Ender's Game
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50 free Ender's Game trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game has been handed to teenagers, science fiction fans and military officers alike since 1985. Its hero is a small boy removed from his family and trained in orbit to command a fleet, and the book never lets the reader forget how young he is. This quiz follows Ender Wiggin through the whole novel, chapter by chapter: the bullies and the brother he leaves on Earth, the flight up to Battle School, the zero-gravity war games and the commanders he serves under, the strange computer game that seems to read his mind, and the final campaign at Command School. There are questions on Peter and Valentine's secret work back home, on the last chapter, and on the author, the awards and the 2013 film. It is written for students reading the book in class, for teachers who want a chapter check or a printable review, and for fans testing how much they remember. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Ender's Game, what does Ender Wiggin learn about his simulator tests only after the final examination?
They were real battles
They were real battles: each test relayed his orders to human ships already closing on the bugger worlds. The adults cheering behind him had let a child win the war without knowing it.
Q 02In Ender's Game, which insulting label marks Ender Wiggin as a child his parents needed government permission to have?
A Third
A Third is a child born beyond the two-child limit, and other children treat the word as a mark of shame. Ender was requested only because his brother and sister had both shown such promise.
Q 03In Ender's Game, which direction does Ender Wiggin teach his soldiers to assign to the enemy's gate in zero gravity?
Down
Down is the direction Ender picks, so an attack becomes a feet-first fall toward the target. Other soldiers still clung to the corridor's sense of up and floor, which Ender saw meant nothing without gravity.
Q 04In Ender's Game, which half-Māori hero of the Second Invasion reappears decades later as Ender Wiggin's final teacher?
Rackham
Mazer Rackham was kept alive by a voyage at near light speed, so fifty years on Earth cost him only eight. He introduces himself to Ender with a surprise attack.
Q 05In Ender's Game, which schoolyard bully does six-year-old Ender Wiggin beat so badly that the boy later dies?
Stilson
Stilson and his gang corner Ender on the day the fleet stops watching over him. Ender keeps kicking after the boy has fallen so that nobody will try again, and learns only years later that the boy died.
Q 06In Ender's Game, which Salamander Army commander bars Ender Wiggin from fighting in battles and later trades him away?
Bonzo Madrid
Bonzo Madrid resents being handed an untrained recruit, then strikes Ender for disobeying, even though the disobedience saved a draw. Their feud ends in a shower fight that Bonzo does not survive.
Q 07In Ender's Game, under which philosopher's name does Peter Wiggin post calm, statesmanlike essays to win influence?
Locke
Locke is the calm, reasonable mask Peter invents to hide his own cruelty. It works: the truce that later stops a war on Earth is known by that name.
Q 08Which actor plays Colonel Graff, the officer who recruits Ender Wiggin, in the 2013 film of Ender's Game?
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford plays Graff in a film that opened at number one in North America yet still lost money for its studio.
Q 09In Ender's Game, Ender is only a nickname; what is the given first name of the boy sent to Battle School?
Andrew
Andrew is the name he was born with. Orson Scott Card has said he picked the nickname Ender partly because it sounds like endgame, the closing phase of a chess match.
Q 10In the 2013 film of Ender's Game and later novels, what are the insect-like aliens called instead of buggers?
Formics
Formics comes from formica, the Latin word for ant. The name first appeared in a 1999 companion novel, fourteen years after the original book called the invaders buggers.
Q 11In Ender's Game, which device does the fleet remove from six-year-old Ender Wiggin as the story opens?
A monitor
A monitor let the fleet see and hear everything Ender did. Its removal looks like rejection, but the watchers are still judging how he handles bullies without it.
Q 12In Ender's Game, which boy's arm does Ender Wiggin break on the flight to Battle School after being hit on the head?
Bernard
Bernard goes flying across the weightless cabin when Ender tugs his arm. The injured boy soon gathers a gang of the bigger recruits against him.
Q 13In Ender's Game, why did the International Fleet reject Ender's sister Valentine Wiggin for Battle School?
She was too sensitive
Q 21In Ender's Game, Petra Arkanian, who taught Ender Wiggin to shoot, later commands which army against him?
Phoenix
Phoenix is also where Ender served under Petra as a junior leader before he was given an army of his own. She takes the loss to her former pupil badly.
Q 22In Ender's Game, which army, led by the boastful Rose de Nose, takes Ender Wiggin after Salamander trades him?
Rat
Rat is a messy, undisciplined army that still stands second in the rankings. There Ender is at last allowed to fight.
Q 23In Ender's Game, which veteran asks for Ender Wiggin in his own unit and teaches him that the teachers are the enemy?
Dink Meeker
Dink Meeker has twice refused promotion to commander because he distrusts the whole system. He even doubts that the bugger war is still going on, yet he loves the battleroom too much to leave.
She was too sensitive, while Peter was judged too violent, so the fleet asked the Wiggins for one more child who might fall between the two.
Q 14In Ender's Game, what nickname do Battle School students give Ender Wiggin's group of brand-new arrivals?
Launchies
Launchies are the members of a newly arrived launch group. Ender keeps training with his after he joins an army, and older boys try to bully the practices out of existence.
Q 15In Ender's Game, how does Ender Wiggin finally beat the mind game's Giant, who offers two deadly drinks?
He digs into its eye
He digs into its eye after kicking the glasses over, winning a puzzle that was supposed to be unwinnable. The prize is Fairyland, and a nagging fear that he kills as easily as Peter.
Q 16In Ender's Game, which boy becomes Ender Wiggin's friend while they work out weightless movement in the battleroom?
Alai
Alai had been the best friend of Ender's chief tormentor, so the new friendship quietly merges two rival cliques. The new boys later elect him their leader.
Q 17In Ender's Game, what gives the students of the orbiting Battle School their everyday feeling of gravity?
The station spins
The station spins, as the new boys' minder explains on their first day. The battleroom is the exception: it has no gravity at all, so every soldier must relearn how to move.
Q 18How does almost every chapter of Ender's Game open before the story returns to Ender Wiggin's point of view?
Two unnamed voices
Two unnamed voices, often revealed to be Graff and Major Anderson, discuss how to push the boy next. The reader therefore always knows more about the plan than Ender does.
Q 19In Ender's Game, how does Colonel Graff turn the other recruits against Ender Wiggin on the flight to Battle School?
By praising him alone
By praising him alone, calling Ender the only bright boy aboard, Graff guarantees the others will resent him. The isolation is deliberate: a commander must learn that no adult will come to help.
Q 20In Ender's Game, how does Ender Wiggin break a fellow recruit's bullying hold over the other new boys?
Anonymous prank messages
Anonymous prank messages, sent to every desk after Ender cracks the school's computer system, turn the bully into a joke. One of them is signed with the name God.
Q 24In Ender's Game, a friend whispers the word salaam as Ender Wiggin leaves for his first army; what does it mean?
Peace
Peace is the meaning, which Ender learns only after he has an army and the two friends must meet as opponents. The word had come with a kiss on the cheek.
Q 25In Ender's Game, which ancient Greek's name does Valentine Wiggin borrow for her fiery online essays?
Demosthenes
Demosthenes is the rabble-rousing voice Valentine writes in, though she dislikes most of what it says. Her own father quotes the essays at breakfast without knowing who wrote them.
Q 26In Ender's Game, what does Ender Wiggin finally do to the mind game's snake to escape the tower room?
He kisses it
He kisses it, and the snake turns into Valentine, who leads him out past the mirror. Until then he had killed it every time, only to see Peter's face staring back.
Q 27In Ender's Game, what are the smaller units inside each Battle School army called, each with its own leader?
Toons
Toons is probably clipped from platoon. Most armies run four of ten soldiers each, but Ender splits his into five smaller ones so that each can act without waiting for orders.
Q 28In Ender's Game, Valentine Wiggin's warlike online persona stirs up public fear of which country's ambitions?
Russia
Russia is the target: her essays warn that it will grab for power the moment the bugger threat is gone. The warning proves right, and fighting breaks out on Earth as soon as the war ends.
Q 29In Ender's Game, why does Ender Wiggin teach soldiers to attack with their knees tucked up in front of them?
Their legs take the hits
Their legs take the hits, so the rest of the body stays mobile and the soldier is scored as only damaged. Ender found the trick by instinct when he was shot during the first battle he watched as a Salamander.
Q 30In Ender's Game, which animals does Peter Wiggin skin in the woods after the family moves to the country?
Squirrels
Squirrels are his victims, and Valentine comes across one of the bodies. The move to the country was meant to calm Peter, yet he only learns to hide his cruelty and flatter his teachers.