130 General Knowledge Questions (and Answers) to Prove How Smart You Really Are — Best Life (2024)

How much do you know about the world around you?

Whether you're passing the time with friends or preparing for a pub quiz, it never hurts to expand your mental inventory of fascinating facts. If you feel like your supply is starting to run low, then you're in luck. We've compiled a varied list of general knowledge questions and answers for you to study up on. We've also organized these trivia items based on subject and difficulty, so you can either start slow or dive right into the more challenging material. Read on to test how much you really know.

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Easy General Knowledge Questions

1. Question: In what galaxy is our solar system located?
   Answer: The Milky Way
2. Question: Red, yellow, and blue are examples of what?
   Answer: Primary colors
3. Question: What type of gas is absorbed by plants?
   Answer: Carbon dioxide
4. Question: What's the primary ingredient in hummus?
   Answer: Chickpeas
5. Question: Which planet is known as the "Red Planet"?
   Answer: Mars
6. Question: Who is most often credited with inventing electricity?
   Answer: Benjamin Franklin
7. Question: Anti-clockwise moves in which direction?
   Answer: Left
8. Question: What is the shortest month of the year?
   Answer: February
9. Question: The sun rises in the…
   Answer: East
10. Question: How many years are in a millennia?
    Answer: 1,000
11. Question: What is the world's smallest continent?
    Answer: Australia
12. Question: Who is known as the "Father of Modern Physics"?
    Answer: Albert Einstein
13. Question: In what year did the Titanic sink?
    Answer: 1912
14. Question: Where does the majority of Earth's energy come from?
    Answer: The sun
15. Question: What year was the very first model of the iPhone released?
    Answer: 2007

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Funny General Knowledge Questions

16. Question: What animal did Australian soldiers have to fight back in 1932?
    Answer: The emu
17. Question: What household item was originally called the "Whirlwind"?
    Answer: The vacuum
18. Question: In what country is it illegal to own a single guinea pig because they tend to get lonely?
    Answer: Switzerland
19. Question: Women were forbidden from wearing what in 19th-century Florence?
    Answer: Buttons
20. Question: It's illegal for anyone who is not a magician to own one of these in Queensland, Australia.
    Answer: A rabbit
21. Question: What was the first patented service uniform in the U.S.?
    Answer: The Playboy Bunny
22. Question: How do you say entrance" and "driveway" in Swedish, respectively?
    Answer: "Infart" and "uppfart"
23. Question: What is a group of unicorns called?
    Answer: A blessing
24. Question: In Georgia, it's illegal to eat what with a fork?
    Answer: Fried chicken
25. Question: What color is an airplane's "black box," really?
    Answer: Orange
26. Question: Coprastastaphobia is the fear of what?
    Answer: Constipation
27. Question: In which U.S. state is it illegal to swear in front of a corpse?
    Answer: Texas
28. Question: What is a Gambrinus?
    Answer: The symbol and personification of beer
29. Question: What country has been put up for sale online—multiple times?
    Answer: New Zealand
30. Question: Who claimed he could "drive away the devil with a fart?"
    Answer:Martin Luther

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Hard General Knowledge Questions

31. Question: What is the national bird of India?
    Answer: The peaco*ck
32. Question: In 2006, the International Astronomical Union reclassified this planet.
    Answer: Pluto
33. Question: Who holds the record for the most Grand Slam titles in women's tennis?
    Answer: Margaret Court
34. Question: What festival is called the Festival of Colors?
    Answer: Holi
35. Question: What two cities represent letters in the phonetic alphabet?
    Answer: Lima and Quebec
36. Question: What language contains the most words?
    Answer: English
37. Question: In what month does Russia celebrate the October Revolution?
    Answer: November
38. Question: What does the word "matrix" mean in the Bible?
    Answer: Womb
39. Question: What country is the kiwi fruit native to?
    Answer: China
40. Question: What is the main ingredient of Bombay Duck?
    Answer: Fish
41. Question: What website did Mark Zuckerberg create before Facebook that allowed users to compare the attractiveness of two people side by side?
    Answer: Facemash
42. Question: What is the common name for enuresis?
    Answer: Bedwetting
43. Question: Who discovered penicillin?
    Answer: Alexander Fleming
44. Question: What were clocks missing before 1577?
    Answer: Minute hands
45. Question: What is the chemical symbol for the element mercury?
    Answer: Hg

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General Trivia About Sports

46. Question: Which country won the most medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics?
    Answer: The U.S.
47. Question: In which country was the sport of curling invented?
    Answer: Scotland
48. Question: Which country won the first FIFA World Cup back in 1930?
    Answer: Uruguay
49. Question: Which boxer has been nicknamed "The Greatest" and "The People's Champion"?
    Answer:Muhammad Ali
50. Question: Which country invented table tennis?
    Answer: England
51. Question: How many NBA Championships did Michael Jordan win while playing for the Chicago Bulls?
    Answer: Six
52. Question: What sport has been played on the moon?
    Answer: Golf
53. Question: In what year was the first-ever Wimbledon Championship held?
    Answer: 1877
54. Question: How many players are there on a rugby league team?
    Answer: 13 players
55. Question: What is the national sport of Japan?
    Answer: Sumo wrestling

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General Knowledge Questions About Film and Art

56. Question: Which Indiana Jones movie was released back in 1984?
    Answer:Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
57. Question: Who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the 2020 film Joker?
    Answer:Joaquin Phoenix
58. Question: The Hunger Games series was written by which author?
    Answer:Suzanne Collins
59. Question: What is the name of the fourth book in the Harry Potter series?
    Answer:Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
60. Question: Who is the writer of The Merchant of Venice?
    Answer:William Shakespeare
61. Question: Anna Pavlova was famous for performing this dance form.
    Answer: Ballet
62. Question: Which artist is most famous for their close-up perspective paintings of flowers?
    Answer: Georgia O'Keeffe
63. Question: Who designed the Guggenheim Museum?
    Answer: Frank Lloyd Wright
64. Question: Who is considered the father of European abstract art?
    Answer: Wassily Kandinsky
65. Question: What 1927 movie musical was the first "talkie"?
    Answer:The Jazz Singer
66. Question: Who was the first person of color to win an Oscar?
    Answer: Hattie McDaniel
67. Question: Which animated film features a character named Timon?
    AnswerThe Lion King
68. Question: The Dutch painter Rembrandt lived during which century?
    Answer: 17th
69. Question: Which of Picasso's famous paintings was inspired by the bombings of civilians during the Spanish Civil War?
    Answer: Guernica
70. Question: Who painted the Mona Lisa?
    Answer:Leonardo da Vinci

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General Knowledge Trivia Questions About the Human Body

71. Question: When people are frightened, their ears produce more of what?
    Answer: Earwax
72. Question: What is the space between your nostrils called?
    Answer: The columella
73. Question: How long is the small intestine?
    Answer: Seven meters
74. Question: What is the smallest bone in the human body?
    Answer: The stapes, located in the middle ear
75. Question: How many bones do babies have when they are born?
    Answer: 300
76. Question: What is the rarest blood type in humans?
    Answer: AB negative
77. Question: What is the body's most flexible and movable joint?
    Answer: The shoulder joint
78. Question: Who has more hair follicles: blondes or brunettes?
    Answer: Blondes
79. Question: How much salt does the average human body contain?
    Answer: 250 grams
80. Question: What's the longest bone in the body?
    Answer: The femur
81. Question: How many muscles does it take to smile?
    Answer: 13
82. Question: Which part of the brain is responsible for balance and coordination?
    Answer: The cerebellum
83. Question: How many chambers does the human heart have?
    Answer: Four
84. Question: What is the hardest substance in the human body?
    Answer: Tooth enamel
85. Question: True or false: If you go into space, you get taller.
    Answer: True—the cartilage disks in your spine expand due to the lack of gravity

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General Geography Trivia

86. Question: What is the capital city of Australia?
    Answer: Canberra
87. Question: On which continent is the Amazon Rainforest located?
    Answer: South America
88. Question: Which two countries share the longest international border?
    Answer: Canada and the U.S.
89. Question: What is the largest desert in the world?
    Answer: The Sahara Desert
90. Question: Name the country known as the Land of the Rising Sun.
    Answer: Japan
91. Question: Which river runs through the Grand Canyon?
    Answer: Colorado River
92. Question: What is the largest country in the world (by area)?
    Answer: Russia
93. Question: What is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea?
    Answer: Sicily
94. Question: What is the name of the longest river in the world?
    Answer: The Nile
95. Question: What is the world's longest continental mountain range?
    Answer: The Andes
96. Question: What is the smallest country in the world?
    Answer: Vatican City
97. Question: The Great Barrier Reef is off the coast of which country?
    Answer: Australia
98. Question: What is the largest island in the world?
    Answer: Greenland
99. Question: What is the name of the largest ocean on Earth?
    Answer: Pacific Ocean
100. Question: Which is the tallest mountain in the world?
     Answer: Mount Everest

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General Knowledge Questions About Animals

101. Question: What is the largest mammal in the world?
     Answer: The blue whale
102. Question: How long is the gestation period of an African elephant?
     Answer: 22 months
103. Question: Ants do what to warn one another of danger?
     Answer: Release pheromones
104. Question: How many years can a snail sleep for?
     Answer: Three
105. Question: Which bird lays the largest eggs?
     Answer: The ostrich
106. Question: How many noses does a slug have?
     Answer: Four
107. Question: What do you call a group of zebras?
     Answer: A dazzle
108. Question: Why do otters hold hands when floating in water?
     Answer: So they don't drift apart while sleeping
109. Question: What is the smallest species of monkey?
     Answer: Pygmy marmoset
110. Question: What is the slowest animal in the world?
     Answer: The three-toed sloth
111. Question: What part of the body is used to determine the age of a horse?
     Answer: Its teeth
112. Question: Which ocean creatures have no teeth?
     Answer: Baleen whales
113. Question: How many compartments does a cow's stomach have?
     Answer: Four
114. Question: What is the world's largest living reptile?
     Answer: The saltwater crocodile
115. Question: What is the fastest land animal in the world?
     Answer: The cheetah

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General Knowledge Questions About History

116. Question: In what year did the Berlin Wall fall?
     Answer: 1989
117. Question: Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?
     Answer:Marie Curie
118. Question: What ancient civilization built the Machu Picchu complex in Peru?
     Answer: The Incas
119. Question: What event is believed to have kicked off World War I?
     Answer: The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
120. Question: Who was the first Prime Minister of India?
     Answer: Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
121. Question: What was the capital city of the Inca Empire?
     Answer: Cuzco
122. Question: In which country was the Battle of Culloden fought?
     Answer: Scotland
123. Question: What year did World War II end?
     Answer: 1945
124. Question: What year did the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) go into effect?
     Answer: 1994
125. Question: Who was the first female millionaire in the U.S.?
     Answer: Madam CJ Walker
126. Question: The Great Wall of China was primarily built by which dynasty?
     Answer: The Ming Dynasty
127. Question: Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
     Answer: Thomas Jefferson
128. Question: How many biological children did George Washington have?
     Answer: None
129. Question: What was the name of the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth?
     Answer: Sputnik
130. Question: Who was the first ruler of the Mongol Empire?
     Answer: Genghis Khan

Carrie Weisman

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Sources referenced in this article

1. Source: Mars Facts
2. Source: Why does the Sun rise in the east and set in the west?
3. Source: National Symbols
4. Source: Mercury
5. Source: Measuring Earwax Cortisol Concentration using a non-stressful sampling method
6. Source: Anatomy of the Nose
7. Source: Chambers and valves of the heart
8. Source: WHAT'S YOUR SPACE HEIGHT?
9. Source: Grand Canyon
10. Source: Great Barrier Reef
11. Source: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
12. Source: City of Cuzco
13. Source: World War II
14. Source: North American Free Trade Agreement
15. Source: Thomas Jefferson
16. Source: The Launch of Sputnik, 1957