Guess the Capital
Given a country, can you pick the correct capital city?
This quiz has 20 multiple-choice questions. Each question shows four options — pick the right one and track your score. Countries with populations above 500,000 are included.
Tips & Strategy
Look for linguistic patterns such as suffixes like 'stan' or 'ville' which often indicate regional history and colonial influence. Many nations use planned cities as capitals, so remembering which cities were built specifically for administration can help distinguish them from larger economic hubs.
Fun Facts
- La Paz in Bolivia is the highest administrative capital in the world, situated at an altitude of over 3,600 meters above sea level.
- South Africa is the only nation in the world with three official capital cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein.
- Nauru is a sovereign nation that does not have an official capital city, though the district of Yaren serves as the primary seat of government.
- The city of Tokyo is the most populous metropolitan area on Earth, serving as the massive administrative and economic heart of Japan.
- Palikir, the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia, is one of the smallest capital cities by population, highlighting the diversity in scale among world capitals.
- Damascus, the capital of Syria, is frequently cited as one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in human history.
Frequently Asked Questions
Each round has 20 questions drawn randomly from 173+ countries. Restart to get a fresh set.
The quiz includes countries and territories with populations above 500,000 from our REST Countries database — around 173 in total.
You earn one point for each correct answer. Your running score is shown at the top. At the end of 20 questions you see your final result and can restart.
Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, holds the title of the northernmost capital of a sovereign state. Located just south of the Arctic Circle, it serves as the country's cultural and economic center while being powered almost entirely by sustainable geothermal energy sources.
Nations often relocate capitals to encourage development in inland regions, move away from overcrowded coastal hubs, or find a more neutral geographic center. Examples include Brazil moving its capital to Brasilia and Nigeria shifting its seat of government from Lagos to the centrally located city of Abuja.
In many countries, the capital is not the most populous city. For instance, Washington, D.C. is smaller than New York City, and Canberra is significantly smaller than Sydney. This separation often occurs to distinguish the political administration from the primary commercial and financial centers of the nation.
Nusantara is currently being developed as the new capital of Indonesia, replacing Jakarta. This massive project aims to alleviate the environmental and population pressures on Java by moving the administrative core of the nation to the island of Borneo, representing a major shift in Southeast Asian geography.