50 free Monopoly trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free Monopoly trivia questions with answers. Almost everyone has played Monopoly, and almost nobody plays it by the actual rules. This quiz covers both: what the rulebook really says about Free Parking, auctions and getting out of Jail, plus the tokens, the Atlantic City street names (including the one that is spelled wrong), the London edition, and the game's real origin story, in which a Quaker teacher and a Georgist inventor named Lizzie Magie matter far more than Charles Darrow. Easy questions cover things any player knows, like the salary for passing GO. Harder ones get into how many houses come in the box, why the Short Line is called that, how much Parker Brothers paid for the original patent, and how much the McDonald's Monopoly fraud netted. It suits a family game night, a pub quiz round, or anyone who has ever argued over the Free Parking pile. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the game, its history and The Landlord's Game, and each question carries its source.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many spaces are there on a standard Monopoly board?
40
Twenty-eight of them are properties: 22 streets, four railroads and two utilities.
Q 02How much salary do you collect for passing GO?
$200
Each player starts the game with $1,500, and newer sets put $20,580 in the bank in total.
Q 03How much money does each player start with in standard Monopoly?
$1,500
The bank in a post-2008 US set holds $20,580 in total, up from $15,140 in older editions.
Q 04The streets on the original American board are named after streets in which New Jersey resort?
Atlantic City
A Quaker teacher named Ruth Hoskins brought the game to Atlantic City and redrew the board with local street names.
Q 05Which company first published Monopoly in 1935 and remained its owner until 1991?
Parker Brothers
Hasbro bought Parker Brothers, and the game with it, in 1991.
Q 06Monopoly is derived from The Landlord's Game, patented in 1904 by whom?
Lizzie Magie
She designed it to demonstrate Henry George's single-tax theory, and Parker Brothers bought her patent for $500 in 1935.
Q 07The Landlord's Game was originally intended to teach players what?
The dangers of concentrating land in private monopolies
It shipped with two rule sets, one monopolist and one anti-monopolist, and only the cutthroat version caught on.
Q 08Which Depression-era salesman was long credited with inventing the game, though he copied a friend's set?
Charles Darrow
A patent was issued in his name on December 31, 1935; the truth came out in court records during Ralph Anspach's Anti-Monopoly lawsuit in the 1970s.
Q 09The publisher rejected the game in a 1934 letter for which reason?
Too complicated, too technical and too long to play
The often-repeated tale that they listed "52 design errors" is part of a company-invented creation myth.
Q 10What was the mascot Mr. Monopoly originally called?
Rich Uncle Pennybags
He first appeared on Chance and Community Chest cards in 1936 and was renamed in 1999.
Q 11Which token replaced the iron in 2013 after a public vote?
The cat
The cat won 31 percent of the vote; four years later a penguin, a T. rex and a rubber duck replaced the thimble, wheelbarrow and boot.
Q 12Which three tokens were retired in 2017?
The thimble, wheelbarrow and boot
Their replacements were a penguin, a Tyrannosaurus rex and a rubber duck, chosen by online vote.
Q 13Which yellow property on the American board is a misspelling of a real place?
Marvin Gardens
The real Marven Gardens is a housing area in Margate City, just outside the resort; the misspelling was never corrected.
Q 21If a player lands on an unowned property and declines to buy it, what does the official rule say happens?
The bank auctions it to all players
This auction rule is the most commonly ignored rule in the game, and skipping it makes games run much longer.
Q 22If you own both utilities, rent is how many times the dice roll?
Ten
With just one utility it is four times the roll, making the Electric Company and Water Works the game's most variable earners.
Q 23What is the rent on a railroad if you own all four?
$200
Rent starts at $25 for one and doubles with each additional railroad owned.
Q 14The Short Line railroad on the board takes its name from what kind of real service?
A streetcar route, the Shore Fast trolley
The Reading, Pennsylvania and B&O were real railroads serving Atlantic City; the Shore Fast Line was a streetcar line.
Q 15According to the official rules, what happens when you land on Free Parking?
Nothing
The house rule of putting taxes and fines in the middle for the next visitor to collect is common enough that many players assume it is official.
Q 16How many Chance and Community Chest cards does a standard set contain in total?
32
There are 16 of each, including two Get Out of Jail Free cards.
Q 17How much is the fine to get out of Jail if you don't roll doubles or hold a card?
$50
You can also stay and try for doubles on up to three turns before being forced to pay.
Q 18What happens if you roll doubles three times in a row?
You go straight to Jail
It is one of three ways in: the others are the Go to Jail corner square and a Chance or Community Chest card.
Q 19How many little green buildings and red buildings come in a standard set?
32 houses and 12 hotels
When the houses run out, nobody can build, and savvy players sometimes hoard them to block opponents.
Q 20How many houses must sit on a property before you can replace them with a hotel?
Four
Houses must also be built evenly across a colour group, so you cannot pile them all onto Boardwalk.
Q 24What are the two cheapest properties on the American board?
Mediterranean and Baltic Avenues
They cost $60 each, and Boardwalk, at the other end, costs $400.
Q 25What is the purchase price of Boardwalk?
$400
Its dark-blue partner Park Place costs $350; the London edition's equivalent is Mayfair at £400.
Q 26Which company produced the London edition of Monopoly, first sold in 1936?
Waddingtons
It was the firm's first board game; Victor Watson's secretary is said to have chosen the London streets on a day trip.
Q 27On the London board, which street costs £400, the equivalent of Boardwalk?
Mayfair
Old Kent Road is the London equivalent of Mediterranean Avenue at £60.
Q 28It has long been claimed that special wartime Monopoly sets smuggled what to Allied prisoners of war?
Silk maps, compasses and real money
The story credits British intelligence and the game's UK licensee, though historians have recently questioned how much of it is documented.
Q 29Which economist's single-tax theory was The Landlord's Game designed to demonstrate?
Henry George
Georgists argued that land value, not labour, should be taxed; Magie's game showed rent flowing to landlords.
Q 30How much did the publisher pay The Landlord's Game's inventor for her patent in 1935?
$500
She gave newspaper interviews to assert her authorship, but the company promoted Darrow's story instead.