Can You Pass This Simple General Knowledge Trivia Quiz?
BuzzFeed has released a series of general knowledge and geography quizzes designed to assess the factual literacy of the American public regarding their own country’s states and history.
On January 3, 2026, BuzzFeed staff member Angelica Martinez published a Regional U.S. Trivia Quiz. The assessment focused on the 50 states and their classification into various regions determined by shared characteristics such as climate, geography and culture. Specific regional focuses included the Midwest, the South, and the West Coast.
This regional test follows a broader pattern of general knowledge assessments published by the platform. On January 21, 2025, Martinez produced a 50-question American Jeopardy Quiz. That specific quiz was structured by difficulty, mirroring the monetary value system used on the television show, and required participants to identify U.S. States as part of the answers.
Further testing on state-level knowledge was conducted through a basic-level U.S. States Quiz, which was updated on February 20, 2025, by community contributor Cassie. This quiz sought to determine if participants could distinguish between states with similar names or geographical proximity, specifically citing the differences between Montana and Wyoming, as well as the distinctions between the Carolinas and the Dakotas.
Beyond geography, the platform has tracked performance in historical literacy. Data associated with a BuzzFeed U.S. History quiz indicates that only 40% of Americans were able to pass the assessment.
Assessment Criteria and Structure
The quizzes vary in their approach to testing knowledge. The Jeopardy-style format specifically utilized a progression from easiest to hardest questions to gauge the depth of participant knowledge. Meanwhile, the state-specific quizzes emphasized the similarities and differences between bordering neighbors and the overall characteristics of the 50 states.
The regional quiz implemented a framework based on the division of the U.S. Into distinct cultural and geographical zones to test whether users could identify the specific traits that define these areas.
The results of these various assessments continue to be tracked via the platform’s community contributor and staff-led trivia series.