Guess the flag
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Press Start. The names below are an example — your first question starts when you do.
One flag, four country names. Pick the right one, and keep going — your score is how many you get right.
Two ways to play
Sudden death ends at your first wrong answer, so your score is your longest streak. Each question gives you about 20 seconds; if you let the time run out, the game ends the same way. The 60-second blitz keeps asking until the clock runs out. A wrong answer adds nothing to your score but does not end the game, so the only thing it costs is the time you spent on it. In both modes you can click an answer or press the keys 1 to 4, and every answer shows the correct country before the next flag appears, which is how most of the learning happens.
How the quiz gets harder
The first five questions mix in names that are easy to rule out, so you can warm up. After that the wrong answers are flags that share colours or sit on the same continent as the right one, so a red-and-white flag will be offered next to other red-and-white flags. The 196 flags are the United Nations members and observers plus Kosovo, and within one game no flag appears twice until all of them have been shown. That means a long streak is a genuine test of how many flags you can tell apart, not of how well you remember the last twenty.
Read the rest — 6 more sections
How scoring works
One point for each correct answer, nothing for a wrong one. The score is never calculated in your browser. When a game starts the server creates a record for it and a random seed that fixes the order of the questions. Each time you answer, your browser sends only the question number and the button you pressed. The server compares that with the correct answer it already knows, updates the score, and sends back the next flag. The correct answer for a question is never sent to your browser before you have answered it.
What the server checks
An answer is accepted only for the question the game is currently on, so the same question cannot be answered twice, even from two tabs at once. Answers that arrive less than a quarter of a second after the previous one are refused, because no person can read a flag and click that fast. In the blitz, an answer that arrives more than a second and a half after the minute is up ends the game instead of counting. A single network address can start at most 30 games per hour. None of this stops a determined person from writing a program that plays honestly and quickly, which is why the leaderboard shows nicknames rather than promising proof of who played.
The leaderboards
Each mode has two boards: today, which resets at midnight UTC, and all time. A board lists the top 20 nicknames, each with their single best score for that period; if two nicknames tie, the one that appeared on that board first ranks higher. To join, finish a game with at least one point and type a nickname. A finished game can be submitted once, and you can play as many games as you like.
Nicknames
Nicknames are public and use letters, numbers, spaces, underscores and hyphens, 2 to 16 characters. Offensive words, including common disguises such as swapping letters for numbers, are refused, and a few names that could be mistaken for staff are reserved. There are no accounts: anyone can use any free nickname, so a name on the board does not prove who played, and two players who type the same name share one line on the board. The privacy page says exactly what is stored.
Tips for learning flags
Start with the pairs that cause most mistakes. Romania and Chad both have blue, yellow and red vertical stripes, and Chad’s blue is darker. Indonesia and Monaco are red over white, while Poland is the same two colours the other way round. The Netherlands and Luxembourg share red, white and blue stripes, and Luxembourg’s sky blue and longer shape give it away. Ireland is green, white and orange from the pole, and Côte d’Ivoire is the same colours in the opposite order. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland all use an off-centre cross. Australia and New Zealand both carry the Union Jack in one corner and stars on a blue field, but Australia’s stars are white and New Zealand’s four are red.
Then work by region. When two options come from different continents and only one of them matches the colours you see, that is usually enough to decide. After a wrong answer, look at the correct flag for a second before moving on; sudden death rewards that habit more than speed.
Questions
Do I need an account or a payment?
No. Playing and joining the leaderboard need only a nickname.
Why was my answer refused?
The most common reason is that the previous answer came in less than a quarter of a second earlier, or that the game had already ended. Start a new game and carry on.
Does the quiz say which countries are real?
The list follows the United Nations members and observers plus Kosovo. Names and flags follow that list and do not imply any judgment on the status of any territory.
Where do the flags come from?
Flag images are from the open-source flag-icons set (MIT licence). If a flag or a name looks wrong, the about page says how to report it.