World Religions Trivia
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109 free World Religions trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Roughly 2.3 billion people are Christians, 2 billion are Muslims and 1.2 billion are Hindus, yet the world's faiths also include a religion with fewer than a thousand citizens in its capital, a 15th-century Punjabi tradition with a book as its living guru, and a Japanese one whose sun goddess is the claimed ancestor of an emperor. Comparative religion is a trivia goldmine because every tradition has a founder, a text, a holy city and a calendar. These 109 questions tour Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Sikhism, Jainism, Shinto, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, the Bahá'í Faith and Rastafari. Easy questions cover the Five Pillars, the Torah and the Kaaba; harder ones ask about the Mishnah's compiler, the Guodian slips, the Achaemenid state religion and where the Universal House of Justice sits. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a classroom or quiz-night round.
30 of 109 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which apostle did Jesus call the rock on which he would build his church?
Peter
Peter denied knowing Jesus three times on the night of his arrest, yet he went on to lead the early church.
Q 02What is the name of the tower from which a mosque's call to prayer is traditionally given?
Minaret
Minarets went to a national vote in 2009, when more than 57% of Swiss voters approved a ban on building new ones.
Q 03Which Hindu god is usually shown with the head of an elephant?
Ganesha
In one popular telling, Shiva beheaded the boy Ganesha for blocking his path, then replaced the head with an elephant's.
Q 04Which eight-night Jewish festival marks the Maccabees' rededication of the Temple?
Hanukkah
Hanukkah lasts eight nights because, in the Talmud's telling, one day's supply of oil kept the Temple menorah burning for eight days.
Q 05In which region of the Indian subcontinent did Sikhism originate?
Punjab
Punjab, where Sikhism began, was split between India and Pakistan in 1947, and Sikhs on the Pakistani side left for India.
Q 06Who was the first of the ten Sikh gurus?
Guru Nanak
Guru Nanak had two sons, but he chose a devoted follower, Lehna, renamed Angad, to succeed him as guru.
Q 07Which scripture do Sikhs revere as the final successor to their ten human leaders?
Guru Granth Sahib
Guru Gobind Singh named the Guru Granth Sahib his successor, so the book is seated on a throne under a canopy, as a human guru would be.
Q 08Sikhs celebrate the founding of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh during which festival?
Vaisakhi
Vaisakhi was already a harvest festival when Guru Gobind Singh chose its 1699 gathering to baptise the first members of the Khalsa.
Q 09In which Indian city does the Golden Temple stand?
Amritsar
Amritsar's Golden Temple was built with entrances on all four sides, a sign that people from every direction and background are welcome.
Q 10Who paid to cover the Golden Temple's sanctum in gold leaf?
Ranjit Singh
Ranjit Singh's gold leaf, finished in 1830, covered a shrine that invading Afghan armies had wrecked in the 1700s and Sikhs had rebuilt.
Q 11Which principle of non-violence toward all living beings is central to Jainism?
Ahimsa
Ahimsa steered many Jains away from farming, which unavoidably harms living beings, and into trade and banking instead.
Q 12Which Jain tirthankara was a contemporary of the Buddha?
Mahavira
Mahavira was a prince who left the royal palace at about 30 and spent twelve and a half years fasting and meditating before he began to teach.
Q 13Which Jain sub-tradition's name means "sky-clad"?
Digambara
Digambara nuns wear clothes, so the sect holds that women cannot reach liberation without first being reborn as men.
Q 21Theravada is the dominant Buddhist tradition in which country?
Thailand
Thailand's Theravada monks live on gifts: lay people supply their food and robes, and in return the monks offer teaching and blessings.
Q 22The 14th Dalai Lama fled Lhasa in 1959 and settled in exile in which Indian town?
Dharamshala
Dharamshala became home to the Tibetan government-in-exile after Prime Minister Nehru let the Dalai Lama settle there, and thousands of Tibetans followed.
Q 23Hindus often call their tradition Sanatana Dharma, meaning what?
Eternal way
Eternal way: Sanatana Dharma is a native name, while 'Hindu' began as an outsiders' word, from Persian, for the people beyond the Indus River.
Q 14Which foods do many strict Jains refuse to eat?
Root vegetables
Root vegetables are avoided because digging them up is believed to harm countless tiny organisms as well as the plant.
Q 15In which present-day country was the Buddha born?
Nepal
Nepal's Lumbini was forgotten for centuries and rediscovered in 1896, when a pillar recording Emperor Ashoka's visit was found there.
Q 16In which town did the Buddha attain enlightenment?
Bodh Gaya
Bodh Gaya's Mahabodhi Temple slipped from Buddhist control for centuries, until a campaign Anagarika Dharmapala began in 1891 partly won it back in 1949.
Q 17The site of the Buddha's enlightenment lies in which present-day Indian state?
Bihar
Bihar was also home to Nalanda, a great Buddhist monastery and centre of learning said to have been sacked by Bakhtiyar Khalji's army around 1200.
Q 18The Buddha was born a prince with which personal name?
Siddhartha
Siddhartha, in the traditional story, left his palace after seeing an old man, a sick man and a corpse, and set out to find an end to suffering.
Q 19What does the word "nirvana" literally mean?
Blowing out
Blowing out, as a flame goes out: in his Fire Sermon, the Buddha taught that all the senses are burning, and the thousand monks listening were liberated.
Q 20Buddhists take refuge in the "three jewels": the Buddha, the Dharma and what?
The Sangha
The Sangha began with five ascetics who had abandoned the Buddha when he gave up extreme austerities, then became his first monks after his first sermon.
Q 24In Hindu thought, which of the four aims of life means liberation from rebirth?
Moksha
Moksha was added later to three older aims, duty, wealth and pleasure, yet came to be regarded as the ultimate goal of human life.
Q 25The Bhagavad Gita is part of which longer Hindu text?
The Mahabharata
The Mahabharata's Gita is a battlefield dialogue in which Krishna persuades Prince Arjuna, reluctant to kill his own relatives, to do his duty.
Q 26Which Indonesian island has a largely Hindu population?
Bali
Bali stayed Hindu as Islam spread through Java, and when the Majapahit empire fell, many of its priests, artisans and nobles moved to Bali.
Q 27Diwali, the festival of lights, is especially associated with which Hindu goddess?
Lakshmi
Lakshmi is welcomed on Diwali night with lamps, lit to help her find her way into people's homes.
Q 28Which of the Five Pillars of Islam is almsgiving?
Zakat
Zakat, usually 2.5% of a Muslim's wealth each year, is believed to purify the giver's wealth as well as help the poor.
Q 29During which month do Muslims observe the fast known as sawm?
Ramadan
Ramadan follows the lunar Islamic calendar, so it moves through the seasons, and a summer fast from dawn to sunset lasts far longer than a winter one.
Q 30Which phrase opens all but one of the Quran's chapters?
Bismillah
Bismillah, 'in the name of God', opens every chapter but the ninth, and Muslims also say it over an animal at halal slaughter.