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Squid Game Trivia Quiz
Squid Game follows hundreds of desperate, debt-ridden contestants who are lured into a secret competition. They play deadly versions of innocent children's games — starting with Red Light, Green Light — for an enormous cash prize, all watched over by pink-suited masked guards in a remote facility.
Q1. How many players take part in each game?
Answer: 456. All of them are in deep financial trouble. Each death adds ₩100 million to the prize pool, which can reach ₩45.6 billion, about US$39.86 million. The number carried over into the spin-off reality show, Squid Game: The Challenge, where 456 players competed for US$4.56 million.
Q2. What colour are the masked guards' jumpsuits?
Answer: Pink. Players wear green tracksuits inspired by 1970s Korean athletic wear, and guards wear pink, so neither group feels like individuals. The mint green and pink scheme was common in Korean schools in the 1970s and 80s, and over time the players learn to fear pink.
Q3. Who created, wrote and directed Squid Game?
Answer: Hwang Dong-hyuk. Hwang wrote every episode himself, taking nearly six months on the first two alone. He based Gi-hun and Sang-woo on two sides of himself: a boy raised by a struggling single mother in Seoul, and a Seoul National University student carrying his family's expectations.
Q4. What does the giant doll sing during "Red Light, Green Light"?
Answer: "Mugunghwa flower has blossomed". The mugunghwa, Hibiscus syriacus, is South Korea's national flower. The doll is based on Young-hee, a girl on Korean school textbook covers in the 1970s and 80s, and Hwang said the game was chosen because it could create a lot of losers at once.
Q5. Which title did Netflix originally give the series?
Answer: Round Six. Hwang wanted Squid Game, but Netflix's Kim Minyoung worried that only Korean viewers would recognise the children's game. Hwang chose the squid game because it was the most physically aggressive game he played in neighbourhood alleys as a kid, and so the best symbol of today's competitive society.
Q6. In which year did Hwang first write the story?
Answer: 2009. Struggling with debt, Hwang spent his free time in a Seoul comic café reading Japanese survival manga and wrote a film script about a deadly money game. Producers called it too grotesque and unrealistic. Netflix only took it on around 2019, when it was expanding into Korean productions.
Q7. Which classical piece announces the start of each new game?
Answer: "The Blue Danube". Johann Strauss II's waltz signals a new game, while the third movement of Haydn's Trumpet Concerto wakes the players each morning. Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is heard in the VIP lounge, and season two added "Nessun dorma" and "Time to Say Goodbye".
Q8. The score was composed by Jung Jae-il, who also scored which film?
Answer: Parasite. Jung brought in composers Park Min-ju and Kim Sung-soo to keep the music varied. For "Way Back Then", heard as children play the squid game, he used instruments from his own primary school days such as recorders and castanets, set to a Korean 3-3-7 cheering clap.
Q9. Who is revealed to be the Front Man?
Answer: Hwang In-ho, the brother of detective Jun-ho. Jun-ho infiltrates the games as a guard to find his missing brother. Hwang even named the pair after real childhood friends: one of them was called Hwang Jun-ho and had an older brother named Hwang In-ho. Lee Byung-hun, who had worked with Hwang on The Fortress, plays In-ho.
Q10. Which song plays over the first "Red Light, Green Light" massacre?
Answer: A cover of "Fly Me to the Moon". Arranged by Jung Jae-il and sung by Joo Won Shin, the song's romantic lyrics were meant to clash with the killing. Joo said Hwang wanted the scene to capture today's polarised capitalist society "in a very compressed and cynical way".
Q11. What did making season one cost Hwang physically?
Answer: Six teeth. Hwang said writing and producing the first season was so physically and mentally exhausting that he neglected his dental health and had six teeth pulled after production. That is part of why he was at first unsure about a sequel and wanted a team of writers if he made one.
Q12. The maze-like staircases were inspired by which artist?
Answer: M. C. Escher. Production designer Chae Kyoung-sun drew on Escher's impossible stair drawings such as Relativity, saying they represented "a form of bondage". Magritte also appears: the painted skies on the game walls were inspired by his Empire of Light series.
Q13. How high off the ground was the glass stepping-stones set really built?
Answer: 1.5 metres. Green screens created the illusion of height, but even 1.5 metres was enough to make the actors nervous. The tug-of-war set was really over 10 metres up, which caused genuine anxiety for some cast members afraid of heights.
Q14. Whose hairstyle inspired the giant doll's?
Answer: Hwang's daughter. The doll is based on Young-hee from the old Korean textbooks Chul-soo and Young-hee. In season two Hwang introduced Cheol-su, Young-hee's giant robot boyfriend, who appears with a new game in season three.
Q15. Which survival manga was Hwang reading when he came up with the idea?
Answer: Gambling Apocalypse: Kaiji. He also read Battle Royale and Liar Game. Comparing their characters' situation to his own debts, he imagined joining such a game to escape them. He wanted the story to be "an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society" with characters we have all met in real life.
Q16. The blue and red ddakji in the first game were inspired by which Japanese urban legend?
Answer: Red Paper, Blue Paper. The ddakji appear in the very first game. The mysterious recruiter is played by Gong Yoo, who had worked with Hwang on Silenced. Hwang chose simple children's games with easy rules, partly because the script was first written as a film and partly so a global audience would not get lost.
Q17. How many hours was season one watched in its first 28 days?
Answer: About 1.65 billion. That was well ahead of Bridgerton's 625 million. Squid Game was the first Korean drama to top Netflix's global weekly chart, reached number one in 94 countries and was seen by more than 142 million member households in 28 days.
Q18. Where was the reality spin-off Squid Game: The Challenge filmed?
Answer: Cardington Studios, Bedfordshire. Filming began in early 2023 for the ten-episode show, which was released at the end of that year. A third season, renamed Squid Game: The VIP Challenge with eight celebrity VIP players, was announced in March 2026. Seongapdo is where the original drama's island scenes were shot.
Q19. What record did the show set at the SAG Awards?
Answer: First non-English-language series to win. Lee Jung-jae and HoYeon Jung both won. Lee was the first male Asian and South Korean actor nominated individually in television. The show was also the first non-English series nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series, and won six Emmys.
Q20. HoYeon Jung's audition tape came from where?
Answer: New York, before Fashion Week. It was her first acting audition, made while she was finishing a shoot in Mexico and preparing for New York Fashion Week. Hwang said he knew immediately she was the one, describing her as "wild and free like an untamed horse".
Squid Game quiz answers and explanations
Every question from the quiz above with its correct answer, the story behind it, and where the fact comes from.
-
How many players take part in each game?
Answer: 456. All of them are in deep financial trouble. Each death adds ₩100 million to the prize pool, which can reach ₩45.6 billion, about US$39.86 million. The number carried over into the spin-off reality show, Squid Game: The Challenge, where 456 players competed for US$4.56 million.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
What colour are the masked guards' jumpsuits?
Answer: Pink. Players wear green tracksuits inspired by 1970s Korean athletic wear, and guards wear pink, so neither group feels like individuals. The mint green and pink scheme was common in Korean schools in the 1970s and 80s, and over time the players learn to fear pink.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
Who created, wrote and directed Squid Game?
Answer: Hwang Dong-hyuk. Hwang wrote every episode himself, taking nearly six months on the first two alone. He based Gi-hun and Sang-woo on two sides of himself: a boy raised by a struggling single mother in Seoul, and a Seoul National University student carrying his family's expectations.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
What does the giant doll sing during "Red Light, Green Light"?
Answer: "Mugunghwa flower has blossomed". The mugunghwa, Hibiscus syriacus, is South Korea's national flower. The doll is based on Young-hee, a girl on Korean school textbook covers in the 1970s and 80s, and Hwang said the game was chosen because it could create a lot of losers at once.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
Which title did Netflix originally give the series?
Answer: Round Six. Hwang wanted Squid Game, but Netflix's Kim Minyoung worried that only Korean viewers would recognise the children's game. Hwang chose the squid game because it was the most physically aggressive game he played in neighbourhood alleys as a kid, and so the best symbol of today's competitive society.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
In which year did Hwang first write the story?
Answer: 2009. Struggling with debt, Hwang spent his free time in a Seoul comic café reading Japanese survival manga and wrote a film script about a deadly money game. Producers called it too grotesque and unrealistic. Netflix only took it on around 2019, when it was expanding into Korean productions.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
Which classical piece announces the start of each new game?
Answer: "The Blue Danube". Johann Strauss II's waltz signals a new game, while the third movement of Haydn's Trumpet Concerto wakes the players each morning. Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is heard in the VIP lounge, and season two added "Nessun dorma" and "Time to Say Goodbye".
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
The score was composed by Jung Jae-il, who also scored which film?
Answer: Parasite. Jung brought in composers Park Min-ju and Kim Sung-soo to keep the music varied. For "Way Back Then", heard as children play the squid game, he used instruments from his own primary school days such as recorders and castanets, set to a Korean 3-3-7 cheering clap.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
Who is revealed to be the Front Man?
Answer: Hwang In-ho, the brother of detective Jun-ho. Jun-ho infiltrates the games as a guard to find his missing brother. Hwang even named the pair after real childhood friends: one of them was called Hwang Jun-ho and had an older brother named Hwang In-ho. Lee Byung-hun, who had worked with Hwang on The Fortress, plays In-ho.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
Which song plays over the first "Red Light, Green Light" massacre?
Answer: A cover of "Fly Me to the Moon". Arranged by Jung Jae-il and sung by Joo Won Shin, the song's romantic lyrics were meant to clash with the killing. Joo said Hwang wanted the scene to capture today's polarised capitalist society "in a very compressed and cynical way".
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
What did making season one cost Hwang physically?
Answer: Six teeth. Hwang said writing and producing the first season was so physically and mentally exhausting that he neglected his dental health and had six teeth pulled after production. That is part of why he was at first unsure about a sequel and wanted a team of writers if he made one.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
The maze-like staircases were inspired by which artist?
Answer: M. C. Escher. Production designer Chae Kyoung-sun drew on Escher's impossible stair drawings such as Relativity, saying they represented "a form of bondage". Magritte also appears: the painted skies on the game walls were inspired by his Empire of Light series.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
How high off the ground was the glass stepping-stones set really built?
Answer: 1.5 metres. Green screens created the illusion of height, but even 1.5 metres was enough to make the actors nervous. The tug-of-war set was really over 10 metres up, which caused genuine anxiety for some cast members afraid of heights.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
Whose hairstyle inspired the giant doll's?
Answer: Hwang's daughter. The doll is based on Young-hee from the old Korean textbooks Chul-soo and Young-hee. In season two Hwang introduced Cheol-su, Young-hee's giant robot boyfriend, who appears with a new game in season three.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
Which survival manga was Hwang reading when he came up with the idea?
Answer: Gambling Apocalypse: Kaiji. He also read Battle Royale and Liar Game. Comparing their characters' situation to his own debts, he imagined joining such a game to escape them. He wanted the story to be "an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society" with characters we have all met in real life.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
The blue and red ddakji in the first game were inspired by which Japanese urban legend?
Answer: Red Paper, Blue Paper. The ddakji appear in the very first game. The mysterious recruiter is played by Gong Yoo, who had worked with Hwang on Silenced. Hwang chose simple children's games with easy rules, partly because the script was first written as a film and partly so a global audience would not get lost.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
How many hours was season one watched in its first 28 days?
Answer: About 1.65 billion. That was well ahead of Bridgerton's 625 million. Squid Game was the first Korean drama to top Netflix's global weekly chart, reached number one in 94 countries and was seen by more than 142 million member households in 28 days.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
Where was the reality spin-off Squid Game: The Challenge filmed?
Answer: Cardington Studios, Bedfordshire. Filming began in early 2023 for the ten-episode show, which was released at the end of that year. A third season, renamed Squid Game: The VIP Challenge with eight celebrity VIP players, was announced in March 2026. Seongapdo is where the original drama's island scenes were shot.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
What record did the show set at the SAG Awards?
Answer: First non-English-language series to win. Lee Jung-jae and HoYeon Jung both won. Lee was the first male Asian and South Korean actor nominated individually in television. The show was also the first non-English series nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series, and won six Emmys.
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
-
HoYeon Jung's audition tape came from where?
Answer: New York, before Fashion Week. It was her first acting audition, made while she was finishing a shoot in Mexico and preparing for New York Fashion Week. Hwang said he knew immediately she was the one, describing her as "wild and free like an untamed horse".
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
Squid Game by the numbers
- Seasons
- 3
- Season 1 released
- 17 September 2021
- Final season
- 27 June 2025
- Players per game
- 456
- Top prize
- ₩45.6 billion (about US$39.86m)
- Primetime Emmys
- 6
- Hours watched, first 28 days
- 1.65 billion
- Story first written
- 2009
Source: Wikipedia: Squid Game
About the Squid Game quiz
Squid Game was written in 2009, called too grotesque by producers and left unmade for about ten years before it became a record-breaking Netflix hit. Its look draws on Escher, Magritte and Korean childhood games, its music mixes classical cues with original score, and several character names come from real people. That makes the making of the show a richer test than remembering which game came third.
Questions cover the deadly contest — the players and their numbers, the games from Red Light, Green Light to the final round, the masked guards and the Front Man, and the show's biggest twists.
What this Squid Game quiz covers
The quiz covers the games and the players, but most questions are about how the show was made: Hwang Dong-hyuk's 2009 script and the manga behind it, the original title, the real people behind the character names, the Escher stairs and Magritte skies, the music cues, the tricks behind the glass bridge and the records the show broke. Each answer below explains the story behind it and links to the source.
How to play
Tap an answer to see the right one straight away, with the story behind it, and check your score at the end. Play Again resets the quiz.
Squid Game quiz — frequently asked questions
Do I need to remember the order of the games?
No. A few questions mention specific games, but the order is never tested.
Is it spoiler-heavy?
One question reveals the Front Man's identity. Otherwise the quiz is mostly about production and won't spoil much.
Does it cover season two and The Challenge?
Lightly. One question is about the reality spin-off; the rest is about the first season and how it was made.