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)
The 3 Main Signs You’re a Hopeless Romantic (and Why That’s Not a Bad Thing)
A hopeless romantic cant help but dream of their perfect partner, but there's a negative association with the term that we should change.
My name is Ricky and I’m a recovering hopeless romantic. I’ve been battered and bruised by unmet expectations, the slow crumbling of unrealistic fantasies, and the gradual jadedness of looking for an idealized version of love. In my younger years, I had big ideas and even bigger visions for what true love meant. A love free from pain, a love that offered salvation, a way to rise above the mundane, the struggle and strife of daily life, with someone by your side.
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I’ve experienced the poetically tragic and the ineffably beautiful. And, I’m here to reassure you. Because amidst the hopeless romance, there is hope. Hope for a more mature, balanced approach to love. One which catapults you to deeper levels of fulfillment, doesn’t avoid the tough stuff, and allows you to, paradoxically, get closer to the type of love you may have always longed for.
What Does It Mean to Be a Hopeless Romantic?
It’s likely you already know what it means to be a hopeless romantic. What image intuitively surfaces? The hopeless romantic is an archetype in its own right, playing out over and over in stories, music, film, and poetry. The phrase dates back to around the early 1920s, appearing in a short story collection, to describe the mixture of “ passionate (romantic) yet ineffectual (hopeless) love.”
Dictionary.com’s definition of a hopeless romantic is:
A hopeless romantic has high ideas for love and will do all they can to pursue them. Of course, characters we read on pages or see on screen often reflect emotional or psychological processes within; there is truth in fiction. Many of us have the inner hopeless romantic, a yearning to find “the one,” a desire to pursue love at all costs, to place it above all else.
Signs You’re a Hopeless Romantic
It’s likely, if you’re reading this article, you have experienced enough red flags in romance to know your patterns need closer inspection. Above all else, the biggest sign of hopeless romantics is that romantic love, or more accurately romantic drama, consistently takes up a lot of space. Either in being distracted by a new love, engaging in toxic relationships, recovering from conflict, or becoming codependent. Other signs include:
1. You Use Romance Is An Escape
Hopeless romance is immature, to a certain extent. The desire for fairytale romance is naive. Relationships take work. Beyond the honeymoon period of falling in love, a relationship will challenge you to grow and mature. You’ll need to navigate your own shadow, trauma, and defense mechanisms. You’ll need to work on communicating whilst triggered, or overcoming emotional fallouts.
All of this is anything but an escape. In facing someone else, relationships encourage you to face yourself. Hopeless romantics, however, tend to view romance as an escape. The desire for this type of love is a way to bypass difficult feelings, obligations, or responsibilities.
2. You Experience Many Passionate But Short-Term Relationships
Because hopeless romance is founded in an idealized version of love, many people find that, when the going gets tough and the fantasy starts to dissolve, they leave the relationship to pursue someone else. If love doesn’t match expectations, it’s always the relationship’s fault or the other person’s fault. Without self-awareness, this perpetuates the cycle of chasing, falling, and becoming disillusioned. As a result, many hopeless romantics get stuck in a simultaneous state of yearning and cynicism.
3. You Prioritize Romance Above All Else
There’s a difference between prioritizing meaningful relationships and family, from a place of service or love, and the hopeless romantic’s approach to prioritizing. A hopeless romantic will place the pursuit of romance above all else, often leading to codependent relationships that are so intense, and lacking in personal boundaries, other areas of life become neglected. They stop seeing friends or pursuing solo hobbies or interests.
Despite being unhealthy, hopeless romantics get trapped, because their idea of love means giving it everything, being passionate, and making sacrifices. There’s a seed of truth in all of this — love does require giving, passion, and sacrifice. But when it comes from an imbalanced sense of martyrdom, or a need, it becomes unhealthy.
Is Being a Hopeless Romantic Unhealthy?
Modern portrayals of love emphasize this mixture of passion and ineffectiveness. Forbidden or impossible love makes for a dramatic story. What would The Notebook be without arguments or barriers to love between Noah (Ryan Gosling) and Allie (Rachel MacAdams)? Or Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) in the Titanic? Or, stretching further back to the greatest hopeless romance of all, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet?
Of course, normal isn’t healthy by default. Hopeless romance often comes from a place of innocence. How can you argue against believing in love? Or wanting to find someone to share life with? The question then is, how does hopeless romance surface, and in what ways is it unhealthy, limiting, or holding you back?
I explored all of this in detail through my “recovery” from hopeless romance. Like most hopeless romantics, it got to the point where I knew something had to change because I was experiencing regular setbacks and heartbreak. I sensed I was stuck in various cycles of high expectations and disappointment, and intuitively felt I was placing too much value on my partner.
Impaired Spirituality, or More Satisfaction?
In Facing Love Addiction, codependency expert Pia Mellody explains one of the biggest pitfalls of hopeless romance — making your partner your higher power. By replacing your sense of spirituality or transcendence in a relationship, it’s possible to impair its healthy expression. This leads people to “try harder and harder to manipulate the other person to live up to the mental image they have created — that is, someone who will care for and love them the way they long to be cared for and loved.”
However, it’s not all bad. One study in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships discovered that people in long-term relationships who had romantic beliefs reported greater satisfaction. According to the study, “romantic beliefs do not appear to foster false or unobtainable expectations for romantic relationships, and the concerns regarding the endorsement of these beliefs may be misplaced.”
The Hope Isn’t Lost in Love
I promised you there would be reassurance, and here it is — being a hopeless romantic isn’t a bad thing. I know from experience that there’s a temptation to judge yourself when spotting these patterns. How could you ignore the warning signs, and get stuck again and again? Part of the process of growth is to take what works, let go of what doesn’t, and build towards a healthier model of love.
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If you’re single, consider how you can reclaim the power you’ve given to the pursuit of finding “the one”. Know that true fulfillment comes from within. That being said, a deep, intimate relationship requires a mixture of self-fulfillment and giving. Don’t discard or suppress the inner romantic. Give a voice to that part of you, but don’t make it the leader of your inner kingdom.
The eternal optimism of hopeless romantics is something to admire. You don’t have to become cynical or give up, although that is often part of the recovery process. After exploring this within myself, and vowing never to be in a relationship again, I eventually entered a relationship that asked me to cultivate true love.
It’s not always pretty. But we are growing together, because it’s confronting and grounding, and doesn't allow us to escape. Best of all, there’s still space for passion, and romance, along with a wider spectrum of experience. The more these barriers and unrealistic expectations dissolve, the more vibrant the essence of romance blossoms. Not as a naive fantasy, but something we allow ourselves to indulge in, an expression that has found its rightful place.
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