60 free Sri Lanka trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Sri Lanka has been called Taprobane, Serendib and Ceylon, and this quiz covers the whole island: the 3,000-year written record that starts with a prince from Bengal, the Bodhi tree planted in 245 BCE that is still alive, the rock fortress of Sigiriya, the Portuguese, Dutch and British, the coffee blight that turned the country to tea, independence in 1948, the world's first elected female prime minister and the civil war that ended in 2009. Easy questions ask for the old name, the capital, the neighbour across the Palk Strait and the sport everyone follows; the harder ones want the legislative capital's full name, the mountain with the sacred footprint, the king who built 1,470 reservoirs, the Arab name that gave English the word 'serendipity', the year Ceylon became a republic and the man who took 800 Test wickets. There is also the lion flag, Ceylon cinnamon, hoppers and kottu, Kandyan dance, the Esala Perahera and the tsunami of 2004. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its history, its landmarks and its people, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Sri Lanka lies just off the southern tip of which country?
India
A chain of limestone shoals called Adam's Bridge or Rama Setu links the two; legend says it was walkable until cyclones broke it up in 1480.
Q 02Which city is Sri Lanka's executive and judicial capital, and its largest city?
Colombo
The Portuguese built a fort there in 1517. The legislature sits in neighbouring Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, one of the world's longest capital names.
Q 03Sri Lanka's parliament sits in which city, its legislative capital?
Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte
Usually shortened to Kotte, it was the seat of a 15th-century kingdom and adjoins the Colombo urban area.
Q 04Which strait separates Sri Lanka from the subcontinent to its north-west?
Palk
Together with the Gulf of Mannar. Adam's Bridge, a chain of limestone shoals, runs across it between Mannar Island and India's Pamban Island.
Q 05In which year did the island gain independence from Britain?
1948
Independence Day is 4 February. D. S. Senanayake became the first prime minister and the Royal Navy stayed at Trincomalee until 1956.
Q 06In which year did the country become a republic and adopt the name Sri Lanka?
1972
The full title became the 'Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka' in 1978, when J. R. Jayawardene created a French-style executive presidency.
Q 07Sirimavo Bandaranaike made history in 1960 as the world's first what?
Elected female prime minister
She took over the party after her husband was assassinated by a Buddhist monk in 1959, and served three separate terms totalling more than 17 years.
Q 08The 26-year civil war that ended in 2009 was fought against which separatist group?
The Tamil Tigers
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fought for a separate state in the north and east. Between 60,000 and 100,000 people died.
Q 09Roughly what share of Sri Lankans are Sinhalese?
About 75%
Around 15% are Tamil-speaking Tamils; Moors, Burghers, Malays and the indigenous Vedda make up the rest.
Q 10Sri Lanka's two official languages are Sinhala and which other?
Tamil
English is constitutionally the 'link language'. The 1956 Sinhala Only Act, which briefly made Sinhala the sole official language, helped sow the ethnic conflict.
Q 11Which religion, followed by about 70% of Sri Lankans, is given 'the foremost place' by the constitution?
Buddhism
Sri Lanka has the longest continuous Buddhist history of any majority-Buddhist country, and Buddhists mark Poya days at each full moon.
Q 12By tradition, Buddhism reached Sri Lanka in 250 BCE with Mahinda, the son of which Indian emperor?
Ashoka
He converted King Devanampiya Tissa at Mihintale. Mahinda's sister Sanghamitta followed five years later with a cutting of the Bodhi tree.
Q 13The Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi at Anuradhapura, grown from a cutting brought from India in 245 BCE, is the world's oldest what?
Human-planted tree on record
Q 21The Esala Perahera festival of dancers and decorated elephants is held in which city?
Kandy
Fire dances and whip-crackers lead processions from the Temple of the Tooth over ten nights.
Q 22Before tea, which crop was the island's main export until a leaf disease wiped it out in the 1870s and 80s?
Coffee
The fungus Hemileia vastatrix struck in 1869. Planter James Taylor had begun growing tea in 1867, and the British switched wholesale.
Q 23Which British planter introduced tea cultivation to the island in 1867?
James Taylor
His Loolecondera estate near Kandy was the first. Thomas Lipton came later and bought plantations to supply his shops.
It grows at Anuradhapura, which served as the capital for almost 1,400 years and is now a UNESCO site.
Q 14Sigiriya, the 5th-century 'Fortress in the Sky', was built by which king?
Kashyapa I
He put his palace atop a 180-metre granite column, entered through a gateway shaped like a giant lion. Only the paws survive today.
Q 15The name Sigiriya means what?
Lion Rock
From Sinhagiri, after the enormous lion gateway halfway up. It later became a Buddhist monastery and is famous for its frescoes and 'mirror wall'.
Q 16Which king, ruling 1153-1186, built 1,470 reservoirs including the Parakrama Samudra, the most of any Sri Lankan ruler?
Parakramabahu the Great
His reign is seen as the peak of Sri Lankan power; he even sent a punitive expedition against Burma.
Q 17The English word 'serendipity' derives from an old Arab and Persian name for Sri Lanka. What was it?
Serendib
Horace Walpole coined 'serendipity' in 1754 after the fairy tale 'The Three Princes of Serendip'. The Greeks called the island Taprobane.
Q 18In which order did the three European colonial powers control parts of the island?
Portuguese, Dutch, British
Lourenço de Almeida arrived in 1505; the Dutch took Colombo in 1656; Britain seized the coast in 1796 and Kandy in 1815.
Q 19Which inland city was the last independent Sinhalese kingdom, falling to the British in 1815?
Kandy
The last king, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, was exiled to India. The city still houses the sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha.
Q 20The Temple of the Tooth houses a relic said to be a tooth of whom?
The Buddha
Possession of the relic traditionally conferred the right to rule. Each summer it is paraded on an elephant during the Esala Perahera festival.
Q 24'True cinnamon', Cinnamomum verum, is named for its origins on which island?
Sri Lanka
Most cinnamon sold worldwide is actually cassia from China, Indonesia or Vietnam. The spice drew the Portuguese to the island in 1505.
Q 25Sri Lanka's flag shows a golden lion holding a sword. What appears in each of its four corners?
A bo leaf
The leaves of the sacred fig represent Buddhism; the teal and orange stripes stand for the Muslim and Tamil minorities.
Q 26What is Sri Lanka's highest mountain?
Pidurutalagala
It rises 2,524 metres above Nuwara Eliya. Adam's Peak is lower but far more famous because of the footprint-shaped hollow at its summit.
Q 27The rock formation at the summit of Adam's Peak, sacred to four religions, resembles what?
A footprint
Buddhists say it is the Buddha's, Hindus Shiva's, and Muslims and Christians attribute it to Adam or St Thomas. Pilgrims climb by night to see the sunrise.
Q 28What is Sri Lanka's longest river?
The Mahaweli
It runs 335 km from the central highlands to Trincomalee. The island has 103 rivers and 51 waterfalls over ten metres high.
Q 29In which year did Sri Lanka win the Cricket World Cup?
1996
They beat Australia in Lahore, having pioneered all-out attacking batting in the opening overs. They lost the finals of 2007 and 2011.
Q 30Which Sri Lankan spinner is the only bowler to take 800 Test wickets?
Muttiah Muralitharan
He took the 800th with his final ball in Tests, against India in 2010. Wisden rated him the greatest Test bowler ever.