The quiz that's hooking the brightest minds

It's becoming so popular that some offices are even pausing every day at 3pm.

It's 14:58 and my phone flashes with a notification. I tell my colleagues not to talk to me for 15 minutes and tap to enter the HQ Trivia app. An icon in the corner of the screen tells me 126,000 other people are also waiting on tenterhooks for this afternoon's quiz to begin.

Today's prize is £1000 ($1920), to be split between the winners. Just 12 questions stand between me and what will probably amount to about £8.50.

Question one is easy enough: "A Vulcan salute from the Star Trek universe encourages people to 'live long' and what?" I've never knowingly watched an episode of Star Trek, but even I know the answer is "prosper". Five thousand people, however, have clearly been living under a rock and are instantly eliminated.

(Scroll to the bottom for quiz.)

On to the next. "What is the name of the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse?" I've got this. Mule. And the next. But then the kicker: "The Cobb in Lyme Regis is what type of construction?" Damn my useless millennial grasp of geography. As the 10-second timer ticks down, I hastily tap "pavilion". INCORRECT. And with that, I'm out, along with 56,000 others.

A kind of madness appears to have gripped the UK. Twice a day, at 3pm and 9pm, 200,000 Britons and two million more in the United States are ducking out of meetings, pulling their cars over and pausing mid-conversation to pull out their phones to answer 12 multiple choice questions pitched by a live presenter.

Last week, Facebook announced new features that will let "creators and partners" make their own game shows and interactive quizzes via Facebook Live, its video live-streaming tool, in what has been seen as a move to capitalise on HQ Trivia's success.

What's its secret? It is like a quick-fire Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, but with rather more minimal prizes. Most people only win about £10, and the questions are so broad that, unless you have a brain the size of Stephen Fry's, you might never reach the end.

So why are smart, high-flying people devoting so much time to it?

"It's the community that sucks you in," says one executive HQ Trivia addict, who became hooked after spending a week playing the game every day with her family on holiday. "There was much excitement the other day when my sister won £2.96 after trying for weeks."

"It's the habitual rhythm," offers a colleague who does the afternoon quiz at his desk every day, and then the evening quiz on the sofa with his girlfriend. "If we're not together, we'll remind each other to do it, and do it at the same time."

Another colleague confesses to tackling the 9pm quiz on speakerphone with his daughter each evening: "I do the politics, she does celebrities."

It's becoming so popular that some offices are even pausing every day at 3pm to tackle the questions together.

Sharon Carpenter, one of the app's British presenters, says: "There are bosses who use it as a team-building activity so the whole office will shut down for 15 minutes and come together to play the game. We're also seeing families come together.

"People play it in the most extraordinary places ... up a mountain skiing, in clubs, on the Eurostar, from a plane."

The app was created by Colin Kroll and Rus Yusupov, co-founders of now-defunct video-sharing app Vine, who wanted to broadcast a daily quiz "direct to people's phones". It's an unusual business model, funded by investors and its parent company, Intermedia Labs, but essentially making no daily profit at all.

It only does so when it partners with a brand (Nike and Warner Bros have been major partners to date).

It helps when a celebrity comes on board with a movie or a new album to plug. The biggest jackpot so far in the States was US$300,000, given away to 83 winners when Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson appeared as a guest presenter.

"It's the chance to feel part of a real quiz show," concludes one regular player. "The live element of this, as well as the fact that you only have 10 seconds per question, is what makes it work."

For many, it's little more than a waste of 15 minutes. But it's totally harmless, won't lose you any money and, if nothing else, could bolster your general knowledge for a pub quiz.

The quiz

Q1 Which "night" completes the title of Shakespeare's 17th century play?
a) Eleventy-first
b) Millionth
c) Twelfth

Q2 A Vulcan salute from the Star Trek universe encourages people to "live long" and what?
a) Prosper
b) Eat Monster Munch
c) Watch more Star Trek

Q3 What is the name of the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse?
a) Mouse
b) Mule
c) Mole

Q4 What does the Hus in rapper J Hus's name stand for?
a) Hustle
b) Hush
c) Husky

Q5 The Cobb in Lyme Regis is what type of construction?
a) Pavilion
b) Bridge
c) Harbour wall

Q6 Which of the Nordic countries does NOT have red in its national flag?
a) Iceland
b) Finland
c) Faroe Islands

Q7 Which of these actors appeared in every movie by Christopher Nolan between 2005 and 2014?
a) Christian Bale
b) Michael Caine
c) Tom Hardy

Q8 What do you call the set of sprockets on the rear wheel of a bike?
a) Crank
b) Discus
c) Cassette

Q9 Which of these musicians was NOT born in Scotland?
a) Paolo Nutini
b) Emeli Sande
c) KT Tunstall

Q10 Which of these characters from Arthurian legend retrieves the Holy Grail?
a) Gawain
b) Galahad
c) Lancelot

Q11 "Rocky" is the nickname of the real-life inspiration behind which of the following?
a) Popeye
b) Hulk
c) He-Man

Q12 Which of the following shares its name with a Java-based programming language?
a) Pizza
b) Chips
c) Hamburger

ANSWERS: Twelfth, Prosper, Mule, Hustle, Harbour wall, Finland, Michael Caine, Cassette, Emeli Sande, Galahad, Popeye, Pizza