Note, however, that doesn't mean the hardest trivia questions. It’s remarkably easy to come up with dozens of hard trivia questions that require knowledge too obscure to answer -- or to be any fun. We’ll share a few examples of bad trivia questions below for reference.
One secret to creating great (and fun) trivia questions that aren't too challenging is to come up with ones that can have more than one correct answer. That way, you allow people to plumb the depths of their knowledge, and find not only the right answer but also enjoy that boost of self-confidence that comes with getting it right.
And really, when you’re having a trivia night with friends, isn’t that more important than stumping everyone? If you agree with that sentiment, then, by all means, avoid questions like those found in the first segment
Skip ahead:
- Hard Trivia Questions About American History
- Hard Trivia Questions About Geography
- Hard Trivia Questions About The Human Body
- Hard Trivia Questions About Sports
- Hard Trivia Questions About World War II
- Hard Trivia Questions About Everything Else!
Examples of Bad Trivia Questions for Your Game Night
Here are five examples of trivia questions that are too difficult to be considered fun. Why? Because they are almost surely unanswerable by most players. Thus, they risk leaving people feeling as if they came up short.
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1. What is the capital of Togo? (It’s Benin, but unless players have prepared specifically for geography, this is probably too obscure.)
2. What is the third-tallest mountain on Earth? (It’s Kangchenjunga, in the Himalayas, in the border region between Nepal and India. However, almost no one is going to readily answer that.)
3. What is the 10th decimal digit of pi? (It’s 5, but people who can recite pi to 3.14159, a standard number of digits recalled, will feel they perhaps should have known.)
4. Who was Teddy Roosevelt’s first lady? (It was Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, but this is a “gotcha” question, because it's rather obscure, and because she wasn't his first wife.)
5. Name five former U.S. secretaries of state. (There are plenty to name, but this question asks for too many responses to be much fun!)
Now, let’s move on to some great hard trivia questions.
Hard Trivia Questions About American History
These questions have a single correct answer. Plus, U.S. history is a subject in which most American citizens can be expected to have at least some grounding.
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1. What is the oldest European-founded city in the United States? (St. Augustine, Florida, founded in 1565)
2. Name all four U.S. presidents who were assassinated while in office. (Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy)
3. In which war did the most Americans die? (the American Civil War, in which an estimated 620,000 men, or 2 percent of the U.S. population at the time, lost their lives)
4. In what year did the first Ford Model T sell? (1908)
5. Who was the first U.S. president to appear on television? (Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on April 30, 1939, during the opening session of the New York World's Fair)
6. What does the middle initial "S" stand for in U.S. President Harry S. Truman's name? (This is a little tricky. Truman had no middle name. His parents gave him the middle initials as a compromise to honor both grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young)
Hard Trivia Questions About Geography
Most of these have multiple correct responses, which is a great way to make a hard trivia question a bit easier to field. And it's more fun for a wider group of participants.
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1. In what state is the tallest mountain in the continental United States? (California)
2. Name two of the five deepest points in the world’s oceans. (Mariana Trench, Puerto Rico Trench/Milwaukee Deep, Java Trench, South Sandwich Trench, Molloy Hole)
3. Name five countries whose names begin with the letter G. (Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana)
4. What is tallest mountain in Australia? (Mount Kosciuszko)
5. What is the longest river in Europe? (Volga)
6. Which country's flag features a dragon? (Three possible answers: Bhutan, Malta or Wales)
Hard Trivia Questions About the Human Body
These questions can be fun with players of different ages. Kids often will know more about the human body than adults do, because they more recently learned about it.
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1. Name the three bones found in the inner ear. (Hammer, anvil, stirrup)
2. How many total chromosomes does a human cell have? (46 – 23 pairs, but 26 total)
3. What is the second-biggest organ in the human body? (Liver)
4. Name four types of bone found below your pelvis. (Femur, patella, tibia, fibula, tarsals, metatarsals, phalanges)
5. Does an average head of full hair have about 1,000, 7,500, 10,000 or 15,000 hairs? (10,000)
Hard Trivia Questions About Sports
These questions mostly have single answers, as statistics are such an important part of sports.
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1. Which sport is older, basketball or American football? (Football)
2. In which decade was baseball’s first perfect game thrown? (1880s)
3. Name five positions on a soccer/football team. (Goalkeeper, sweeper, center back, full back, defensive midfielder, central midfielder, attacking midfielder, wing back, winger, striker, forward)
4. This Major League Baseball team (currently) has the second-most World Series wins. (Cardinals, 11)
5. Who (currently) holds the all-time point record in the National Basketball Association? (Kareem Abdul-Jabar, 38,387)
6. In which year was the first football World Cup held? (1930)
Hard Trivia Questions About World War II
What can we say? People love trivia about the Second World War.
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1. On what day did Nazi Germany invade Poland? (Sept. 1, 1939)
2. Name three European countries that remained neutral during World War II. (Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey)
3. On what date was victory declared in Europe? (May 8, 1945)
4. Name three types of American World War II fighter planes. (P-51 Mustang, P-47 Thunderbolt, P-38 Lightning, P-40 Warhawk, F4 Corsair, F6 Hellcat, P-63 Kingcobra, etc.)
5. What was the deadliest battle of World War II? (Battle of Stalingrad, with approximately 2 million casualties)
Hard Trivia Questions About Everything Else!
Sometimes, it's more fun to take a wide-open approach. So here are 10 more great trivia questions from all sorts of topic areas.
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1. How many legs does a centipede have? (30)
2. Name one of the only African countries that were never colonized. (Ethiopia and Liberia)
3. How many humps does a dromedary camel have? (One)
4. Who was the youngest U.S. president ever? (Teddy Roosevelt, at 42)
5. In which decade were the first artificial Christmas trees manufactured? (1930s)
6. What is the hardest natural substance on Earth? (Diamond)
7. What is the best-selling album of all time? (Michael Jackson’s Thriller)
8. Who was the youngest British prime minister ever? (William Pitt the Younger, at 24)
9. What is the only mammal that is fully covered in scales? (Pangolin)
10. Who was the first Disney princess? (Snow White)
Get "Hangry" for Success: Why Your Lack of Ambition is Starving You
We’ve all been there, when we feel a hunger so bad we get light-headed and feel like we need to vomit. When we are this hungry, most of us turn pretty angry too. Your brain is critically dependent on glucose, which your body gets from fats, proteins, and carbs. So when it begins to run low, it treats the situation as life-threatening. Your brain begins to shout, "Feed me!"
Suddenly, you have a short fuse and have a hard time concentrating on your tasks. Everything else takes a back seat to your need for nourishment, and you become what we call “hangry" (hungry and angry). You will compromise your rules of “normal” social behavior until you get something to eat. You may be rude, snap at people, and skip people in line to get your meal faster. There will be very little that you'll let get in the way of you getting some grub.
Get "Hangry" for Success: Why Your Lack of Ambition is Starving You
Take it from the Kit-Kat thief. You can’t help but feel for this guy’s hunger pains!
“Saw Kit-Kat in your cup holder. I love Kit-Kats so I checked your door and it was unlocked. Did not take anything other than the Kit-Kat. I am sorry and hungry.”
This was a note left on the seat of a college kid’s car after someone broke in and stole his Kit-Kat. I’m pretty sure I have experienced this level of hunger before. There is nothing more disorienting and distracting than an empty stomach.
Snacking through life
When we are this hungry, you can bet we will do anything that's necessary to get what we desire. So why is it then that when we desire success in any area of life, be it money, health, wellness, or in our relationships, we settle?
Why don’t we behave like the Kit-Kat thief, and take from life what we want? What stops us from breaking all the rules to find the success we so desperately claim to seek?
Perhaps we never get to that level of hunger for success because we “snack” through life. When you get bits and pieces of satisfaction here and there, from the little accomplishments, you never develop a hunger that is strong enough to provoke massive action.
You have a “safe” job, so you never take the leap to start that business.
You have a boyfriend or girlfriend that “treats you nicely,” so you never meet that person that your soul craves.
You aren’t as fat as some of your friends, so you never take those gym sessions seriously.
You get a decent paycheck, so you never strive to bring more value than is required for payment.
You get just enough from the ordinary to temporarily keep the hunger pains away, and so you never seek the extraordinary.
The hunger pains I speak of are those pains that will drive you so angry, you will do whatever it takes to succeed. They are the pains that have propelled many of history's highest-achieving men and women to new levels of greatness.
Yet, you and I continue to be sedated with our little “snacks” of success.
Hunger leads to action, action leads to success
Hunger is the greatest motivator of action, and action is the key to success.
When you are dying of hunger, you will do whatever it takes to get yourself a meal. And if you don’t succeed, you will die trying.
If we truly want to be great, to do great things, to find success in life however it might look to each of us, we need to stop snacking and let those hunger pains push us a little harder.
We can’t keep munching on the little things while our biggest dreams draw further away.
What does “hangry” for success look like?
Being hangry for success is when you sit on the toilet with a pen and notepad writing new ideas instead of scrolling on your phone. It's reading books instead of watching TV shows. It's following thought leaders instead of celebrities, and meeting like-minded people instead of party people.
If we want to succeed, we can’t be killing our appetites. We must stay hungry. We must not settle for the little victories of life which only temporarily subdue our search for greatness.
We must want it bad enough that everything else becomes a distraction, and the lack of success becomes life-threatening.
We have to get hangry for success.
There is a better way to live!