The Graduate Trivia
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47 free The Graduate trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you? The Graduate was the biggest film of 1967, launched Dustin Hoffman, gave Simon & Garfunkel a number one, and ended with the most parodied wedding in movie history. This quiz has 47 questions on the film and everything around it: Benjamin Braddock's summer in the pool, the Taft Hotel and Mr. Gladstone, the drive to Santa Barbara, the cross in the church door, and that ambivalent final shot on the bus. It also digs into how it got made: the actors who turned down or lost the leads (Redford, Grodin, Doris Day, a young Harrison Ford), the star who was fired as Mr. Robinson, the song that started life as Mrs. Roosevelt, the silent-film ending that inspired the finale, what Mike Nichols won at the Oscars and what the film didn't, and the strange, penniless later life of the novelist Charles Webb, who gave away almost everything the book earned him. Easy questions open it; the hard ones will test even people who can recite Plastics. Every answer has been checked against a source, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you answer.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01At Benjamin's graduation party in The Graduate, what does Mrs. Robinson persuade him to do?
Drive her home
Drive her home is her request, and once there Mrs. Robinson reveals that she is an alcoholic and tries to seduce him.
Q 02In The Graduate's famous seduction shot, which part of Mrs. Robinson frames Benjamin?
Her leg
Her leg frames him in the shot, which Kingpin later parodied by framing Woody Harrelson through his landlady's leg.
Q 03Which actress plays Mrs. Robinson?
Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft later complained that Mrs. Robinson overshadowed the rest of her work, even her Oscar-winning role in The Miracle Worker.
Q 04Who plays Elaine Robinson?
Katharine Ross
Katharine Ross got the part on the recommendation of Simone Signoret, her co-star in the thriller Games.
Q 05The Graduate was the first novel by which young author?
Charles Webb
Charles Webb turned down his wealthy father's inheritance and gave away most of what he owned, living in campgrounds and trailer parks.
Q 06Which Simon & Garfunkel song plays in The Graduate?
Scarborough Fair
Scarborough Fair was one of the duo's existing songs that Nichols first used only as a stand-in while editing, until he decided new music couldn't beat it.
Q 07In which California city do Benjamin's parents live?
Pasadena
Pasadena is also where the novel's author grew up, and he admitted modeling Benjamin on himself.
Q 08At the Taft Hotel, what makes Elaine realize Benjamin has been having an affair?
Staff greet him by an alias
Staff greet him by an alias, Mr. Gladstone, the name he checks in under, and Benjamin then admits an affair with a married woman he won't name.
Q 09While sleeping with Mrs. Robinson, how does Benjamin spend his summer days?
Floating idly in his parents' swimming pool
Floating idly in his parents' swimming pool, he walks toward the house, and one smooth cut lands him in the hotel room with Mrs. Robinson.
Q 10What is Mr. Robinson's professional relationship to Benjamin's father?
His law partner
His law partner is Mr. Robinson, who joins Benjamin's parents in pushing him to date Elaine, a match Mrs. Robinson angrily forbids.
Q 11Why, according to Mrs. Robinson, did she marry her husband?
She accidentally became pregnant with Elaine
She accidentally became pregnant with Elaine, a secret she shares only after Benjamin insists that during their trysts they actually have a conversation.
Q 12How does Benjamin try to sabotage his first date with Elaine?
He takes her to a strip club
He takes her to a strip club, but when she flees in tears he chases her, apologizes and kisses her, and they bond at a drive-in.
Q 13Which Los Angeles hotel, where Robert Kennedy was later shot, stood in for The Graduate's Taft Hotel?
Q 21What does Benjamin reluctantly model for the guests at his 21st birthday party?
A scuba diving outfit
A scuba diving outfit was his birthday present, and he escapes the chattering guests by sinking out of sight underwater.
Q 22Which actor screen-tested for Benjamin but was rejected because he lacked an underdog quality?
Robert Redford
Robert Redford insisted he could play a loser, but Nichols doubted the star had ever struck out with a girl.
Q 23At Elaine's wedding, what does Benjamin pound on while shouting her name?
A glass window
A glass window, and Hoffman was uneasy filming it because the church's minister disapproved.
The Ambassador Hotel
The Ambassador Hotel was torn down to make way for a public school campus, despite a long fight to preserve it.
Q 14What lie does Mrs. Robinson tell Elaine about the affair?
That Benjamin raped her
That Benjamin raped her is the lie; once Elaine hears his side she realizes her mother was lying, and Benjamin soon pushes her to marry him.
Q 15What is Carl, the man Elaine is set to marry, studying?
Medicine
Medicine is Carl's field; Mr. Robinson pulls Elaine out of college to marry him, and the wedding turns out to be in Santa Barbara.
Q 16What happens to Benjamin's car as he races to Elaine's wedding?
It runs out of gas
It runs out of gas short of the church, so Benjamin sprints the rest of the way and arrives just as the ceremony is ending.
Q 17What does Benjamin use to bar the church doors so he and Elaine can escape?
A large cross
A large cross is what he swings at the guests before jamming it through the door handles to trap everyone inside.
Q 18How do Benjamin and Elaine leave the church?
On a city bus
On a city bus, their ecstatic smiles slowly fade into uncertain looks, because the camera kept rolling longer than the actors expected.
Q 19What car does Benjamin drive in The Graduate?
An Alfa Romeo Spider
Alfa Romeo later sold a US model from 1985 to 1990 called the Spider Graduate in tribute.
Q 20What single word of career advice does Mr. McGuire give Benjamin at the party?
Plastics
Plastics went on to become a byword for dreary conformity and phony commercialism.
Q 24Which actor was cast as Mr. Robinson but fired during rehearsals?
Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman was let go as too young for the part, yet his role in that year's Bonnie and Clyde earned him an Oscar nomination.
Q 25In The Graduate's opening shot, what is Benjamin riding at the airport?
A moving walkway
A moving walkway carries him through LAX, a shot Quentin Tarantino recreated with Pam Grier to open Jackie Brown.
Q 26Which Mel Brooks film did Dustin Hoffman give up to screen-test for The Graduate?
The Producers
The Producers' director Mel Brooks let him go, expecting him back, but Hoffman landed the role of Benjamin instead.
Q 27After a long search, where did Nichols find the actor to play Benjamin?
New York's theater scene
New York's theater scene is where Nichols found a 29-year-old praised Off-Broadway, whom he saw as the outsider Benjamin needed.
Q 28Which improv comedian with no screenwriting experience did Nichols pick to write the script?
Buck Henry
Buck Henry's script replaced Calder Willingham's discarded draft, yet Willingham won shared screen credit through Writers Guild arbitration.
Q 29Which future star has two lines about calling 'the cops' as a boarding-house tenant?
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss's lines come after Elaine's screams in Benjamin's rented room rouse the boarding house.
Q 30Which star of TV's Batman was informally offered the role of Benjamin?
Burt Ward
Burt Ward had to pass because he was already committed to playing Robin.