Seoul Trivia
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98 free Seoul trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Seoul has been Wiryeseong, Hanyang, Hanseong, Keijō and Hwang Seong, and its very name just means 'capital'. This quiz covers the story: Baekje's founding in 18 BC, Yi Seong-gye's Confucian city plan, Sejong inventing Hangul at Gyeongbokgung, the Imjin War fires, Edison's palace lights, Japanese demotion, the 1946 charter and a Korean War in which the city changed hands four times. The modern city gets its due: the five palaces and Changdeokgung's UNESCO listing, N Seoul Tower, Lotte World Tower's 555 metres, Zaha Hadid's Dongdaemun Design Plaza, the Cheonggyecheon stream freed from its expressway, Namdaemun's arson, hanok villages, Jongno's bell and the Seoullo Skypark. There are questions on the 940-km subway, Incheon and Gimpo, Hodori and Ben Johnson at the 1988 Olympics, the 2002 World Cup opener, Gangnam's floods and Psy, Yeouido, Jinro soju and Sejong City. Easy questions ask which river splits the city and which district Psy made famous; hard ones want the 2005 Chinese name and the boycotting nations of 1988. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the city and its landmarks, and each question carries the sentence that supports it. Try our South Korea and K-pop quizzes next.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Seoul's history traces back to 18 BC, when it was founded by which of Korea's Three Kingdoms?
Baekje
Baekje's capital Wiryeseong is thought to have stood inside the earthen ramparts of Pungnap Toseong in southeastern Seoul.
Q 02The word 'seoul' is a native Korean common noun meaning what?
Capital city
'Seoul' is simply the native Korean word for capital city; unlike most Korean place names it has no Chinese characters, so Chinese speakers long called it Hancheng.
Q 03Under Japanese colonial rule from 1910, the city was renamed what?
Keijō
Japan renamed the city Keijō (Gyeongseong in Korean) in 1910 and demoted it to a municipality of Gyeonggi Province; much of the old wall was torn down.
Q 04Which founder of the Joseon dynasty chose Hanyang, today's Seoul, as his new capital in 1394?
Yi Seong-gye
Yi Seong-gye, enthroned as King Taejo in 1392, moved the court from Gaegyeong to Hanyang, laying the city out on Confucian principles with the palace facing south.
Q 05During the Korean War, Seoul changed hands between the two sides how often?
Four times
Seoul changed hands four times: it fell to the North in June 1950, was retaken by UN forces that September, fell to Chinese and North Korean troops in January 1951 and was recaptured in March 1951.
Q 06Which planned town south of Seoul has been South Korea's de facto administrative centre since 2012?
Sejong
Sejong, a purpose-built city carved from South Chungcheong, opened in 2012 and houses most government ministries; a 2004 Constitutional Court ruling kept Seoul the formal capital by 'customary constitution'.
Q 07Which river bisects Seoul into northern and southern halves?
The Han
The Han River flows west through the centre of Seoul before emptying into the Yellow Sea; riverside parks such as Banpo and Ttukseom line its banks.
Q 08Which mountain forms Seoul's northern edge?
Bukhansan
Bukhansan, rising to 836 m at Baegundae, straddles Seoul's boundary with Gyeonggi Province; its granite peaks are protected as Bukhansan National Park.
Q 09Gyeongbokgung, the first Joseon royal palace, was established in which year?
1395
Gyeongbokgung was completed in 1395, a year after the Joseon court moved to Hanyang; Heungseon Daewongun rebuilt the long-ruined palace in the 1860s.
Q 10Which king led the creation of the Korean alphabet, Hangul, at Gyeongbokgung during his 1418–1450 reign?
Sejong the Great
Sejong the Great commissioned Hangul, promulgated in 1446 as Hunminjeongeum; his bronze statue has stood on Gwanghwamun Plaza since 2009.
Q 11Which invasion saw Gyeongbokgung and Seoul's other royal palaces burn?
The Imjin War
The Imjin War, Japan's 1592–98 invasions under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, left the palace a ruin for some 270 years until Heungseon Daewongun's 1860s rebuilding.
Q 12Which Joseon palace in Seoul became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997?
Changdeokgung
Changdeokgung, built in 1405 as a secondary palace, was inscribed by UNESCO in 1997 for its Huwon rear garden and its harmony with the hillside terrain.
Q 13The N Seoul Tower stands on the summit of which mountain in central Seoul?
Namsan
N Seoul Tower, finished in 1971 and opened to visitors in 1980, crowns Namsan, the wooded hill immediately south of Seoul's old walled centre.
Q 21Which Canadian sprinter won the Seoul 100 metres in 9.79 seconds before a doping disqualification?
Ben Johnson
Ben Johnson beat Carl Lewis in 9.79 seconds on 24 September but tested positive for the steroid stanozolol and was stripped of the gold three days later.
Q 22Seoul World Cup Stadium hosted what at the 2002 FIFA World Cup?
The opening ceremony and first game
Seoul World Cup Stadium staged the opening ceremony and first game, France's 1–0 loss to Senegal on 31 May 2002; it also hosted the Korea–Germany semi-final.
Q 23Whose bronze statue, unveiled in 1968, stands at the southern end of Gwanghwamun Plaza?
Yi Sun-sin
Q 14The Lotte World Tower, opened in 2017, is how tall?
555 m
Lotte World Tower rises 555 m across 123 floors in Songpa District; opened in April 2017, it was the world's fifth-tallest building on completion.
Q 15Which architect designed the curving design plaza at the east gate, opened in 2014?
Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid's design plaza is a flowing neofuturist structure clad in some 45,000 aluminium panels; excavations on the site uncovered stretches of the old city wall.
Q 16The Cheonggyecheon stream in downtown Seoul was restored in 2005 after decades buried beneath what?
An elevated expressway
An elevated expressway built in 1976 ran above the culverted stream until it was torn down in 2003; the 386-billion-won restoration opened in October 2005.
Q 17Which mayor of Seoul, later president, initiated the Cheonggyecheon restoration in July 2003?
Lee Myung-bak
Lee Myung-bak, Seoul's mayor from 2002 to 2006, made the stream's restoration his signature project; he was elected president in December 2007.
Q 18Seoul hosted the Summer Olympics in which year?
1988
The 1988 Summer Olympics ran in Seoul from 17 September to 2 October with a then-record 159 nations; the city had hosted the Asian Games in 1986.
Q 19What animal was Hodori, the mascot of the Seoul Olympics?
A tiger
Kim Hyun designed the friendly Amur tiger; the official song 'Hand in Hand' was written by Giorgio Moroder and performed by Koreana.
Q 20Which countries boycotted the Seoul Olympics alongside North Korea?
Cuba, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and Madagascar
Cuba, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and Madagascar all stayed away, the first three in open support of North Korea's boycott; even so 159 nations attended, the most of any Games to that date.
Admiral Yi Sun-sin's bronze statue, sculpted by Kim Se-jung and unveiled on 27 April 1968, stands at the southern end of Gwanghwamun Plaza.
Q 24Seoul's Line 1 subway replaced which form of transport along the old Bell Street in the early 1970s?
Streetcars
Streetcars ran through Seoul from 1899, when the Hanseong Electric Company opened a line along the street, until the network closed in November 1968.
Q 25Seoul's main international airport, opened in 2001 on Yeongjong island, is called what?
Incheon
Incheon International, the country's main gateway, opened in March 2001 on reclaimed land between Yeongjong and Yongyu islands, some 50 km west of Seoul; the AREX rail line links it to the city.
Q 26Which district on Seoul's south bank is the city's byword for wealth and private academies?
Gangnam
Gangnam, literally 'south of the river', was farmland until the 1970s and grew into Seoul's wealthiest district, the setting of Psy's 2012 hit 'Gangnam Style'.
Q 27Which Joseon royal tombs lie among the office towers of Samseong-dong?
Seonjeongneung
Seonjeongneung holds the tombs of King Seongjong and King Jungjong; the park sits among the high-rises of Samseong-dong and was inscribed by UNESCO with the other Joseon royal tombs in 2009.
Q 28Which Seoul district, seat of the National Assembly, is the city's securities-trading hub?
Yeouido
Yeouido, an island in the river, houses the National Assembly, the Korea Exchange's stock market and the head offices of most big securities firms, making it Seoul's financial centre.
Q 29Which soju brand, founded in 1924, was the world's best-selling spirit by volume in 2021?
Jinro
Jinro, founded in 1924 and acquired by Hite in 2005, was the world's best-selling spirit brand by volume in 2021, far ahead of Smirnoff.
Q 30Namdaemun, Seoul's south gate, lost its status as the oldest wooden gate after what happened in 2008?
An arson attack
An arson attack on 10 February 2008 by a 69-year-old man with a land grievance gutted the wooden upper storey; the gate reopened after a full restoration in May 2013.