50 free Big Nate trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free Big Nate trivia questions with answers. Nate Wright has been failing social studies, drumming badly and drawing brilliantly since Lincoln Peirce's comic strip debuted in 1991. This quiz covers the strip, the eight New York Times bestselling novels from In a Class by Himself to Blasts Off, the Poptropica island, the stage musical and the animated series that ran on Paramount+ and Nickelodeon. You will meet the whole P.S. 38 crowd: Francis and his Book of Facts, Teddy and his square-root middle name, Chad, Dee Dee, teacher's pet Gina, the mysterious foreign exchange student who keeps beating Nate at chess, and of course Mrs. Godfrey. There are also questions about Nate's dad and sister, the band, the rival school, and Peirce himself. Questions were checked against Wikipedia's Big Nate pages, so parents and teachers can use them for a classroom quiz. Easy character questions come first; the seven-detention plot details and publishing history are for serious fans.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who created the Big Nate comic strip?
Lincoln Peirce
His surname is pronounced 'purse'. He is close friends with Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney, whose Poptropica game has featured a Big Nate island since 2009.
Q 02What grade is Nate Wright in?
Sixth
He has been eleven and a half years old since 1991, a C student who is nevertheless a talented cartoonist, drummer and chess player.
Q 03What is the name of Nate's school?
P.S. 38
The building is over a century old and falling apart. It gets remodelled in Lives It Up after a valuable folk-art mural is discovered in a storage room.
Q 04What subject does Nate's nemesis Mrs. Godfrey teach?
Social studies
Nate calls her names like 'the school's Godzilla' and keeps a list of twenty insulting nicknames for her, which earns him a detention in the first novel.
Q 05What is the name of Nate's rock band?
Enslave the Mollusk
Nate started as lead singer but was not good enough; Artur was hired after singing 'I Fought the Law'. The TV series renamed the band Fear the Mollusk.
Q 06Which instrument does Nate play in his band?
Drums
Francis plays electric guitar and Teddy keyboard, while Chad serves as roadie.
Q 07Which foreign exchange student is the band's lead vocalist, dates Nate's crush and beat him at chess?
Artur
He is Belarusian, speaks broken English and considers Nate a friend, completely unaware of Nate's resentment. Nate got demoted to second-best in the chess club because of him.
Q 08What is the name of the girl Nate has had a crush on since first grade?
Jenny
She does not return his feelings and dates the exchange student instead, for what Nate once counted as 'four months, six days, and three-and-a-half hours'.
Q 09Which teacher's pet, Mrs. Godfrey's favourite student, does Nate loathe?
Gina
Her full name is Gina Hemphill-Toms. In the novels she eventually dates Nate's best friend Francis, and in Strikes Again she is drafted onto Nate's fleece-ball team.
Q 10Which of Nate's friends loves 'The Book of Facts' and owns a cat named Pickles?
Francis Pope
He is a cat person to Nate's dog person, is friendly with Mrs. Godfrey, and has a gap between his teeth. His middle name is Butthurst.
Q 11What is Teddy Ortiz's middle name?
The square root symbol
His parents are both math teachers. He is half Mexican and half Puerto Rican and turns out to be fluent in Spanish in Flips Out.
Q 12What is the name of Nate's older sister?
Ellen
She is fifteen, responsible and hardworking, and loves cats, figure skating and egg salad, three of the things Nate hates most.
Q 13What is Nate's dad's first name?
Martin
He is a bald, overweight divorcé who considers himself a musician, athlete and golfer despite all evidence, and hands out raisins and prunes on Halloween.
Q 21What was the title of the first novel in the series, published in 2010?
Flips Out
In the UK, Ireland and Australia it was retitled Big Nate: The Boy with the Biggest Head in the World.
Q 22In the first Big Nate novel, a fortune cookie tells Nate 'You will surpass all others'. What school record does he set?
Most detention slips in one day
He collects seven slips from seven different teachers. His attempt at the green-bean speed-eating record fails when the principal slips in bean juice.
Q 23Which elderly science teacher is rumoured never to have laughed at anything?
Mr. Galvin
Q 14What snack does Nate love above all others?
Cheez Doodles
He also hates figure skating and egg salad, and reportedly has a sense of smell that can outdo a dog's.
Q 15What is the name of the neighbour's dog, the closest thing Nate has to a pet of his own?
Spitsy
He belongs to Mr. Eustis, wears a cone and a dog sweater, and inspires the team name 'Psycho Dogs' in Strikes Again. Nate's dad refuses to get a dog.
Q 16What is Nate's favourite comic book, whose skimpily dressed heroine is never actually shown?
Femme Fatality
Nate insists he reads it for the stories. It inspired his own comic Eve of Destruction, which he later changed to a male hero, Steve of Destruction.
Q 17Which well-funded rival school beats Nate's classmates at almost everything?
Jefferson Middle School
It has been described as 'more of a museum than a school'. Nate's side has beaten it in the Ultimate Snowdown, two Mud Bowls and a 2008 soccer game.
Q 18What is Nate's phobia, part of the reason he is so desperate to own a dog?
Fear of cats
Ailurophobia is the fear of cats. He is nonetheless best friends with a cat person and has a sister who adores them.
Q 19What day of the year does Nate treat as 'Prank Day'?
The second-to-last day of classes
He believes himself a natural prankster and attempts something funny and difficult on that day every year.
Q 20In what year did the Big Nate comic strip debut in newspapers?
1991
It launched in 135 papers on January 7 and grew to more than 400. Daily strips ended in June 2026, with the strip continuing on Sundays only.
Nate finally cracks him up in the first novel when a confiscated pen leaks in his pocket, and is rewarded with five extra hours of detention.
Q 24In Big Nate Strikes Again, which historical figure is Nate assigned to research?
Benjamin Franklin
He becomes genuinely fascinated and starts drawing Ben Franklin comics, but misses the fleece-ball captains' meeting while reading up in the library.
Q 25What name does Nate's fleece-ball team end up stuck with in Strikes Again?
Kuddle Kittens
He wanted Psycho Dogs, but his partner had already submitted the name to Coach Calhoun. Intramural sports at the school are called SPOFFs, Sports Played Only For Fun.
Q 26In Big Nate: On a Roll, what are the Timber Scouts selling to raise money for camping gear?
Warm Fuzzies
They are wall hangings with little sayings underneath. Nate is only motivated because the top seller wins a new skateboard, his own having rolled off a bridge.
Q 27What is the cartooning club Nate and friends start with the art teacher in Big Nate Goes for Broke called?
The Doodlers
Mr. Rosa suggests recruiting more girls, which is how the dramatic, costume-loving Dee Dee joins the friend group.
Q 28In Goes for Broke, what contest does Nate invent to finally beat the rival school?
A snow-sculpting 'Snowdown'
The rivals lose by taking the lazy route and packing snow around a spare knight statue.
Q 29In Big Nate: In the Zone, Chad's good-luck charm is a small plastic what?
Foot
He found it in the cafeteria and simply calls it 'the Foot'. Nate borrows it, then hands it back so Chad can win over his crush Maya.
Q 30In Big Nate Lives It Up, the new student Nate is assigned to buddy has what elaborate name?
Breckenridge Puffington III
He turns out to be 'Bobby', a boy from Nate's past, and his passion for drawing flowers is what identifies the long-lost Granny Peppers mural.