Austin, the capital of Texas, is known for its vibrant music scene, thriving tech industry, and iconic landmarks such as the Texas State Capitol and the University of Texas at Austin. The city is also a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts, with access to natural attractions such as the Colorado River and the Texas Hill Country.
Austin was founded in 1835 by a group of settlers led by Stephen F. Austin and was named after him. The city quickly developed into a major center of trade, with the growth of the cotton and livestock industries. Austin has also grown rapidly in recent years, becoming a major center for technology, healthcare, and education. The city is also a hub for creative and innovative individuals and businesses, earning the nickname "Silicon Hills."
Austin is also known for its diverse population, with a large number of immigrants from Mexico and Central America, as well as African American and Native American communities. This diversity is reflected in the city's food, music, and art, making it a vibrant and exciting place to visit or live. The city's annual festivals, such as South by Southwest, Austin City Limits and Texas Book Festival, are also major draws, attracting visitors from all over the world.
60 Austin Trivia Questions Ranked From Easiest to Hardest (Updated for 2024)
- Way more dormant than "9-1-1: Lone Star" would have you believe, Pilot Knob is an actual volcano near Bergstrom International Airport in what Texas city?
Answer: Austin
- Hippie Hollow Park is a park and beach in northwest Austin which is the only public beach in the state of Texas permitting what specific activity?
Answer: Clothing optional (nude beach)
- The Domain residential complex in Austin, TX, is home to a museum for what popular dessert item, inside of a pink building?
Answer: Ice Cream
- With words scrawled in red on a yellow background on the side of Jo's Coffee, the "I Love You So Much" mural is a popular Instagram photo spot in what Texas city?
Answer: Austin
- The Austin-based bourbon distiller Nine Banded Whiskey is named for what nine-banded little armored critters that appear on their logos?
Answer: Armadillos
- Named for a landmark in San Antonio, what theater chain that famously doesn't allow talking or texting during movies was founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas?
Answer: Alamo Drafthouse
- What is the largest city by population in Texas which does NOT have either a NFL, NBA, or MLB team call it home?
Answer: Austin
- How many stars appear on the center of each doorknob at the Texas State Capitol?
Answer: One
- On April 20, 2012 Austin, Texas dedicated a statue to what red-headed country singer and author of "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die"?
Answer: Willie Nelson
- What “P” Therapeutics company, founded out Austin, TX in 1995, offers targeted radiotherapeutics for adults and children with rare cancers, and has a name that suggests addition.
Answer: Plus Therapeutics
- What is the name of the Austin-based software business founded by brothers David and Donald Yonce considered to be in the middle of the December 2020 Federal government hack?
Answer: SolarWinds
- What band, which shares its name with a utensil, hails from Austin, TX, and had an album in 2007 entitled "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga?" The lead singer of the band, Britt Daniels, performed Elvis Costello's song, "Veronica," on an episode of "Veronica Mars."
Answer: Spoon
- What upscale retailer was founded in Austin in 1978 by John Mackey and Renee Lawson? The small store was initially called SaferWay, as a spoof of Safeway.
Answer: Whole Foods Market
- If you have tickets to the Broken Spoke, Threadgill's, or Cactus Cafe, you're certainly in "the Live Music Capital of the World," which is what American city?
Answer: Austin
- Need the full name: Oddly held right in the center of city, a ginormous Austin music fest scooped its name from what PBS music show?
Answer: Austin City Limits
- Although it closed in 2015, what actor who has starred in films including “The Proposal”, “Two Weeks Notice”, and “The Blind Side” opened her own restaurant called Bess Bistro in Austin, Texas in 2006?
Answer: Sandra Bullock
- What famous TV journalist, who anchored CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981 and was known as "the most trusted man in America," attended his freshman year at University of Texas - Austin, before dropping out of school altogether?
Answer: Walter Cronkite
- Austin's Lady Bird Lake, despite being located in Texas, is actually a reservoir of what river that's named for a state that is not Texas?
Answer: Colorado
- Clyde Stubblefield and Aaron Franklin are Barbecue Hall of Fame inductees whose meats rep the pit scene of what Texas city?
Answer: Austin
- BFF mode helps you swarm together with new platonic besties on what Whitney Wolfe Herd-founded, Austin-based relationship app?
Answer: Bumble
- Stephen F. Austin, the namesake of Texas's capital city, lost the 1836 Texas presidential election to what other famed Texan? Austin was later appointed secretary of state for the new republic.
Answer: Sam Houston
- Which country music star played a private concert at the VerkadaOne event at Austin in mid-2023?
Answer: Cole Swindell
- Wade Watts digs through troves of '80s nostalgia to find the Easter eggs of a high stakes virtual game, in what 2011 novel by two-time Austin Poetry Slam winner Ernest Cline?
Answer: Ready Player One
- A wildflower center at the University Of Texas at Austin is named after what former first lady of the United States, the wife of the president who succeeded John F. Kennedy following his assassination?
Answer: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
- Founded in New York City by Frank Reig and Paul Suhey, what is the name of the moped-sharing startup that by 2020 expanded to Washington and Austin and purchases its mopeds from Chinese manufacturer NIU?
Answer: Revel
- If a group of Austrians had flights through airports with the codes AUS-TRI-ANS, they would end in Andahuaylas, Peru. The first and second flights would both take off from what country?
Answer: United States (AUS is Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, TRI is the Tri-Cities Airport in Blountville, Tennessee)
- In what decade did the annual mishmash of film, media, and music known as South by Southwest or SXSW first begin in Austin? The festival has remained in the Texas capital since it launched there.
Answer: 1980s
- What Austin-area structure is home to more than one and a half million bats, the largest urban bat colony in the U.S.?
Answer: The Congress Avenue Bridge
- Which president has the largest presidential library as measured by square footage? It's located in Austin, TX.
Answer: Lyndon
- Austin's Rooster Teeth Productions started with "Red vs. Blue," a parody of what Xbox military video game series?
Answer: Halo
- A demonym is a word that identifies a group of people in relation to a particular place, such as Chicagoan or Michigander. What is the official demonym for someone from Austin?
Answer: Austinite
- Donning a verde suit, what local celebrity and Austin FC Minister of Culture drummed for the crowd during the team's inaugural 2021 home game?
Answer: Matthew McConaughey
- A 3,000 mile race track and facility in Austin that has hosted the U.S. Grand Prix is the “Circuit Of The ______.” Fill in the one word blank, which implies that residents of Austin, as well as residents of Panama City and Sao Paolo can also use it.
Answer: Circuit Of The Americas
- What Lake on the Colorado River in Austin, TX, is a river-like reservoir? It shares its name with the two word nickname of President Johnson’s first lady, who serve from 1963 to 1969.
Answer: Lady Bird Lake
- What “B” Texas State History Museum, established in 2001 in Austin, TX, is dedicated to the telling the story of Texas through educational experiences? Its name is the same as the last name of the actress who starred in “Ocean’s 8” as Danny Ocean’s sister.
Answer: Bullock Texas State History Museum
- The Color Bar Experience is an in-store offering of what jeweler whose namesake founder started it out of her Austin home in 2002?
Answer: Kendra Scott
- What “B” art museum on the campus of the University Of Texas at Austin offers classes an auditorium in addition to a variety of exhibits and galleries?
Answer: Blanton Museum Of Art
- What professional tennis player became the first Austinite to win a Grand Slam singles title following his 2013 US Open victory against Juan Carlos Ferrero?
Answer: Andy Roddick
- What museum on 6th Street in Austin, TX, featuring Bigfoot exhibits and shrunken heads, appropriately advertises itself as a museum for things that are what adjective, often something supernatural or uncanny?
Answer: Museum Of The Weird
- Which Texas city, now the largest in the state, was originally the capital of The Republic of Texas before Austin became the capital in 1839?
Answer: Houston
- What Texas musician, known for such hits as "The Sky is Crying" and "Tightrope," was immortalized in a statue in located at Lady Bird Lake in Austin, after his death in a helicopter crash in 1990?
Answer: Stevie Ray Vaughan
- What lake in Austin shares it's name with a Texas county, as well as a Texas Revolutionary War hero?
Answer: Lake Travis
- A wildflower center southwest of Austin, which protects over 900 species of plants native to Texas, is named for what woman? As First Lady, she helped bring wildflowers to the nation's highways by advocating for the Highway Beautification Act.
Answer: Lady Bird Johnson
- Which “pfun” city in Travis County is a suburb of Austin and home to Typhoon Texas and Northeast Metro Skate/BMX Park?
Answer: Pflugerville
- According to multiple weather websites, what is the hottest month of the year in Austin?
Answer: August
- The hottest day in the history of Texas’ state capital, Austin ,came on August 28, 2011, when the temperature reached how many degrees Fahrenheit? Whole number only, two either way accepted
Answer: 112
- In 2011, Vista Equity Partners moved from its original HQ city of San Francisco, California to what state capital city?
Answer: Austin
- What “U” sculpture garden in Austin focuses on its namesake sculptor with first name Charles, in a setting adjacent to Zilker Park?
Answer: Umlauf sculpture garden
- The "Servant Girl Annihilator" is the gory nickname given by writer O. Henry to the unknown Austin serial killer who murdered eight people from 1884-1885 with what common arboreal tool? Oof, sorry for the dark question.
Answer: Axe
- What real estate franchise with two names, founded in Austin, TX by one of its namesakes in 1983, claims to be the world’s largest in terms of agents employed and sales? You can find them by looking up the letters “KW.”
Answer: Keller Williams
- The fake eruption of the real-life dormant volcano Pilot Knob blasted off the second season of what Austin-set Rob Lowe TV EMS drama?
Answer: 9-1-1: Lone Star
- What “B” Texas State History Museum, established in 2001 in Austin, TX, is dedicated to the telling the story of Texas through educational experiences? Its name is the same as the last name of the actress who starred in “Ocean’s 8” as Danny Ocean’s sister.
Answer: Bullock Texas State History Museum
- A Pool and Preserve in Austin, TX shares its name with what popular historical musical about the first Secretary of The Treasury in US History?
Answer: Hamilton Pool Preserve
- What historic district, located near Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin, TX, has a series of historic bungalow homes? It happens to share its name with the last name of the blues singer from a 2020 August Wilson adaptation, who has a titular “Black Bottom.”
Answer: Rainey Street Historic District
- Created in 2009 and based in Austin, Texas, what “A” software company helps optimize workplace productivity in the remote space by streamlining workflow and limiting distractions, keeping employees energetic?
Answer: ActivTrak
- What saloon franchise has a location on 6th Street in Austin, and a movie made about it, starring Piper Perabo? (The film, however, is set at the NYC location.)
Answer: Coyote Ugly
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon was supplied with boxes thanks to the work of what A.I.-integrated, Jason Traff-founded Austin logistics startup with a very on-the-nose name?
Answer: Shipwell
- Which real estate franchise based in Austin, Texas was started in 1983 and has more than 180,000 global associates as of 2018 and was also listed as one of the happiest companies to work for?
Answer: Keller Williams Realty
- Australian hard rock band AC/DC's first show in the U.S. was in what legendary Austin venue?
Answer: Armadillo World Headquarters
- What “D” chocolatier, owned by Nicole Patel and operating out Austin, TX, tries to use local Texas ingredients in its chocolate, and has an advent calendar? Its name is a derivation of a word meaning tasty.
Answer: Delysia
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About the Author
Eli Robinson is the Chief Trivia Officer at Water Cooler Trivia. He was once in a Bruce Springsteen cover band called F Street Band.
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