Ping Pong Trivia
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7correct to beat the crowd
This ping pong trivia quiz has 60 free questions with answers and covers the game most people have played in a basement or a bar and the sport that fills arenas in China. The rules questions ask how many points win a game, how often the serve changes hands, how high the ball must be tossed and why one side of every racket has to be black. The history runs from a Victorian after-dinner game played with books for a net, through the trademark fight over the name 'ping-pong', to the 1971 bus ride in Nagoya that started ping-pong diplomacy and opened the door to Nixon's visit to China. There are questions on the greats: Viktor Barna and Angelica Rozeanu, Jan-Ove Waldner (the Mozart of table tennis), Deng Yaping, Zhang Jike, Ma Long and Fan Zhendong; and a few for the casual player, on Forrest Gump, Balls of Fury and Atari's Pong. Every answer has been checked against the ITTF rules as summarised on Wikipedia and the relevant player, tournament and history pages, and each explanation adds one detail worth passing on at the table.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Since the 2000 rule change, what is the diameter of a regulation ball?
40 mm
The regulation ball has measured 40 mm in diameter since October 2000; the larger ball meets more air resistance, which slowed rallies to make the sport easier to follow on television.
Q 02A game is won by the first player to reach how many points, provided they lead by two?
11
A game goes to 11 points and must be won by two; the ITTF adopted the 11-point game on 1 September 2001 to make matches shorter and more television-friendly.
Q 03During a game, how often does the serve switch between opponents?
After every two
Service changes after every two points; once both players reach 10, the serve alternates after every single point until someone leads by two.
Q 04When serving, the ball must be tossed straight up at least how far before it is struck?
16 cm
The ball must rise at least 16 cm after leaving the server's open, flat palm, tossed near-vertically and without spin so the receiver and umpire can see it.
Q 05How long is a regulation table?
9 ft (2.74 m)
A regulation table is 9 ft (2.74 m) long, 5 ft (1.525 m) wide and 76 cm (2.5 ft) high, with a uniformly dark, matte playing surface.
Q 06How high is the net?
6 in (15.25 cm)
The top of the net stands 6 in (15.25 cm) above the playing surface, and the net also projects 15.25 cm beyond each side line of the table.
Q 07How much does a regulation ball weigh?
2.7 g
The ITTF specifies a ball mass of 2.7 g; each approved ball is also tested for roundness, hardness and bounce, and must be white or orange with a matte finish.
Q 08Under ITTF rules, one side of the paddle's rubber must always be which colour?
Black
One side of the rubber must be black; the other side was red-only until October 2021, when blue, green, pink and violet were also allowed, so opponents can tell which rubber struck the ball.
Q 09Which British manufacturer trademarked the name 'ping-pong' in 1901?
J. Jaques & Son
The name was already in wide use; after the trademark it came to mean the game played with Jaques's pricey equipment, and everyone else said 'table tennis'.
Q 10Which US game company bought the 'ping-pong' name and enforced the trademark in the 1920s?
Parker Brothers
Parker Brothers held the US rights to the name 'Ping-Pong' and enforced them in the 1920s, forcing American associations to call the sport 'table tennis' instead.
Q 11In the game's Victorian beginnings, what stood in a row along the table to serve as a net?
Books
Two more books were the rackets and the ball was a golf ball; the game is thought to have come home with British officers serving in India.
Q 12Celluloid balls came into the game after enthusiast James W. Gibb found novelty balls on a 1901 trip to which country?
America
The same year E. C. Goode invented the modern racket by gluing pimpled rubber to a wooden blade, and an unofficial world championship followed in 1902.
Q 13Since 2015, official balls have been made of what instead of celluloid?
A plastic polymer
The ITTF's 'poly ball', made of a plastic polymer rather than flammable celluloid, became standard at its events from July 2014; balls are white or orange with a matte finish.
Q 21At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, what replaced the men's and women's doubles?
Team competitions
Team competitions replaced the doubles at Beijing 2008; China swept all six singles medals there, prompting a limit of two singles entries per nation from 2012.
Q 22Mixed doubles joined the Olympic table tennis programme at which Games?
Tokyo 2020
Mixed doubles debuted at Tokyo 2020, where Japan's Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito beat China's Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen in the final.
Q 23Jan-Ove Waldner, 'the Mozart of table tennis', won 1992 Olympic singles gold for which country?
Sweden
Waldner won the Barcelona 1992 singles for Sweden, beating France's Jean-Philippe Gatien in the final; he also took the world singles title in 1989 and 1997.
Q 14In 1901, E. C. Goode created the modern paddle by fixing what to the wooden blade?
Pimpled rubber
Goode fixed a sheet of pimpled rubber to the wooden blade in 1901; a sponge layer beneath the rubber followed in the 1950s and transformed spin and speed again.
Q 15The first official World Championships, in 1926, were held in which city?
London
The first World Championships were held in London in December 1926, the year the ITTF was founded; Roland Jacobi and Maria Mednyanszky took the inaugural singles titles.
Q 16By ITTF rule, at least what share of a paddle blade's thickness must be natural wood?
85%
At least 85% of the blade's thickness must be natural wood; the rest may be reinforcing layers such as carbon fibre, glass fibre or Kevlar, each no thicker than 7.5% of the blade or 0.35 mm.
Q 17What does the ITTF rulebook call the bat or paddle?
Racket
The ITTF rulebook calls it a racket; the wooden part alone is the blade, usually one to seven plies, and the rules allow a racket of any size, shape or weight.
Q 18Which grip, traditional in China and Japan, points the blade downward from the hand?
Penhold
It is popular in China, Japan and Korea; Chinese players developed the reverse penhold backhand in the 1990s to fix the grip's weak side.
Q 19Yoo Nam-kyu, the first Olympic men's singles champion in table tennis, represented which country?
South Korea
Yoo Nam-kyu won the inaugural Olympic men's singles for South Korea, beating compatriot Kim Ki-taik in an all-Korean final, and added a bronze in the doubles at the same Games.
Q 20Table tennis became an Olympic sport at which Games?
Seoul 1988
Table tennis made its Olympic debut at Seoul 1988 with men's and women's singles and doubles; the host nation and China won two gold medals each.
Q 24Because of his extraordinary longevity, Waldner is known in China by what nickname?
The Evergreen Tree
Chinese fans call Waldner 'the Evergreen Tree' (Chang Qing Shu) for a top-level career stretching from the early 1980s into his forties; in the 1990s he was reportedly better known in China than Bill Clinton.
Q 25Which Chinese player is the only table tennis athlete with six Olympic gold medals?
Ma Long
Ma Long won six Olympic golds at every Games from 2012 to 2024, in singles and team events; the ITTF nicknamed him 'The Dragon' because his given name means dragon.
Q 26A table tennis 'Grand Slam' means singles titles at the Worlds, the World Cup and which other event?
Olympic Games
The Grand Slam pairs the World Championships and World Cup with singles gold at the Olympic Games; Jan-Ove Waldner was the first to complete it, at Barcelona in 1992.
Q 27Which player completed the career Grand Slam in a record 445 days, ending in 2012?
Zhang Jike
Zhang Jike took the 2011 World Championship in Rotterdam, the 2011 World Cup in Paris, then 2012 Olympic gold, completing the Grand Slam in 445 days as the fourth man to do so.
Q 28Paris 2024 men's singles champion Fan Zhendong is affectionately known by what nickname?
Little Fatty
Fan Zhendong is called 'Little Fatty' (Xiao Pang) for his stocky build; he won the world singles title in 2021 and 2023 before his Paris gold completed his set of major crowns.
Q 29Why was future four-time Olympic champion Deng Yaping initially kept off China's national team?
She was too short
At 1.5 metres tall she was thought too small, then won 18 world titles and retired at 24 as the most decorated player in the sport.
Q 30Angelica Rozeanu, who won six consecutive women's world singles titles, played for which country?
Romania
Rozeanu, a Jewish player from Bucharest, was barred from sports halls under Romania's wartime racial laws from 1940 to 1944, then won the world singles title every year from 1950 to 1955.