Q40 · SUNDAY BIG QUIZ
The Sunday Big Quiz — 13 September 2026
Play the Sunday Big Quiz for 13 September 2026: 40 free general-knowledge questions covering Current Affairs, Geography, History and Business & Economics, with explanations and crowd results.
About this edition
This 40-question The Quiz Post edition was published for 13 September 2026. Answer all four-option questions to reveal sourced explanations and see how other players answered.
Topics in this edition include Current Affairs, Geography, History and Business & Economics.
Questions and sourced explanations
This archive edition remains playable. The notes below contain spoilers and provide the question text, explanatory context and source used for each item.
Read this edition’s question notes (spoilers)
Film & TV · Medium
1. Who directed the 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel?
Wes Anderson directed and co-wrote The Grand Budapest Hotel, starring Ralph Fiennes as concierge Gustave H.
Geography · Medium
2. Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge spans which river?
The bridge crosses the Avon Gorge in Bristol.
Food & Drink · Medium
3. Which type of pastry is used to make profiteroles?
Profiteroles are made from choux pastry, which puffs into a light hollow shell that can be filled with cream or ice cream.
Music · Medium
4. Which British duo recorded Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)?
Sweet Dreams is a signature Eurythmics recording, with its original music video filmed in 1983.
Science · Medium
5. Which cell organelle processes and packages many proteins before they are sent elsewhere?
The Golgi apparatus modifies, sorts and packages proteins and lipids, often into vesicles for transport around or out of the cell.
Current Affairs · Medium
6. King Harald V, whose state funeral was held this week, was monarch of which country?
King Harald V was Norway's monarch for 35 years. He was laid to rest after a state funeral in Oslo this week.
History · Medium
7. Henry VIII was the second monarch of which English royal dynasty?
Henry VIII was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father Henry VII, who founded the dynasty after the Wars of the Roses.
Nature · Medium
8. What particularly changes about an Atlantic puffin's appearance outside the breeding season?
Puffins lose the bright summer appearance of their bills and spend winter at sea.
Technology · Medium
9. A CAPTCHA on a website is mainly intended to distinguish a human user from what?
CAPTCHAs are designed to tell human users apart from automated computer programs, commonly called bots.
Literature · Medium
10. Holden Caulfield is the teenage narrator of which novel?
Holden Caulfield narrates J. D. Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, recounting several days after his expulsion from school.
Arts · Medium
11. Who painted Mr and Mrs Andrews?
Gainsborough's double portrait places the couple within their Suffolk estate.
Society & Culture · Medium
12. In social and historical contexts, what does a 'diaspora' describe?
A diaspora is the dispersion of a people or community away from its original homeland, often while maintaining connections to it.
Geography · Medium
13. At which African capital do the Blue Nile and White Nile meet?
The Blue Nile and White Nile meet at Khartoum in Sudan before continuing north as the Nile.
Sport · Medium
14. By his victory in 1996, how many Masters titles had English golfer Nick Faldo won?
Faldo's comeback victory over Greg Norman in 1996 secured his third Masters championship.
Source: Faldo commemorates Masters win over Norman with 'Six back in '96' gear
Current Affairs · Medium
15. What name did Apple give its first foldable iPhone, unveiled this week?
Apple unveiled its first foldable iPhone under the name iPhone Duo at its September product event.
Business & Economics · Medium
16. Which financial statement shows a company's assets, liabilities and equity at a specific point in time?
A balance sheet is a snapshot of a company's financial position, listing assets, liabilities and shareholders' equity at a particular date.
Literature · Medium
17. Which author wrote the rabbit adventure Watership Down?
Richard Adams's novel follows rabbits seeking a new home.
Geography · Medium
18. The historic city of Timbuktu is in which modern country?
Timbuktu is in Mali, near the southern edge of the Sahara, and was an important centre of scholarship and trade.
Music · Medium
19. Which singer-songwriter released the album Blue in 1971?
Joni Mitchell released Blue in 1971. The album includes songs such as 'River' and 'A Case of You'.
Music · Medium
20. Who composed the opera Peter Grimes?
Peter Grimes, first performed in 1945, is one of Britten's best-known works.
Science · Hard
21. Which brain region helps regulate body temperature, hunger and circadian rhythms?
The hypothalamus helps regulate core functions including body temperature, hunger and circadian rhythms.
History · Hard
22. In which year did women gain the UK parliamentary vote on equal terms with men?
The Equal Franchise Act of 1928 established equal voting rights.
Film & TV · Hard
23. François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard were leading directors of which film movement?
Truffaut and Godard were central figures in the French New Wave, or nouvelle vague, which transformed filmmaking in the late 1950s and 1960s.
Business & Economics · Hard
24. In finance, what does an asset's 'liquidity' most directly describe?
Liquidity describes how readily an asset can be converted into cash, ideally quickly and without a large loss of value.
Current Affairs · Hard
25. Which player clinched the women's world No. 1 tennis ranking by reaching the US Open semifinals this week?
Elena Rybakina beat Qinwen Zheng to reach the US Open semifinals, ensuring she would become world No. 1 for the first time.
Nature · Hard
26. Crows, ravens and jays belong to which bird family?
Crows, ravens and jays are corvids, members of the bird family Corvidae.
History · Hard
27. Cyrus the Great founded which ancient Persian dynasty?
Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Persian dynasty in the sixth century BCE and built an empire stretching across much of the Near East.
Arts · Hard
28. Who painted the famous Pre-Raphaelite work Ophelia?
Ophelia is one of Millais's best-known paintings and depicts the tragic Shakespearean character.
Sport · Hard
29. How many points is a drop goal worth in rugby union?
A drop goal in rugby union is worth three points and is scored from a drop-kick in open play.
Science · Hard
30. Researchers Barry Marshall and Robin Warren won a Nobel Prize for linking peptic ulcers to which bacterium?
Barry Marshall and Robin Warren showed that Helicobacter pylori infection plays a major role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease.
Literature · Hard
31. Which author created the private detective Philip Marlowe?
Raymond Chandler created Philip Marlowe, the hard-boiled Los Angeles private detective who first appeared in Chandler's fiction in the 1930s.
Food & Drink · Hard
32. A classic Negroni combines Campari and sweet vermouth with which spirit?
The International Bartenders Association recipe for a Negroni uses equal parts gin, Campari and sweet red vermouth.
Geography · Hard
33. Which mountain range forms most of the natural frontier between France and Spain?
The Pyrenees stretch from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean and form most of the land frontier between France and Spain.
Film & TV · Hard
34. Which actor played the assassin Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men?
Javier Bardem played Anton Chigurh in the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Current Affairs · Hard
35. Ancient teeth from Sulawesi reported this week carried traces of which psychoactive substance, suggesting use up to 25,000 years ago?
Researchers found chemical traces and tooth wear consistent with ancient people sucking betel nut, pushing direct evidence of psychoactive substance use far back into the Ice Age.
Technology · Hard
36. On a typical computer network, what does DHCP primarily do?
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol automatically supplies clients with network configuration such as IP addresses and related settings.
History · Hard
37. Which English king was killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066?
Harold II, also known as Harold Godwinson, was killed at Hastings as his English army was defeated by William of Normandy.
Society & Culture · Hard
38. What does the phrase 'de facto' most nearly mean?
De facto means existing in reality or in practice, even when something is not formally or legally recognised as such.
Nature · Hard
39. What type of primate is an aye-aye?
The aye-aye is a nocturnal lemur native to Madagascar, notable for its long, specialised middle finger.
Business & Economics · Hard
40. A company's price-to-earnings, or P/E, ratio divides its share price by what?
The P/E ratio is calculated by dividing the current share price by earnings per share, providing a common valuation measure.