Here is a list of question-theme ideas.
Hot tip: Make sure your questions are "just right" for your quiz participants: not too hard, not too easy. Read more about writing good quiz questions.
General knowledge
- Current affairs (based on this weeks' news)
- Important people (in your area / profession / industry / the world)
- Who said that: identifying famous quotes / speakers
General knowledge questions could be focused on in the world, your country, province, city or village.
The media
- Newspapers / magazines - eg question ideas about newspapers
- Broadcast media (radio, TV)
- Who's who eg newsreaders, weaher presenters, journalists, influencers in your area
- On-line: social media channels, technologies
- Information sources - example questions and answers about libraries
- Social media - tools, influencers, popular sites
Quirky things
- Logic puzzles
- Word games
- Numeric puzzles
- Games - see sample questions and answers about card-games
Music
- Popular / current top-ten - title, who sang which song, when were they released, what picture was on the cover, what happened on the video
- Classical - complete the names of famous works, who composed them, facts about composers,
- Classic-hits: music for the time when quiz participants were a certain age, eg children, teenage
eg hits of the 60s - Folk music from your country, or from places that your participants are likely to know about
- Music theory
- Theme tunes (of TV show, musicals etc)
- Tunes from popular musicals
- Genres
- Musical instruments - see sample questions about the orchestra
- Famous musicians and their songs / tunes
- Traditional music from different countries - eg instruments used in Irish traditional music
- Live music venues in your town - who played them and when
- Songs with a type of item (eg colour, fruit, place-name) in the title
Dance
- Types of dances
- Dances used in movies
- Dance moves
- Songs about dancing
- Famous dancers
- Dance studios / venues in your town
Drama / theatre
- Names /locations of theatre in your area
- Famous actors from your area / country
- Types of play
- Parts of the theatre
- Famous plays - who wrote them, what are they about
Movies / Cinema
- What's showing now
- Classic movies
- Actors and characters
- Directors and producers and release-year
- Theme tunes
- Settings / filming locations
- Movies with a color (or number or fruit or town .... etc) in the title
- Identify which movie a classic scene / shot came from
- Who said it? (quotes)
- Where was it set
- What was on the advertising poster or shorts
- Awards competitions (BAFTAs, Oscars, Academy Awards, etc) - winners, events, hosts, etc
Television and radio
- Name stations from their theme tune or logo
- Name local news / weather readers from their photos or by show
- Local soap operas - questions about characters / plots
- Name the show from its theme tune
- Actors - who played what role
- Local / your country studios - news programme names
- Reality shows - where are they set what are the team names, what do people do in the show
Travel, accommodation and hospitality
- What drink is made from ..
- Fine foods - match menu items and recipes
- Local takeaways or restaurants: where are they, match the logo, which one has which menu item, match the name and the type of food they serve
- Local hotels, hostels, motels, B and B's - where are they, match the logo and the photo, when did they open, what facilities do they have
- Things you find in a hotel room
- Things you would see in a train
- Identity airports from their pictures or their codes
- National airlines - identify them from their logo or country-name
- Famous tourist spots
- Local tourist attractions
- UNESCO wonders of the world
- Pubs and pub-culture: see quick question suggestions about British pubs.
- Features of local nightclubs from "a few" years ago
Books and literature
- Classic books
- Characters
- Authors and publishers and publication year
- Settings locations
- Books with colour or number in the title
- Who said it? (quotes)
- Where was it set
- Famous comics - when where they published, which character was in which comic, who was the artist
- Identify the book from its cover
- Songs about books
Art
- Famous artists
- Famous paintings - eg who painted them, what are they about
- Artists or artworks from your city, town or neighbourhood
- Tools of the trade: what would an artist use to ....
- Colours and textures
- Fonts and typography - features, match the font and its example
- Calligraphy techniques and tools
- Sculpture - statues in your town, famous statues (names / locations)
Crafts
- What craft-skill is used to make this (photos of items)
- Craft tools - what would you use things for
- Match the name of the craft and its description
- Famous craft-workers from your area
- Raw materials - where they come from
Times and seasons
- Characteristics of spring / summer / winter / fall
- Timezone names and differences
- Characteristics of seasons in your country (eg Easter, Christmas, New Year, Spring Festival)
Language
- Collective nouns (eg what do you call a group of ducks)
- Parts of speech (identify the nouns, verbs, etc)
- Figures of speech - what do they mean
- Proverbs - fill in the missing word
- Foreign languages - what's the word for
- See some quiz-question suggestions about languages
Sport
- Famous players
- Well known competitions
- Rules of the game
- How many players per team
- Name of position/role in various sports, or what the role does
- See some example questions about general sports
- Sportsgrouunds - local ones, where to find famous ones, what's played where
- The Olympic Games - where / when / what records were set
- The Commonwealth Games - where / when / what records were set
- Songs / movies / books - about sports in general or particular sports
(These suggestions can apply to sports in general, as well as to individual sports, eg rugby, soccer, league, hockey, basketball, cricket, baseball, tennis, skiing, netball,boxing - and many many others)
Science
- Famous scientists
- Discoveries
- Chemical symbols
- Converting measures (eg inches to centiemeters)
- The unit of measure of various things
- Names of biological processes
- Mathematical symbols - see sample questions about numbers
- The periodic table
- Things you might find in a science lab
- Songs about science / science
- Scientific ideas - hypothesis, experiment, probability
- Statistics - how things are summarised - logic puzzles based on statistics.
- How things are measured - names of tools used to take measurements
- Names for branches of science (eg what is the study of the stars called?)
Nature
- Animals - see example questions about pets, names of baby animals
Big cats, identify the wild animal from it's picture, where do animals come from, famous animals in books or movies, - Birds - see sample questions about birds
- Insects: identify the insect from its picture, where you find <<whatever>> what XXxxx>> eats,
- The sea - fish, sea-shanties, famous sailing ships, songs about the sea or ships, oceans and seas in the world, seaweed
- The sky: Astronomy - star constellations, telescopes, famous observatories, northern vs southern hemisphere, things you see in the sky (stars, planets, satellites)
Sickness and health
- Names of parts of the body
- Common diseases and their symptoms
- Name for medical specialties (eg ophthalmology = eyes)
- Natural medicines and what they're used for
- Locations of hospitals in our area
- Types of health professionals - who does what
- Bugs: bacteria, viruses and fungi
- Diseases that famous people had
Food / cooking / drinks
- Types of food, eg animal vegetable or mineral, sample questions and answers about chocolate
- Cooking methods
- Foods from different cultures
- Where to buy things in your area
- Restaurant staff and what they do
- Where food comes from
- Plant-based alternatives
- Cocktails - what in them
- Local breweries and distilleries where they are, what they make
- What colour is a ... (could use either fruit, vegetables or alcohol for this)
- Songs about food items or drinks
- Brewing and breweries
- All about sugar ( or any other food item)
- Popular sweets or biscuits - name them from their advertising slogan
House and home
- Identify the household item from its photo
- What would you use a this item for
- DIY techniques - where to get things locally
- Fun facts about laundry / washing / washing machines
- Kitchen implements - what are they used for
- Fun facts about dishwashers
- Identifying crockery patterns from their photos
- Floor coverings
Gardening
- What do you use certain garden tools for
- Favourite plants
- Identifying indigenous plants from their photos
- When to plant
- Songs / books / movies about gardens
- Local garden centres
Technology
- Retro equipment (eg pictures of obsolete technologies)
- Common computer / internet words and abbreviations
- What does "whatever" do
- When were things invented
- See sample quiz questions about telephones
- What software to use for what task
- Artificial intelligence
- Famous inventors
History
- Major world events - where, when, what were they about
- Significant people
- Local history of your area / suburb / town
- Countries - where they are, when they were formed, symbols, - see sample questions and answers about flags
- Important events in your country's history
- Important people in your country's history - who did what, birth + death dates, where they were from, middle names
- Dates - when did major events happen
Geography
- Important places in the world
- Places in your country, province, city or village - by name, or identify the photo
- Types of land or water formations
- Major exports, industries or employers
- Where to find key features in your town / county
- Facts about countries - see sample questions about:
Ireland, - Mountains, rivers, walking tracks. beaches - famous ones in your country or the world
- What country is <<whatever>> in (eg Ayres Rock, Mt Everest ... other famous places)
Economics and business
- Currency / money - see example questions and answers about money
- The tax system - tax rules in your country
- Labour laws / workers rights
- Major businesses in your area
- Banks and financial institutions in your area
- Borrowing and lending
- Budgeting
- Pensions and annuities
- Famous economists and their theories
- Types of company - government agencies who help new businesses - business assistance schemes
- Welfare benefits in your country (name / purpose / eligibity criteria / when they were introduced / how many people are claiming)
- Jobs - laws about pay rates, words used in employment contracts
- Careers - where do you train for jobs, how long does it take, what are the entry requirements - what do you call a person who work doing ...
Government / Civics
- Name of the president / prime-minister / whatever your country has - at times in history
- Names of current politicians, and what they are responsbile for
- Local vs national politics
- Where to find government buildings
- Government agencies - which one to to go to to get things done
- Systems of government
- Elections - how they work in your country: how often, how to enrol, where to vote, how to vote, how the government is formed
- Budgets - what the government in your country spends its money on
- Laws in your country: legal age for doing certain things, who makes laws, what if you break them
- Kings and Queens - match the current monarch to their country
Architecture and buildings
- Where to find famous buildings
- Names / uses of architectural features
- Types of building materials / technologies
- What each type of construction worker does
- Tool - names and purposes
- Computer aided drafting techniques - names of tools /procedures
Transport
- Public transport in your city / town / village
- Road names in your village / town / city
- Car makes / models / colours
- Vehicle types (match the name to the picture) - see sample questions about bicycles
- How to get from A to B
- How cars / engines work - what maintenance they need
- Bicycle maintenance
Kids Stuff
- Nursery rhymes
- Children's songs
- Playground games
- Current children's TV / movie / media characters
- Famous children's books and authors
- Nonsense songs
- Famous characters
Shopping
- Where would you buy <<whatever>
- Where are stores / businesses located in your town
- How much does it cost to buy <<whatever>>
- Logos / brands: matching them up, what colour, what tagline does each store use
- Advertising - complete the words from slogans, match advertisement characters to brands, match the colour to the shop
Philosophy
- Names of famous philosophers, and their viewpoints
- Time frames - when were philosophical ideas popular
- Logic puzzles
Religion
- Churches in your area
- What do <<who-ever>> believe
- Leaders - founded certain religions or churches / who is leading them now
- Time frames - when were churches founded
- Books of the Bible / Qua-ran / whatever other scriptures your people know about
- Church architecture - types of buildings / architects / parts of a church building
People
- Famous people in your town / country
- Relationships - brothers, sisters, aunties, cousins, grandparents, step children, half-brother/sisters - either definitions of famous ones
- Who comes from where: what county are GROUP of people from
How to get quiz question suggestions for a topic
Would you like a set of example questions for particular topic? Submit a quiz-question-suggestions request, and we'll see what we can do.
