This Switzerland trivia quiz has 60 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 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many cantons make up the Swiss Confederation?
26
Six of them are so-called half-cantons with only one seat in the Council of States; Jura, the newest, split from Bern 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
German, French, Italian and Romansh, the last spoken by about 0.5% of the population in the canton of Grisons.
Q 04Roughly what share of Swiss residents speak German as their native language?
62%
French accounts for about 23% and Italian for 8%.
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
It was a defensive alliance of the valley communities of the central Alps; 1 August is now the national day.
Q 07Switzerland has not fought an international war since which year?
1815
Its policy of armed neutrality dates back to the 16th century; it only joined the UN in the 21st century.
Q 08In which year did Switzerland finally join the United Nations?
2002
It was the first state to join by popular referendum; it is still not a member of the European Union.
Q 09The 1847 Swiss civil war was fought against a breakaway alliance of Catholic cantons known as what?
The Sonderbund
The federal victory led directly to the 1848 constitution that created modern Switzerland.
Q 10In which year did Swiss women win the right to vote in federal elections?
1971
The last canton, Appenzell Innerrhoden, held out until a Federal Supreme Court ruling in 1990.
Q 11Which canton was the last to grant women full voting rights, in 1990?
Appenzell Innerrhoden
It is one of only two cantons that still decides matters at an open-air Landsgemeinde assembly.
Q 12How many members sit on the Federal Council, Switzerland's collective executive?
Seven
Elisabeth Kopp became the first woman on it in 1984 and Ruth Dreifuss the first female president in 1999.
Q 13How many signatures must a Swiss popular initiative gather within 18 months to force a national vote?
100,000
Any law passed by parliament can also be challenged by an optional referendum.
Q 21At 3,454 metres, which is the highest railway station in Europe?
Jungfraujoch
The line, open since 1912, tunnels through the Eiger and Mönch to get there.
Q 22The Aletsch Glacier, the largest in the Alps, lies in which canton?
Valais
It is about 23 km long and covers around 82 square kilometres.
Q 23The Rhine Falls, Europe's most powerful waterfall, lie between Zurich and which other canton?
Schaffhausen
They sit between Neuhausen am Rheinfall and Laufen-Uhwiesen.
Q 24The Jet d'Eau, the fountain where the Rhône leaves the lake, shoots water roughly how high?
Q 14What is unusual about the shape of the Swiss national flag?
It is square
It shows a white Greek cross on a red field; the dimensions were fixed officially in 1889.
Q 15Which is Switzerland's highest mountain?
Monte Rosa (Dufourspitze)
At 4,634 m it beats the far more famous Matterhorn by more than 150 metres.
Q 16The first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 was led by which English climber?
Edward Whymper
Four of the seven-man party fell to their deaths on the way down, and the disaster set off a tourist rush on Zermatt.
Q 17The name Toblerone blends its founder's surname with which Italian word?
Torrone (nougat)
Theodor Tobler's family firm was founded in Bern in 1899, and the bar's shape is said to echo the Matterhorn.
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 it is also the deepest traffic tunnel and the first flat, low-level route through the Alps.
150 m
Two 500 kW pumps push 500 litres a second into the air, at a cost of about half a million francs a year.
Q 25Which Swiss businessman founded the Red Cross and won the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901?
Henry Dunant
He came across the battlefield in 1859 while travelling to petition Napoleon III.
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
It is among the oldest military units in continuous operation anywhere.
Q 28Under the Swiss militia system, what do soldiers famously keep at home?
Their army-issued weapons
Men usually receive conscription orders for training at 18.
Q 29Which scientist became a Swiss citizen in 1901 and developed special relativity while working in Bern?
Albert Einstein
He was employed at the patent office there; Switzerland has one of the highest Nobel counts per capita.
Q 30CERN straddles the border between France and which Swiss city?
Geneva
The city also hosts the UN's European headquarters, the WHO and the Red Cross.