50 free Qatar trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Forty-five questions on Qatar, the thumb of desert jutting into the Persian Gulf that went from pearl-diving backwater to the world's biggest LNG exporter in two generations. Geography and economy cover Doha, the 103-metre 'high point', the North Field, Hamad International Airport, Qatar Airways and a population that is over 90 percent foreign workers. History runs from the Kassite purple-dye works and Beth Qatraye, through the Al Khalifa at Zubarah, the 1868 British treaty that made Qatar separate from Bahrain, the Ottoman garrison and the Battle of Al Wajbah, the 1916 protectorate, oil at Dukhan, 1971 independence announced from a Swiss villa, and the father-son coups of the Al Thani. The modern rounds cover Al Jazeera, Education City, I. M. Pei's Museum of Islamic Art, the 2017 blockade, the Taliban office, the 2022 World Cup and the flag that is wider than any other. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its rulers, institutions and events, and the sentence that establishes it is quoted under each explanation. Suits a pub quiz, a Middle East classroom or a stopover in Doha.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Qatar shares its only land border with which country?
Saudi Arabia
The rest of the peninsula is surrounded by the Persian Gulf; Bahrain lies across the Gulf of Bahrain inlet.
Q 02What is the capital of Qatar, home to over four-fifths of its people?
Doha
An East India Company ship bombarded the town in 1821 as punishment for piracy; today it holds Al Jazeera, Education City and the Museum of Islamic Art.
Q 03Which family has ruled Qatar since its founder signed an 1868 agreement with Britain?
The House of Thani
The treaty imposed by Colonel Lewis Pelly after the Qatari-Bahraini war implicitly recognised Qatar as distinct from its island neighbour.
Q 04Qatar became a British protectorate in 1916 and gained independence in which year?
1971
Britain had announced in 1968 that it would leave the Gulf; Qatar and its island neighbour quit talks on a nine-emirate federation that became the UAE.
Q 05Emir Ahmad bin Ali announced Qatar's independence from where?
His villa in Switzerland
He was deposed months later by his cousin Khalifa bin Hamad with the tacit support of Britain, Saudi Arabia and the family.
Q 06In 1995 Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani took power in Qatar by seizing control from whom?
His father
Khalifa bin Hamad was abroad at the time; Hamad went on to launch a satellite news channel and hand power to his own son Tamim in 2013.
Q 07Who became Emir of Qatar in June 2013?
Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani
Born in 1980 and Sandhurst-trained, he became heir when his older brother Jassim renounced the throne in 2003, and took over when his father Hamad abdicated.
Q 08Qatar's flag is maroon with a white serrated band of how many points?
Nine
They are said to mark Qatar as the ninth 'reconciled emirate' of the 1916 British treaty; a neighbour's similar flag has fewer points and is red.
Q 09Qatar's flag holds what unique distinction among national flags?
It is more than twice as wide as it is tall
Its ratio is 11:28; the exact shade was defined in 2012 as Pantone 1955 C, 'Qatar maroon', recalling an ancient dye industry.
Q 10Before oil, Qatar depended on fishing and which industry, undone by Japanese cultured products?
Pearl hunting
Ships from Basra to India and China called at Qatari ports for pearls in Abbasid times; oil was found in 1940.
Q 11Oil was first discovered in Qatar in 1940 in which field?
Dukhan
Exports only began in 1949 after World War II delays; the giant offshore North Field is gas, not oil.
Q 12Where did Qatar's proven natural gas reserves rank in the world as of 2024?
Third
Over 250 trillion cubic feet, mostly in the offshore North Field, behind only Russia and Iran; Qatargas began shipping LNG to Japan in 1996.
Q 13Of which product was Qatar the world's leading exporter for most of the 2010s?
Liquefied natural gas
Gas made its economic growth the fastest in the world in the 2000s and gave it one of the highest per-capita carbon footprints on Earth.
Q 21Qatar's 'Inland Sea', where dunes roll into an inlet of the Gulf, is called what?
Khor al Adaid
It lies in the far southeast near the Saudi border and is a favourite dune-bashing spot.
Q 22How much rain does Qatar receive in an average year?
About 70 mm
Almost all of it falls between October and March; summer highs regularly top 40 C.
Q 23Ancient Qatar is thought to be the earliest known producer of what luxury reflected in its flag colour?
Shellfish purple dye
Kassite-era finds on the Al Khor Islands include crushed snail shells; pearls and dye were Qatar's exports under the Sasanians.
Q 14Foreign workers make up roughly what share of Qatar's population?
91 percent
Only around 340,000 people are citizens; Indians, Nepalese and Bangladeshis form the largest communities.
Q 15The sponsorship system that ties migrant workers in Qatar to their employers is known as what?
Kafala
Qatar has repeatedly announced its abolition since winning the World Cup, but rights groups say abuses continue.
Q 16Which satellite news network, launched in 1996, gave Qatar outsized influence in the Arab world?
Al Jazeera
Emir Hamad floated the idea in 1994 while still crown prince and abolished the Ministry of Information two years after the launch.
Q 17Qatar's Education City hosts branches of Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon and which medical school?
Weill Cornell
Texas A&M and Virginia Commonwealth are there too; the RAND Corporation was hired to overhaul the school system.
Q 18Which architect, coaxed out of retirement at 91, designed Doha's Museum of Islamic Art?
I. M. Pei
He spent six months touring the Muslim world for inspiration and insisted on an island so no future building could crowd it.
Q 19Which ruined pearling town on Qatar's northwest coast became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013?
Al Zubarah
The Al Khalifa family settled there from Kuwait in 1766 before going on to rule Bahrain; a restored 1930s fort guards the site.
Q 20What is the highest point in Qatar, at just 103 metres?
Qurayn Abu al Bawl
It sits in the Jebel Dukhan limestone outcrops in the west, above the country's main onshore oil field.
Q 24In late antiquity Qatar was part of a Christian region known by which Syriac name?
Beth Qatraye
Meaning 'house of the Qataris', it also covered Bahrain and Al-Hasa; monasteries were built before Islam arrived in 628.
Q 25To which power did Qatar's rulers submit in 1871, leading to the 1893 Battle of Al Wajbah?
The Ottoman Empire
The Qatari victory over the Ottoman column at Al Wajbah laid the basis for the country's autonomy.
Q 26Qatar National Day, 18 December, commemorates the succession of which ruler who unified the tribes?
Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani
The 2022 World Cup final was deliberately played on that date.
Q 27Which January 2021 agreement ended the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar begun in 2017?
The al-Ula declaration
Qatar met none of the original 13 demands; the blockade pushed it closer to Iran and Turkey instead.
Q 28Which US military facility in Qatar serves as the forward headquarters of Central Command?
Al Udeid Air Base
About 10,000 American personnel are based there; Qatar became a major non-NATO ally in 2022.
Q 29Qatar hosted a political office for which group to facilitate peace talks with the US and others?
The Taliban
Doha has also mediated between Fatah and Hamas, in Lebanon's 2008 crisis, in Darfur and in the 2023 US-Iran prisoner swap.
Q 30The 2022 World Cup in Qatar was the first held in which months, to dodge the summer heat?
November and December
It was also the last 32-team tournament and the first with concussion substitutes; the final fell on 18 December.