and answer slides made with SlidesPilot
Question and answer slides made with SlidesPilot

How to host a trivia night with these questions

  1. Set the rules before round one. Ask each team to write its name on the sheet and number its answers 1 to 10. Have a fresh sheet ready for each round. Explain when teams can ask for a question to be repeated and when phones should be put away.
  2. Allow about ten minutes per round. Read each question once, pause for discussion, then repeat it. Give teams a final minute to finish writing. Take a short break after round three while you tally the scores so far.
  3. Collect the sheets before revealing the answers. Read or display the answer key in order. Record each team’s score out of ten for the round. Add the five scores at the end and use the tiebreaker if teams share first place.

For a shorter game, run three rounds and score out of 30. General knowledge, around the world, and one word with two clues give teams three different ways to pick up points.

Pick a theme for your next round

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