Guam
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Guam trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Guam is a small island with an outsized story. An American territory in the western Pacific, it has been home to the Chamorro people for thousands of years, was ruled from Madrid for centuries, and changed hands twice in the twentieth century. This quiz covers the island from several angles: its villages and landmarks, the Chamorro language, legends and food, the long colonial era, the Second World War occupation and its aftermath, wildlife found nowhere else, and how the territory is governed today. It also answers the practical questions people look up, such as the island's postal abbreviation. The questions suit curious travellers, students, military families posted to the island, and anyone with Guam roots who wants to test what they know. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which invasive reptile, a stowaway after World War II, wiped out most of Guam's native forest birds?
Brown tree snake
The brown tree snake probably arrived hidden in ship cargo or aircraft landing gear. Officials now airdrop bait laced with acetaminophen, a painkiller the animal is unusually sensitive to.
Q 02Which American discount chain's store in Tamuning, Guam, outsold all its other branches as of 2018?
Kmart
Kmart's Guam store rang up about $100 million a year, helped by tourists and a lack of nearby rivals. By 2026 it was one of only three Kmarts left.
Q 03Shoichi Yokoi, the soldier who hid in Guam's jungle until 1972, had trained in which trade?
Tailor
Tailor was his trade as an apprentice before he was conscripted in 1941, a skill he put to use in hiding by making clothes and bedding from native plants.
Q 04Japan began bombing Guam on December 8, 1941, just hours after its surprise attack on which American base?
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor was struck the same morning. Japan then held Guam for about 31 months and renamed it Ōmiya-jima, or Great Shrine Island.
Q 05Guam's unofficial motto says America's day begins there, because the island lies close to which boundary?
International Date Line
The International Date Line runs to Guam's east, so each new calendar day reaches the island before it reaches any of the 50 states.
Q 06Measured from which seabed point is Guam's Mount Lamlam sometimes called the world's tallest mountain?
Challenger Deep
Challenger Deep, the deepest surveyed point in the oceans, lies in the Mariana Trench southwest of Guam, so by that reckoning the modest peak caps a rise of more than 37,000 feet.
Q 07In the legend of Guam's Two Lovers Point, what did the couple tie together before leaping from the cliff?
Their hair
Their hair, tied into a single knot, joins the pair in a folktale first written down by the French explorer Louis de Freycinet in 1819.
Q 08Which Guam holiday on July 21 marks the day American forces returned in 1944 to end Japanese occupation?
Liberation Day
Liberation Day recalls the landings of July 21, 1944, which opened a battle that ran until August 10 and ended two and a half years of occupation.
Q 09Which Portuguese navigator, sailing for Spain, became the first European to reach Guam in March 1521?
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan sighted Guam during the first voyage around the globe, yet Spain did not formally claim the island until Miguel López de Legazpi did so in 1565.
Q 10Which two-letter postal abbreviation does the US Postal Service use for mail addressed to Guam?
GU
GU is the code, and the Postal Service treats mail between Guam and the mainland as domestic, so a letter needs no extra postage.
Q 11Which coastal village of only about 1,000 residents serves as the capital of Guam?
Hagåtña
Hagåtña held nearly half of Guam's people in 1940, yet today it is the second smallest of the island's 19 villages in both area and population.
Q 12Which northern Guam village, known for its weekend flea market, is the island's most populous?
Dededo
Dededo also opened Guam's first large enclosed shopping mall in 1988, and its market draws crowds of vendors every weekend.
Q 13Guam is the largest island in which subregion of Oceania, which also includes Palau and Chuuk?
Micronesia
Micronesia has no island bigger than Guam, which is only about 30 miles long and sits at the southern end of the Mariana chain.
Q 21The almond-shaped seal at the centre of Guam's flag recalls which weapon of the ancient Chamorro?
Sling stone
Sling stone shapes inspired Helen Paul, who designed the flag in 1917; inside the seal, a proa sails past a coconut palm at a river mouth.
Q 22What insulting name did European sailors give Guam and its neighbours on first reaching them in 1521?
Islands of Thieves
Islands of Thieves, or Islas de los Ladrones, came after islanders made off with a ship's boat; the crew's first choice was Islands of the Lateen Sails.
Q 23For 250 years, Spanish galleons resupplied at Guam while sailing to Manila from which port in Mexico?
Acapulco
Q 14Guam residents eat an average of 16 cans a year each of which canned food, introduced during World War II?
Spam
Spam arrived with wartime rations and stuck: Guam even stages Spam Games, where locals compete with their best homemade recipes.
Q 15B-52 bombers flew from Guam's Andersen Air Force Base on Operation Arc Light missions during which war?
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War kept Guam's bombers flying from 1965 to 1973, and in 1975 the same base sheltered thousands of evacuees during Operation New Life.
Q 16Judd Bankert became tropical Guam's first Olympian at the 1988 Winter Games, competing in which sport?
Biathlon
Biathlon gave Guam its Olympic debut on snow; by 2026 that was still its only Winter Games, against ten appearances at the Summer Games.
Q 17Most people on Guam follow which branch of Christianity, brought from Spain in 1668?
Catholicism
Catholicism arrived with a mission led by Diego Luis de San Vitores, who founded Guam's first church; villages still hold yearly fiestas for their patron saints.
Q 18Which legal status has Guam held within the United States since the Organic Act of 1950?
Unincorporated territory
Unincorporated territory status arrived with the act that made Guam's people American citizens and gave the island its first civilian government.
Q 19The 15 members of Guam's single-chamber legislature, elected every two years, are known by which title?
Senators
Senators is the title even though there is no lower house; until a 1996 change in the law, the single chamber seated 21 of them.
Q 20Which capped pillars, found only in the Mariana Islands, once held up ancient Chamorro houses on Guam?
Latte stones
Latte stones pair a pillar with a bowl-shaped cap set flat side up; the tallest still standing rises 16 feet at the House of Taga on Tinian.
Acapulco was the galleons' American terminus from 1565 to 1815, a link that left Guam's cooking with tortillas, tamales and atole.
Q 24The first American shots of World War I were fired in Guam's Apra Harbor at a launch from which country's ship?
Germany
Germany's raider SMS Cormoran had sat interned at Guam since 1914; when America entered the war, her crew blew her up rather than hand her over.
Q 25Which animal, known as fanihi in the Chamorro language, is a traditional soup delicacy on Guam?
Fruit bat
Fruit bat soup, kå'du fanihi, is a prized Chamorro dish, but habitat loss and hunting have left the Mariana flying fox a threatened species.
Q 26Guam's signature red rice, a staple of Chamorro fiestas, takes its colour from which spice?
Annatto
Annatto, called achoti on Guam, is simmered into a broth that turns the rice a deep orange; the dish is known as hineksa' aga'ga'.
Q 27Which animal, known locally as the carabao, did Spanish missionaries bring to Guam as a beast of burden?
Water buffalo
Water buffalo once numbered in the thousands on Guam, and the carabao is now treated as the island's unofficial national animal.
Q 28Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz opened on Guam in 2020 to house Marines relocating from which Japanese prefecture?
Okinawa
Okinawa's Marines are bound for Camp Blaz, the Corps' first new base since 1952, named for Guam's own Brigadier General Vicente "Ben" Blaz.
Q 29Which bay-side district of Guam, lined with dozens of hotels, is the centre of the island's tourist industry?
Tumon
Tumon's bay, once dredged by hotel chains to please their guests, is now a marine preserve where biologists monitor the fish.
Q 30Guam's international airport is named for which politician, the island's first delegate to the US House?
Antonio Won Pat
Antonio Won Pat took the oath in January 1973 as the first Guam resident seated in Congress, and he held the seat until 1985.