Espionage & Secret Codes Quiz – Printable Version
20 multiple-choice questions with an explained answer key, ready to print.
Print the sheet (or save it as a PDF from the print window), hand it out, then mark it together using the answer page: every answer is explained. Perfect for a party, a birthday, a classroom, a care home or a team activity.
Name: ………………………………Score: ……… / 20
- Which British double agent, who once headed MI6's anti-Soviet section, fled to Moscow in 1963?
- A. Ian Fleming
- B. Kim Philby
- C. George Smiley
- D. Anthony Eden
- How does the 'Caesar cipher', one of the oldest known secret codes, work?
- A. Each letter is shifted a fixed number of places in the alphabet
- B. Words are written backwards
- C. Each letter is replaced by a number
- D. Only every other letter is written
- During the Second World War, which Native American language did the US army use as an unbreakable radio code in the Pacific?
- A. Cheyenne
- B. Apache
- C. Navajo
- D. Sioux
- Which 1917 German telegram, intercepted and decoded by the British, helped bring the United States into the war?
- A. The Ems Dispatch
- B. The Berlin Telegram
- C. The Zimmermann Telegram
- D. The Kiel Message
- Which East German political police kept files on millions of citizens and recruited hundreds of thousands of informers?
- A. The Gestapo
- B. The KGB
- C. The Stasi
- D. The Securitate
- What is the name of France's foreign intelligence service?
- A. The DGSE
- B. The DGSI
- C. The GIGN
- D. The RAID
- What is an undercover agent who leads a perfectly ordinary life for years while waiting to be activated called?
- A. A double agent
- B. A liaison agent
- C. An agent provocateur
- D. A sleeper agent
- Which keyed cipher, invented in the 16th century, was nicknamed 'the indecipherable cipher' for nearly three centuries?
- A. The Caesar cipher
- B. Morse code
- C. The Vigenère cipher
- D. The Playfair cipher
- Which Spanish double agent, codenamed 'Garbo', fooled the Nazis into thinking he ran a network of 27 agents… all imaginary?
- A. Francisco Franco
- B. Juan Pujol García
- C. Pablo Picasso
- D. Salvador Dalí
- In the 1960s, the CIA tried to turn an animal into a living spy microphone. Which one?
- A. A parrot
- B. A dolphin
- C. A hamster
- D. A cat
- In 1985, French agents sank a Greenpeace ship in the port of Auckland, New Zealand. Which one?
- A. The Calypso
- B. The Arctic Sunrise
- C. The Pourquoi-Pas?
- D. The Rainbow Warrior
- In intelligence jargon, what is a spy who has long been planted within an opposing organisation called?
- A. A mole
- B. A ferret
- C. A hare
- D. A beaver
- Which CIA officer, arrested in 1994, had sold secrets to the KGB to fund his lifestyle, causing the deaths of several informants?
- A. Robert Hanssen
- B. Kim Philby
- C. Klaus Fuchs
- D. Aldrich Ames
- In 2019, which animal wearing a harness marked 'Equipment St. Petersburg' was suspected in Norway of being a Russian spy?
- A. A seal
- B. A beluga whale
- C. A dolphin
- D. A walrus
- What is James Bond's code number, whose double zero means he has a "licence to kill"?
- A. 007
- B. 001
- C. 700
- D. 070
- Which British SOE radio operator, of Indian descent, transmitted from occupied Paris before being executed at Dachau in 1944?
- A. Noor Inayat Khan
- B. Violette Szabo
- C. Odette Sansom
- D. Nancy Wake
- Which actor played James Bond in the most films of the official series, with seven?
- A. Roger Moore
- B. Sean Connery
- C. Pierce Brosnan
- D. Daniel Craig
- What is a cipher that only changes the order of a message's letters, without replacing them, called?
- A. A substitution cipher
- B. A transposition cipher
- C. An asymmetric cipher
- D. A hash
- Mata Hari, the dancer executed for espionage in 1917, was of which nationality?
- A. French
- B. German
- C. Dutch
- D. Indonesian
- Which kitchen liquid lets you write an invisible message that reappears when the paper is heated?
- A. Tap water
- B. Olive oil
- C. Black coffee
- D. Lemon juice
Answer key — Espionage & Secret Codes Quiz
- B. Kim PhilbyThe ultimate irony: the man in charge of hunting Soviet spies was one himself.
- A. Each letter is shifted a fixed number of places in the alphabetJulius Caesar shifted by three letters: A becomes D, B becomes E…
- C. NavajoA very complex spoken language with few non-Navajo speakers, it was never cracked by the Japanese.
- C. The Zimmermann TelegramIn it, Germany offered Mexico an alliance against the United States, promising the return of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
- C. The StasiIts archives, opened after the fall of the Wall, stretch to more than 100 km of files.
- A. The DGSEThe DGSE (General Directorate for External Security) works abroad, the DGSI at home.
- D. A sleeper agentIn 2010, the United States broke up a ring of Russian agents living as families in quiet suburbs.
- C. The Vigenère cipherInstead of a single shift, it uses a keyword that changes the shift at each letter.
- B. Juan Pujol GarcíaHe received both the German Iron Cross and the Order of the British Empire: a unique case.
- D. A catThe 'Acoustic Kitty' project cost millions of dollars: a microphone and an antenna were implanted in the animal.
- D. The Rainbow WarriorThe ship was due to protest against French nuclear tests in the Pacific.
- A. A moleThe term was popularised by novelist John le Carré, himself a former MI6 officer, notably in 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'.
- D. Aldrich AmesHis Jaguar and his house paid in cash, far beyond his salary, eventually raised suspicions.
- B. A beluga whaleVery sociable, it begged fishermen for pats. Norwegians nicknamed it Hvaldimir, a blend of 'hval' (whale) and Vladimir.
- A. 007Ian Fleming is said to have borrowed the number from a British Admiralty code.
- A. Noor Inayat KhanCode-named "Madeleine", she was for months her network's only radio link.
- A. Roger MooreRoger Moore played 007 from "Live and Let Die" (1973) to "A View to a Kill" (1985).
- B. A transposition cipherThe Spartan scytale is an example: the text is unchanged, only the positions of the letters are shuffled.
- C. DutchBorn Margaretha Zelle in the Netherlands, she took a Malay stage name meaning 'eye of the day', i.e.
- D. Lemon juiceLemon contains organic compounds that brown with heat before the paper does.