200 Technology Trivia Questions & Answers for Tech Fans

Technology trivia has a sneaky difficulty curve: everyone knows what an iPhone is, but suddenly somebody asks about the Z3, the first website, or what USB actually stands for.

These 200 technology trivia questions cover computing history, the web, cybersecurity, gadgets, devices, companies, and modern AI without leaning on “most popular right now” claims that can expire before the next quiz night.

History of Technology

Start with the inventions and milestones that shaped modern computing, communications, software, storage, gaming, and the World Wide Web.

1. What year was the first email sent?
   • Answer: 1971
2. Who is known as the father of the computer?
   • Answer: Charles Babbage
3. Which 1951 computer became the first commercial computer to attract widespread public attention?
   • Answer: UNIVAC I
4. What year was the World Wide Web introduced to the public?
   • Answer: 1991
5. Who received U.S. Patent No. 174,465 for the telephone in 1876?
   • Answer: Alexander Graham Bell
6. What computer company was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne?
   • Answer: Apple
7. What does ENIAC stand for?
   • Answer: Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer
8. What 1941 machine is recognized as the first fully functional program-controlled electromechanical digital computer?
   • Answer: Konrad Zuse’s Z3
9. Who coined the term "Artificial Intelligence"?
   • Answer: John McCarthy
10. When was the first hard disk drive introduced?
    • Answer: 1956
11. Which 1962 PDP-1 game became one of the earliest influential computer games?
    • Answer: Spacewar!
12. What trend does Moore’s Law describe?
    • Answer: The observation that transistor counts on integrated circuits tend to grow exponentially, historically often summarized as roughly doubling about every two years
13. Who invented the World Wide Web?
    • Answer: Tim Berners-Lee
14. What year was the first mobile phone call made?
    • Answer: 1973
15. What was the first video game console?
    • Answer: Magnavox Odyssey
16. What was the name of IBM’s first personal computer?
    • Answer: IBM PC 5150
17. Which 1986 malware is widely cited as the first virus to spread on IBM-compatible PCs?
    • Answer: Brain
18. What company invented the first floppy disk?
    • Answer: IBM
19. Which 1964 Control Data machine is widely regarded as the first successful supercomputer?
    • Answer: CDC 6600
20. Whose earlier FLOW-MATIC work strongly influenced the development of COBOL?
    • Answer: Grace Hopper
21. What year was the first transatlantic telephone call made?
    • Answer: 1927
22. Who designed the “Brown Box” prototype that led to the Magnavox Odyssey?
    • Answer: Ralph Baer
23. Which company, founded in 1955, is often described as the first independent software company?
    • Answer: Computer Usage Company
24. What device was introduced in 1979 and revolutionized portable music?
    • Answer: Sony Walkman
25. Which IBM language introduced in 1957 became one of the first widely used high-level programming languages?
    • Answer: FORTRAN
26. What is the full form of ASCII?
    • Answer: American Standard Code for Information Interchange
27. Who led the work that produced the early computer mouse and demonstrated it in 1968?
    • Answer: Douglas Engelbart
28. What was the first artificial satellite placed into Earth orbit?
    • Answer: Sputnik 1
29. What year did Microsoft launch Windows 1.0?
    • Answer: 1985
30. What does GPS stand for?
    • Answer: Global Positioning System
31. Who created Archie, widely recognized as the first Internet search engine?
    • Answer: Alan Emtage
32. Who developed the Linux operating system?
    • Answer: Linus Torvalds
33. What year was the first website published?
    • Answer: 1991
34. What words were sent in the first SMS text message in 1992?
    • Answer: “Merry Christmas”
35. What year was the first Macintosh computer released?
    • Answer: 1984
36. Which IBM/BellSouth device is recognized by the Computer History Museum as the first smartphone?
    • Answer: Simon Personal Communicator
37. Which Texas Instruments engineer demonstrated a working integrated circuit in 1958?
    • Answer: Jack Kilby
38. What does the term "Silicon Valley" refer to?
    • Answer: A region in California known for its tech companies.
39. What year did Amazon sell its first product?
    • Answer: 1995

Internet and Cybersecurity

This round moves online for protocols, browsers, domains, security terms, social platforms, and the early history of the web.

1. What year was Google founded?
   • Answer: 1998
2. What does HTTP stand for?
   • Answer: Hypertext Transfer Protocol
3. What year was Facebook launched?
   • Answer: 2004
4. What does DNS stand for?
   • Answer: Domain Name System
5. What is the name of the first search engine?
   • Answer: Archie
6. What does the "S" in HTTPS stand for?
   • Answer: Secure
7. Who sent the first networked email and introduced the use of “@” in email addressing?
   • Answer: Ray Tomlinson
8. What year was YouTube founded?
   • Answer: 2005
9. What does IP in IP address stand for?
   • Answer: Internet Protocol
10. What year was Twitter launched?
    • Answer: 2006
11. What does VPN stand for?
    • Answer: Virtual Private Network
12. What year was the first ransomware attack reported?
    • Answer: 1989
13. What is the term for unsolicited emails?
    • Answer: Spam
14. What does "phishing" refer to in cybersecurity?
    • Answer: Fraudulent attempts to obtain sensitive information.
15. What does the "@" symbol in email addresses stand for?
    • Answer: At
16. What is the purpose of a firewall in cybersecurity?
    • Answer: To block unauthorized access.
17. What year was Instagram launched?
    • Answer: 2010
18. At which university did researchers coin the term CAPTCHA around 2000?
    • Answer: Carnegie Mellon University
19. What is the name of the first internet browser?
    • Answer: WorldWideWeb (later renamed Nexus)
20. What does URL stand for?
    • Answer: Uniform Resource Locator
21. What does the term "DDoS" attack stand for?
    • Answer: Distributed Denial of Service
22. What is Tor commonly used for?
    • Answer: Anonymous internet browsing.
23. What is the term for software designed to damage or disrupt systems?
    • Answer: Malware
24. What does IoT stand for?
    • Answer: Internet of Things
25. What is the term for the illegal distribution of copyrighted material?
    • Answer: Piracy
26. What does SSL stand for in online security?
    • Answer: Secure Sockets Layer
27. What was the first domain name ever registered?
    • Answer: Symbolics.com
28. What is the name of the FBI's cybersecurity division?
    • Answer: Cyber Division
29. What do you call the secret value a cryptographic algorithm uses to encrypt or decrypt data?
    • Answer: A cryptographic key
30. What year was TikTok launched?
    • Answer: 2016
31. What does CAPTCHA stand for?
    • Answer: Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart
32. What does 2FA stand for in cybersecurity?
    • Answer: Two-Factor Authentication

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Gadgets and Devices

Now for phones, consoles, wearables, computers, displays, storage, and the hardware names hiding behind everyday tech.

1. What year was the first iPhone released?
   • Answer: 2007
2. What company makes the Galaxy line of smartphones?
   • Answer: Samsung
3. What does USB stand for?
   • Answer: Universal Serial Bus
4. What was the name of the first Android smartphone?
   • Answer: HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1)
5. What is the world's most sold mobile phone model?
   • Answer: Nokia 1100
6. What gaming console is known for its iconic blue hedgehog mascot?
   • Answer: Sega Genesis
7. What does OLED stand for?
   • Answer: Organic Light-Emitting Diode
8. What year was the Sony PlayStation released?
   • Answer: 1994
9. What is the name of Amazon's smart speaker?
   • Answer: Echo
10. What year was the first GoPro camera released?
    • Answer: 2004
11. What company created the Kindle e-reader?
    • Answer: Amazon
12. What company manufactures the Surface line of computers?
    • Answer: Microsoft
13. What does HDMI stand for?
    • Answer: High-Definition Multimedia Interface
14. What is the primary function of a 3D printer?
    • Answer: To create three-dimensional objects from digital files.
15. What year was the first Fitbit released?
    • Answer: 2009
16. What is the name of Apple's wireless earbuds?
    • Answer: AirPods
17. What gaming company created the Switch console?
    • Answer: Nintendo
18. What does GPU stand for?
    • Answer: Graphics Processing Unit
19. What company produces the Pixel smartphone?
    • Answer: Google
20. What is Tesla’s suite of driver-assistance features called?
    • Answer: Autopilot
21. What does RAM stand for?
    • Answer: Random Access Memory
22. What company created the Roomba robot vacuum?
    • Answer: iRobot
23. What Kodak professional digital camera system was introduced in 1991?
    • Answer: Kodak DCS 100
24. What year was the first iPod released?
    • Answer: 2001
25. What is the name of Sony's virtual reality system?
    • Answer: PlayStation VR
26. What is the name of Apple's desktop computer?
    • Answer: iMac
27. What AI assistant is replacing Google Assistant on Android mobile devices in 2026?
    • Answer: Gemini
28. What home console did Nintendo release in Japan in 1983 as the Family Computer?
    • Answer: The Famicom
29. What does NFC stand for?
    • Answer: Near Field Communication
30. What is the maximum storage capacity of a standard Blu-ray disc?
    • Answer: 50 GB
31. What is the name of Microsoft's gaming console?
    • Answer: Xbox
32. What company developed the BlackBerry smartphone?
    • Answer: Research In Motion (RIM)
33. What does SSD stand for?
    • Answer: Solid-State Drive
34. What is the name of Apple's voice assistant?
    • Answer: Siri

Tech Companies and Innovations

Finish with the companies, founders, platforms, programming tools, cloud services, AI systems, and products that changed the industry.

1. What year was Microsoft founded?
   • Answer: 1975
2. What is the name of the first product Microsoft created?
   • Answer: Altair BASIC
3. Who are the founders of Google?
   • Answer: Larry Page and Sergey Brin
4. What company created the Android operating system?
   • Answer: Android Inc.
5. What year did Apple release the iPad?
   • Answer: 2010
6. Which entrepreneur led Tesla through the launch of the Model S in 2012?
   • Answer: Elon Musk
7. What is Amazon's cloud computing platform called?
   • Answer: Amazon Web Services (AWS)
8. What company developed the video conferencing platform Zoom?
   • Answer: Zoom Video Communications
9. What does IBM stand for?
   • Answer: International Business Machines
10. What year was the Tesla Model S launched?
    • Answer: 2012
11. What is the name of the parent company of Facebook?
    • Answer: Meta
12. What London AI lab, founded in 2010, was acquired by Google in 2014?
    • Answer: DeepMind
13. What year was Netflix founded?
    • Answer: 1997
14. What company makes the Snapdragon processor?
    • Answer: Qualcomm
15. What is the name of the AI assistant by Amazon?
    • Answer: Alexa
16. Which Ericsson engineer is widely credited with key technical work behind Bluetooth?
    • Answer: Jaap Haartsen
17. What does the "F" in FANG companies stand for?
    • Answer: Facebook
18. What company owns LinkedIn?
    • Answer: Microsoft
19. Who developed the Siri voice assistant?
    • Answer: Siri, Inc.
20. What is the name of Google's parent company?
    • Answer: Alphabet Inc.
21. What year was SpaceX founded?
    • Answer: 2002
22. What company owns YouTube?
    • Answer: Google
23. USB was developed by an industry group that included Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Compaq, DEC, NEC, and which Canadian telecom company?
    • Answer: Nortel
24. Who is the founder of Twitter?
    • Answer: Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Noah Glass
25. What company developed ChatGPT?
    • Answer: OpenAI
26. What year was eBay launched?
    • Answer: 1995
27. What company created the Oculus VR headset?
    • Answer: Oculus (acquired by Meta)
28. What IBM AI system defeated Jeopardy! champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in 2011?
    • Answer: Watson
29. What company developed Photoshop?
    • Answer: Adobe
30. Who is the founder of Amazon?
    • Answer: Jeff Bezos
31. What company created the Galaxy Fold smartphone?
    • Answer: Samsung
32. What year was Uber founded?
    • Answer: 2009
33. What is Microsoft’s current AI assistant brand?
    • Answer: Microsoft Copilot
34. Who became CEO of Alphabet in 2019 after previously leading Google?
    • Answer: Sundar Pichai
35. What company created Google Maps?
    • Answer: Google
36. What does the R in ARM processor stand for?
    • Answer: Reduced (as in Reduced Instruction Set Computing)
37. What company developed the MySQL database system?
    • Answer: MySQL AB
38. What year was Spotify launched?
    • Answer: 2008
39. Which company introduced the 4004, widely recognized as the first commercially produced single-chip microprocessor?
    • Answer: Intel
40. Who is the founder of SpaceX?
    • Answer: Elon Musk
41. What does SAP stand for in enterprise software?
    • Answer: Systems, Applications, and Products
42. What pseudonym appears on the 2008 Bitcoin white paper?
    • Answer: Satoshi Nakamoto
43. Who founded Tumblr in 2007?
    • Answer: David Karp
44. What company is known for creating the CRM software Salesforce?
    • Answer: Salesforce Inc.
45. Who developed the Ruby programming language?
    • Answer: Yukihiro Matsumoto
46. What year did Adobe launch Creative Cloud?
    • Answer: 2012
47. What Intel processor family includes Core i3, i5, i7, and i9 chips?
    • Answer: Intel Core
48. What company invented Ethernet technology?
    • Answer: Xerox
49. Which file-sync service was founded by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi in 2007?
    • Answer: Dropbox
50. What company owns the rights to the Minecraft game?
    • Answer: Microsoft
51. What AMD bit-slice processor family was introduced in the 1970s?
    • Answer: Am2900
52. What does API stand for?
    • Answer: Application Programming Interface
53. Who co-founded Oracle with Bob Miner and Ed Oates?
    • Answer: Larry Ellison
54. What company created the TypeScript programming language?
    • Answer: Microsoft
55. What year was Slack launched?
    • Answer: 2013
56. What is the name of Google's video call platform?
    • Answer: Google Meet
57. What battery-electric car did General Motors lease to customers in the late 1990s?
    • Answer: EV1
58. What does SaaS stand for in technology?
    • Answer: Software as a Service
59. Which company ended support for Flash Player at the end of 2020?
    • Answer: Adobe
60. What is the name of the programming language developed by Apple?
    • Answer: Swift
61. Which company designed the M1 chip introduced in 2020?
    • Answer: Apple
62. Which four founders launched GitHub?
    • Answer: Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath, PJ Hyett, and Scott Chacon
63. What year was Airbnb founded?
    • Answer: 2008
64. What company owns the social media app TikTok?
    • Answer: ByteDance
65. What does SDK stand for?
    • Answer: Software Development Kit
66. What company developed Kubernetes?
    • Answer: Google
67. What is the name of Amazon's grocery store concept?
    • Answer: Amazon Fresh
68. What year did Tesla release its first car, the Roadster?
    • Answer: 2008
69. What company manufactures the Ryzen processors?
    • Answer: AMD
70. Which two college roommates launched Reddit in 2005?
    • Answer: Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian
71. What year was Google Maps Street View launched?
    • Answer: 2007
72. What company developed the Final Cut Pro software?
    • Answer: Apple
73. What does CAD stand for in technology?
    • Answer: Computer-Aided Design
74. Which Japanese company released the Data 2000 wrist computer in 1983?
    • Answer: Seiko
75. What year was the Google Play Store launched?
    • Answer: 2012
76. Who is the founder of Snapchat?
    • Answer: Evan Spiegel
77. What company created the WeChat app?
    • Answer: Tencent
78. What year was IBM founded?
    • Answer: 1911
79. What company created the Tesla Powerwall?
    • Answer: Tesla
80. What is the name of Apple's music streaming service?
    • Answer: Apple Music
81. What does RISC stand for in computing?
    • Answer: Reduced Instruction Set Computer
82. What company invented QuickBooks?
    • Answer: Intuit
83. Who co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has served as its longtime CEO?
    • Answer: Jensen Huang
84. What does SEO stand for?
    • Answer: Search Engine Optimization
85. What company invented Google Glass?
    • Answer: Google
86. What is the name of the chip used in most cryptocurrency mining?
    • Answer: ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit)
87. What year did Dell launch its first laptop?
    • Answer: 1989
88. What company developed Google Earth?
    • Answer: Keyhole Inc. (acquired by Google)
89. What does GUI stand for?
    • Answer: Graphical User Interface
90. What Google email service launched to the public in 2004?
    • Answer: Gmail
91. Which company released the Pageboy pager in the 1970s?
    • Answer: Motorola
92. What is the name of Apple's desktop operating system?
    • Answer: macOS
93. What is the name of Microsoft's cloud gaming service?
    • Answer: Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud)
94. What year was Google Drive launched?
    • Answer: 2012
95. What company acquired GitHub in 2018? - Answer: Microsoft

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How the Technology History Was Checked

“First-ever” technology questions are easy to oversimplify, so this September 2026 rebuild uses more precise wording. The Computer History Museum documents the Z3, UNIVAC I, and other early machines, while CERN documents Tim Berners-Lee’s first web server, browser, and website.

For modern assistant questions, Google’s current mobile assistant is Gemini, while Microsoft retired standalone Cortana and now points users toward Copilot.

More Tech and Internet Trivia

Keep going with Apple trivia, YouTube trivia, video game trivia, or the full 700-question trivia challenge.

About this quiz

Site editor: Ellie Simons. Read our Trivia Methodology to learn how questions are researched and updated. Page last updated: September 17, 2026. Report an error.