Geography quiz
Ten questions on flags, country outlines, capitals, continents and time zones. Four options each, one guess.
The quiz
Which country is this?
Show the answer
Madagascar
10 questions. No timer, no sign-up, no account. Scoring needs JavaScript. The example above works without it.
Question 1 of 10
0 right
The ones that got away
What’s in it
- Flags 71 countries
- Outlines 124 country shapes
- Capitals Country to capital, and capital to country
- Continents No countries that sit in two
- Time zones How far ahead of Ireland
Outlines and time zones
Every outline is drawn at the same size, so you cannot get Russia by guessing the big one. The shapes are not stretched either: a country looks the way it does on a globe, rather than the way it looks pulled across the top of a world map.
The time-zone round asks how far ahead somewhere is right now, and that is not a fixed number. Ireland and Sydney are nine hours apart for half the year and eleven for most of the rest, with two short spells of ten in between, because the two change their clocks on different dates.
Just the flags quiz · All 258 flags · Local time in 275 cities · When the clocks change
Questions
What kinds of question does it ask?
Six. Name the country from its flag; name it from its outline; the capital of a country; the country a capital belongs to; which continent a country is in; and how far ahead of Ireland a given city is at this moment. Every round mixes all six.
Where do the country outlines come from?
The same Natural Earth geometry that draws the world map on this site, reprojected so each country is centred and blown up to fill the same square, so size is never a clue and no shape is sheared by being lifted off a world map. 124 countries have one. Distant overseas territories are left off, which is why the United States is the contiguous shape you would recognise rather than a wide box with Alaska and Hawaii in the corners.
How can a time-zone question be right all year?
Because it is worked out at the moment you are asked, rather than written down once. Sydney is nine hours ahead of Ireland through the summer, ten for a few weeks from early October when Australia puts its clocks forward, and eleven from the end of October, when Ireland puts its clocks back, until the following March.
Why does it never ask which continent Russia is in?
Because there is no single right answer, and neither is there for Turkey, Egypt or Kazakhstan. Any country that spans two continents is left out of that round rather than marked against an arbitrary choice.
Why are some capitals never asked?
Same rule. South Africa has three capitals, and Bolivia, the Netherlands, Ivory Coast and Benin each keep their constitutional capital in one city and their government in another, so "wrong" answers there are usually right. Tanzania and Sri Lanka moved theirs and most people still name the old one. Jerusalem is disputed, and this is not the place to take a position on it. All 11 are left out of the capital round rather than marked against one arbitrary choice.
Is it free? Do I need an account?
Free, no account, no email, no leaderboard.
Can I use a keyboard?
Press 1 to 4 to answer and Enter for the next question. Tab and space work too.