Stranger Things Season 1
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50 free Stranger Things Season 1 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The first season of Stranger Things arrived on Netflix in July 2016, all eight chapters at once. Set in November 1983, it follows a small town turned inside out when a boy disappears on his ride home and a girl with a shaved head walks out of the woods. This quiz covers the whole season: the search for Will, what Eleven can do and where she came from, the monster the boys put a name to, the teenagers who decide to hunt it, and what Joyce and Hopper find on the other side. Later questions turn to the casting, the synth score, the 1980s films the Duffer Brothers borrowed from and the awards the season collected. It is written for fans who have watched the season at least once. The opening questions stick to the moments most viewers remember; the later ones reward a rewatch and a taste for behind-the-scenes detail.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Stranger Things season 1, what does Joyce string over a painted alphabet so Will can send messages?
Christmas lights
Christmas lights let Will show he is still inside the house with his mother, and he uses them to warn her to run just before the Demogorgon pushes through the wall.
Q 02In the Stranger Things season 1 epilogue, which food does Hopper leave in a box in the woods?
Eggo waffles
Eggo waffles are Eleven's favorite, so the stash hints that she is still alive. Real-world demand for them rose afterwards, and Kellogg lent Netflix a vintage advert for its Super Bowl spot.
Q 03Which game do Will and his friends play for ten hours on the night he vanishes in Stranger Things season 1?
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons also names the monster: the boys call it the Demogorgon after the game's demon, and Eleven flips the board to show where Will is hiding.
Q 04Which band's Should I Stay or Should I Go plays as Will reaches out to Joyce in Stranger Things season 1?
The Clash
The Clash were reluctant to lend the song to a show about monsters, so the music supervisor won the band round by stressing its family bonds. She has called the track an unseen extra character.
Q 05In Stranger Things season 1, what does Eleven call Dr. Martin Brenner, the scientist who holds her captive?
Papa
Papa is her name for the man who exploits her abilities and punishes her when she refuses a test, while the agents he sends after her are simply the bad men.
Q 06In Stranger Things season 1, what happens to Eleven's body each time she uses her psychic powers?
Her nose bleeds
Her nose bleeds whenever she strains, and the bigger the object or the farther away the person she reaches for, the more the effort drains her.
Q 07What does Will cough up and hide from his family in the final scene of Stranger Things season 1?
A slug
A slug like the one Eleven saw crawl out of Barb's body shows Will has not escaped cleanly, and he also glimpses the Upside Down for a moment.
Q 08Which actress agreed to play Joyce in Stranger Things only if she could leave for a Beetlejuice sequel?
Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder had never taken a regular TV role and did not know what streaming was when the pilot script arrived. The sequel was finally shot without interrupting the series.
Q 09As Brenner's agents chase the children in Stranger Things season 1, what does Eleven flip with her mind?
A van
A van blocking the road is tossed clear so the children can escape, a feat that wins back the friend who had doubted her and sends them all into hiding in a junkyard.
Q 10What do the group pour into a kiddie pool so Eleven can float in Stranger Things season 1?
Salt
Salt by the ton turns a kiddie pool into a homemade sensory deprivation chamber, and floating in it lets Eleven find Will alive in the Upside Down.
Q 11The fictional town of Hawkins in Stranger Things season 1 sits in which Midwestern US state?
Indiana
Indiana replaced a real Long Island seaside setting in the original script, and inventing a town freed the Duffers to do things to it, such as placing it under quarantine.
Q 12In Stranger Things season 1, where do searchers recover the fake body passed off as Will's?
A quarry
A quarry near town yields the body, but Hopper turns suspicious when the usual coroner is sent home and beats the truth out of the state trooper who found it.
Q 13In Stranger Things season 1, where is Barb left alone when the Demogorgon takes her?
By a swimming pool
Q 21In Stranger Things season 1, what birth name do Joyce and Hopper learn belonged to Eleven?
Jane
Jane is the daughter Terry Ives insisted was stolen from her at birth, although her family had been told that she lost the baby late in the pregnancy.
Q 22Which boy does Eleven hurl away from Mike with her mind during a fight in Stranger Things season 1?
Lucas
Lucas mistrusts the newcomer after she secretly sabotages their search for the gate, yet it is he who later warns Mike that agents are closing in on the house.
Q 23Stranger Things season 1 was filmed mainly in and around which US city, with nearby Jackson as Hawkins?
Atlanta
Atlanta won out because a late autumn shoot made Long Island too cold, and the Duffers, raised in North Carolina, found the area reminded them of their own childhoods.
By a swimming pool at Steve's house is where Barb vanishes during a party, and guilt at ditching her there drives Nancy to hunt the creature for the rest of the season.
Q 14In Stranger Things season 1, how does Hopper revive Will after pulling a tendril from his throat?
He gives him CPR
He gives him CPR until the boy breathes again, a rescue Hopper bought by handing Eleven's whereabouts to Brenner in return for passage into the Upside Down.
Q 15In which Upside Down building do Hopper and Joyce finally find Will in Stranger Things season 1?
The public library
The public library in its Upside Down form is where the Demogorgon keeps its victims, and the pair pass Barb's body there before they reach Will.
Q 16Which hunting device do Nancy and Jonathan use to pin the Demogorgon in Stranger Things season 1?
A bear trap
A bear trap holds the Demogorgon at the Byers house long enough for the teenagers to set it alight, which stalls its pursuit of Joyce and Hopper in the other dimension.
Q 17Which actor, long cast in small villain roles, finally got a lead as Chief Hopper in Stranger Things?
David Harbour
David Harbour struck the Duffers as an actor who had waited too long for a lead, and he relished the chance to play a broken, flawed anti-hero.
Q 18In the Stranger Things season 1 epilogue, what gift does Nancy give Jonathan to replace one Steve broke?
A camera
A camera is the gift because Steve smashed Jonathan's old one over photos taken at his party, one of which later reveals the monster lurking behind Barb.
Q 19In Stranger Things season 1, what kind of business does Benny run, where the escaped Eleven first turns up?
A diner
A diner called Benny's Burgers is where its owner feeds the girl and rings social services, a kindness that gets him shot when lab agents answer the call instead.
Q 20Which actor plays Dr. Martin Brenner, the head of Hawkins Lab, in Stranger Things season 1?
Matthew Modine
Matthew Modine gave the writers significant input on Brenner, a part the Duffers had barely fleshed out and considered the hardest character in the story to write.
Q 24In Stranger Things season 1, where on the Byers property is Will hiding when the monster takes him?
In the family shed
In the family shed Will arms himself with a rifle as the bulb overhead flares, then he is gone. The bike he ditched on the road tells police he did not run away.
Q 25In Stranger Things season 1, which animal does Eleven refuse to harm with her mind, angering Brenner?
A cat
A cat is the one creature she will not hurt, and Brenner punishes her for the refusal in a flashback during the chapter titled Holly, Jolly.
Q 26Which actress earned an Emmy nomination for playing Barb in Stranger Things season 1, her first screen role?
Shannon Purser
Shannon Purser left a job at a movie theater to act, and fans who felt Barb had been forgotten built a campaign that shaped the opening of the following season.
Q 27In which Stranger Things season 1 chapter does Eleven find Barb dead and Will alive in the Upside Down?
The Bathtub
The Bathtub is the seventh chapter, named for the homemade tank the group builds to boost Eleven's powers, and the one listed with Millie Bobby Brown's first Emmy nomination.
Q 28Which real Cold War government program did Eleven's mother join while pregnant in Stranger Things season 1?
Project MKUltra
Project MKUltra let the Duffers ground their monster in science rather than the spiritual, drawing on bizarre Cold War experiments they had read about.
Q 29In Stranger Things season 1, Hawkins National Laboratory is a secret facility of which arm of the US government?
Department of Energy
Department of Energy staff at the lab use Eleven to track Russian spies and hope to turn the creatures of the Upside Down into weapons.
Q 30Which everyday instruments do the boys follow to hunt for the gate in Stranger Things season 1?
Compasses
Compasses should be thrown off by a gate strong enough to disturb Earth's electromagnetic field, the boys reason, until a frightened Eleven turns the needles to lead them astray.