Hello folks, so this marks the completion of 30 days of our quizzing journey. And thus here comes, the Sunday read in tips and tricks to ace any quiz.
One of the most famous types of quizzes, one faces in School and college circuit is IT Quiz, or Tech Quiz. So I thought, writing about those quizzes, would be a good start. This is in reference to the normal Tech quizzes held at schools or colleges, of which I have a personal experience, Though not TCS, although it can be used as a reference for that purpose too.
I have been fortunate enough to experience a fair few of these and have a bit of knowledge as to what kind of questions come in a quiz and how to tackle them. Thus, today in the Sunday Post, I have decided to write about it in order to help my readers.
I would be mentioning the types of questions often faced in these types of quizzes and also how to prepare about them.
#1 - The Recent News One
This type of question is asked fairly often, with news going back to a month to being as recent as the day the quiz is conducted (Does happen quite a bit.)
These are fairly difficult to answer if you have not read the news and actually aren't that popular either, due to their sheer non-workability.
Example -
(As mentioned in the Saturday#4 post dated 27th June)
How to tackle these types of questions?
- Try to get news, from anywhere possible. I once answered a question I saw on NDTV :P
- I suggest following Ars Technica, The Verge, The Next Web, and also MIT Technological Review and TechCrunch for a start as they are the best for Tech News.
- Be on the lookout for the question worthy stuff, not just some random phone's review.
#2 - The Random CEO and Founder stuff.
No. Just no. This is the worst kind of Question for me. (I sucked at Memorising) This is also the favorite kind for all those low-level in-house beginner's quizzes.
They are only known to someone who has memorized all the CEOs or founders by heart, which just isn't feasible for a Tech Quiz (although some names do get stuck as they repeatedly come in questions or remain in news). For example, we all might know Elon Musk heads Tesla, but very few might know Brian Acton, who founded Whatsapp
Example of such questions are,
Q. Which company's founders are these two gentlemen?
Answer - Flipkart
Check the Mario Question in this Daily Post also for more idea.
A more proper quiz question in this type might go something like this,
How to tackle these types of questions?
Try going through the pictures of Founders/CEOs if you can. There isn't anything else to do other than become a joke by memorizing them.
#3 - The famous company trivia
These are even more frequently asked in more standard quizzes than Type 1, as they are workable as well as easy to answer. You can say that about 20% of questions would be of this type.
They usually follow the format of giving the origin story of a famous company and asking the name of the company. It is also a common occurrence in TCS IT Wiz too.
Example -
Q. The AuctionWeb was founded in California on September 3, 1995, by French-born Iranian-American computer programmer Pierre Omidyar. One of the first items sold on AuctionWeb was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers.
AuctionWeb evolved to be which famous Tech company?
Answer -
Q. The founders originally nicknamed their new search engine "BackRub", because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site. Eventually, they changed the name to X, originating from a misspelling of the word "_____", the number one followed by one hundred zeros, which was picked to signify that the search engine was intended to provide large quantities of information.
Answer -
How to tackle these types of questions?
- Read the bios of famous Tech companies in detail on Wikipedia, focusing on the key facts.
- Key facts include origin stories, acquisitions, and (amusing) trivia.
- Famous companies don't only mean companies like Google, Facebook, etc. You have to research a lot more than these stellar ones. Examples - Asus, Lenovo, Xiaomi, IBM, etc.
#4 - The Obligatory Startup question
This has been introduced much later to the Tech quizzing scene but is now normality at most quizzes, as they are known to many. This category includes all the startups, Indian or global, and are the most difficult to prepare for.
Another very important demographic of this category is e-commerce startups, who almost warrant their own section.
Example -
Q. ____ is an e-commerce company headquartered in Mumbai. It was started by an IIT Kanpur alumnus in January 2008 as product research and price comparison service. In 2009 it adapted the marketplace model and started selling products online. Its slogan is " _____ kiya kya? ", which features in its many TV commercials
Fill in the blanks.
Answer -
How to tackle these types of questions?
- For startups, read about new startups in the news and on the Internet. Then go on Wikipedia and check their bio.
- Examples of startups that you might come across in quizzes are Ola, Paytm, and Uber. TikTok, etc.
- For e-commerce, just see the secondary players in the market, like AJIO.
#5 - The Google Doodle/Amul advert Question
In this type of question, you are just given a Google Doodle/Blurred Amul advert of somebody related to Tech and have to identify for whom it is meant for. They are fairly workable if you know about the person or thing in question. Otherwise, they can be horrendous.
A good example of such a question would be,
How to tackle these types of questions?
- Check the Google Doodles of famous Tech Personalities Eg - George Boole, Alan Turing, etc.
- You can check Doodles at Google Doodles (The Official Google Doodle Page).
#6 - In Popular Culture Question
These are put in most quizzes nowadays to make them more "cooler". They are fairly easy as they are repeated quite often. They are mostly based on famous Youtubers, dank memes, and sometimes, to appeal to the younger audience, video games.
Example
Q.2. X was created by a Programmer from Oregan, Billy Markus who was desirous of creating a fun cryptocurrency that won't be having a dubious history like others. Its logo is Y which in itself is very popular meme content. Again, identify X and Y.
Answer- X: DogeCoin Y: Shiba Inu Dog
Q. This video game series is set during the 22nd and 23rd centuries. The series is regarded to be a spiritual successor of a 1988 video game, Wasteland. A recurring feature in the series the evil corporation Vault-Tec, with its mascot Vault-Boy.
One of the earliest accessories given to the player is a wearable device, which has been brought to production in real life too by the company that currently owns the series. A dog by the name of Dogmeat accompanies the player in the latest installment.
Which series?
Answer - Fallout
How to tackle these types of questions?
- For Youtube, watch the most popular channels, and be on the lookout for facts related to them.
- For dank memes, you can check Knowyourmeme for the most popular and most viral memes.
- For gaming, play games. Or alternatively, check if there are any new games being released/ games being in the news.
#8 - Programming trivia/History of Computers
Both of these appear pretty rarely at *good* quizzes as they is pretty tough to work-out, but are still part of quizzes. The programming ones are mostly related to programming languages or coding culture and history is, well, everything under the sun in computers from Abacus to Turing.
Example -
Q. X is a title given to a small number of open-source software development leaders, typically project founders who retain the final say in disputes or arguments within the community.
The phrase originated in 1995 with reference to Guido van Rossum, creator of the Python programming language. Shortly after van Rossum joined the Corporation for National Research Initiatives, the term appeared in a follow-up mail by Ken Manheimer to a meeting trying to create a semi-formal group that would oversee Python development and workshops; this initial use included the additional joke of naming van Rossum the "First Interim X".
What is X?
Answer - BDFL (Benevolent dictator for life)
Also, check the Hello World Program question in our recent post.
How to tackles these types of questions?
- For Programming, check trivia about the various programming languages or programming terms through Wikipedia or the Jargon File.
- Alternatively, you can try programming, which leads you to trivia about the languages you use. (Python and C++ are most popular)
- For History, I recommend you read a bit about it on Wikipedia.
- Good starting points would be Charles Babbage and Blaise Pascal, and then you can move forward
This is just the tip of the iceberg, and to win a (good) tech quiz, you need to be way more prepared. The best resources, I can direct you to are Wikipedia and SlideShare.net, which form the core of any quizzer's preparation. You can also follow this very blog which features mixed bag questions daily by different quizzers with vast experiences.
Don't expect to own your first ever quiz. Take it slow. Things take time.
Until then, this is Aniket Prasad signing off with the hope that this information comes handy in somebody's quiz preparations.
(The article idea has been taken from Mr. Pranav Dhar, an accomplished Tech Quizzer in his own right)
- Ciao
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