General Knowledge Quiz Online

10 questions from easy to hard. How far can you get?

This general knowledge quiz has 10 multiple-choice trivia questions on geography, history, science, nature, art and culture. The first ones are easy, the last two are genuinely hard, and one wrong answer ends the quiz. After each answer you see straight away whether you were right, and at the end you get your score and the correct answers. It's free, runs in your browser and needs no account. Your browser remembers which questions you have seen, so the next quiz brings new ones.

10 questions
Easy to hard
50:50 lifeline

Pick one of four answers. A wrong answer ends the quiz.

How the quiz works

Each quiz is a short general knowledge test: a climb of up to ten questions, each with four possible answers. Only one answer is correct.

Tap “Start the quiz”. The quiz opens full screen.
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. If it's right, you move on to the next question. If it's wrong, the quiz ends and you see which answer was correct.
Once per quiz you can use the 50:50 lifeline, which removes two wrong answers.
The questions get harder as you go: two easy ones to start and two very hard ones to finish.
When the quiz ends, you see your score and the correct answers. Ten right answers means you have reached the top. You can play again straight away with new questions.

Sample general knowledge questions and answers

Here are ten sample questions, from the easiest to the hardest, with the correct answers. They never come up in the quiz, so reading them won't spoil the fun, and you can use them in a quiz of your own.

Which planet is known as the "Red Planet"?
- A Venus
- B Mars
- C Jupiter
- D Saturn
Answer: B. Mars
Which language gave English the word "kindergarten"?
- A Dutch
- B Swedish
- C German
- D Danish
Answer: C. German
Which creature is the national animal of Scotland?
- A Highland cow
- B Golden eagle
- C Unicorn
- D Red deer
Answer: C. Unicorn
Which sea has no coastline at all?
- A The Aral Sea
- B The Caspian Sea
- C The Sargasso Sea
- D The Coral Sea
Answer: C. The Sargasso Sea
Which country lies in all four hemispheres at once?
- A Kiribati
- B Ecuador
- C Indonesia
- D Brazil
Answer: A. Kiribati
Which animal is known to have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom?
- A Elephant
- B Blue whale
- C Colossal squid
- D Ostrich
Answer: C. Colossal squid
Which planet was identified as a new planet in 1846 after its position was predicted mathematically?
- A Uranus
- B Saturn
- C Mercury
- D Neptune
Answer: D. Neptune
Which Ottoman sultan conquered Constantinople in 1453?
- A Suleiman the Magnificent
- B Mehmed II
- C Bayezid II
- D Murad II
Answer: B. Mehmed II
Who discovered radioactivity?
- A Marie Curie
- B Henri Becquerel
- C Ernest Rutherford
- D Wilhelm Röntgen
Answer: B. Henri Becquerel
Which body in the Solar System is the most volcanically active?
- A Earth
- B Mars
- C Io
- D Venus
Answer: C. Io

How the score works

Your score is the number of questions you answer correctly before your first mistake, so the best possible score is 10. The 50:50 lifeline can get you past one hard question in each quiz.

The last two questions are hard even for keen quiz players, so reaching question 9 is already a very good result.

Playing with friends or family

The quiz is built for one player, but it's easy to turn into a game for a group: pass the phone round, let everyone play their own quiz and compare your scores at the end. To play with friends at a distance and on the same questions, send them a challenge link from the ShowDown app.

Where the questions come from

The questions come from the free question bank of The Climb in ShowDown, our collection of game shows for your phone, and each one was checked before it went on this page. The app has 1,000 free questions, a 15-question climb with three lifelines, two more games (The Drop and Letter Wheel), friend challenges and leaderboards.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the quiz free?

Yes. You play in your browser for free, with no account and no app to install.

How many questions are there?

A quiz has up to 10 questions, from easy to hard, and ends at the first wrong answer. There are 200 questions in all, 40 at each of five difficulty levels.

Do the questions repeat?

Not until you have seen every question at a difficulty level. Your browser remembers which questions have come up, and when a level runs out its questions are shuffled again.

Can I play on my phone?

Yes. The quiz is designed for phones: it fills the screen and the answers are large buttons. It works on tablets and computers too, and on a keyboard you can answer with the A–D keys.

Does it need an internet connection?

Only to open the page. All the questions load with it, so once the page is open, the quiz keeps working without signal.

Is the quiz suitable for children?

The first questions are, but the last ones are hard even for adults. Older children will enjoy it most playing together with a parent.

Can I play with friends?

Yes: take turns on one phone and compare your scores. Challenge links that give your friends the same questions are in the ShowDown app.

How is this different from the ShowDown app?

Here the quiz has 10 questions and one lifeline, 50:50. In the app, The Climb has 15 questions and three lifelines: 50:50, Ask the Audience and Skip Question. The app also has The Drop and Letter Wheel, friend challenges and leaderboards.

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Three game shows on one phone, friend challenges and leaderboards, in English and Polish.

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