50 free Moldova trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Forty-four questions on Moldova, the small landlocked country between Romania and Ukraine that most people know for wine, a breakaway republic and one Eurovision saxophonist. Geography covers Chisinau, the Prut and Dniester rivers, the 430-metre 'summit', the half-kilometre of Danube frontage that gives it a port, Transnistria and Tiraspol, and Turkic-speaking Gagauzia. History runs from the drowned hound Molda who supposedly named the river, through Stephen the Great and the Principality of Moldavia, the 1812 Russian annexation as Bessarabia, union with Romania in 1918, the Moldavian SSR, 1991 independence, the 1992 Transnistria war and the EU candidacy under Maia Sandu. Culture and economy cover the Milestii Mici and Cricova cellars, the leu, martisor, mamaliga and placinte, O-Zone's 'Dragostea Din Tei', Epic Sax Guy, and Sheriff Tiraspol beating Real Madrid at the Bernabeu. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its regions, rulers and cities, and the sentence that establishes it is quoted under each explanation. Suits a pub quiz, a European geography class or a wine-tour warm-up.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Moldova is bordered by Ukraine and which other country?
Romania
The Prut river forms the western border; more than three-quarters of Moldovans speak Romanian.
Q 02What is the capital and largest city of Moldova?
Chisinau
Founded as a monastery village in 1436, it sits on the Bic river and holds about a third of the country's people in its metro area.
Q 03The unrecognised breakaway state on Moldova's eastern edge, beyond the Dniester river, is called what?
Transnistria
Its own name for itself is the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic; about 1,500 Russian soldiers remain there.
Q 04Which city is the capital of the breakaway east-bank region and Moldova's second-largest?
Tiraspol
It is also home to the football club that once beat Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.
Q 05Moldova's autonomous region of Gagauzia is home to a people whose mother tongue belongs to which family?
Turkic
Unusually for Turkic speakers the Gagauz are mostly Orthodox Christians; their capital is Comrat, briefly a self-declared republic for six days in 1906.
Q 06According to legend, the Moldova River, and thus the country, was named after what?
A prince's drowned hunting dog
Chroniclers say Prince Dragos's exhausted hound Molda drowned after the chase, and her name passed to the river and then the principality.
Q 07The eastern half of the Principality of Moldavia, annexed by Russia in 1812, became known by what name?
Bessarabia
About 88 percent of today's Moldova lies in that region; the Ottomans ceded it after one of their many wars with Russia.
Q 08Which 15th-century ruler of Moldavia, famous for churches and monasteries, reigned from 1457 until 1504?
Stephen the Great
He took the throne with the help of his cousin Vlad the Impaler and stopped paying tribute to the Ottoman sultan in 1473.
Q 09Which year saw the Sfatul Tarii assembly vote to unite the region with its western neighbour?
1918
Soviet Russia never accepted it and set up a Moldavian autonomous republic inside Ukraine in 1924 as a counterclaim.
Q 10Moldova declared independence from the Soviet Union on 27 August of which year?
1991
The Moldavian SSR dropped the Russian-style name for the Romanian one; the constitution followed in 1994.
Q 11Who became the first woman elected president of Moldova, in November 2020?
Maia Sandu
She won re-election in 2024 with 55 percent in the run-off, alongside a razor-thin 50.17 percent 'yes' vote in the EU referendum.
Q 12Moldova was granted candidate status for membership of which organisation in June 2022?
The European Union
Accession talks opened in December 2023 and 2030 is the target date; Brussels says the breakaway dispute need not be solved first.
Q 13A March 2023 law formally renamed Moldova's only official language as what?
Romanian
The law replaced every reference to 'Moldovan' in the constitution; the two names had long been a political battleground.
Q 21Moldova's 2010 Eurovision entry spawned which internet meme, thanks to saxophonist Sergey Stepanov?
Epic Sax Guy
SunStroke Project's 'Run Away' finished well down the table, but the band came back in 2017 with 'Hey Mama' and took third.
Q 22Which club became the first from Moldova to reach the Champions League group stage, then won at Real Madrid?
Sheriff Tiraspol
Sebastien Thill's 89th-minute winner at the Bernabeu stunned the eventual champions; the club is based in the breakaway region.
Q 23On 1 March Moldovans exchange which red-and-white good-luck talisman to mark the start of spring?
Martisor
Women and children wear the little threads all month; the custom is shared with Romania and Bulgaria's martenitsa.
Q 14Though landlocked, Moldova gained a river port in 1999 by acquiring 0.45 km of frontage on which river?
The Danube
Ukraine swapped the sliver at Giurgiulesti for a stretch of contested road, giving Moldova a route to the Black Sea.
Q 15How high is Moldova's highest point, Balanesti Hill?
430 m
The country is hilly but never mountainous; its hills are outliers of the Carpathian system.
Q 16Which Moldovan winery holds the world's largest wine cellar, stretching some 200 km of tunnels?
Milestii Mici
Only about 55 km is in use, holding two million or more bottles, and it made the Guinness book in 2007.
Q 17What share of Moldovan wine exports went to Russia in the early 2000s, before the pivot to Europe?
80 percent
By 2021 Russia took only 10 percent, and the EU had liberalised its market for Moldovan wine.
Q 18Moldova's currency, the leu, takes its name from a word meaning what?
Lion
It descends from the Dutch 'lion thaler' that once circulated in the region; the leu was introduced in November 1993 after the Soviet rouble collapsed.
Q 19Which animal appears on the shield held by the eagle on Moldova's flag and coat of arms?
An aurochs
The blue-yellow-red tricolour is based on the western neighbour's flag; the arms were adopted in 1990.
Q 20Which Moldovan band's 2003 hit 'Dragostea Din Tei' topped charts across Europe?
O-Zone
The 'Numa Numa' song became an early internet meme; Zdob si Zdub twice took sixth place for Moldova at Eurovision.
Q 24Mamaliga, a Moldovan staple, is a porridge made from what?
Yellow maize flour
It is the local polenta, often served with brinza cheese and sour cream; placinte are the stuffed fried pastries.
Q 25Remittances from Moldovans working abroad make up roughly what share of the country's GDP?
25 percent
Between 1.2 and 2 million citizens live abroad, more than a quarter of the population.
Q 26Moldova's parliament, elected every four years by party list, has how many seats?
101
The Party of Action and Solidarity won 63 of them in 2021, enough for a single-party majority.
Q 27Which fertile black soil, among the richest on Earth, covers Moldova's Balti steppe?
Chernozem
Agricultural land occupies about three-quarters of the country and it enjoys 300 days of sunshine a year.
Q 28Forests cover only about what proportion of Moldova?
11 percent
The central Codri hills take their name from the word for forests; wisent were reintroduced from Poland in 2005.
Q 29Strabo said it drank through its nose. Which large antelope survived in Moldova into the late 1700s?
The saiga
Its range once reached from Britain to Canada; hunting and deforestation wiped out the local herds.
Q 30The 1903 anti-Semitic riot in Moldova's capital that killed 47 Jews is known as what?
The Kishinev pogrom
Kishinev is the Russian name for the city; the outrage prompted mass Jewish emigration from the Russian Empire.