60 free Bosnia and Herzegovina trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is where World War I began, where the 1984 Winter Olympics were held, and where the longest siege of a capital in modern history took place. It has a rotating three-member presidency, a currency still named after the Deutsche Mark, a 20-kilometre coastline with a single town, and a rebuilt Ottoman bridge that young men dive from for money. This quiz covers geography (Neum, Maglić, the Neretva), history (the medieval kingdom, Ottoman rule, Gavrilo Princip, Yugoslavia, the 1992-95 war and Dayton), the unusual political system (entities, the Brčko District, the High Representative), symbols (a flag full of stars, a Nobel laureate's bridge novel) and culture (ćevapi, coffee ritual, sevdalinka, Kusturica and Tanović). Questions run from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and other reference pages before publishing.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Bosnia and Herzegovina shares land borders with which three countries?
Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro
The Croatian border alone runs 932 km, wrapping around the north and west.
Q 02Bosnia and Herzegovina's coastline on the Adriatic is roughly how long?
20 km
It consists of the single town of Neum, which splits Croatia's Dubrovnik region from the rest of the country.
Q 03Which is the only town on Bosnia and Herzegovina's short Adriatic coast?
Neum
It sits 47 km from Dubrovnik and its strip of coast cuts Croatia's southernmost territory off from the rest of Croatia.
Q 04Whose assassination in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 sparked World War I?
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
The heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and his wife Sophie were shot in their open car by a 19-year-old.
Q 05Why was Gavrilo Princip, the 1914 Sarajevo assassin, spared the death penalty?
He was too young, at 19
He got 20 years and died of tuberculosis in prison in 1918, having lost an arm to the disease.
Q 06Which Ottoman-era bridge over the Miljacka stands beside the spot where Franz Ferdinand was shot?
Latin Bridge
It was renamed Princip's Bridge during the Yugoslav era.
Q 07Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympics in which year?
1984
It was the first Winter Games in a Slavic-speaking country and the only ones in a communist state until Beijing 2022.
Q 08Vučko, the mascot of the Sarajevo Olympics, was what kind of animal?
A wolf
Host Yugoslavia won its first-ever Winter medal there when skier Jure Franko took giant slalom silver.
Q 09The 1992-96 encirclement of Sarajevo holds what grim record?
Longest blockade of a capital in modern warfare
Its 1,425 days were three times longer than Stalingrad; nearly 14,000 people were killed.
Q 10During the siege, Sarajevans hand-dug an 800 m tunnel to the outside world. Under what did it run?
The airport runway
The "Tunnel of Hope" linked Dobrinja and Butmir and carried food, arms and people from March 1993.
Q 11"Sarajevo Roses" scattered around the city are what?
Mortar-shell scars in concrete filled with red resin
About 200 mark spots where at least three people were killed by a single shell during the siege.
Q 12The 1995 agreement that ended the Bosnian War was negotiated at an air force base in which US state?
Ohio
Talks at Wright-Patterson near Dayton ran from 1-21 November; the deal was formally signed in Paris in December.
Q 13Under the Dayton Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina is split into the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and what?
Republika Srpska
Q 21Bosnia and Herzegovina's currency, the KM, was pegged at par to which currency when introduced in 1998?
The Deutsche Mark
It has been fixed to the euro at the old DM rate ever since, and is subdivided into 100 fenings.
Q 22Stari Most, the famous "Old Bridge" of Mostar, was destroyed in November 1993 by whom?
Croatian Defence Council (HVO) shelling
Commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1557, it was rebuilt and reopened in 2004 and is now a World Heritage Site.
Q 23Mostar's Old Bridge crosses which river?
Neretva
The Federation covers 51% of the territory and Republika Srpska 49%; the Brčko District belongs to both and is run by neither.
Q 14Bosnia and Herzegovina's presidency consists of how many members?
Three, one Bosniak, one Serb and one Croat
The chair rotates among them every eight months during a four-year term.
Q 15Which internationally appointed official can impose laws and sack officials in Bosnia under the 'Bonn Powers'?
The High Representative
Created by the Dayton Agreement's Annex 10, the office is chosen by the Peace Implementation Council.
Q 16Which north-eastern town is a self-governing district belonging to both entities but run by neither?
Brčko
It was created by international arbitration in 1999-2000 to reflect its mixed population.
Q 17Which city is the administrative centre and largest city of the Serb-majority entity?
Banja Luka
On the Vrbas river, it is the country's second-largest city.
Q 18At which town were more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys killed in July 1995?
Srebrenica
The UN had declared it a "safe area"; 370 lightly armed Dutch peacekeepers failed to stop the Bosnian Serb army.
Q 19Which Bosnian Serb general commanded the forces responsible for the July 1995 massacre?
Ratko Mladić
Karadžić was the political leader; both were later convicted of genocide by the UN tribunal.
Q 20Bosnia and Herzegovina's flag has a yellow triangle. What do its points represent?
The constituent peoples: Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs
The stars along its edge represent Europe and are meant to be infinite, running off top and bottom.
Local divers leap 24 m from its hump-backed span; the city is named after the bridge-keepers, mostari.
Q 24Which Bosnian-born author of The Bridge on the Drina won the 1961 Nobel Prize in Literature?
Ivo Andrić
Born in Travnik, he wrote the novel while lying low in Belgrade during World War II.
Q 25Which Sarajevo-born director won the Palme d'Or twice, including for Underground?
Emir Kusturica
He also won Best Director at Cannes for Time of the Gypsies.
Q 26Danis Tanović's 2001 film No Man's Land won Bosnia and Herzegovina its first what?
Academy Award
The dark comedy about two soldiers trapped in a trench also won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.
Q 27The Sarajevo Film Festival was founded in which unusual circumstances?
During the siege of the city in 1995
Its top prize is called the Heart of Sarajevo.
Q 28Ćevapi, the grilled minced-meat national dish, are traditionally served in what?
A flatbread called somun or lepinja
Bosnian ćevapi are made from two kinds of beef; chopped onion and kajmak cream go alongside.
Q 29Bosnian coffee is traditionally brewed and served in what long-handled pot?
A džezva
It comes with rahat lokum and sugar cubes; the country ranks ninth in the world for coffee consumption per head.
Q 30Sarajevo's old bazaar, founded in the 15th century, is called what?
Baščaršija
Legend says anyone who drinks from its wooden Sebilj fountain will return to Sarajevo one day.