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Wheel ofCountries

Capital city quiz

Pick a direction and continent, then start

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Question type

You see a country, you pick its capital city.

Number of questions

192 UN member states · four options per question · no sign-up

About this tool

How many of the world’s 192 capitals can you name? Multiple choice, either direction, filterable by continent — with a full review of everything you missed. Free and no sign-up.

A capitals quiz built on the full list

Most capital city quizzes quietly shorten the world. They ask about forty or fifty countries — the memorable ones, the large ones, the ones on the news — and let you finish with a flattering score and no real sense of what you do not know. This quiz uses all 192 UN member states that have a capital, which is the same list an exam board or an atlas would use. Scoring well here means something.

Difficulty comes from the wrong answers as much as the right one. Distractors are drawn from the same continent as the answer, so you cannot shortcut a question by spotting the one option that sounds like it belongs to the right part of the world. If the question is about Laos, the other three options are usually Asian capitals too. That single design choice is the difference between testing knowledge and testing elimination.

You can run it in either direction. Country to capital is what most people have practised, and it leans on recall you may already have. Capital to country is harder, because the prompt gives you nothing to anchor to — no familiar shape on a map, no flag, no headline. Mixed mode alternates between the two, and is the honest test of whether you know the pairing or merely recognise one half of it.

The results screen is where the learning happens. Every question you answered is listed, marked correct or incorrect, with your choice shown and a link to that country’s full guide. A capital attached to a real place — its population, its languages, its neighbours — sticks in a way that a flashcard word never does.

How to play

  1. Step 1

    Choose your direction

    Country to capital is the familiar way round. Capital to country is harder. Mixed alternates between the two and is the best test of real knowledge.

  2. Step 2

    Pick a continent, or the world

    Narrow to one continent to drill a weak spot, or take on all countries at once when you are ready.

  3. Step 3

    Set the length

    Ten questions for a quick round, twenty for a proper test, fifty for a serious session, or every country in your chosen continent.

  4. Step 4

    Review what you missed

    Every wrong answer links straight to that country's guide, so the correction turns into something you actually remember.

Distractors that make you think

Wrong options are drawn from the same continent as the answer, so you cannot eliminate them by region. Four plausible capitals means you have to know, not narrow down.

Streaks reward consistency

Anyone can guess one right. Holding a streak across fifteen questions means the knowledge is real, which is why the best streak of your session is reported alongside your score.

Both directions covered

Recognising Ulaanbaatar and recalling it are separate skills. Reversible questions build both, which is what exam papers and quiz nights actually ask for.

How the 192 countries divide up

Knowing the size of each continent tells you where the marks are. Africa alone holds more countries than Europe, and together they account for over half the world — which is why so many people who feel confident about capitals discover their weak spot the moment they leave familiar ground.

54

Africa

46

Asia

44

Europe

34

Americas

14

Oceania

Oceania is the smallest set and the one most people score worst on, because its countries rarely appear in the news outside sport. It is also the quickest continent to master — fourteen countries is an afternoon, and it is the single fastest way to lift a whole-world score.

The capitals that catch almost everyone

Nearly every mistake in a capitals quiz has the same cause: the country’s largest or most famous city is not its capital. Türkiye’s capital is Ankara, not Istanbul. Brazil’s is Brasília, not Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo. Australia’s is Canberra, not Sydney. Switzerland’s is Bern, not Zurich or Geneva. Canada’s is Ottawa, not Toronto. Nigeria’s is Abuja, not Lagos. Myanmar’s is Naypyidaw, not Yangon.

Several of those are purpose-built administrative capitals, founded deliberately to move government away from a dominant commercial city. Brasília was inaugurated in 1960 to pull development inland. Canberra was chosen as a compromise because Sydney and Melbourne could not agree. Abuja was built in the 1980s for a more central, neutral location. Naypyidaw was established in 2005. Once you know that a purpose-built capital is a recognisable pattern rather than a set of unrelated oddities, the whole group becomes easier to hold.

A second, smaller trap is countries with more than one seat of government. South Africa splits its branches across Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein. Bolivia has Sucre as its constitutional capital while La Paz hosts the government. This quiz uses the primary capital so multiple choice stays unambiguous, and the country guides explain the arrangements in full.

If flags are more your strength, the Guess the Flag quiz uses the same format with the same country data.

Who uses a capitals quiz

Geography revision

Continent-by-continent drilling is the fastest route to a full map, and matches how syllabuses are structured.

Classroom competition

Project it, split the class into teams and run twenty questions. Instant feedback keeps the room engaged.

Quiz night prep

Capitals are a staple of every pub quiz. Fifty questions in mixed mode is a solid warm-up.

Travel curiosity

Planning a trip is the best time to learn a region properly, and the country guides sit one click away.

Daily brain training

Ten questions takes about a minute and beats scrolling. Recall practice with immediate correction is how memory actually forms.

Filling the gaps

Most people are strong on Europe and weak on Africa or Oceania. Continent mode shows you exactly where you stand.

Why take this one

Starts instantly

No account, no download, no loading screens. Choose three settings and play.

Authoritative data

Built on the same 192-country dataset behind every country guide on this site.

Any screen

Large tap targets on phones, and it projects cleanly onto a classroom board.

Nothing tracked

Scores live in your browser only. Nothing is uploaded or stored.

Make them stick

How to learn capitals so you still know them next month

Most people can learn a list of capitals for a test and forget half of it within weeks. The problem is not memory; it is method. Three habits make the difference.

Learn by neighbourhood, not alphabet

Use the continent filter and work through one region at a time. Capitals learned alongside their neighbours have something to hang on to: Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn are easier as the three Baltic capitals than as three unrelated words. Africa and Oceania are where most people score lowest, so they reward the most attention.

Come back at growing intervals

The review at the end of each round shows every question you missed. Write those down and quiz yourself on them the next day, then three days later, then a week later. This is spaced repetition, and it is the best-supported study technique there is. A capital you have recalled correctly after a week is very likely to stay.

Give the hard ones a hook

A silly association beats repetition for the names that will not stick. Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, is memorable precisely because it is fun to say. Canberra and Ottawa are easier once you know why they are not Sydney and Toronto. Nouakchott and Nouméa sound alike but sit on opposite sides of the world: the first in Mauritania, the second in New Caledonia, which is a French territory and not in this quiz at all.

Reading about a place makes the capital stick better than any mnemonic. After a round, open the country guide for one capital you missed and spend two minutes on it.

A routine that works

Ten minutes a day to every capital

Learning every capital sounds like a big project. Spread over a few weeks it is not, and a short daily routine beats an occasional long session every time.

  1. Week one: Europe and the Americas. One round a day on each, using the continent filter. These regions have many capitals people half-know already, so early scores are encouraging.
  2. Week two: Asia. A larger and harder set. Keep the missed capitals from each review on a list and start every session with them.
  3. Weeks three and four: Africa and Oceania. The two regions most people find hardest. Spend extra time on the review, and read the country guide for any capital you miss twice.
  4. After that: the whole world. A mixed round two or three times a week keeps everything fresh. Most people find their score settles high and stays there.

Your best streak is a better measure of progress than your score on a single round. A streak of twenty or more on the whole world means the capitals are genuinely learned, not guessed.

If you share a device, the score and review are cleared when a round ends or the page is closed, so nothing is left behind for the next person.

Out-of-date answers

Capitals that moved or were renamed

A common reason for a wrong answer is an atlas that was right when it was printed. Several countries have moved or renamed their capital within living memory.

  • Brazil moved its capital from Rio de Janeiro to the purpose-built Brasília in 1960.
  • Belize moved its capital inland from Belize City to Belmopan in 1970, after Hurricane Hattie badly damaged the coastal city in 1961.
  • Pakistan moved its capital from Karachi to the planned city of Islamabad in the 1960s.
  • Nigeria moved its capital from Lagos to Abuja in 1991.
  • Kazakhstan moved its capital from Almaty to Astana in 1997. The city was renamed Nur-Sultan in 2019 and changed back to Astana in 2022, so both names appear in recent sources.
  • Myanmar moved its government from Yangon to the new city of Naypyidaw in the mid-2000s.
  • Côte d’Ivoire made Yamoussoukro its official capital in 1983, though Abidjan remains the economic centre and the seat of much of the government.

The quiz uses the capital each country officially recognises today. If a question looks wrong, the explanation is usually here, and the country guide gives the current name.

A handful of countries also list more than one capital, South Africa and Bolivia among them. Where that happens, the quiz uses the capital recorded first in the country’s data.

For a crowd

Running a capitals round at a quiz night or in class

The quiz works on a projector as well as on a phone. For a room, this format keeps things moving and fair:

  1. Pick the scope in advance. A whole-world round is hard for a casual crowd. One continent per round, chosen with the filter, gives everyone a chance and makes a good theme.
  2. Teams write, the host clicks. Show each question on screen and give teams fifteen seconds to write an answer. Then the host clicks any option, which reveals the correct capital; “Next question” moves on.
  3. Score on paper. The quiz’s own score tracks the host’s clicks, not the teams. Keep team scores on a sheet, one point per correct capital.
  4. Use the review as the answer sheet. At the end of the round, the review lists every question with the correct capital. Download it as a CSV to check disputed answers or to print for teams to take home.

For a tie-breaker, pick a capital from the review that nobody got right, or play a quick round of guess the flag.

FAQ

Capital quiz questions

How many capital cities are in this quiz?
The quiz draws from 192 countries — UN member states with an established capital city. That is close to the standard list used by exam boards and atlases, so a perfect score here means you genuinely know the world's capitals rather than a shortened list of the famous ones.
Why 192 and not 249?
The site’s full list of 249 includes dependencies such as Greenland, Puerto Rico and Bermuda, disputed places, and a few territories with no capital at all, like Antarctica. The quiz keeps to UN member states with an established capital, which keeps every question fair and every answer indisputable. Observer states such as Vatican City are left out for the same reason.
Can I quiz only one continent?
Yes. Choose Africa (54 countries), Asia (46), Europe (44), the Americas (34) or Oceania (14). Continent mode is the fastest way to close a specific gap, and most people find that one continent is where nearly all their mistakes live.
What is the difference between the two question types?
'Name the capital' shows you a country and asks for its capital city — the direction most people practise. 'Name the country' reverses it, showing a capital and asking which country it belongs to, which is noticeably harder because you cannot lean on the country's shape or fame. Mixed mode alternates between the two.
How are the wrong answers chosen?
Distractors come from the same continent as the correct answer wherever possible, so you cannot rule options out by geography alone. Guessing that the capital of Laos must be the only Asian-sounding option will not work here, because all four options are usually Asian. If a continent is too small to supply three distractors, the remainder come from the wider pool.
How does the streak counter work?
Your streak increases with every correct answer in a row and resets to zero the moment you miss one. It appears next to your score once you reach two in a row, and your best streak of the session is shown on the results screen. It rewards sustained accuracy rather than a single lucky guess.
Can I see which ones I got wrong?
Yes, and this is the part that actually teaches. The results screen lists every question you answered, marks it correct or incorrect, shows the answer you chose, and links to the full country guide so you can read about the place rather than just memorising a word.
Are countries with more than one capital handled?
A few countries have multiple seats of government — South Africa has three, with Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein each holding a branch. The quiz uses the primary capital as its answer to keep multiple choice unambiguous, and the country guide explains the full arrangement.
Why do some questions have the answer in the question, like Singapore?
Five countries share their name with their capital: Singapore, Monaco, Luxembourg, Djibouti and Vatican City. These are city-states, or close to it, and 'the capital of Singapore is Singapore' is a real fact rather than a glitch. They are kept in deliberately, because knowing which countries are city-states is worth knowing — but they are the easiest five questions in the quiz, so do not read too much into getting them right.
Is the quiz free?
Completely free, with no account, no download and no limit on how many rounds you play. The site is funded by advertising, which is why you will see clearly marked ad slots between the content sections.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The options are large tap targets, the layout stacks to a single column on narrow screens, and nothing depends on hovering or a keyboard. It works equally well projected onto a classroom board.
What is the best way to actually learn the capitals?
Work one continent at a time until you can score above ninety per cent, then move on, and only switch to the whole world once every continent is solid. Reverse the direction regularly, because recognising a capital and recalling it are different skills. Above all, follow the links from your wrong answers — a capital attached to a real country with a population, a language and neighbours is far stickier than a word on a flashcard.
Which capitals do people get wrong most often?
The classic traps are countries whose largest city is not the capital. Türkiye's is Ankara, not Istanbul; Brazil's is Brasília, not Rio or São Paulo; Australia's is Canberra, not Sydney; Switzerland's is Bern, not Zurich or Geneva; Canada's is Ottawa, not Toronto; Nigeria's is Abuja, not Lagos; and Myanmar's is Naypyidaw, not Yangon. Purpose-built administrative capitals catch almost everybody at first.
How is the quiz randomised?
Both the question order and the option order use a Fisher-Yates shuffle, which gives every arrangement an equal chance. The correct answer is never biased towards a particular position, so you cannot pattern-match your way through it.
Do you store my scores?
No. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded. Your score exists for as long as the page is open, which also means you can retake the quiz as often as you like with a clean slate.

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