50 free San Jose trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This San Jose trivia quiz covers the biggest city in the Bay Area from its founding as the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe in 1777 to its 1988 motto, "Capital of Silicon Valley". It asks about the two years San Jose spent as California's first state capital, the mercury mines of Almaden, the orchards of the Valley of Heart's Delight, the world's first scheduled radio broadcasts, IBM's hard disk drive and the tech giants headquartered downtown today. There are questions on the landmarks and teams too: Sarah Winchester's ever-growing mansion, Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose State's Speed City sprinters, the Sharks and their Shark Tank, the Earthquakes and the first goal in MLS history, and the Bacharach song that made everyone ask for directions. Easy questions ask which county San Jose sits in; the hard end wants dates, mayors and record-book details. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on San Jose, its history, its institutions and its sports teams, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01San Jose is the county seat of which California county?
Santa Clara
It sits in the Santa Clara Valley at the southern end of San Francisco Bay and covers about 180 square miles.
Q 02In which year was San Jose founded as the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe?
1777
It was the first civilian town in the Californias, founded by José Joaquín Moraga on November 29; Los Angeles followed in 1781.
Q 03The name San Jose honours which biblical figure?
Joseph
The full name meant "the Town of Saint Joseph of Guadalupe"; the original pueblo stood near today's Plaza de César Chávez.
Q 04What distinction did San Jose hold when California joined the Union in 1850?
It was the first capital
Legislators met there from 1849 to 1851 before decamping to Vallejo; the site of the first capitol is now Plaza de César Chávez.
Q 05California's first legislative sessions, held in San Jose in 1850 and 1851, earned what boozy nickname?
Legislature of a Thousand Drinks
Unhappy with the lack of suitable buildings, the legislators accepted Mariano Vallejo's offer of land for a new capital at Benicia.
Q 06Who was San Jose's first mayor after incorporation in 1850?
Josiah Belden
Belden had crossed the California Trail with the Bartleson Party in 1841 and made a fortune; Fallon had captured the pueblo in 1846.
Q 07Which mayor adopted the motto "Capital of Silicon Valley" in 1988?
Tom McEnery
Two years later the 1990 census showed San Jose had overtaken San Francisco as the Bay Area's most populous city.
Q 08According to which census did San Jose first surpass San Francisco in population?
1990
It is now the 13th most populous US city, though it slipped back under one million residents after 2020, only the second US city ever to do so.
Q 09Before San Jose, which was the only US city to fall back below one million residents?
Detroit
The 2022 estimate of 971,233 was a 4.1% drop from the 2020 census, blamed on housing costs and remote work.
Q 10Before the tech boom, the orchard-filled region around San Jose went by what nickname?
Valley of Heart's Delight
Prunes, grapes and apricots were major crops before urban sprawl ate the orchards in the 1970s.
Q 11Which vegetable was first farmed commercially in the United States in San Jose in 1922?
Broccoli
Brothers Stephano and Andrea D'Arrigo started it; their company still sells produce under the Andy Boy label.
Q 12San Jose's Almaden Valley is named for mines producing which metal, vital to gold-rush ore processing?
Mercury
The New Almaden mines also supplied mercury fulminate for military blasting caps from 1870 to 1945; the site is now Almaden Quicksilver County Park.
Q 13Which company was the city's largest employer for years until its cannery closed in 1999?
Del Monte
World War II shifted the economy toward manufacturing when FMC was contracted to build 1,000 amphibious landing vehicles.
Q 21Lick Observatory, east of San Jose, sits on top of which mountain?
Mount Hamilton
It was the world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory; San Jose switched to sodium street lamps to cut its light pollution.
Q 22Where is James Lick, the observatory's benefactor, buried?
Under the telescope
He was interred there in 1887 beneath the future site of the 36-inch refractor, with a brass plaque reading "Here lies the body of James Lick".
Q 23Which moon of Jupiter, the first found since Galileo's time, was discovered at Lick Observatory in 1892?
Amalthea
Charles Perrine later found the sixth and seventh moons, Himalia and Elara, there in 1905.
Q 14Which company opened San Jose operations in 1943 and later invented the hard disk drive there?
IBM
Reynold Johnson's team built the RAMAC 305 at the IBM lab opened in 1952, launching the city's tech economy.
Q 15What was Charles Herrold's 1909 station, regarded as the first with scheduled radio programming, called?
San Jose Calling
His wife Sybil became the first female disc jockey in 1912; the station eventually became KCBS in San Francisco.
Q 16Which of these tech companies is headquartered in San Jose?
Adobe
Cisco, eBay, PayPal, NetApp, Cadence and Zoom are also based in the city; Apple is in Cupertino and Google in Mountain View.
Q 17San Jose's mansion tourist attraction was built over decades by the widow of which kind of magnate?
A firearms maker
Sarah Winchester's husband William Wirt Winchester was heir to the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune; she moved west in 1886.
Q 18When Sarah Winchester died in 1922, how many rooms did her San Jose house contain?
160
It also had 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways and 13 bathrooms; at its largest, before disaster struck, it had about 500 rooms.
Q 19What destroyed the seven-story tower of the Winchester house?
The 1906 earthquake
Sarah Winchester had the rubble cleared but did little more, leaving doors that open onto nothing and stairs that end suddenly.
Q 20How long after Sarah Winchester's death did her house open as a tourist attraction?
Nine months
The myths about round-the-clock construction to appease spirits grew up around the tours; historians say construction actually paused for years.
Q 24San Jose's Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum holds the largest ancient Egyptian collection in which region?
The western United States
It was founded by the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, whose leader Harvey Spencer Lewis had helped fund digs at Amarna in the 1920s.
Q 25San Jose State University, founded in 1857, is the oldest public university in which region?
The western United States
It began as a normal school in San Francisco, moved to San Jose in 1871 and became the founding campus of the California State University system.
Q 26What nickname did San Jose State's track team earn while producing Tommie Smith, John Carlos and Lee Evans?
Speed City
Smith and Carlos gave the raised-fist salute on the podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics; a statue of them stands on campus.
Q 27Which two San Jose State alumni won a combined four Super Bowls as NFL head coaches?
Bill Walsh and Dick Vermeil
Other alumni include Amy Tan, Lou Henry Hoover and competitive eater Joey Chestnut; Intel and Oracle were founded by SJSU alumni.
Q 28What is the mascot name of San Jose State's sports teams?
Spartans
They compete in the Mountain West Conference; SJSU athletes have competed at every Olympics since 1948.
Q 29In which season did the San Jose Sharks begin play in the NHL?
1991-92
They spent two seasons at the Cow Palace in Daly City before moving to the San Jose Arena in 1993.
Q 30"Sharks" was actually the runner-up in the fan vote to name the team. What name finished first?
Blades
The Gund brothers worried "Blades" sounded like weapons; more than 5,000 names were mailed in.