Computing History Quiz
From Babbage and Turing to the first PCs, the people and machines that built computing.
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About the Computing History Quiz
Modern computers stand on two centuries of ideas. This quiz covers early pioneers like Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, wartime codebreaking machines, the transistor and the rise of personal computers.
This quiz has 20 questions, served in rounds of 10 with a fresh mix and shuffled answers every time you play. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
Sample Computing History Questions & Answers
Q1. Who is often called the first computer programmer?
✅ Answer: Ada Lovelace
💡 In 1843 Lovelace published an algorithm for Babbage’s Analytical Engine.
Q2. Which British mathematician is considered a father of computer science and AI?
✅ Answer: Alan Turing
💡 Turing described a universal computing machine in 1936 and proposed the Turing test in 1950.
Q3. What was ENIAC, completed in 1945?
✅ Answer: One of the first general-purpose electronic computers
💡 ENIAC filled a large room and used about 18,000 vacuum tubes.
Q4. Which invention at Bell Labs in 1947 replaced vacuum tubes and made modern electronics possible?
✅ Answer: The transistor
💡 John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley won the Nobel Prize for it.
Q5. Grace Hopper popularised which computing term after finding a moth in a computer?
✅ Answer: Bug
💡 The moth, taped into a 1947 logbook, is in the Smithsonian; “bug” was already used for faults.