Quiz Prelims 

​ ​A
​ nswers 

Q1. A few months ago, KFC started a new promotion, called the “Watt a Box”. The box comes 
with magnetic flaps and contains your usual 5-in-1 meal, but also has a specific utility, 
designed to help you while you eat. This utility can also be removed for future use.  

Created in collaboration with its Mumbai-based digital agency, Blink Digital, it could only be 
given randomly in select stores in Mumbai, or through an online contest on KFC India’s 
Facebook page. 

What was the utility offered? 

Answer - The box was a powerbank to charge phones 

Q2. Patrick Horton, a resident of New York, listed a property on Airbnb named as “Boutique 
Winter ______ for 2", calling it the "snowpocalypse of 2016's most desirable getaway." It was 
advertized as being "hand-crafted, and built using only natural elements."  

It was eventually removed by Airbnb, who said that the structure was "very well constructed," 
but didn't meet the site's rules for occupancy, not having electricity, piped water, or a door.  

What unique property did he list? 

Answer - Igloo 

 
 

Q3. X is an Australian Youtube channel that produces instruction videos for various tasks. The 
videos are carried out by hands of an unseen person, with no mention of identity. A recurring 
theme of the channel is food, and specifically eggs, as quite a few videos feature them. 

Examples of his videos - 

____ Fix Pokemon Go 

____ Make Rainbow Cake 

____ Cool Down Your Computer  

Identify X. 

Answer - HowToBasic 

Q4. Pokemon Clover is a rom-hack of Pokemon FireRed that is currently in development. It was 
created by the community of X, which was at the time making a more “serious” Pokemon hack 
called Pokemon Sage. Due to an internal conflict, the Clover group left to form their own 
project. There is obvious imprints from the X community in the Pokedex that they made. 
Identify X 
  

 
 

Answer - 4chan 

Q5. The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) launched a marketing campaign, called 
#NameOurShip, to name their newest £200 million research vessel. After the voting ended, to 
much public furore, the name which won was ignored in favour of RSS Attenborough.  
 
When Google released its new parsing interface, Syntaxnet, it named its English Parser in 
honour of the winning name.  
 
During Android Nougat developer releases, in the Settings easter egg, they included a prank 
name for the then unreleased Nougat, again as tribute to the winning name.  
 
Name any of the three, or the basic template. 
 

Answer - 

A. BoateyMcBoatface 
B. ParseyMcParseface 
C. NameyMcNameface 
 

Q6. After a bet with Elon Musk about being able to better Tesla’s AI was not honoured, X set 
out to “crush Tesla” and started Comma.ai. Comma.ai’s AI works by using machine learning to 
train itself driving and is claimed to be “much better than Tesla’s outdated AI”.  
 
The founder was famous much before Comma.ai, having created the Blackrai1n app used for 
cracking the iPhone.  
 
Identify X. 
 
 

Answer - George Hotz a.k.a. Geohotz 

 
Q7. Wheels of Zeus was a company founded in 2002 which made wireless hardware for 
keeping track of the physical location of enabled objects, like pets or keys. In March 2006, 
Wheels of Zeus shut down operations as its patents were acquired and its founder moved on 
to work on Acquicor Technologies. 
 
Tell me, who is the founder of this company? 
 

Answer - Steve Wozniak 

 
Q8. On December 31st, 1999, a primitive version depicted with long canines and wearing a 
loincloth was introduced in the episode “SB-129”. The primitive version lived 546 million years 
ago, during the Cambrian Era and had a fear of jellyfish.  
 
This version is often wrongly labeled as X, with the latter also existing in the same universe but 
almost 5 years later. It became a very popular internet meme in 2016, as a picture of it was 
used to express one's feeling in an awkward situation.  
 
Identify X, or for brownie points, the original. 
 
Answer - Spongegar, and the actual name is Primal Sponge 

 
Q9. ​ “This new gender-neutral minimalistic range was inspired by beliefs that making even the 
easiest decisions (like what to wear or what to eat for breakfast) consumes mental energy and 
gets in the way of doing more important things. That’s why we named this collection “One less 
thing to think about in a morning”.  
 
This was the description of a (fake) H&M collection, which listed exactly seven grey shirts and 
one basic jeans. Give Funda. 
 

Answer - ​Mark Zuckerberg​’s method of thinking the least about useless things [The 
collection was named after him] 

 
Q10. This brilliant invention was created by Mike, of the Useless Duck Company, previously 
famous for a fedora that tips itself and an automated toilet paper dispenser. The invention is a 
lock which automatically bolts the door whenever you ___________ by using an Arduino script to 
check your computer’s programs. FITB/Funda. 
 
 

Answer - Go ​Incognito 

 
Q11. For South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Ubisoft partnered with the French company 
Buzzman to create an exclusive VR headset, designed similarly to Bane’s mask, with a very 
special feature. It connects to a console via Bluetooth or USB, and is triggered by a high 
frequency sound that gets tripped whenever you push the ____ button on your controller. Air 
gets blasted through the mask, and activates ____ contained within tiny drops found in dual 
capsules at either end of the device. Its name is a pun on Oculus Rift as well as its special 
feature.  
 
Give me the name, or the feature. 
 
 
Answer - Nosulus Rift, because it lets you ​smell farts​ in-game 

 
Q12. The Switch is an internet-connected button which automatically dims the lights, puts the 
phone on silent, orders takeaway and turns on your TV. The steps on how to make it are given 
on the company’s website as well as being demonstrated on Youtube. It provides recognition 
to something which the company is associated with, as its effective use is for the same. 
 
Identify the company/use. 
 
 
Answer - ​Netflix and Chill 

 
Q13. _____ is an upcoming game show produced by the Icelandic Thor Fridriksson set to air on 
NBC sometime in 2016. It will pit the on-site competitors in real-time against people sitting at 
home, with the competitors having the chance to win up to 1 million dollars.  
 
Identify the show. 
 
 
Answer - Quizup 

Q14. Field Trip was an app made by Google designed to send you, by way of pop-up cards, 
short blurbs of information about a particular point of interest, acting as a virtual tour guide. It 
worked as an extension to Google Now, using your location to give you information while on 
the go. It was designed to run in the background, providing as little annoying barriers possible, 
but even while working in the background, it reduced battery swiftly. 
 
What is Field Trip’s [specific] significance? 
 
 

Answer - The points of interests became ​Pokestops in Pokemon Go​ [Field Trip was made by 
Niantic] 

 
 
Q15. Google recently removed a controversial feature from Chrome, citing the fact that “Many 
people lost their progress while working online by accidentally ________”. The response to this 
change was mixed, with people citing the only available replacements being a two-finger 
combo or the omnibox. To address the disgruntles users, Google created an extension called 
“Go Back to ______”, which returns the original functionality.  
 
What was the feature removed? 
 
 
Answer - Using backspace to go back tabs 
 
 
Q16. X is an Indian Youtuber who make videos similar to the style of leafyishere, roasting 
others, with his target often being Youtubers. He recently came to fame due to a video he 
uploaded which was copyright striked by the channel MovieTalkies. This led to the signing of 
change.org petitions and widespread Internet outroar, with the strikes eventually being lifted.  
 
Identify X. 
 
 

Answer - CarryMinati 

 
 
 
 
Q17. One of the most popular subreddits, having nearly 8 million subscribers, it defines itself 
as, ​“A ______ is a loose term that applies to any thought you might have while carrying out a 
routine task like showering, driving, or daydreaming.”​. Some of its all-time top posts are -  
 
“Waterboarding at Guantanamo Bay sounds super rad if you don't know what either of those 
things are.​” 
 
“I have never once hit the space bar while watching a YouTube video with the intention of 
scrolling halfway down the page” 
 
AXE had an ad campaign which stirred up controversy, as it plagiarized user’s posts on the 
subreddit, as well as copying the subreddit’s name. 
 
Identify this subreddit. 
 
 
Answer - Showerthoughts 

 
 
Q18. South Korea uses a special device, modified from its original purposes, to man the 
Demilitarized Zone along the border. The device marks a significant improvement on 
conventional security sensors, which may sound a false alarm because of falling leaves or 
roaming animals.  
 
What device do they use?  
 
 
Answer - Xbox ​Kinect 
 
Q19. The App Send Me To Heaven, or simply S.M.T.H., is a sports game where users compete 
against others around the world to see how _______. The phone registers the _______ achieved, 
collecting points along the way, and of course, the closer to the heavens, the better. The 
creator, Carrot Pop, claimed that it was a way of getting people off their expensive phones and 
teach them a lesson of not flaunting wealth. 
 
What did the game require you to do? 
 
Answer - Throw your phone as high as you can i.e. send it to heaven 
 
 
Q20. ______ and Product hunt has recently teamed up to produce a store ________ , which will 
showcase start-up products and provide the makers with marketing and distribution support. 
Start-up products featured in the store include the Soma Sustainable Pitcher and Plant-Based 
Water Filter, Rumpl High-Performance Indoor/Outdoor Blanket, Casper Mattress, and eero 
Home Wifi System, among others. So far, the store boasts more than 200 products from more 
than 25 accelerators, crowd-funding platforms, and venture capital firms.  
Id the company and the service 
 
Answer - Amazon Launchpad 

 
 
Q21. We assume that Λ is proportional to an age-dependency function g(·) : R+ → R+. In a 
more formal study, g would perhaps be based on hard data about various age demographics. 
As a first order approximation, we use the heuristic age dependency function depicted in Fig. 
6. Observe that this function diverges before puberty, reaches a global minimum at age 12, 
reaches a local minimum at age 45, and then once again increases monotonically. 
 
Give funda. 
 
 
Answer - Tip-to-tip efficiency in Silicon Valley  
 
Q.22 “Well you know what they say to death ... not today but why would tomorrow be any 
better? Anyway I’m not exactly sure” 
 
“I’m not sure. Has he tried restarting?That always seems to work.” 
 
These are Siri’s replies to a certain question. What? 
 
 

Answer - Is ​John Snow​ dead? 

 
Q.23 “For years, ________ has been adding 3D imagery from all over the world - New York City, 
the Grand Canyon, Mont Blanc, and more. A few of us started wondering if this 3D imagery 
could make learning about the world a bit more fun for kids. We started playing with quick 
prototypes, and even brainstormed with our own kids to get inspired by their sense of curiosity. 
Our idea became a new, experimental app called _______. We're excited to share it today as a 
fun way for anyone to take a summer trip to the tallest mountain range in the world". 
 
What is the name of the app, named after someone related to adventure? 
 

Answer - Verne 
 
Q.24 X’s mission is to bring about “radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity” through 
incentivized competition. It fosters high-profile competitions that motivate individuals, 
companies and organizations across all disciplines to develop innovative ideas and 
technologies that help solve the grand challenges that restrict humanity’s progress. The X are 
financed by companies interested in development of the specific area 
 
The Xs currently in progress are -  
● A.I. 
● Global Learning 
● Ocean Discovery 
● Carbon 
● Adult Literacy 
● ________ 
 
The blank is the most famous of the Xs, being financed by Google. 
 
What are X? 
 
 
Answer - X Prizes [The blank is Lunar X Prize] 
 
 
 
Q.25 OpenCellular is an open source, "wireless access platform" designed to drive down the 
cost of setting up cellular networks in places where it has been traditionally difficult to do so. 
The system is designed to provide the tools to set up a complete network, from the physical 
equipment to the software that runs it. 
 
Identify the company behind this initiative. 
 
 
Answer - Facebook