💻 Programming & Software Trivia Questions & Answers

Languages, code, operating systems and the software running the world. Below are 30 free programming & software trivia questions with answers — part of Tech trivia on BUZZ. Want a real challenge that adapts to what you know? Play the Tech quiz — no signup needed to start.

30 Programming & Software trivia questions

1. Q1. Bell Labs needed a language to rebuild Unix in 1972 — which one did Dennis Ritchie create?

   Answer: C

   💡 Ritchie built C by extending an earlier language called B, which itself came from BCPL.

2. Q2. IBM's 1957 language FORTRAN packed a two-word phrase into its name — what was it?

   Answer: Formula Translation

   💡 The very first FORTRAN manual appeared in October 1956, months before its compiler was finished.

3. Q3. Microsoft's very first version of Windows hit store shelves in which year?

   Answer: 1985

   💡 That first release bundled simple built-in programs like Calculator, Paint, and Notepad.

4. Q4. What programming language was created by Guido van Rossum and released in 1991?

   Answer: Python

   💡 Van Rossum named Python after Monty Python's Flying Circus, not the snake. He designed it for readability and simplicity. Python is now the most popular programming language in the world.

5. Q5. What is 'open source' software?

   Answer: Software whose source code anyone can inspect, modify, and distribute

   💡 Linus Torvalds created Linux in 1991 as open source. The Open Source Initiative was founded in 1998 to promote the model.

6. Q6. What is a 'bug' in software?

   Answer: An error or flaw in code that causes unexpected behaviour

   💡 The term 'bug' predates computers — engineers used it for electrical faults. The famous 1947 Grace Hopper 'moth in the relay' is often cited as the origin, but the term was already common in engineering before that.

7. Q7. What is 'JavaScript' primarily used for?

   Answer: Adding interactivity to websites in browsers

   💡 Brendan Eich created JavaScript in 10 days in 1995 at Netscape. The name was marketing — Java was hot — but the two languages are almost entirely unrelated.

8. Q8. What is 'Git' primarily used for?

   Answer: Version control for tracking code changes

   💡 Linus Torvalds created Git in 2005 in 10 days. GitHub (2008), GitLab, and Bitbucket are web services built around Git.

9. Q9. What does 'API' stand for?

   Answer: Application Programming Interface

   💡 An API defines how different software systems communicate. When a weather app shows your local temperature, it's calling a weather service API. REST APIs using HTTP are the most common type on the web.

10. Q10. What is 'SQL' used for?

    Answer: Managing databases

    💡 SQL (Structured Query Language) was developed by IBM in the 1970s based on Edgar Codd's relational model. It was standardized in 1986 and remains the dominant language for querying relational databases.

11. Q11. What is 'open source' software's most famous licence — used by Linux?

    Answer: GPL (GNU General Public License) — requires derivatives to also be open source

    💡 Richard Stallman created the GPL in 1989 as 'copyleft' — using copyright to keep software free. Linus Torvalds used GPL v2 for Linux, which is why all Linux-derived code must remain open source.

12. Q12. What is 'agile' software development?

    Answer: An iterative approach favoring frequent delivery and flexibility

    💡 The Agile Manifesto was published in 2001 by 17 developers in Utah, replacing heavyweight 'waterfall' methods. Scrum and Kanban are the most common Agile frameworks.

13. Q13. What is 'pair programming'?

    Answer: Two programmers working together at one workstation

    💡 Pair programming is a core Extreme Programming (XP) practice — one writes code while the other reviews in real time. Studies show fewer bugs at the cost of more developer hours.

14. Q14. What's the all-in-one toolkit called that bundles an editor, compiler, and debugger into one app?

    Answer: IDE

    💡 IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment — think VS Code or JetBrains apps wrapping editing, building, and debugging in one window.

15. Q15. Two guys frustrated with the internet for coders launched a Q&A site in 2008 — name it.

    Answer: Stack Overflow

    💡 Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky's readers even voted on the site's name before it launched.

16. Q16. Which beginner-friendly language did two Dartmouth professors create for students in 1964?

    Answer: BASIC

    💡 Kemeny and Kurtz built it so non-scientist students could write real programs on a shared campus computer.

17. Q17. Released for the Apple II in 1979, which program is hailed as computing's first true spreadsheet?

    Answer: VisiCalc

    💡 Creator Dan Bricklin got the idea watching a Harvard professor erase and rewrite numbers on a chalkboard.

18. Q18. Before its recursive backronym, what did the letters in PHP originally stand for back in 1995?

    Answer: Personal Home Page

    💡 Rasmus Lerdorf built the original tool in C just to track visits to his own online résumé.

19. Q19. Which name did Java briefly carry before a trademark clash forced Sun to rebrand it in 1995?

    Answer: Oak

    💡 James Gosling reportedly picked the original name after a tree he could see outside his office window.

20. Q20. Some functions solve a puzzle by having themselves solve a smaller version — what's this called?

    Answer: Recursion

    💡 Every recursive function needs a 'base case' — a stopping point — or it'll call itself forever and crash.

21. Q21. Which license lets you modify code but requires modified versions stay open too — Linux's rule?

    Answer: GPL

    💡 GPL stands for GNU General Public License — its 'copyleft' rule means derivative works have to stay open source too.

22. Q22. Which programming task organizes a program's version history so teams can undo changes and merge?

    Answer: Version control

    💡 Git, one of the most popular version control tools, was itself created by Linus Torvalds — the same person behind Linux.

23. Q23. Which IBM scientist led the team credited with building FORTRAN, unveiled in 1957?

    Answer: John Backus

    💡 Backus went on to win the 1977 Turing Award, computing's highest honor, for his language-design work.

24. Q24. Before its 1983 rebrand, Bjarne Stroustrup's new language went by which more modest working name?

    Answer: C with Classes

    💡 The eventual name's '++' nodded to C's own increment operator, hinting at a step-up from C.

25. Q25. The US Department of Defense's Ada language, standardized in 1980, was named to honor whom?

    Answer: Ada Lovelace

    💡 The standard's approval date, December 10, 1980, was chosen to fall on its honoree's birthday.

26. Q26. Whose 1972 Bell Labs tutorial is credited with starting the 'Hello, World' coding tradition?

    Answer: Brian Kernighan

    💡 The habit really caught on after Kernighan co-wrote the influential book 'The C Programming Language' in 1978.

27. Q27. Which free-software project, announced by Richard Stallman in 1983, jokes about Unix in its name?

    Answer: GNU

    💡 Stallman quit his MIT job in January 1984 so the lab couldn't claim ownership of the code he wrote.

28. Q28. Launched in 2008, which code-hosting site did Microsoft buy a decade later for $7.5 billion?

    Answer: GitHub

    💡 GitHub's founders — Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath, and PJ Hyett — launched it that April.

29. Q29. Which technologist coined the actual term 'open source' at a strategy meeting back in 1998?

    Answer: Christine Peterson

    💡 Peterson has said she wanted a term that emphasized the code itself, not just its zero price tag.

30. Q30. An OS splits in two so a crashing app can't take down the machine — name the privileged half.

    Answer: Kernel space

    💡 Ordinary apps run in 'user space' and have to politely ask the kernel via a system call whenever they need real hardware access.

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