How To Have A Zoom Trivia Night With Your Most Competitive Friends

Even if you'd never used the video software Zoom before March, it's pretty likely that you've heard of it by now. Social distancing efforts and statewide stay-at-home orders have inspired the rise of virtual hangouts, with friends using Zoom for everything from work meetings to trivia night. The silver lining is that this might just be the best trivia night you ever have, since you don't have to leave your bed to win the prize.

The first thing that every trivia night needs is a host. Assign someone in your group to be the host, and to make up questions for trivia. This host should also have administrator privileges in the Zoom video chat, so that they can be in charge of breakout rooms. You'll need to establish, as a group, what the parameters of the trivia night are: how long groups have to debate answers in their breakout rooms, for example, and how many rounds of trivia you want to move through.

And since this trivia night is virtual, you'll probably want everyone to swear that they aren't using their phones. It's much harder to enforce this over a screen than it is in a bar, so you might just have to trust in your fellow teammates and adversaries and take their word for it.

One of the hardest parts of any trivia night is coming up with the right questions to ask — ones that are hard enough to make people think, but not so hard that anyone gives up. Luckily, there are tons of resources online to help your trivia host come up with entertaining questions. All you have to do is search something like "trivia questions" on Google, and you'll find countless links providing you with topic ideas and specific questions to stump your pals.

Here are five examples of questions you can ask for a "pop culture" category:

• Who is Kris Jenner's oldest grandchild?
• Is Tom Hanks in his 50s, 60s, or 70s?
• Who is commonly referred to as "The King of Pop?"
• What is the name of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's child?
• Where is Disneyland Park located in the United States?

In terms of how much time you want to give teams to come up with an answer, it's up to you, though it's likely that 15-45 seconds of deliberation time will be enough. It's also your choice, regarding how many trivia rounds you want to have, or how many questions you want to ask in each round. It might be helpful to write out as many questions as you can think of, and go from there. Lastly, you'll have to decide if you want to keep score or just have a friendly game. Up to you!

If your scheduled Zoom trivia nights don't fully satiate your thirst for social interaction, you could always create a Zoom book club with friends, or join in on one of the many national book clubs taking place virtually.