Microsoft Access
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40 free Microsoft Access trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Microsoft Access has been the database in the Office family for more than three decades. Small businesses, schools and clubs still rely on it to track customers, stock and members, yet many people who open it every week have never learned why its tables, queries, forms and reports fit together the way they do. This quiz works through the program the way a good course does. Expect questions on designing tables and choosing data types, linking tables with relationships, writing query criteria and wildcards, building forms and reports, and automating a database with macros. A handful of questions look back at where the program came from and the rivals it overtook. It suits students revising for a computer applications class, teachers who want a ready-made test for Access 2007, Access 2016 or Microsoft 365, and office workers brushing up before a job assessment. Every question comes with the answer and a short explanation, so each miss teaches you something you can use.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Microsoft Access has only ever been released for which operating system, unlike Excel and PowerPoint?
Windows
Windows is the only home Access has ever had: its forms and reports do not run anywhere else, so Office for Mac has never included it.
Q 02Access 2007 introduced which file extension for its databases, replacing the older .mdb format?
.accdb
.accdb arrived with Access 2007 and brought new abilities, including fields that hold several values at once and links to SharePoint lists.
Q 03In an Access table, which field must hold a unique value for every record, such as a customer number?
Primary key
Primary key is the name for that field, and Access marks it with a small key icon in Design view; a table can have only one.
Q 04Which Access data type fills in a unique value by itself each time a new record is saved?
AutoNumber
AutoNumber fields fill themselves in when a record is first saved, which is why Access suggests one whenever a table has no obvious unique field.
Q 05In an Access query, which wildcard character stands in for any number of unknown characters?
Asterisk
Asterisk is the catch-all wildcard: the criterion wh* finds what, white and why, while a question mark stands for just one character.
Q 06Which Access command shrinks a bloated database file by clearing out unused space?
Compact and Repair
Compact and Repair makes the file smaller by removing unused space rather than compressing data, and it can also mend a database that has become damaged.
Q 07In which Access view can you add a new field simply by typing data into an empty column?
Datasheet
Datasheet view shows a table as a grid of rows and columns, and Access guesses the data type from what you type, choosing a text type when nothing else fits.
Q 08Which programming language, shared with Excel and PowerPoint, has been built into Access since Access 95?
VBA
VBA, short for Visual Basic for Applications, replaced the earlier Access Basic language when Access joined the Office 95 suite.
Q 09Holding down which key while opening an Access database bypasses its startup options?
Shift
Shift, held while the file opens, skips the startup form and any custom ribbon, which lets a developer back into a database that has been locked down.
Q 10Which panel on the left of the Access window lists a database's tables, queries, forms and reports?
Navigation Pane
Navigation Pane is the name of that panel, and clicking its title bar lets you regroup the list, for instance by object type or by the table each object uses.
Q 11Which Access field property forces every phone number into one pattern, with set digits and hyphens?
Input Mask
Input Mask is the property, and its codes are strict: a 0 demands a digit while a 9 makes the digit optional, so an area code can be left out.
Q 12Which Access action query adds rows taken from one table to another table that already exists?
Append
Append queries add rows to a table that already exists, whereas a make-table query builds a brand-new one, and neither can be undone once it has run.
Q 13What name does Access give the field it adds automatically when a new blank table first opens?
ID
ID is the default name, and Access sets that field to number itself so that every new row gets a value no other row shares.
Q 21A Short Text field in Access, the type used for names and titles, can hold at most how many characters?
255
255 characters is the ceiling, so anything longer belongs in a Long Text field, which was built for whole sentences and paragraphs.
Q 22Since Access 2013, the Long Text data type has replaced which older name for the same kind of field?
Memo
Memo was the old name, and the renamed type still shows only its first 64,000 characters in a form control even though it can store far more.
Q 23A many-to-many relationship in Access needs a third table between the two, called which kind of table?
Junction
Junction tables hold the identifying field from each side, turning one many-to-many link into two one-to-many links, as an order-lines table does for orders and products.
Q 14On an Access form, which control hides its list of choices until you click a drop-down arrow?
Combo box
Combo box controls keep the list hidden until the arrow is clicked, and unlike a list box they also accept a typed value that is not among the choices.
Q 15Which Access data type, added in 2007, can hold several files such as photos in a single field?
Attachment
Attachment fields can each hold many files per row, and they store them more efficiently than the older OLE Object type ever did.
Q 16Which fictional company gives its name to the sample database that shipped with Access 2.0 in 1994?
Northwind Traders
Northwind Traders, a made-up small business with customers, orders and suppliers, dates from the earliest versions of Access and was later reused as a sample database for SQL Server.
Q 17In Access database design, what is the process of dividing data into tables so nothing is stored twice?
Normalization
Normalization is the term, and it follows a ladder of rules called normal forms; most Access designs only need to satisfy the first three of the five.
Q 18In an Access query's Criteria row, which characters around a question make the query prompt for a value?
Square brackets
Square brackets turn the text inside them into a prompt, so typing [For what city?] makes Access ask that question every time the query runs.
Q 19Which criterion in an Access query finds the records where a field has been left empty?
Is Null
Is Null picks out rows where the field holds no value at all, and its opposite, Is Not Null, returns only the rows that do hold one.
Q 20In an Access report, which section prints once for every row of the underlying data?
Detail
Detail is the section repeated for each row, forming the main body of the report, while a page header repeats only at the top of each sheet.
Q 24Which Access relationship setting prevents orphan records, such as an order with no matching customer?
Referential integrity
Referential integrity, once enforced, makes Access refuse any edit or deletion that would leave a row pointing at a parent that is gone.
Q 25In the Access Relationships window, which symbol marks the many side of an enforced one-to-many link?
Infinity sign
The infinity sign sits over one end of the line and the number 1 over the other, but only when the link is enforced; an unenforced one is a plain thin line.
Q 26Which function key shows or hides the panel listing every table, query and form in an Access database?
F11
F11 toggles that panel, although it counts as one of the special keys that a database's designer is able to switch off.
Q 27What must an Access macro be named so that it runs by itself every time the database opens?
AutoExec
AutoExec is the magic name: rename any finished macro to it and Access will run that macro by itself the next time the database is opened.
Q 28Which Access query type groups totals by two sets of headings, one down the side and one along the top?
Crosstab
Crosstab queries lay results out as a grid, for instance products down the side and months along the top, which makes them far easier to scan than a long list.
Q 29In the SQL behind an Access query, which punctuation mark ends every SELECT statement?
Semicolon
Semicolon is the closing mark, and Access lets it sit either at the end of the last clause or alone on a final line of the statement.
Q 30Which built-in Access tool moves the tables into a separate back-end file for sharing on a network?
Database Splitter
Database Splitter leaves the forms, queries and reports in a front-end file, and each user then gets a copy of that file while everyone shares the same tables.