Could You Be a Spy?

About This Quiz

Spies have been a feature of statecraft since the dawn of civilization. Some spies are little more than scouts, while other spies infiltrate the highest levels of an enemy's state, private, and military apparatus, subverting systems to obtain information that will help the state that employs them.

Strictly speaking, we'll be using the popular definition of "spy" rather than the literal one. The popular definition is that of a secret agent like James Bond, working for their home state, cultivating contacts and obtaining intelligence. The actual definition of the term "spy" is not Bond per se, but the people Bond gets to betray their own nations. For our purposes, however, a spy is more the Bond or Bourne model of secret agent working directly for a state entity.

In the United States, spies come in many flavors. There are the traditional CIA spies who look outside of the U.S. to our enemies and rivals abroad, spying on Russia, the Taliban, etc. There is the FBI, who conduct spy operations on criminal organizations like the mafia, within the USA. Then there are intelligence officers who work for the Department of Defense, who may work directly with sources in the field, allies, or enemies, to obtain intelligence. Aside from these, there are industrial spies, who work for corporations, stealing the secrets of their competitors.

Do you have the skills needed for one of these careers? Take this quiz to find out!