Squid Game Trivia
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94 free Squid Game trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
15 free Squid Game trivia questions with answers. How well do you know Squid Game? These questions cover how the Netflix series was written, cast, designed and awarded, with a source behind every answer. Play, then share your score.
30 of 94 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who created, wrote and directed Squid Game?
Hwang Dong-hyuk
Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote and directed all nine episodes of season one himself; his earlier features include Silenced, Miss Granny and The Fortress.
Q 02In what year did Hwang Dong-hyuk write the original Squid Game script?
2009
Hwang wrote it in 2009 while struggling with debt of his own, drawing on Japanese survival manga he had been reading in a comic cafe. Netflix only took an interest around 2019.
Q 03What did South Korean producers keep telling Hwang his story was, when he spent years trying to sell it?
Too grotesque and unrealistic
Hwang himself worried the storyline was "too difficult to understand and bizarre", and the companies he pitched agreed, calling it too grotesque and unrealistic. He shelved it and made three other films instead.
Q 04Under what title did Netflix originally plan to release Squid Game?
Round 6
Netflix worried the Korean children's game would mean nothing to international viewers and preferred Round 6, which described the format. Hwang pushed for his own title, and its strangeness turned out to be part of the draw.
Q 05How many debt-ridden players enter Squid Game's secret contest at the start of season one?
456
The 456 players are all in deep financial hardship, and the prize pot grows by ₩100 million for each one eliminated.
Q 06The endless pastel staircases in the players' quarters were modelled on the drawings of which artist?
M. C. Escher
Production designer Chae Kyoung-sun drew on Escher's four-dimensional stair drawings, Relativity among them, and described the resulting stairways as "a form of bondage for the contestants".
Q 07The warren of tunnels linking the arena, dormitory and offices was designed to imitate what?
An ant colony
Production designer Chae Kyoung-sun modelled the warren of corridors on an ant colony, a branching maze in pastel colours built so the players feel trapped inside something designed to control them.
Q 08The masked guards wear a circle, a triangle or a square. What does the shape tell you?
Their rank among the staff
Circles are the workers, triangles the soldiers and squares the managers. The three shapes are also the markings of the playing field for the Korean children's game the show is named after.
Q 09The players' green tracksuits were modelled on what kind of clothing?
1970s Korean athletic wear
The costume team took the tracksuits from trainingbok, the athletic wear of 1970s Korea. Giving players and guards each a single flat colour was meant to strip away individuality.
Q 10How far off the ground was the Glass Stepping Stones set actually built?
About 1.5 metres
The vertigo was added in post-production with chroma key screens. Even so, 1.5 metres was enough to make the cast visibly nervous, which helped the scene. The tug-of-war set really was more than 10 metres up.
Q 11The three characters Seong Gi-hun, Cho Sang-woo and Oh Il-nam take their names from what?
Hwang's own childhood friends
Hwang named them after boys he grew up with, including one called Hwang Jun-ho who had an older brother named Hwang In-ho — a pairing the series reuses.
Q 12The protagonist's history as a laid-off car worker was drawn from which real South Korean event?
The SsangYong Motor strike
Hwang based Gi-hun's background on the organisers of the 2009 SsangYong Motor strike against mass layoffs, the same year he was writing the script.
Q 13How many Primetime Emmy Awards did the first season take home?
Six
Q 21In Squid Game season one, Gi-hun allies with which player, his childhood friend from the old neighbourhood?
Cho Sang-woo
Cho Sang-woo is the neighbourhood's pride, a Seoul National University graduate who is on the run for fraud when he joins the games.
Q 22In season two, which North Korean defector is recruited to guard the players?
Kang No-eul
Kang No-eul, played by Park Gyu-young, is a North Korean defector and former soldier who takes a guard's uniform while searching for the daughter she left behind.
Q 23Which pregnant player does Gi-hun ally with in season two?
Kim Jun-hee
Kim Jun-hee, Player 222, is pregnant by fellow player Myung-gi; she gives birth during season three, and her baby is ultimately declared the games' winner.
Six wins from fourteen nominations, plus a Golden Globe. The nominations included Outstanding Drama Series, a first for a show not in English.
Q 14Why was Lee Jung-jae's 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series historic?
It was the first win for a role not in English
No non-English-speaking performance had ever taken the category, and Lee was also the first Asian man to win it.
Q 15What is the grand prize on offer to the winner of the games?
₩45.6 billion
The prize is ₩45.6 billion: ₩100 million for each of the 456 players, added to the pot as each one is eliminated, roughly $38 million at 2021 exchange rates.
Q 16The series is named after ojingeo nori, which is what?
A Korean children's game
Ojingeo nori, 'squid play', is a Korean children's game played on a court of a circle, triangle and square drawn to resemble a squid; ojingeo means squid.
Q 17On what date was the first season released worldwide on Netflix?
September 17, 2021
Squid Game premiered worldwide on Netflix on September 17, 2021; Netflix reported 142 million member households watched it in its first four weeks, its biggest series launch to that point.
Q 18What colour jumpsuits do the masked guards wear?
Pink
The guards wear pink jumpsuits with black masks, a deliberate contrast with the players' green tracksuits; only the Front Man dresses in black.
Q 19What is the relationship between detective Hwang Jun-ho and the Front Man?
They are brothers
They are brothers, and season two has Jun-ho join Gi-hun in the hunt for the island to end the game for good.
Q 20How many years after winning the game does Gi-hun re-enter it in season two?
Three
Season two picks up three years after Gi-hun's win; he has spent that time hunting the recruiter and re-enters the games as Player 456 to shut them down.
Q 24How many views did season two rack up in its first four days, breaking Netflix's premiere record?
68 million
Netflix reported 68 million views for season two in its first four days after the December 26, 2024 release, beating the 50.1 million that Wednesday's first season had set.
Q 25In how many countries did season two rank number one, according to Netflix?
92
Netflix reported that season two ranked number one in 92 countries in its first week after its December 26, 2024 release.
Q 26Which Umberto Eco-inspired project was Hwang working on in 2022 between seasons?
Killing Old People Club
Hwang announced Killing Old People Club in 2022, a film drawn from Umberto Eco's essay collection Pape Satàn Aleppe: Chronicles of a Liquid Society, and warned it would be more violent than Squid Game.
Q 27What is the name of the giant robot doll Young-hee's 'boyfriend', introduced in season two's post-credits scene?
Cheol-su
Cheol-su is the boy doll paired with Young-hee; he turns up in season three's jump-rope game, where the two dolls swing the rope over the players.
Q 28Which Hollywood star cameos in the finale as a recruiter for an American version of the games?
Cate Blanchett
Cate Blanchett appears in the series finale playing ddakji against a man in an American alley, a recruiter for a US game; Hwang said the cameo was not meant to set up any spin-off.
Q 29How had Hwang originally written the ending of the final season before changing it?
Gi-hun escapes and goes to see his daughter
He rewrote it so Gi-hun sacrifices himself for Jun-hee's baby, a symbol of the next generation.
Q 30How many players are left after season one's Red Light, Green Light?
201
Red Light, Green Light kills 255 of the 456 players, leaving 201; they then vote 101 to 100 to end the games, with the pot at that point standing at ₩25.5 billion.