Common Cold Trivia
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100 free Common Cold trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This common cold trivia quiz covers the most frequent infectious disease in humans, from the 200-plus viruses that cause it to the folk remedies that don't. It asks how many colds the average adult and child catch each year, how long the virus can survive on a doorknob, why symptoms are really your own immune response, why there is still no vaccine, and what actually shortens a cold (very little, and only if you start early). It also digs into the science and the history: the Ebers papyrus, the 1914 Leipzig experiment that proved a filterable agent was to blame, the volunteers who took 'holidays' at Britain's Common Cold Unit in Salisbury, the discovery there of the first human coronavirus, the temperature the main cold virus prefers, the physiology of sneezing, and the origins of 'bless you', chicken soup as 'Jewish penicillin', Kleenex and VapoRub. Colds versus flu, antibiotics, decongestants and the enormous economic cost round it out. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia's articles on the common cold, rhinovirus, the Common Cold Unit, sneezing and the remedies, and each explanation adds one further fact. Good for biology students, pub quiz science rounds and anyone currently sniffling their way through a box of tissues.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Roughly how many virus strains are implicated in causing the common cold?
Well over 200
Well over 200 distinct virus strains can produce a cold, spread across several families, which is why a person can catch cold after cold without lasting immunity.
Q 02Which group of viruses causes the largest share of colds, up to 40 percent?
Rhinoviruses
They have more than 100 known serotypes; the cause of 20 to 30 percent of colds remains unidentified.
Q 03How many colds does the average adult get per year?
Two to three
Two to three colds a year is the adult average; the rate falls with age as immunity to more strains accumulates, and infections cluster in the colder months.
Q 04How soon after exposure can cold symptoms begin?
Within about 16 hours
Within about 16 hours of exposure the first symptoms, usually a sore or scratchy throat, can appear; they typically peak two to four days after onset and resolve within seven to ten days.
Q 05What is the average duration of a cough caused by a cold?
18 days
18 days is the average length of a cold's cough, far longer than most people expect; in children it runs past 25 days in about one case in ten, and some develop a lingering post-viral cough.
Q 06What mainly produces the symptoms of a cold?
The body's own immune response
The body's own immune response, not viral damage, drives most cold symptoms: the virus barely harms the nasal lining, but inflammatory mediators it triggers cause the swelling, mucus and sneezing.
Q 07For how long can the commonest cold viruses survive on surfaces?
Over 18 hours
Over 18 hours is how long the commonest cold viruses can remain infectious on surfaces, so hands that touch a doorknob and then the eyes or nose are a major route of transmission.
Q 08What does the colour of nasal mucus, from clear to green, tell you?
Nothing about whether it is viral or bacterial
Nothing about whether it is viral or bacterial: mucus turns yellow or green from an enzyme released by white blood cells drawn into the nose, a normal stage of any cold.
Q 09Which symptom is less likely in influenza than in a common cold?
A runny nose
A runny nose is typical of a cold but less common in influenza, which instead tends to bring sudden high fever, muscle aches and exhaustion; in adults, cough plus fever points towards flu.
Q 10Why is there no vaccine for the common cold?
The viruses are too many and mutate too fast
The viruses are too many and mutate too fast for a single vaccine to cover them: hundreds of strains from several families cause colds, so immunity to one leaves the others untouched.
Q 11Which supplement may shorten a cold by up to a third if started within 24 hours?
Zinc
Zinc lozenges or syrup begun within 24 hours of symptoms reduced cold length by up to a third in some trials, though reviews disagree on recommending it; nasal zinc gels were withdrawn after causing loss of smell.
Q 12What effect has regular vitamin C supplementation been shown to have on colds?
It may shorten them slightly but not prevent them
It may shorten them slightly but not prevent them: regular vitamin C cut cold duration by about 8 percent in adults and 14 percent in children in pooled trials, without reducing how many colds people caught.
Q 13What proportion of the benefit from cold remedies is attributed to the placebo effect?
Q 21A cold outbreak at a British Antarctic base after 17 weeks of isolation was blamed on what?
A contaminated object or a symptom-free carrier
Transmission from animals is considered highly unlikely.
Q 22Is there evidence that recirculated cabin air spreads colds on commercial flights?
No, but sitting close to others raises the risk
No, but sitting close to others raises the risk: studies found no link between recirculated cabin air and colds, while proximity to a coughing passenger did matter; crowded settings like schools remain the classic amplifiers.
Q 23Which ancient text, written over 3,500 years ago, describes cold symptoms and treatments?
A large part of it
A large part of it: trials show much of the relief from symptomatic cold treatments comes from the placebo effect, which is why rest, fluids and gargling warm salt water are reasonable conservative measures.
Q 14In 2009, Canada restricted over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for children up to what age?
Six and under
Six and under was the cut-off Health Canada set in 2009, because trials showed no benefit from cough and cold medicines in young children and there were reports of serious side effects and overdoses.
Q 15What is the effect of antibiotics on the common cold?
None; they cause overall harm through side effects
None; they cause overall harm through side effects: antibiotics act only on bacteria, so against a viral cold they offer no benefit while bringing rashes, diarrhoea and resistance risks; they are reserved for secondary bacterial infections.
Q 16Which of these oral cold-remedy ingredients has solid evidence of easing a stuffy nose in adults?
Pseudoephedrine
Pseudoephedrine, taken by mouth, measurably reduces nasal congestion in adults; its rival phenylephrine, which replaced it on many open shelves, was judged ineffective orally by a 2023 FDA advisory panel.
Q 17Under what conditions is moderate exercise considered safe with a cold?
If symptoms are confined to the head
If symptoms are confined to the head, such as sneezing or a sore throat, light to moderate exercise is generally considered fine; fever, chest congestion, widespread aches or fatigue are signs to rest instead.
Q 18What is the estimated basic reproduction number of common cold viruses?
2 to 3
2 to 3 is the estimated basic reproduction number, meaning each infected person passes a cold to two or three others on average in a susceptible population; measles, by contrast, runs to 12 to 18.
Q 19In what proportion of children's colds does an ear infection develop as a complication?
About 30 percent
About 30 percent of colds in young children are followed by a middle-ear infection, because their short eustachian tubes let the infection spread; sinusitis follows in about 8 percent.
Q 20Should a breastfeeding mother with a cold keep breastfeeding?
Yes, the virus is not passed in breast milk
Yes, the virus is not passed in breast milk; the milk instead carries the mother's antibodies, and by the time she has symptoms the baby has already been exposed through the air and touch.
The Egyptian Ebers papyrus
The Egyptian Ebers papyrus, a scroll of some 700 remedies copied around 1550 BC, includes remedies for nasal catarrh and cough, showing colds were familiar in ancient Egypt.
Q 24When did the name 'cold' come into use for the illness?
The 16th century
The 16th century is when English speakers began calling the illness a 'cold', because its chills and streaming nose resembled the effects of exposure to cold weather.
Q 25Near which English city was the Medical Research Council's Common Cold Unit based from 1946?
Salisbury
Salisbury, in Wiltshire, was the home of the Common Cold Unit, which occupied the Harvard Hospital at Harnham Down, a wartime gift from Harvard University and the American Red Cross.
Q 26How did the Common Cold Unit present a stay at its facility in adverts recruiting volunteers?
As an unusual holiday opportunity
As an unusual holiday opportunity: adverts offered a free ten-day stay with country walks, and volunteers were kept in small isolated groups, barred from visiting residential areas, while being dosed with nasal drops.
Q 27How many scientific papers did the Common Cold Unit produce between 1946 and 1989?
1,006
1,006 scientific papers came out of the unit in 43 years, covering transmission, immunity and trials of remedies, before it closed in 1989 having found no cure.
Q 28Which family of viruses was first identified in nasal washes from a boy at the Common Cold Unit in 1960?
Coronaviruses
Coronaviruses were first recognised from strain B814, grown from the washings and reported in the BMJ in 1965; June Almeida's electron micrographs showed the crown-like halo that gave the family its name in 1968.
Q 29In which year was the rhinovirus discovered at the Common Cold Unit?
1956
1956 marked the discovery of the rhinovirus, ten years after the unit opened; decades of volunteer trials followed, including 1970s work showing interferon given during incubation gave some protection, without yielding a practical treatment.
Q 30How did Walther Kruse show in 1914 that colds had a non-bacterial cause?
Filtered a colleague's diluted nasal secretions and dosed his staff
Filtered a colleague's diluted nasal secretions and dosed his staff: Kruse passed the mucus through a bacteria-stopping filter and put drops in the noses of twelve staff, four of whom developed colds.