So far, I have done three Nerd Quizzes at Barcamp Hamburg in 2016, 2017 & 2018. And the Nerd Quizzes for the DrupalCamps Ruhr 2018, 2023 & 2025.
This is the edition for DrupalCamp Ruhr 2025. 50 questions about movies, tv, music, videogames, literature, just about anything in pop culture – with some extra questions for Drupal Developers sprinkled in and some general knowledge trivia. 50 questions divided into 10 categories with 5 questions each.
The quiz is supposed to be hard. There are prizes. I need some winners. It doesn’t help if all groups get 50 points. So in each category, the first three questions are often easier. With the fourth and/or fifth questions being harder. If you don’t like one category, maybe you shine in another.
At Drupalcamp Ruhr 2025, there were 11 teams, each with 3 members, competing against one another. They could earn a maximum of 50 points. The average team got 29 points. The winning team got 35 out of 50 points.
I should point out: This time around, there was one category I had misjudged; nobody liked that one. And one question I had changed so many times that I stumbled over my own shenanigans. I did not count that one in the end.
You can find the answers on the very last slide.
Nicolai Schwarz
Webworker, Warlock of the Wicked, Quizmaster
textformer.de, bsky.app/profile/talesof.me
This is the first »Choose Your Own Path« category. You will get two examples. And then the participants choose which subcategory the want.
It’s either modern music. Listen to the track. What is the name of the band or artist?
Or it is classic music. Listen to the track. Who is the composer?
Now you choose. Classic is harder. But if you learned a classic instrument in your youth you can get a headstart. The teams choose: Modern.
Write down the name of the band or artist!
Write down the name of the composer!
This is about some well known phobias. It helps if you can remember some greek words. Write down what the people with these phobias are afraid of!
Atychiphobia is the fear of failure or negative evaluations of others.
Arachnophobia is the fear of ???
Aerophobia is the fear of ???
Numerophobia is the fear of ???
Acrophobia is the fear of ???
Hemophobia is the fear of ???
Equinophobia is the fear of ???
Here are some rather easy popculture questions. Write down the name of this Mr.!
Here I accepted some misspelled names.
We had a few attendees from Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. So I decided to add some questions about Europe.
And it’s another »Choose Your Own Path« category.
You either get an image and you have to write down down the name of the shown CAPITAL.
What is the longest river in Europe, flowing through Central and Southern Russia for 3,531 km into the Caspian Sea?
Or you get a number with multiple choice answers.
Only a handful of people liked the numbers. So we went with: Images.
Write down the name of this European Capital!
Just pick one of the multiple choice answers!
There are 47 states in Europe (depends on how you count). How many countries are currently part of the European Union?
What is the biggest European country by area – after Russia? With 603,549 km².
With a population of 15,701,602 (in Dec 2024) – what is the largest european city by population within city limits?
With 540 m – what is the tallest structure in Europe?
What is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in Europe? Since 6000 BC.
This is the section for Drupal developers. Just skip this one if you don’t work with Drupal.
Over the last months lots of Drupal modules got new icons – the image next to the module name.
It works like this: You get an icon. And have to write down the name of the Drupal module.
Here you are presented with episode names of long living American TV shows. Each show lasted at least seven season. Write down the name of that TV show!
The next slides feature short logic riddles. Most are taken from the game show »The 1% Club«, where you get 30 seconds to answer the question. I thought developers would have no problems with these, especially within 60-120 seconds. Just because I could answer the questions (except for the last one, which I thought is funny, when you know the solution). Boy, did I misjudge this category. / 11 teams could have gotten 55 points altogether; they managed to get 16. In the end everybody hated this category.
What country is supposed to be displayed on this faulty airport departure board?
B V T U S B M J B
What letter of the alphabet should replace the question mark in the following sequence?
A A B E H L P ?
Which letter should replace the question mark in the following sequence?
B F J P ?
What number replaces the question mark in the sequence below?
3 3 5 4 ? 3 5 5 4 3
What three digits come next in this sequence?
202, 320, 222, 021, 202, 020, 192, ???
In preparation for next week’s audition of »Cats«, Britney’s singing teacher has her perform the following sequence in order each day. What are the next two vowels Britney must sing?
OA, UEA, EEA, UA, IA, AUA, ??
This is another easy category. I simply asked ChatGPT to create Haikus about well known video games. Write down the name of the video game!
Dots light up the maze,
Ghosts chase through neon tunnels—
Waka-waka fades.
Shapes fall from the sky,
Lines vanish in quiet rows—
Order from chaos.
Engines roar to life,
Shells fly on rainbow pathways—
Victory drifts near
Pixels shape the world,
Mountains, caves, and endless skies—
Create, break, survive.
Battle lines are drawn,
Hadouken splits the still air—
Warriors face off.
Shovel strikes the ground,
Echoes in forgotten halls—
Knight’s quest never ends.
(Indie-Game from 2014)
This is the third and final category to »Choose Your Own Path«.
<p>What is my color?</p>p { color: black; }
p { color: red; }
p { color: green; }
p { color: blue; }You either get some CSS and need to find the color of the p-Element. This will get trickier.
console.log( true + false );Or you need to find the output of a JavaScript expression. For this you will need to know some JS.
This choice was pretty easy for our teams. They picked: CSS.
Read the CSS. Avoid the traps. And write down the correct color.
<p class="eeny meeny miny" id="moe">What is my color?</p>.eenie { color: fuchsia; }
.meeny { color: orange; }
#moo { color: black; }
.eeny.meeny.minny { color: white; }
<p class="eeny meeny miny moe">What is my color?
Those names, is there a trick?</p>.eeny { color: AliceBlue; }
.meeny { color: DarkGoldenRod; }
.miny { color: FireBrick; }
.moe { color: MediumSeaGreen; }
Hmm. Is there a trick? One step further: What happens, when none of the lines in CSS gets applied?
<p class="eeny meeny miny moe">What is my color?</p>p.eeny { color: AliceBlue; }
:where(p.eeny) { color: DarkGoldenRod; }
:is(p.eeny) { color: FireBrick; }
:where(p.eeny) { color: IAmGroot; }<p class="eeny meeny miny moe">What is my color?</p>p.eeny { color: AliceBlue; }
:is(p.eeny) { color: DarkGoldenRod; }
:where(p.eeny) { color: FireBrick; }
:is(p.eeny) { color: IAmGroot; }Hmm. This is basically the same as before. Only :is and :where are switched. So either this does nothing and the answer is the same. Or there is a difference somehow?
<p class="eeny meeny miny moe">What the hell!?</p>:has(.eeny):has(.meeny):has(.miny):has(.moe) { color: Red; }
:has(.eeny):has(.meeny):not(.many):has(.moe) { color: Green; }
:has(.eeny):has(.meeny):not(.many):not(.moo) { color: Blue; }
:has(.eeny):has(.meeny):not(.miny):not(.moo) { color: RebeccaPurple; }
:has(.eeny.meeny):not(.miny):not(.moo) { color: Orange; }
:has(.eeny.miny):is(.meeny):has(.moo) { color: Black; }
:has(.eeny.miny):has(.meeny):has(.moo) { color: Fuchsia; }Well. This was meant to be annoying. In the end it was also harder than intended. You can get the result with fresh eyes. But after several technical sessions, at the end of a long day, this question was just a bad choice. No one got this right. While I had the right answer on a piece of paper, but couldn’t explain it.
If you don’t do JavaScript just skip this path.
console.log( true == "true" );console.log( 0.2 + 0.1 === 0.3 );console.log( 1 + 2 + "3" );<!-- console.log( "😲" ); -->console.log( "b" + "a" + + "a" + "a" );This is my favorite category of this Quiz. Look at the actors (not the characters). They all acted together in the movie mentioned below. Write down the name of that movie.
__V__ (1995)
A________: […](2004)
_____ ____E_ ____ (2017)
______ Q____ (1999)
___ _______ __G__ (2015)
_ ______’S ____ (2001)
TIE BREAK
The airship LZ 129 Hindenburg famously crashed at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
When?
I didn’t need these three tie break questions. Here the closest guess would get a point.
TIE BREAK
The Mediterranean Sea coastline borders 24 countries and territories across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. How long is the coastline in km?
TIE BREAK
What is the average distance from Earth to Moon in km?
Example: fear of spiders (and other arachnids such as scorpions and ticks)
Example: Hyde
Example: Pathauto
Example: Friends
Example: Australia
The departure board is faulty, it displays every letter +1. A→B, B→C, C→D, etc.
Pac-Man
Example: Seven (Gwyneth Paltrow, Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman)