NSHipster Quiz #6

On June 3rd, we organized the second annual WWDC edition of the NSHipster Pub Quiz. Keeping in its tradition, questions ranged from random Apple trivia to obscure technical questions. For the second year in a row, the event was graciously hosted by New Relic, whose beautiful downtown San Francisco offices gave the event a feeling of distinction and class. We’re also very thankful to Spotify & thoughtbot sponsor libations for the evening. Cheers!

With dozens of teams, comprised of developers from all around the world, the competition was fierce. But ultimately, it was a team known simply as nil that took the day, with 54 points total.

For everyone that couldn’t make it to the event, here’s an opportunity to play along at home. Some ground rules:

• There are 3 Rounds, with 10 questions each
• Record answers on a separate sheet of paper
• Each correct answer to a question gets you 1 point (unless otherwise specified)
• Play with up to 5 friends for maximum enjoyment
• Don’t be lame and look things up on the Internet or in Xcode

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Round 1: General Knowledge

Current events, miscellaneous tidbits, and random trivia. Following a time-honored traditions for NSHipster quizzes, the first round is always a mis-mash of people, places, and pop culture.

1. On iOS 8, what magic phrase can be used to activate Siri, when the device is plugged in?
2. What game, crestfallen by the runaway success of its clone, 2048, was at least slightly vindicated last night with an ADA win?
3. Which alternative search engine was added to the latest release of Safari?
4. Weeks after its announcement, Apple finally confirmed its $3B acquisition of Beats Electronics. What is the name of Dre’s Co-founder?
5. Yosemite is, of course, the code name of OS X Yosemite, but this code name was used before. What was the product? (Hint: It was released in 1999 and had a top clock speed of 450MHz)
6. What is the name of the valley in Yosemite that was flooded after construction of the O’Shaughnessy Dam in 1927, which provides drinking water to San Francisco?
7. Much of the reason why Yosemite exists today is thanks to the Sierra Club and a Scottish-born naturalist. What is this gentleman’s name?
8. 20 years ago, Apple launched a new experimental language. It had a syntax like this: let x :: <integer> = 2;. What was this language’s name?
9. What does a Swift eat?
10. What is the birdwatching term for the overall impression or appearance of a bird based on its shape, posture, & flying style?

Round 2: So You Think You Can Swift?

Having only been introduced the day before, Swift was fresh on everyone’s minds, and the hot topic of conversation. To put everyone’s knowledge to the test, the following 10 exercises were posed to attendees.

For anyone revisiting this quiz months or years after the fact, this should be incredibly easy. But just imagine coming into these questions having only skimmed a few hundred pages of the Swift iBook (if at all). And now imagine that you’re a beer and a half into a late night during the week of WWDC. Now you can start to appreciate how grumpy this round made a lot of people.

1. Declare a constant d equal to 3.0.
2. Declare a variable s of type String.
3. Interpolate the value of d into a String literal.
4. Set a var b to 28 using an octal literal.
5. Declare an optional property of type Int named x.
6. Declare a Highlander enum of type Int, with an element named “One”.
7. Override viewDidLoad in a UIViewController Subclass.
8. Declare a class C that adopting the NSCoding protocol.
9. Alias String as Rope.
10. Declare a protocol method m, which returns both an Int, and a Dictionary, with String keys and any value.

Round 3: Music Round

Rounding out the competition was the venerable staple of pub trivia everywhere: the music round!

The theme of this music round is—you guessed it—songs used in Apple commercials. For each song, score yourself a point for the correct title, artist, and Apple product advertised.

Due to the peculiarities of embedded video, you may have to click through in order to hear the song. Don’t worry—the link is to the song itself, not the Apple ad, so you’ll at least have something to puzzle over.

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Answers

Round 1: General Knowledge

Round 2: So You Think You Can Swift?

1. let d = 3.0
2. var s: String
3. "\(d)"
4. var b = 0o34
5. var x: Int?
6. enum Highlander: Int { case One = 1}
7. override func viewDidLoad() { ... }
8. class C: NSCoding
9. typealias Rope = String
10. func m() -> (Int, Dictionary<String,Any>)

Round 3: Music Round

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How did you do this time? Tweet out your score to see how you stack up to your peers!