US states quiz

The 50 states in the quiz

They’re all 50 states. Washington, D.C. is on the map but isn’t asked, since it isn’t a state, and Alaska and Hawaii sit in their insets at the bottom left.

How to play

In Point mode we name a state and you tap it on the map; in Type mode one lights up and you type its name (accents don’t matter); and in Time trial you get 6 seconds per question. If you miss, we show you where it was, which way it lies and a hint drawn from the data: its capital and its size rank.

Each game has 10, 20 or all the questions, and at the end you can practice just the ones you missed. Your best score for each mode is saved in this browser only: neither we nor anyone else can see it, and there’s no sign-up.

The hardest ones

The smallest states are the hardest, since they barely show on the map: Rhode Island (1,100 sq mi), Delaware (2,032 sq mi), and Connecticut (4,986 sq mi). Zoom in with the buttons or two fingers to tap them.

And watch out for look-alike names: North Carolina and South Carolina; North Dakota and South Dakota; Virginia and West Virginia.

Tips to learn them

• Learn them by region: the six New England states in the northeast corner, the Pacific states on the left, the rectangles of the Rockies (Colorado and Wyoming) in the middle, and the South around the Gulf of Mexico.
• Start with the three largest: Alaska, Texas, and California cover 28% of the area of the United States.

Playing in class

Put the map on the interactive whiteboard and play in teams: each right answer scores a point, and if one team misses, the other gets a turn.

With the Challenge your class link, everyone gets the same questions in the same order, with no accounts or passwords, and each student sees their own score, time and streak. To practice on paper, there’s a printable worksheet of the same map with an answer key.

List of all 50 states

1. Alabama Montgomery
2. Alaska Juneau
3. Arizona Phoenix
4. Arkansas Little Rock
5. California Sacramento
6. Colorado Denver
7. Connecticut Hartford
8. Delaware Dover
9. Florida Tallahassee
10. Georgia Atlanta
11. Hawaii Honolulu
12. Idaho Boise
13. Illinois Springfield
14. Indiana Indianapolis
15. Iowa Des Moines
16. Kansas Topeka
17. Kentucky Frankfort
18. Louisiana Baton Rouge
19. Maine Augusta
20. Maryland Annapolis
21. Massachusetts Boston
22. Michigan Lansing
23. Minnesota St. Paul
24. Mississippi Jackson
25. Missouri Jefferson City
26. Montana Helena
27. Nebraska Lincoln
28. Nevada Carson City
29. New Hampshire Concord
30. New Jersey Trenton
31. New Mexico Santa Fe
32. New York Albany
33. North Carolina Raleigh
34. North Dakota Bismarck
35. Ohio Columbus
36. Oklahoma Oklahoma City
37. Oregon Salem
38. Pennsylvania Harrisburg
39. Rhode Island Providence
40. South Carolina Columbia
41. South Dakota Pierre
42. Tennessee Nashville
43. Texas Austin
44. Utah Salt Lake City
45. Vermont Montpelier
46. Virginia Richmond
47. Washington Olympia
48. West Virginia Charleston
49. Wisconsin Madison
50. Wyoming Cheyenne