Switzerland Trivia
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This Switzerland trivia quiz has 59 free questions with answers and covers the country from every side: its geography (the Alps, the Matterhorn, Lake Geneva, the Rhine Falls, the longest rail tunnel on Earth), its odd politics (26 cantons, four national languages, a seven-person executive, referendums on everything, women voting only from 1971), its history (the 1291 charter, William Tell, Napoleon, the 1848 constitution, armed neutrality since 1815) and its exports, from Toblerone and Emmental to Rolex, Swatch, Victorinox, Nestlé, Velcro, LSD and the Helvetica typeface. The easy questions are ones most travellers can answer (which city is the capital, what shape the flag is, which mountain is on the Toblerone box). The medium ones ask about the languages, the Red Cross, the Swiss Guard, Heidi and Roger Federer. The hard ones dig into Sonderbund, Bircher-Benner, Albert Hofmann's bicycle ride and the year Appenzell finally let women vote. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many cantons make up the Swiss Confederation?
26
Switzerland has 26 cantons, six of them half-cantons with a single seat in the Council of States; the newest, Jura, was created in 1979.
Q 02Which city is Switzerland's de facto capital, known as the "federal city"?
Bern
The Federal Assembly voted to put the seat of government there in November 1848, sending the future ETH to Zurich as a compromise.
Q 03How many national languages does Switzerland have?
Four
Switzerland has four national languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh, the last spoken by about 0.5% of the population, mainly in Graubünden.
Q 04Roughly what share of Swiss residents speak German as their native language?
62%
About 62% of residents name German, including Swiss German dialects, as their main language, against roughly 23% French and 8% Italian.
Q 05The country code CH and the internet domain .ch come from Switzerland's Latin name. What is it?
Confoederatio Helvetica
Helvetica recalls the Helvetii, a Gaulish tribe of the Swiss Plateau; the neutral Latin avoids favouring any of the four languages.
Q 06The Federal Charter considered Switzerland's founding document dates from which year?
1291
The Federal Charter of 1291 records a defensive alliance of three forest communities in the central Alps; its early-August dating gives Switzerland its 1 August national day.
Q 07Switzerland has not fought an international war since which year?
1815
Swiss troops last fought abroad in 1815, briefly entering France after Napoleon's return; the Congress of Vienna that year guaranteed Swiss neutrality.
Q 08In which year did Switzerland finally join the United Nations?
2002
Switzerland joined the United Nations on 10 September 2002 after voters approved membership in a March 2002 referendum, the first country to join by popular vote.
Q 09The 1847 Swiss civil war was fought against a breakaway alliance of Catholic cantons known as what?
The Sonderbund
The Sonderbund, a separate league of seven Catholic cantons formed in 1845, was beaten by the federal army in under a month in November 1847, clearing the way for the 1848 constitution.
Q 10In which year did Swiss women win the right to vote in federal elections?
1971
Swiss women gained the federal vote on 7 February 1971, when male voters approved it by about two to one; some cantons had granted cantonal votes from 1959.
Q 11Which canton was the last to grant women full voting rights, in 1990?
Appenzell Innerrhoden
Appenzell Innerrhoden refused women the cantonal vote until the Federal Supreme Court imposed it on 27 November 1990; the canton decides matters at an open-air Landsgemeinde assembly.
Q 12How many members sit on the Federal Council, Switzerland's collective executive?
Seven
The Federal Council has seven members elected by the Federal Assembly, with the presidency rotating yearly among them; Elisabeth Kopp became its first woman member in 1984.
Q 13How many signatures must a Swiss popular initiative gather within 18 months to force a national vote?
100,000
Q 21At 3,454 metres, which is the highest railway station in Europe?
Jungfraujoch
Jungfraujoch, at 3,454 m, is the highest railway station in Europe; the Jungfrau Railway, open since 1912, tunnels through the Eiger and Mönch to reach it.
Q 22The Aletsch Glacier, the largest in the Alps, lies in which canton?
Valais
The Great Aletsch Glacier lies entirely in the canton of Valais, above the Rhône valley; about 23 km long, it anchors the Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage site.
Q 23The Rhine Falls, Europe's most powerful waterfall, lie between Zurich and which other canton?
Schaffhausen
The Rhine Falls straddle the cantons of Schaffhausen, on the Neuhausen am Rheinfall bank, and Zurich, on the Laufen-Uhwiesen side; the river drops about 23 m there.
A popular initiative needs 100,000 valid signatures within 18 months to force a national vote on a constitutional change; an optional referendum on a law needs 50,000 within 100 days.
Q 14What is unusual about the shape of the Swiss national flag?
It is square
The Swiss flag is square rather than rectangular, a shape almost no other national flag shares; its white cross has arms one-sixth longer than they are wide, fixed in 1889.
Q 15Which is Switzerland's highest mountain?
Monte Rosa (Dufourspitze)
Monte Rosa's Dufourspitze, at 4,634 m, is the highest point in Switzerland, beating the far more famous Matterhorn (4,478 m) by more than 150 metres.
Q 16The first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 was led by which English climber?
Edward Whymper
Edward Whymper led the first ascent on 14 July 1865; four of the seven-man party died on the descent when a rope broke, a disaster that made Zermatt famous.
Q 17The name Toblerone blends its founder's surname with which Italian word?
Torrone (nougat)
Toblerone joins Theodor Tobler's surname to torrone, the Italian honey-and-almond nougat; the triangular bar was launched in 1908.
Q 18Which body of water, shared with France, is Switzerland's largest?
Lake Geneva
The Rhône flows in and out of it; Lake Constance, shared with Germany and Austria, is second.
Q 19The Rhine and the Rhône both rise in the Swiss Alps. Roughly how far apart are their sources?
About 22 km
They end up 1,000 km apart, one in the North Sea at Rotterdam and the other in the Mediterranean.
Q 20The Gotthard Base Tunnel, opened in 2016, holds which world record?
Longest railway bore on Earth
At 57 km the Gotthard Base Tunnel is the longest railway bore on Earth, overtaking Japan's Seikan Tunnel; it gives trains the first flat route under the Alps.
Q 24Which Swiss city is home to the Bank for International Settlements?
Basel
The Bank for International Settlements, founded in 1930 as a bank for central banks, has its headquarters in Basel; the city is also home to the drug makers Roche and Novartis.
Q 25Which Swiss businessman founded the Red Cross and won the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901?
Henry Dunant
Henry Dunant witnessed the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in 1859 while travelling to petition Napoleon III; his memoir led to the Red Cross, and he shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.
Q 26Swiss citizens may not serve in foreign armies, with one famous exception. Which?
The Vatican's papal guard
Founded under Pope Julius II in 1506, the Guard is sometimes called the world's smallest army, with 135 members in 2024.
Q 27In which year was the Pontifical Swiss Guard established?
1506
The Pontifical Swiss Guard dates from 22 January 1506, when 150 Swiss mercenaries under Kaspar von Silenen entered Rome at the request of Pope Julius II.
Q 28Under the Swiss militia system, what do soldiers famously keep at home?
Their army-issued weapons
Swiss militia soldiers keep their army-issued weapons at home between service periods, a practice voters upheld in a 2011 referendum; ammunition has not been issued for home storage since 2007.
Q 29Which scientist became a Swiss citizen in 1901 and developed special relativity while working in Bern?
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein became Swiss in 1901 and published his 1905 special relativity paper while a patent clerk; he kept his Swiss citizenship for the rest of his life.
Q 30CERN straddles the border between France and which Swiss city?
Geneva
CERN's laboratory sits on the Franco-Swiss border at Meyrin just outside Geneva, a city that also hosts the UN's European headquarters and the WHO.