100 Trivia Questions for Corporate Events, With Answers

Below: 100 trivia questions for corporate events, in ten rounds of ten, with the answers printed under each round. After them come five tiebreakers, a template for the one round you should write yourself, and the running order that keeps a quiz moving in a meeting room or on a video call.

A round takes about ten minutes to ask and mark, so the arithmetic is simple. One round opens a meeting, three fill a half-hour team social, and five or six carry a company party. If you only came for the questions, they start here.

Which rounds to use: meetings, team building and company parties

Nobody needs all hundred in one sitting. Pick by the slot you have.

• A meeting opener, 10 minutes. One round, played in pairs or small groups, answers called out at the end. Round 1 or Round 7 works on almost any team because nobody needs specialist knowledge to have a guess.
• A team-building social, 30 minutes. Three rounds and a tiebreaker. Choose three that pull in different directions — say brands, food and geography — so the same two people do not win every round.
• A company party, 60 minutes. Five or six rounds, one of them written about your own company, with Round 10 earning its place in December. Put the company round second to last, when the room is warmest.

The ten rounds:

1. The working world — questions 1–10
2. Famous companies and brands — 11–20
3. Technology and the internet — 21–30
4. In the kitchen — 31–40
5. Food around the world — 41–50
6. Drinks — 51–60
7. Food on screen — 61–70
8. World geography and travel — 71–80
9. Science and nature — 81–90
10. Holidays and celebrations — 91–100

Four of the ten are about food and drink. We teach cooking for a living, and they are also the rounds where the most people in a mixed room have a fighting chance.

The 100 questions

Every answer sits directly under its round, so copy the questions into your own slides rather than sharing this page on screen.

Round 1: The working world

1. In the 1999 film Office Space, what is the name of the software company where Peter Gibbons works?
2. In the US version of The Office, what does Dunder Mifflin sell?
3. Who wrote and sang the 1980 hit “9 to 5”?
4. Which everyday office product grew out of a 3M scientist’s failed attempt to make a super-strong glue?
5. What does the business acronym KPI stand for?
6. Which keyboard layout is named after the first six letters of its top row?
7. In which decade was the first networked email sent?
8. The word “salary” comes from the Latin word for which kitchen staple?
9. Which day of the working week is named after the Norse god of thunder?
10. What was the name of the first electronic spreadsheet, released for the Apple II in 1979?

Answers: round 1

1. Initech.
2. Paper.
3. Dolly Parton.
4. The Post-it Note. Spencer Silver made a glue that barely stuck in 1968; his colleague Art Fry later used it to keep bookmarks in his hymn book.
5. Key performance indicator.
6. QWERTY.
7. The 1970s. Ray Tomlinson sent it in 1971, and chose the @ sign while he was at it.
8. Salt — sal in Latin, which gave us salarium.
9. Thursday — Thor’s day.
10. VisiCalc.

Round 2: Famous companies and brands

11. Which search engine was originally called BackRub?
12. What was the first product Amazon sold?
13. Which company, founded in 1997, started out posting rental DVDs to its customers?
14. Starbucks takes its name from a character in which novel?
15. What did Nintendo make when it was founded in 1889?
16. LEGO’s name comes from the Danish phrase leg godt. What does it mean?
17. Which car maker’s badge is four interlocking rings?
18. Which sportswear brand is named after the Greek goddess of victory?
19. In which country was IKEA founded?
20. What do the letters BMW stand for?

Answers: round 2

11. Google.
12. Books.
13. Netflix.
14. Moby-Dick. Starbuck is the first mate of the Pequod.
15. Playing cards — hand-made hanafuda decks.
16. “Play well.”
17. Audi. The rings mark the four companies that merged to form it.
18. Nike.
19. Sweden, in 1943.
20. Bayerische Motoren Werke — Bavarian Motor Works.

Round 3: Technology and the internet

21. What does URL stand for?
22. What was the first video ever uploaded to YouTube?
23. Which IBM device, on sale in 1994, is widely regarded as the first smartphone?
24. Who invented the World Wide Web?
25. What does Wi-Fi stand for?
26. How many bits are in a byte?
27. The first recorded computer “bug”, in 1947, was literally which insect?
28. In what year did the first iPhone go on sale?
29. What does PDF stand for?
30. In an email, what does CC stand for?

Answers: round 3

21. Uniform Resource Locator.
22. “Me at the zoo” — nineteen seconds of co-founder Jawed Karim in front of the elephants at San Diego Zoo, uploaded in April 2005.
23. The IBM Simon. It had a touchscreen, a stylus, email and a calendar, thirteen years before the iPhone.
24. Tim Berners-Lee, at CERN in 1989.
25. Nothing. It is a brand name invented by a consultancy; “wireless fidelity” was bolted on afterwards. Award the point to any team brave enough to write “nothing”.
26. Eight.
27. A moth, found in a relay of Harvard’s Mark II computer and taped into the logbook.
28. 2007.
29. Portable Document Format.
30. Carbon copy, from the carbon paper once used to type two letters at the same time.

Round 4: In the kitchen

31. What is the main herb in a classic pesto?
32. Which spice is the most expensive in the world by weight?
33. Which country grows most of the world’s saffron?
34. Which technique cooks food gently in liquid held just below a simmer?
35. Which pasta’s name means “little worms” in Italian?
36. In baking, what is cream of tartar mostly used for?
37. Marzipan is made from sugar and which nut?
38. What does al dente literally mean?
39. What does the Scoville scale measure?
40. Botanically speaking, which one is a berry: the strawberry or the banana?

Answers: round 4

31. Basil.
32. Saffron. Each thread is the stigma of a crocus flower, picked by hand.
33. Iran, by a very long way.
34. Poaching.
35. Vermicelli.
36. Stabilising whipped egg whites, as in a meringue.
37. Almonds.
38. “To the tooth” — cooked through but still firm when you bite it.
39. The heat of chilli peppers.
40. The banana. A strawberry, botanically, is not a berry at all.

Round 5: Food around the world

41. Paella comes from which region of Spain?
42. Pho is the national noodle soup of which country?
43. What is the seaweed wrapped around a sushi roll called?
44. What is the main ingredient in hummus?
45. Which bread is traditionally slapped against the inside wall of a tandoor to bake?
46. Which Mexican sauce is famous for combining chillies and chocolate?
47. Which cheese tops a traditional Neapolitan Margherita pizza?
48. Which pastry dough makes éclairs and profiteroles?
49. Which country eats the most chocolate per person?
50. Which Japanese word names the “fifth taste”, alongside sweet, sour, salty and bitter?

Answers: round 5

41. Valencia.
42. Vietnam.
43. Nori.
44. Chickpeas. The word hummus is simply Arabic for chickpeas.
45. Naan.
46. Mole — mole poblano is the best known.
47. Mozzarella.
48. Choux.
49. Switzerland, at around 10 kg per person a year.
50. Umami.

Round 6: Drinks

51. Which country drinks the most coffee per person?
52. In which country did the coffee plant originate?
53. What are the three ingredients of a Negroni?
54. Which spirit is the base of a Mojito?
55. Which plant is tequila made from?
56. What gives gin its defining flavor?
57. Which tea is flavored with oil of bergamot?
58. What is sake brewed from?
59. Matcha is a finely ground powder of which leaves?
60. If you order a whisky “neat”, how is it served?

Answers: round 6

51. Finland — roughly 12 kg of coffee per person a year, which works out at four or five cups a day.
52. Ethiopia.
53. Gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, in equal parts.
54. White rum.
55. Blue agave.
56. Juniper berries.
57. Earl Grey.
58. Rice.
59. Green tea.
60. On its own at room temperature — no ice, no water, no mixer.

Round 7: Food on screen

61. In Pixar’s Ratatouille, what is the name of the rat who wants to be a chef?
62. In Friends, what is the name of the coffee shop?
63. In Breaking Bad, which fried-chicken chain fronts Gus Fring’s business?
64. Which TV series is set in a sandwich shop called The Original Beef of Chicagoland?
65. Who played Julia Child in the film Julie & Julia?
66. In Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, what do five lucky children find inside their chocolate bars?
67. Which 1994 film compares life to a box of chocolates?
68. In Pulp Fiction, what is a Quarter Pounder with Cheese called in France?
69. In Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, which dish do the two dogs share?
70. In The Simpsons, what is Homer’s beer of choice?

Answers: round 7

61. Remy.
62. Central Perk.
63. Los Pollos Hermanos.
64. The Bear.
65. Meryl Streep.
66. A golden ticket.
67. Forrest Gump.
68. A Royale with Cheese.
69. Spaghetti and meatballs.
70. Duff.

Round 8: World geography and travel

71. What is the smallest country in the world?
72. Which airport has been the world’s busiest by passenger numbers in almost every year since 1998?
73. What is the capital of Australia?
74. Which continent has the most countries?
75. Which river flows through four capital cities — Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade?
76. Counting its overseas territories, which country spans the most time zones?
77. Mount Everest stands on the border between which two countries?
78. Which country has the largest population in the world?
79. What color is an aircraft’s “black box” flight recorder?
80. What is the largest desert in the world?

Answers: round 8

71. Vatican City — under half a square kilometer, smaller than most golf courses.
72. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International.
73. Canberra — not Sydney, and not Melbourne.
74. Africa, with 54.
75. The Danube.
76. France, with twelve.
77. Nepal and China.
78. India, which overtook China in 2023.
79. Bright orange, so that it can be found in wreckage.
80. Antarctica. A desert is defined by how little rain or snow falls, not by heat; the Sahara is the largest hot desert.

Round 9: Science and nature

81. What is the chemical symbol for gold?
82. How many bones are there in the adult human body?
83. Which planet is closest to the Sun?
84. How many hearts does an octopus have?
85. What is the largest animal alive today?
86. Which gas makes up most of the Earth’s atmosphere?
87. Which natural food keeps almost indefinitely, thanks to its low water content and acidity?
88. What is the hardest natural substance?
89. Roughly how long does sunlight take to reach the Earth?
90. What is a group of crows called?

Answers: round 9

81. Au, from the Latin aurum.
82. 206.
83. Mercury.
84. Three.
85. The blue whale.
86. Nitrogen, at about 78%. Oxygen is a distant second.
87. Honey.
88. Diamond.
89. About eight minutes.
90. A murder.

Round 10: Holidays and celebrations

91. Which Hindu festival is known as the festival of lights?
92. How many nights does Hanukkah last?
93. What are the potato pancakes traditionally eaten at Hanukkah called?
94. In Spain, what do people eat on each of the twelve strokes of midnight on New Year’s Eve?
95. The fasting month of Ramadan ends with which festival?
96. How many animals are there in the Chinese zodiac?
97. Cinco de Mayo commemorates which battle of 1862?
98. In which German city is Oktoberfest held?
99. In Japan, which fast-food chain has become a Christmas dinner tradition?
100. Kwanzaa takes its name from a Swahili phrase meaning what?

Answers: round 10

91. Diwali.
92. Eight.
93. Latkes.
94. A grape — twelve in all, one for each chime.
95. Eid al-Fitr.
96. Twelve.
97. The Battle of Puebla. It is not Mexico’s Independence Day, which falls on 16 September.
98. Munich.
99. KFC.
100. “First fruits” — matunda ya kwanza.

If your team is marking one of these together rather than just answering questions about it, we have written guides to Diwali, Ramadan and Eid, Lunar New Year, Cinco de Mayo and Oktoberfest at work.

Five tiebreakers

A tiebreaker needs a number for an answer, so that the closest guess wins and nobody can tie a second time.

1. How many member states does the United Nations have? 193.
2. How many keys are there on a standard piano? 88.
3. How tall is Mount Everest, in meters? 8,849 (29,032 feet).
4. Roughly how many crocus flowers does it take to produce one pound of saffron? About 75,000.
5. In what year did the Post-it Note go on sale across the United States? 1980.

The round you should write yourself

The round people talk about afterwards is never the general knowledge. It is the one about the company and the people in the room. Ten questions, collected a week ahead, along these lines:

• In what year was the company founded, and in which city?
• What was our first product called — or who was our first customer?
• How many people have joined us this year? Closest number wins.
• Which office, or which team, has the longest-serving member, and how many years is it?
• How many countries, or time zones, is this team spread across?
• Which emoji gets used most in the team chat?
• Whose baby photo is this? Collect the photos in advance, from volunteers only.
• Which colleague has run a marathon, holds a pilot’s license, or once appeared on television? Ask people to send in one fact they are happy to share.

Two rules keep it kind. Only use facts that people have volunteered, and never write a question whose answer is a joke at one person’s expense. The same line decides whether an icebreaker works, and it is the first thing we cover in that guide.

How to run a corporate quiz without it dragging

How many questions do you need?

Fewer than you think. Allow ten minutes per round of ten: about half a minute a question, each one read twice, then the answers. That makes 30 questions for a half-hour slot and 50 to 60 for a full hour, once you allow for scores and the chat in between. A quiz that ends with people wanting one more round has gone better than one that finishes its full question list.

How should you split the teams?

Teams of four to six, mixed across departments on purpose. Playing alone rewards the two people who already know everything; a team makes the quiet half of the room confer, which is the point of doing this at work. Let each team pick a name — it takes two minutes and works as its own warm-up.

How do you score it?

One point per answer, no half points, and the quizmaster’s decision is final. Give every team one joker to play on a round of their choice before it starts, doubling their score for that round. It keeps the teams in last place interested until the end. Read the standings after every second round, not every round.

How do you run trivia on Zoom or Teams?

Two people run it: a quizmaster who reads, and a scorekeeper who marks. Read all ten questions in the main room with everyone muted, then open breakout rooms for three minutes so that each team can confer, and have each captain send the answers to the scorekeeper in a private message or a shared form. Bring everyone back, read the answers, and move on. Cameras on helps more than any rule does.

How do you stop people looking up the answers?

Pace does most of the work. Half a minute is not long enough to search, confer and write an answer down. Say once, at the start, that phones stay face down, and then put a question like number 25 in early — where the fun is in the arguing — and people stop wanting to cheat.

What makes a good prize?

Something the winners can show off rather than something expensive: a trophy that travels from desk to desk, first choice of dates for the next team lunch, or the right to set one round of the next quiz.

If you would rather not be the quizmaster

Writing the questions is the easy part. Hosting — keeping time, marking, and managing forty people on a call — is the work, and it usually lands on whoever suggested the quiz in the first place.

Every Rockoly virtual event comes with a Zoom host as well as the chef. The team-building games are part of the event rather than an extra — a trivia round and a mini scavenger hunt — and the host runs them and watches the chat while the chef teaches. In December the holiday workshops add their own Holiday Trivia deck: films, songs and traditions from every country on the call.

So if the quiz is meant to be the social half of something bigger, a virtual cooking class gives you both, and nobody on your team has to keep score.

For more to run yourself, the icebreaker activities and questions, the team building games and the 40 scavenger hunt clues are the next places to look.