140 free Person of Interest trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Person of Interest trivia quiz covers all 103 episodes of Jonathan Nolan's CBS series, from the pilot's subway brawl to the ringing payphone at the end of "return 0". The easy questions are ones any regular viewer can handle: who plays Finch and Reese, what the Machine hands out, which network aired it, and the name of the team's Belgian Malinois. The harder end is for people who remember the numbers. It asks about Northern Lights and the Ordos laptop, HR and Alonzo Quinn, Elias's war with the Russians and the Brotherhood, Root's origin in Bishop, Texas, Shaw's first episode, Carter's last one, God Mode, the ferry bombing that killed Nathan Ingram, Samaritan and Decima, Vigilance's kangaroo court, the chess games and simulations of "If-Then-Else", simulation 6,741, the 300 PlayStations, ICE-9, and how the finale plays out. There are also questions on the people behind the show: Nolan and his uncle John, J. J. Abrams and Bad Robot, composer Ramin Djawadi, and the cast's other work from Lost to Empire. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for the series, its season and character lists, individual episodes and the cast before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our FBI and cybersecurity quizzes next.
30 of 140 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which US network did Person of Interest air?
CBS
It ran from September 2011 to June 2016.
Q 02Who created the series?
Jonathan Nolan
His brother Christopher directed the Dark Knight films the two co-wrote.
Q 03Who plays reclusive billionaire Harold Finch?
Michael Emerson
Emerson had just finished playing Ben Linus on Lost.
Q 04Who plays John Reese?
Jim Caviezel
Caviezel did most of his own stunts, drawing on childhood martial arts and adult boxing.
Q 05What does the Machine give Finch to identify a person of interest?
A Social Security number
It never says whether that person is the victim or the perpetrator.
Q 06Which agency did Reese work for before Finch found him?
The CIA
Before that he was a US Army Special Forces soldier.
Q 07What term does the government use for the crimes Finch chooses to act on?
Irrelevant
The Machine was built to delete that list every night at midnight.
Q 08How many episodes did the series run?
103
Five seasons, the last a shortened 13-episode run in 2016.
Q 09How many seasons were there?
Five
The final season was a midseason replacement of just 13 episodes.
Q 10Which historical event prompted Finch to build the Machine?
The September 11 attacks
Ingram brought him the news while he was working on a new program.
Q 11Who plays Detective Carter?
Taraji P. Henson
She left the show in season 3 and went on to play Cookie Lyon on Fox.
Q 12Who plays Detective Lionel Fusco?
Kevin Chapman
Chapman had been a doorman and stand-up comedian before acting.
Q 13Who plays the hacker Root?
Amy Acker
From the 100th episode she also voiced the Machine.
Q 14Who plays Sameen Shaw?
Q 21Who is the head of HR?
Alonzo Quinn
Clarke Peters, best known from The Wire, plays him.
Q 22Who kills Carter?
Patrick Simmons
Elias later has Simmons murdered in his hospital bed as payback.
Q 23Which crime boss does Enrico Colantoni play?
Carl Elias
Elias first appears as a mild-mannered schoolteacher on the run.
Q 24What alias is Elias using when Reese first protects him?
Sarah Shahi
Shahi joined as a recurring character in season 2 and became a regular in season 3.
Q 15What is Root's real name?
Samantha Groves
Her friends call her Sam; only her mother's death sent her out of Texas.
Q 16What does the Machine eventually make Root?
Its analog interface
It picks her while she is locked in a psychiatric hospital by Finch.
Q 17What breed of dog is Bear?
Belgian Malinois
Reese rescues him from Aryan Nationalists who used him as an attack dog.
Q 18Which type of animal supplies Finch's aliases such as Wren, Crow and Swift?
Birds
Harold Wren is the one he uses most, including at IFT with Nathan Ingram.
Q 19What nickname does law enforcement give Reese?
The Man in the Suit
Reese's real name is never revealed; John Reese is itself an alias.
Q 20What is HR?
A network of corrupt cops and officials
Its true leader turns out to be a political fixer in the mayor's office.
Charlie Burton
Reese only realises the schoolteacher is the mob heir once they escape the Russians.
Q 25Whose illegitimate son is Elias?
Don Gianni Moretti's
Elias eventually has his father's car blown up from prison.
Q 26Which crime family boss is Elias's nemesis for the underworld?
Peter Yogorov
Elias wants to purge Brighton Beach of the Russian mob.
Q 27Which Black Panther actor plays gang leader Dominic Besson?
Winston Duke
Sterling K. Brown is also in the show, as Carter's boyfriend Cal Beecher.
Q 28Who plays Nathan Ingram, Finch's partner in building the Machine?
Brett Cullen
Ingram and Finch met at MIT.
Q 29How does Nathan Ingram die?
In a ferry bombing
Finch survives the same blast, which leaves him with his limp and rigid neck.
Q 30What was the government's codename for the Machine project?
Northern Lights
Control ran the ISA operation that handled the relevant numbers.