The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trivia
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100 free The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trivia quiz covers every version of Douglas Adams's story: the 1978 BBC Radio 4 series that started it all, the five novels of the increasingly inaccurately named trilogy, Eoin Colfer's sixth book, the 1981 television series, the Infocom text adventure and the 2005 film with Martin Freeman and Sam Rockwell. Expect questions on Arthur Dent's bulldozer, Ford Prefect's real job, the Heart of Gold and its Infinite Improbability Drive, Marvin's brain the size of a planet, Zaphod's second head, Slartibartfast's fjords, Vogon poetry, the Babel fish, Milliways, the mice, Deep Thought and why the answer is 42. There are also questions on Adams himself, from Footlights and Doctor Who to Save the Rhino and the asteroids named in his honour, plus Towel Day and the towel that flew to space on a Tesla. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our science fiction books and Doctor Who quizzes next.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 'holistic' detective did Douglas Adams create?
Dirk Gently
Dirk Gently: Adams died in 2001 before finishing a third Dirk novel, and its drafts were published unfinished in The Salmon of Doubt.
Q 02Which drink does Arthur Dent try to get from the starship's Nutri-Matic machine?
Tea
Tea: the machine only serves a liquid 'almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea', and Arthur's lecture on the real thing ties up the ship's computer during an attack.
Q 03In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, why is Earth demolished at the start?
To make way for a hyperspace bypass
To make way for a hyperspace bypass: that same morning Arthur Dent had lain in front of a bulldozer to stop his house being knocked down for a local bypass.
Q 04What is the name of the alien who rescues Arthur Dent from the destruction of Earth?
Ford Prefect
Ford Prefect, stranded on Earth for 15 years, named himself after a popular British car because he thought the name would be 'nicely inconspicuous'.
Q 05Which race of bureaucratic aliens destroys the Earth?
The Vogons
The Vogons dismissed Earth's protests: the demolition plans had been on display in the local planning department on Alpha Centauri for fifty years.
Q 06What is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything?
42
42 sent fans hunting for hidden meanings, but Adams dismissed one popular theory by saying he didn't write jokes in base 13.
Q 07What is the name of the supercomputer that calculated the Answer?
Deep Thought
Deep Thought could not say what the Question was, so it designed an even greater computer to find out, which turned out to be the Earth.
Q 08What was Trillian's name before she left Earth?
Tricia McMillan
Tricia McMillan met Arthur at a party in Islington, but she left Earth with Zaphod instead.
Q 09What is the name of the spaceship Zaphod Beeblebrox steals?
Heart of Gold
Heart of Gold: Zaphod, as President of the Galaxy, was meant to be officiating at its launch, and he stole it during the ceremony.
Q 10In the novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, what physical peculiarity does Zaphod Beeblebrox have?
Two heads and three arms
Two heads and three arms: Zaphod says the third arm was fitted recently, just beneath his right one, to help improve his ski-boxing.
Q 11Which company built Marvin as a prototype of its Genuine People Personalities technology?
Sirius Cybernetics
Sirius Cybernetics Corporation makes such faulty goods that its complaints division is the only part of the company to have shown a consistent profit.
Q 12Marvin complains that he has a brain the size of what?
A planet
A planet: 'Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge,' Marvin moans in the novel.
Q 13Who voiced Marvin in the original Hitchhiker's radio and TV series?
Stephen Moore
Stephen Moore was a vastly experienced stage actor, yet after voicing Marvin on radio and TV he was remembered mostly for the gloomy robot.
Q 21What is the name of the Restaurant at the End of the Universe in the second Hitchhiker's novel?
Milliways
Milliways: diners pay by depositing one penny in a savings account in their own era, and compound interest covers the fabulous bill by the End of Time.
Q 22Arthur's Scrabble tiles spell which Ultimate Question?
What do you get if you multiply six by nine?
What do you get if you multiply six by nine? 54, which is why Arthur says he always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe.
Q 23What wiped out the Golgafrinchans who stayed behind on their homeworld?
Q 14Which comedy actor voiced the Book in the original Hitchhiker's Guide radio series?
Peter Jones
Peter Jones: the producers wanted a 'Peter Jonesy sort of voice', and after several actors including Palin turned the part down, they asked Jones himself.
Q 15The episodes of the radio series are called "Fits", borrowing from which Lewis Carroll poem?
The Hunting of the Snark
The Hunting of the Snark is subtitled 'An Agony in Eight Fits', which is why the radio episodes carry names such as Fit the Ninth.
Q 16The theme tune "Journey of the Sorcerer" was originally recorded by which band?
The Eagles
The Eagles' instrumental had a banjo in it, which Adams felt would give the show an 'on the road, hitch-hiking feel'.
Q 17In 1978, the Hitchhiker's radio series became the first BBC radio comedy made in what format?
Stereo
Stereo: the makers had been told comedy couldn't work in stereo because listeners wouldn't know which speaker the punchline was coming from.
Q 18How is the Hitchhiker's book series jokingly described?
A trilogy in five parts
A trilogy in five parts: the fifth book, Mostly Harmless, was billed as 'the fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy'.
Q 19Which publisher issued the first Hitchhiker's novel in 1979 after BBC Publishing turned it down?
Pan Books
Pan Books: BBC Publications had been offered the book first, yet once Pan held the rights the BBC asked bitterly why it hadn't been offered to them.
Q 20Which Hitchhiker's device destroys victims by showing them their true insignificance in the universe, yet fails to harm Zaphod?
Total Perspective Vortex
Total Perspective Vortex: Zaphod survives only because he is inside an electronically synthesized universe made for him, where he really is the most important being.
A disease from dirty telephone receivers
A disease from dirty telephone receivers wiped them out, because they had packed every telephone sanitiser off in the B Ark with the other 'useless' third.
Q 24Which London sports venue does Arthur Dent land at in Life, the Universe and Everything?
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground: Arthur arrives on a time-travelling sofa just as a squad of robots from Krikkit lands on the pitch and steals the Ashes.
Q 25Life, the Universe and Everything was based on a treatment Adams had written for which television series?
Doctor Who
Doctor Who: Adams and Tom Baker tried to get his Krikkitmen story made as a Doctor Who film, and when it never happened he recycled it into this novel.
Q 26In So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, who provided the replacement Earth that Arthur returns to?
The dolphins
It was part of their Save the Humans campaign; the title is their parting message.
Q 27What is the name of the girl Arthur falls in love with in the fourth novel?
Fenchurch
Fenchurch is the girl in a Rickmansworth café on the first page of the first novel who finally sees how to make the world good and happy, just before Earth is destroyed.
Q 28What job does Arthur settle into on Lamuella in Mostly Harmless?
Sandwich-maker
Sandwich-maker: the villagers believe Almighty Bob sent Arthur to them in a burning fiery chariot, when really he was the sole survivor of a spaceship crash.
Q 29What is the full name of Arthur and Trillian's daughter?
Random Frequent Flyer Dent
Random Frequent Flyer Dent was conceived from DNA Arthur had sold to fund his space travels, and he learns he is a father only when Trillian turns up with her.
Q 30Which author wrote the sixth Hitchhiker's novel, And Another Thing..., in 2009?
Eoin Colfer
Eoin Colfer, best known for Artemis Fowl, was personally chosen by Adams's widow Jane Belson, and he admitted the prospect of a new Hitchhiker book terrified him.