Joe Biden Trivia
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50 free Joe Biden trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Joe Biden was elected to the Senate at 29, too young to be sworn in, and buried his wife and daughter five weeks later. He commuted home to Wilmington by train for 36 years, survived two brain aneurysms, ran for president three times across 32 years, and finally won at 77 as the oldest person ever elected. Four years later a debate performance ended his campaign for a second term. This Joe Biden trivia quiz runs 50 questions across his life and career: Scranton and Claymont, Archmere football, the stutter, Syracuse law school, Neilia and the 1972 accident, Jill and the UN chapel wedding, Beau and Hunter, the Bork and Thomas hearings, the Violence Against Women Act, the Kinnock speech, the 1988 aneurysms, the Obama years, the 2020 primaries and Kamala Harris, the American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act, Afghanistan and Ukraine, Ketanji Brown Jackson, the classified documents, the June 2024 debate, the withdrawal, his cancer diagnosis and the nine actors who have played him on SNL. Easy questions come first; the last third is for people who remember J. Caleb Boggs. Every answer is verified against Wikipedia's biography of Biden, with the supporting sentence quoted under each question. Fans of this quiz should also try our US presidents and Barack Obama quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Before Joe Biden, who was the last U.S. president to have also served as vice president?
George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush: after a single term, he lost his re-election bid in 1992.
Q 02Biden represented which state in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2009?
Delaware
Delaware: he gave up the seat in 2009 to become Barack Obama's vice president.
Q 03Biden was born in which Pennsylvania city?
Scranton
Scranton: after his father's business ventures failed, the family moved back there to live with his mother's parents.
Q 04To overcome a childhood stutter, Biden memorised lines from which two writers?
Emerson and Yeats
Emerson and Yeats: as a young teen he recited them in front of his bedroom mirror.
Q 05Biden's father eventually found success in what line of work?
Used-car sales
Used-car sales: he had been wealthy in the 1940s, before business setbacks upended the family.
Q 06Biden earned his law degree in 1968 from which university?
Syracuse
Syracuse: as a student there he copied from a law review article without citation for a class paper.
Q 07Biden's first elected office, won in 1970, was a seat on what?
New Castle County Council
New Castle County Council: he served there only two years before running for the U.S. Senate.
Q 08Which Republican incumbent did Biden upset to win his Senate seat in 1972?
J. Caleb Boggs
J. Caleb Boggs: he had considered retiring and ran again only after President Nixon helped persuade him.
Q 09Weeks after a family tragedy, where did the newly elected Biden take his Senate oath in January 1973?
A hospital chapel
A hospital chapel: his sons, injured weeks earlier, were at his side as he took the oath.
Q 10Weeks after his 1972 election, Biden's first wife Neilia and their daughter Naomi died how?
In a car accident
In a car accident: a tractor-trailer hit their station wagon, and Majority Leader Mike Mansfield talked him out of resigning.
Q 11Biden's nickname "Amtrak Joe" came from commuting daily by train between Washington and which city?
Wilmington
Wilmington: he began riding home each evening so he could be with his young sons.
Q 12Biden married Jill Jacobs in 1977 in a chapel belonging to which institution?
The United Nations
The United Nations: his sons had urged him to marry Jill.
Q 13Which summer job did Biden take in college, an experience he credited with widening his view of race?
Lifeguard
Lifeguard: he was the only white lifeguard at a public pool in a Black neighborhood.
Q 21From 1991 to 2008 Biden taught a constitutional law seminar at which university's law school?
Widener
Widener: he even returned to teach the Saturday class in fall 2008, while campaigning as Obama's running mate.
Q 22In May 2012, Biden said he was 'absolutely comfortable' with what, days before Obama backed it too?
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage: Biden's remark pushed Obama to announce his own support sooner than he had planned.
Q 23Biden's official residence as vice president was at what address?
Number One Observatory Circle
Number One Observatory Circle: Congress turned the Navy chief's house into the vice president's official home in 1974.
Q 14Biden's son Beau died in 2015 of what?
Brain cancer
Brain cancer: grieving, Biden wavered over a 2016 presidential run and in October 2015 chose not to enter.
Q 15Biden's daughter Ashley has built a career in which fields?
Social work and fashion design
Social work and fashion design: her clothing line, Livelihood, launched with Gilt to raise money for community programs.
Q 16Biden's 1988 campaign collapsed over alleged plagiarism of which British politician's speech?
Neil Kinnock
Neil Kinnock: aides to rival Michael Dukakis secretly sent reporters a side-by-side video of both speeches, and Dukakis's campaign manager lost his job over it.
Q 17In 1988 Biden underwent surgery for what life-threatening condition?
Brain aneurysms
Brain aneurysms: his recovery from the two operations kept him away from the Senate for seven months.
Q 18Biden chaired which Senate committee from 1987 to 1995?
Judiciary
Judiciary: his hearings ended with the Senate rejecting Robert Bork's Supreme Court nomination, 58 to 42.
Q 19Which 1994 law did Biden draft and shepherd through Congress?
Violence Against Women Act
Violence Against Women Act: in 2000 the Supreme Court struck down its provision letting victims sue attackers in federal court.
Q 20Biden voted against which war, but later backed the 2002 resolution authorizing the Iraq War?
The Gulf War
The Gulf War: he later soured on the Iraq War too, opposing the 2007 troop surge.
Q 24Biden's 2017 memoir about the year of Beau's illness is titled what?
Promise Me, Dad
Promise Me, Dad: the title comes from Beau asking his father to promise that, whatever happened, he would be all right.
Q 25Which House Democrat's endorsement helped revive Biden's 2020 campaign after poor finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire?
Jim Clyburn
Jim Clyburn: soon after, rivals Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar quit the race and endorsed Biden ahead of Super Tuesday.
Q 26Kamala Harris in 2020 was the first major-ticket vice-presidential nominee to be what?
African American and South Asian American
African American and South Asian American: in a 2019 debate she had challenged Biden over his opposition to school busing.
Q 27Biden was inaugurated as the second Catholic U.S. president after whom?
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy: in 1960 he told Protestant ministers in Houston that no Catholic prelate should tell a president how to act.
Q 28Biden's first major law, a COVID relief package signed in March 2021, was called what?
American Rescue Plan Act
American Rescue Plan Act: it sent $1,400 payments to eligible Americans and to each of their dependents.
Q 29Whom did Biden appoint to the Supreme Court in 2022, fulfilling a campaign pledge?
Ketanji Brown Jackson
Ketanji Brown Jackson: she had once clerked for Stephen Breyer, the justice whose seat she took.
Q 30Every federal judge Biden appointed was confirmed while which Democrat served as Senate majority leader?
Chuck Schumer
Chuck Schumer: Democrats held the Senate from 2021 until January 2025, at first only through Vice President Kamala Harris's tie-breaking vote.