Quiz on YouTube

What does the red play button on the YouTube logo represent?

• Play ✓ (Correct answer)
• Record
• Stop
• Pause

Source: The triangle is the universal 'play' symbol, borrowed from old tape decks where a right-pointing arrow meant 'go'.

Which company bought YouTube in 2006?

• Google ✓ (Correct answer)
• Yahoo
• Microsoft
• Facebook

Source: Google snapped up YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock, just a year after the site launched.

What is YouTube's ad-free paid subscription service called?

• YouTube Premium ✓ (Correct answer)
• YouTube Plus
• YouTube Pro
• YouTube Gold

Source: Originally launched as 'YouTube Red' in 2015, it was rebranded to Premium in 2018 to avoid confusion with the adult industry.

What feature lets viewers watch a video at faster-than-normal speed?

• Playback speed ✓ (Correct answer)
• Fast forward
• Turbo mode
• Skip ahead

Source: The 2x playback option became so popular for tutorials and lectures that creators now consciously pace videos around it.

What was the title of the very first video uploaded to YouTube?

• Me at the zoo ✓ (Correct answer)
• Charlie bit me
• First post
• Day one

Source: 'Me at the zoo' was an 18-second clip of co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo in 2005.

What term describes fans who pay a monthly fee to a YouTube channel for perks?

• Subscribers
• Followers
• Members ✓ (Correct answer)
• Patrons

Source: Subscribers are free; 'Members' pay a monthly fee for perks like badges and emojis, a feature YouTube added in 2018.

Which music video was the first to hit one billion views on YouTube?

• Gangnam Style ✓ (Correct answer)
• Baby
• Despacito
• Shake It Off

Source: PSY's 'Gangnam Style' broke YouTube's view counter in 2014, forcing Google to upgrade it beyond 2.1 billion.

What is the maximum default length for a YouTube Shorts video?

• 60 seconds ✓ (Correct answer)
• 30 seconds
• 90 seconds
• 15 seconds

Source: Launched in 2020 to rival TikTok, Shorts capped clips at 60 seconds before later expanding to three minutes.

What award does YouTube give creators for reaching one million subscribers?

• Gold Play Button ✓ (Correct answer)
• Silver Play Button
• Diamond Play Button
• Ruby Play Button

Source: Silver is for 100,000 subscribers, Gold for a million, and Diamond for ten million subscribers.

Roughly how many hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute?

• About 500 hours ✓ (Correct answer)
• About 50 hours
• About 80 hours
• About 200 hours

Source: Over 500 hours land on YouTube every minute, meaning you could never watch a single day's uploads in a lifetime.

Which creator held the most-subscribed individual channel for years from 2013?

• PewDiePie ✓ (Correct answer)
• Markiplier
• Jacksepticeye
• Ninja

Source: Sweden's Felix Kjellberg, aka PewDiePie, reigned as top individual creator until MrBeast overtook him in 2024.

What is the name of YouTube's recommendation system that picks your next video?

• The algorithm ✓ (Correct answer)
• The feed engine
• The sorter
• The matcher

Source: 'The algorithm' drives over 70% of watch time, optimizing relentlessly for one metric: keeping you watching longer.

Which viral trend had people freezing mid-action while a camera filmed them?

• Mannequin Challenge ✓ (Correct answer)
• Ice Bucket Challenge
• Harlem Shake
• Planking

Source: The Mannequin Challenge swept YouTube in late 2016, with sports teams and politicians joining the frozen-pose craze.

Which annual recap video did YouTube cancel for good after 2019?

• YouTube Rewind ✓ (Correct answer)
• YouTube Replay
• YouTube Recap
• YouTube Wrapped

Source: 2018's Rewind became the most-disliked video ever, and YouTube quietly retired the series after a muted 2019 edition.

What system scans uploads to detect copyrighted music and video?

• Content ID ✓ (Correct answer)
• CopyGuard
• RightsBot
• MediaScan

Source: Content ID fingerprints uploads against a rights database, letting owners block, track, or monetize others' use automatically.

In what year did YouTube launch its live streaming feature to all users?

• 2011 ✓ (Correct answer)
• 2008
• 2014
• 2017

Source: YouTube Live debuted broadly in 2011, though early tests streamed events like a U2 concert back in 2009.

What is the cut YouTube typically keeps from a creator's ad revenue?

• 45 percent ✓ (Correct answer)
• 10 percent
• 25 percent
• 70 percent

Source: Creators keep 55% of ad revenue while YouTube takes 45%, a split that has held steady since the Partner Program launched.

Who was YouTube's CEO from 2014 to 2023, often called employee number 16 at Google?

• Susan Wojcicki ✓ (Correct answer)
• Marissa Mayer
• Sheryl Sandberg
• Sundar Pichai

Source: Google was literally founded in Susan Wojcicki's Menlo Park garage before she went on to run YouTube for nearly a decade.

All three YouTube co-founders previously worked at which company?

• PayPal ✓ (Correct answer)
• eBay
• Netscape
• AOL

Source: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim met at PayPal, part of the famed 'PayPal Mafia' that spawned countless startups.

What programming language was YouTube's site originally built with?

• Python ✓ (Correct answer)
• PHP
• Ruby
• Java

Source: YouTube ran heavily on Python from the start, and its scale pushed Google to keep optimizing the language for years.