Capitals of the World Quiz: Name Every Capital City

Type any capital city and its country lights up on the world map. No fixed order and no prompts — you empty your head of every capital you know, and the map keeps score.

This mode covers 169 capitals. It starts from the same 197-country dataset as the main world quiz, then sets aside 28 microstates — for most of them the capital simply mirrors the country name (Monaco, Singapore, San Marino), which makes for free points rather than a real test.

Capitals reward the deep cuts: everyone knows Paris and Tokyo, but runs are decided in Oceania and Central Asia.

How to play

• Type capital cities in any order; each correct one reveals and colors its country on the map.
• Alternate names and older spellings are accepted — Kyiv or Kiev, Beijing or Peking.
• Where a country has several capitals, sensible answers count: for South Africa, Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein all work.
• The timer counts up; give up anytime to reveal every capital you missed.

What counts in this quiz

• 169 capitals — one per country in the world dataset, minus the 28 microstates this mode excludes.
• The dataset makes explicit calls on tricky cases: Kazakhstan is scored on Astana (Nur-Sultan is still accepted), and Sri Lanka on Colombo (Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is accepted too).
• Renamed and purpose-built capitals use their current names — the accepted alternates catch the spellings you grew up with.

What's not included — and why

• The 28 microstates (Liechtenstein-sized nations and the small island states) sit this mode out — many of their capitals just repeat the country name, so including them would test typing, not knowledge.

Good to know

• La Paz, Bolivia's seat of government, is the world's highest capital at roughly 3,600 meters — while Sucre remains the country's constitutional capital.
• Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar's purpose-built capital, replaced Yangon in 2005 and is famous for 20-lane highways with barely any traffic.
• Canberra became Australia's capital as a compromise because Sydney and Melbourne couldn't stop fighting over the honor.