50 free Interpol trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Interpol trivia starts by killing the movie myth: the International Criminal Police Organization has no agents, no arrest powers and no jurisdiction. What it does have is 196 member countries, a headquarters in Lyon, a secure network called I-24/7, a database of twelve million stolen passports, and a colour-coded system of notices of which the Red Notice is the closest thing on Earth to an international arrest warrant. This quiz covers the founding congress in Vienna in 1923, the grim period when its presidents were SS generals including Reinhard Heydrich, the 1946 revival in Paris and the 1956 constitution that adopted the telegraphic address 'Interpol' as a name, the four working languages, the meaning of every colour of notice from Red to Purple (and the new Silver), the emblem's sword and scales, the Singapore innovation complex, and the presidents and secretaries-general, from Ronald Noble to the Chinese president who vanished mid-term and the UAE general accused of torture. It also covers the countries that are not members and the fights over politically motivated Red Notices. Easy questions suit any thriller fan; the expert tier is for international-law nerds. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Interpol, its notices and its leaders, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which French city is Interpol headquartered?
Lyon
The General Secretariat moved there in 1989 from the Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud.
Q 02How many member countries does Interpol have?
196
That includes three dependent territories of the Netherlands: Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten.
Q 03In which city was the forerunner of Interpol founded in 1923?
Vienna
It was set up as the International Criminal Police Commission at the close of a five-day congress led by Vienna's police president Johannes Schober.
Q 04What was Interpol's original name from 1923?
The International Criminal Police Commission
The 22 delegates came from countries including Austria, Germany, China, Egypt and Japan.
Q 05Where does the name 'Interpol' come from?
Its telegraphic address, used since 1946
The name was adopted officially with a new constitution in 1956.
Q 06Contrary to films and TV, what does Interpol NOT have?
Agents with powers of arrest
It is a liaison network for national police forces, providing databases and communications rather than officers.
Q 07Which of these is one of Interpol's four official languages?
Arabic
The others are English, French and Spanish.
Q 08Interpol's constitution strictly forbids intervention in matters of what character?
Political, military, religious or racial
That is Article 3, and until the 1980s it was used as a reason not to pursue Nazi war criminals.
Q 09What is the purpose of an Interpol Red Notice?
To seek the arrest of a wanted person for extradition
It is described as the closest instrument to an international arrest warrant, though it is not one.
Q 10Which colour of Interpol notice is used to locate a missing person?
Yellow
It also covers identifying a person who cannot identify themselves; about 12,000 were in circulation in 2019.
Q 11An Interpol Black Notice seeks information about what?
Unidentified bodies
The system of six colours dates from 1946; Orange was added in 2004.
Q 12What does an Orange Notice warn of?
An imminent threat from an event, person or object
It was the seventh colour, introduced in 2004.
Q 13A Purple Notice provides information on what?
Criminals' methods, devices and hiding places
Q 21Which Wannsee Conference chair served as president of Interpol's forerunner?
Reinhard Heydrich
Its wartime presidents were all SS generals; Ernst Kaltenbrunner was later hanged after the Nuremberg trials.
Q 22Which wartime Interpol president was the highest-ranking SS officer executed after the Nuremberg trials?
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Nebe was executed by the Nazis themselves after the July 1944 plot; Heydrich was assassinated in Prague in 1942.
Q 23After its 1946 revival, Interpol was based in Paris and then, from 1967, in which suburb?
Saint-Cloud
It stayed there until the 1989 move to Lyon.
Purple was one of the original six colours created in 1946.
Q 14A Blue Notice is used to do what?
Locate or obtain information on a person of interest
Green Notices, by contrast, warn about people considered a possible threat to public safety.
Q 15Which notice colour did Interpol begin piloting in 2025 to trace criminal assets?
Silver
The Silver Notice, first piloted in 2025, is designed to identify and trace assets used in criminal activity.
Q 16Interpol's special notice, created in 2005 at the UN Security Council's request, was originally aimed at whom?
Individuals linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban
It supports asset freezes, travel bans and arms embargoes under Resolution 1617.
Q 17What is a 'diffusion' in Interpol terminology?
A less formal alert sent directly by a member country
Like a notice it can request an arrest or location, and it is recorded in Interpol's databases.
Q 18What is the name of Interpol's encrypted global communications network?
I-24/7
National Central Bureaus are the main access points, though some countries extend it to airports and borders.
Q 19Interpol's lost and stolen travel document database contains more than how many records?
12 million
Airlines and border officials can check passports against it in real time.
Q 20Under Nazi control after 1938, Interpol's headquarters were eventually moved to which city?
Berlin
It shared a building with the Gestapo, and most member states withdrew their support.
Q 24Which of these is NOT a member of Interpol?
North Korea
Tuvalu is the only other UN member outside; Taiwan lost its seat to the PRC in 1984, and Kosovo is represented via the UN.
Q 25In September 2017 Interpol voted to admit which two new members?
Palestine and the Solomon Islands
The Palestinian admission was opposed by Israel and the United States.
Q 26Which country did not join Interpol until 1938, despite unofficially attending in 1923?
The United States
Britain joined in 1928; membership had doubled to 58 nations by 1934.
Q 27Which four elements make up the Interpol emblem adopted in 1950?
A globe, olive branches, a sword and scales
The globe stands for worldwide activity, the olive branches for peace, the sword for police action and the scales for justice.
Q 28In which Asian city did Interpol open its Global Complex for Innovation in 2015?
Singapore
It houses a Cyber Fusion Centre that coordinated a takedown of the SIMDA botnet even before the official opening.
Q 29Roughly what was Interpol's annual operating income in 2019?
€142 million
About 41% came from statutory member contributions; the UAE's $54 million donation in 2017 raised conflict-of-interest concerns.
Q 30Who was Interpol's first American secretary-general, serving from 2000 to 2014?
Ronald Noble
A former NYU law professor, he was also the youngest secretary-general at the time of his appointment.