This Los Angeles trivia quiz has 60 free questions with answers and covers the city from its founding by 44 settlers in 1781 to the 2028 Olympics: the aqueduct that let it grow, the merger that made Hollywood part of LA, the sign on Mount Lee, Griffith Observatory, the Getty, Dodger Stadium and the Coliseum, the concrete river, the first freeway in the West, LAX, the French dip, Kogi's Korean tacos, and the riots and earthquakes that shaped it. It is written for Angelenos who think they know their city, visitors who want to test what they picked up, and anyone hosting a California-themed quiz round. Easy questions cover the landmarks everyone knows; the hard ones dig into pobladores, funiculars, City Hall's concrete and a 99-foot tower built by one man with hand tools. Every answer has been checked against a primary reference such as Wikipedia or an official site, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was the pueblo of Los Angeles founded under Spanish governor Felipe de Neve?
1781
The founding party was 22 adults and 22 children from Sonora, and the city still marks September 4 as its birthday.
Q 02El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, the city's original name, means Our Lady the Queen of what?
The Angels
The mouthful was shortened over the years, and the English 'City of Angels' nickname keeps the last word.
Q 03Los Angeles ranks where among US cities by population?
Second
It passed the previous number two for the spot in early 1984, and only New York City is larger.
Q 04Which city did Los Angeles overtake in population in early 1984?
Chicago
The same year the city hosted its second Summer Olympics, so it was a big year for civic bragging.
Q 05What are the indigenous people of the Los Angeles basin before Spanish settlement called?
Tongva
Their territory covered roughly 4,000 square miles, and around 5,000 native people lived in the basin by the 1700s.
Q 06Which explorer claimed the Los Angeles region for Spain in 1542?
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo
The Spanish took more than two centuries after that claim to actually found a settlement there.
Q 07The Los Angeles Aqueduct, completed in 1913, brings water to the city from which river?
Owens
The system runs on gravity alone and generates electricity along the way, and its diversion of the valley set off the California water wars.
Q 08Which engineer built the Los Angeles Aqueduct and later saw the St. Francis Dam collapse in 1928?
William Mulholland
The dam failure killed at least 431 people, and the scenic drive along the ridge of the Santa Monica Mountains still carries his name.
Q 09In which year did Hollywood merge into the City of Los Angeles, largely to get water and sewer access?
1910
Hollywood had been its own municipality for only seven years, and the first film studio, Nestor, arrived the year after the merger.
Q 10The Hollywood Sign was erected in 1923 to advertise what?
A housing development
It originally read HOLLYWOODLAND, and the last four letters were not removed until 1949.
Q 11The Hollywood Sign stands on which peak in the Santa Monica Mountains?
Mount Lee
In 1976 a prankster altered it to read HOLLYWEED after California relaxed its cannabis law.
Q 12Which magazine founder donated the final $900,000 in 2010 to save the land around the Hollywood Sign?
Hugh Hefner
He had also helped fund the 1978 rebuild, when nine donors, including Alice Cooper, paid $27,778 apiece for a letter each.
Q 13Why has admission to Griffith Observatory been free since it opened in 1935?
The donor's will
Griffith J. Griffith had given the city 3,015 acres for the park in 1896, and more than 9 million people have since looked through the 12-inch Zeiss telescope.
Q 21The Dodgers' ballpark, opened in 1962, was built on top of which historic Los Angeles neighbourhood?
Chavez Ravine
It opened in April 1962, is the largest ballpark in the world by seats at 56,000, and is the third-oldest in MLB after Fenway and Wrigley.
Q 22Which Dodgers pitcher is the only player to win the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year in the same season?
Fernando Valenzuela
His 1981 run sparked 'Fernandomania' and a championship season for the club.
Q 23The Lakers' name, odd in Los Angeles, was inspired by the nickname of which state?
Minnesota
Owner Bob Short moved the team west in 1960, and they later set the NBA record with 33 straight wins in 1971-72.
Q 14A bust of which actor stands on the grounds of Griffith Observatory because of a 1955 film shot there?
James Dean
Rebel Without a Cause used the observatory twice, and La La Land returned to it six decades later.
Q 15Which film premiered at the opening of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in May 1927?
The King of Kings
The theatre's own account says Norma Talmadge started the forecourt handprint tradition by accidentally stepping into wet concrete.
Q 16Which company paid $5 million in 2013 for the naming rights to Grauman's Chinese Theatre?
TCL
Nearly 200 celebrity hand and footprints are set in the forecourt concrete outside.
Q 17Who is the only person honoured with a star in all five categories on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
Gene Autry
The Walk had grown to 2,850 stars by mid-2026, and Muhammad Ali's is the only one mounted on a wall so nobody walks on it.
Q 18The Packers beat which team in the first Super Bowl at the LA Coliseum in January 1967?
Kansas City Chiefs
It drew 61,946 fans, and the Coliseum was picked to host the 2028 Games, which would make it the first stadium to stage three Summer Olympics.
Q 19A crowd of 115,300 at the Coliseum set a Guinness World Record for attendance at what kind of event?
A baseball game
The Dodgers played there from 1958 to 1961 while their stadium was being built, and the oval was never designed for the sport.
Q 20The Dodgers moved to Los Angeles from which city before the 1958 season?
Brooklyn
The name came from sportswriters calling the team the Trolley Dodgers in 1895, and it stuck even though nobody in LA was dodging trolleys.
Q 24The Clippers relocated to Los Angeles in 1984 from which other California city?
San Diego
They share the city with the Lakers, whose 17 championships trail only the Boston Celtics.
Q 25For how many seasons did the Raiders play in Los Angeles at the Coliseum before returning to Oakland?
13
They arrived in 1982 and left after 1994; the Rams then went to St. Louis, and LA had no NFL team at all until 2016.
Q 26The Rams won Super Bowl LVI in 2022 in their own building. What is it called?
SoFi Stadium
NFL owners had voted 30-2 in January 2016 to let the team leave St. Louis and return to Los Angeles.
Q 27The mascot of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was Sam, what kind of animal?
A bald eagle
Fourteen Eastern Bloc countries boycotted, yet the Games still turned a profit of $232.5 million.
Q 28The Los Angeles River was encased in concrete after devastating floods in which decade?
1930s
The dry channel has since starred in Grease's drag race and Terminator 2, since it is an empty, deserted set right in the city.
Q 29The Los Angeles River flows about 51 miles from Canoga Park to its mouth in which city?
Long Beach
It empties into San Pedro Bay at the port there, having crossed the San Fernando Valley and downtown along the way.
Q 30The 1940 Arroyo Seco Parkway, the West's first freeway, linked Los Angeles to which city?
Pasadena
It was signed as the Pasadena Freeway from 1954 to 2010 and was then redesignated State Route 110, with a crash rate twice that of comparable highways.