Can You Pass the Trickiest IQ Quiz on the Internet?

By: Zoe Samuel
Estimated Completion Time
2 min
Can You Pass the Trickiest IQ Quiz on the Internet?
Image: shutterstock

About This Quiz

Intelligence quotient (IQ) is not the only measure of how smart you are you. It doesn't test for street smarts, empathy, people skills, and other measures of a person's capacity. However, it is a very good measure of a single characteristic, which might be best defined as raw computing power. IQ looks at how good you are at recognizing numeric and verbal patterns.

The average IQ is around 100, and genius level kicks in around 140. The top 1 percent of IQ kicks in at 137. The top talent and most successful people in any given group generally don't hail from this group, though. Instead, it is most commonly drawn from the top 20 percent, with other factors, like being good with people, showing up on time, and being nice to have around are equally relevant.

Some people believe that IQ is static, but it grows in childhood. It can be affected by genetics, sure, but it's also about nutrition and certain areas of health. IQ can also be boosted by straight-up studying, and though it's not clear by how much it can be moved, it's certainly true that studying patterns enable a person to better see them moving forward. So let's do a little study now and find out how yours relates to the median!

What number is next in the sequence: 37, 34, 31, 28?
20
26
25
The numbers are decreasing by three per term in the sequence.
10
Which of these is not a measure of average?
Mean
Median
Mode
Distribution
Mean, median, and mode are all different ways to average a group of figures.
Which word is the verb in this question?
Word
Verb
Is
The verb here is the word "is," which is the third person of the verb "to be."
Question

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Which of these is not a prime?
139
41
7
86
Anything ending in 5 or 2 is never a prime!
What is four fifths as a decimal?
0.2
0.5
0.8
0.8 is four fifths. 0.2 is one fifth and then multiply that by four.
0.75
Which of these is not a mammal?
Lion
Dolphin
Vole
Shark
Dolphins were the wild card here. They are actually mammals, even though they live in the sea. Sharks, of course, are fish.

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What letter should appear next in this sequence: L, K, J, H?
G
It's not the alphabet backwards because we skipped "I." Nope, it's "G" - the next letter on the middle row of the keyboard, going from right to left.
A
N
M
Which of the following is not a Biblical name?
Justin
There's a Justus but no Justin in the Bible.
David
Sarah
Ruth
Which is an integer?
8.1
2
An integer is a number that is round, that is, it has no decimal or fraction.
4.92
1/7

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Where on the planet can you stand, turn 180 degrees, and still be facing the same direction?
Nowhere, that's not possible
Equator
Greenwich Meridian
North Pole
If you stand on the North Pole, no matter which way you face, you're looking south. You can pull the same trick on the South Pole and always be looking north.
Which is the odd one out?
Sweden
Denmark
Poland
Poland is not part of Scandinavia; the others are.
Norway
What is 3933-127?
3210
3847
3806
This one is a simple deduction - which, of course, you did in your head with no trouble!
3877

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At what angle should you place a ladder against a wall?
45 degrees
90 degrees
60 degrees
75 degrees
The correct angle is 75 degrees to ensure the perfect center of gravity.
What is a quarter of 30 percent of 200?
12
15
If 10 percent of 200 is 20 then 30 percent is 60. A quarter of that is 15.
30
75
What is 1/5 plus 3/8, expressed as a decimal?
0.575
You can convert each fraction into a decimal and then add them, or add them by finding a common denominator, and then convert that.
0.415
0.485
0.228

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Which word describes a tectonic plate going under another?
Adduction
Subduction
Subduction is when one plate goes under another, and can cause quakes and, over time, mountains!
Deduction
Reduction
What does it mean to rebuff?
Rebuke
Repel
Rebuffing means to put someone off, for example, "He asked her out but she rebuffed his advances."
Rejoin
Retort
Which of these is not a hormone?
Vasopressin
Oxytocin
Dopamine
Dopamine is a chemical that helps hormones be released, but is not itself a hormone. It sure makes you feel good though!
Testosterone

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Which is not like the others?
Wallaby
Rabbit
Three are marsupials from Australia, but rabbits are mammals that are an invasive species.
Kangaroo
Wombat
Which four letter word can you add to the beginning of these words to make another word: ridge, horse, age, wheel?
Band
Cart
Carthorse, cartage, cartwheel, and cartridge!
Foot
Bank
Which seven letters would you want in Scrabble to maximize the odds of getting a seven-letter word?
RENISTA
Scrabble is all about getting the most common letters - and being able to add them to the board. That's why "S" is so valuable, as well as other ways to pluralize something or make it a verb, like ER. The ideal letters, if you could choose more than seven, are those in the word RESTRAINED.
ETRNAD
LEDNSAO
NEDASRT

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Which letter can you change out in the word "revenge" to get another word?
R
V
N
G
Revenge and revenue are just one letter apart!
Which is the odd one out: 25, 49, 81, 75?
25
49
82
75
All the other numbers are squares.
Which is the odd one out?
President Carter
They are all called James, but Carter goes by Jimmy.
President Monroe
President Madison
President Polk

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Which of these is the Golden Ratio?
1 to 1.618
This is considered the ideal ratio and appears all over nature and in architecture.
1 to 2.342
1 to 1.737
1 to 4.229
Which is the odd one out?
Neon
Hydrogen
All of these are noble gases, except hydrogen.
Argon
Xenon
What number is next in the sequence: 34, 55, 89, 144?
222
233
This sequence relies on adding two terms to get the next. It is called the Fibonacci sequence and starts 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc.
292
500

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How many sides does a dodecahedron have?
12
A dodecahedron is like a tetrahedron or a pyramid but it has one flat side at the bottom and then 11 faces rising to the top.
eight
seven
22
Which is the odd one out?
Curtains
Blinds
Windows
All are window treatments, except windows, which are the ones getting treated here!
Shutters
In a normal deck of playing cards, what are the odds of cutting to an ace?
1 in 26
1 in 2
1 in 52
1 in 13
There are four suits (spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs), hence four aces, and 13 cards per suit. So if you cut randomly to a card, 1 in 13 times, it will be an ace.

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Which of these is not a shade of blue?
Chartreuse
Teal is a little bit greeny but is still on the blue end of turquoise, Cerulean is a nice middle blue, and sky blue is a light blue. Chartreuse is a sort of light mustardy-olive green.
Cerulean
Teal
Sky
What does an isobar depict?
Air pressure
An isobar is like a contour line but for air pressure. When they're close together, the wind blows away from there to where they are further apart, as wind always moves from higher pressure to lower pressure areas.
Latitude
Longitude
Altitude
What is the sixth planet from the sun?
Jupiter
Uranus
Saturn is sixth. Pluto, the dwarf planet whose status is in doubt, is ninth. Earth is third.
Venus
Neptune

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Quartile is to fourth as quintile is to ...?
Sixth
Seventh
Fifth
A quartile is one quarter within a distribution. So with a group of 100, the second quartile is all the members of the group between 26 and 50.
Eighth
What is the longitude of Null Island?
50 degrees east
42 degrees west
0 degrees
Null Island isn't a real place, it's a point in the ocean. All non-geotagged photos on Google maps used to say that they were taken there, meaning technically it's the most-photographed spot on the planet, even though it doesn't exist. It's at zero degrees longitude, zero degrees latitude.
90 degrees east
You Got:
/35
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