Impossible Quiz Questions — and Why They Are Unfair

These are the questions that get called impossible. Most are not – they are simply obscure, which is a different thing. A genuinely good hard question is one that a few people in the room can reason their way to; these mostly cannot be reasoned to at all, which is exactly what makes them a poor choice for a round.

Obscure but answerable

1. What is the only letter that does not appear in any US state name? — Q
2. What is the dot over a lowercase i called? — A tittle
3. What is the fear of long words called? — Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
4. How many hearts does an earthworm have? — Five aortic arches, often counted as hearts
5. What is a group of flamingos called? — A flamboyance
6. Which country has a dragon on its flag? — Bhutan, and Wales on its national flag

Genuinely hard

1. What is the capital of Burkina Faso? — Ouagadougou
2. Which element has the symbol W? — Tungsten
3. What is the world’s smallest bird? — The bee hummingbird
4. How many bones does a shark have? — None – its skeleton is cartilage
5. What is the longest-running scientific experiment still going? — The pitch drop experiment
6. Which sea creature has the largest eye? — The colossal squid

Nearly unfair

1. What is the second-largest country by area? — Canada
2. How many time zones does France have, counting territories? — Twelve
3. What is the only mammal capable of true flight? — The bat
4. Which country has the most official languages? — Bolivia, with 37
5. What is the deepest lake in the world? — Lake Baikal
6. How many keys does a standard accordion have? — It varies – typically 41 on the treble side

Use no more than two of these in an entire quiz, and never as a tie-breaker. A round of them produces silence, and silence is how a quiz night dies.