About Country Shapes Quiz
The Country Shapes Quiz shows the outline of a country, filled in with no map, no neighbours and no labels, and asks you to name it. Some shapes are famous, like the boot of Italy or the long thin strip of Chile, but many countries look surprisingly alike once the map around them is gone. Each outline is drawn on its own scale to fill the frame, so a tiny country looks as big as Russia, and islands far from the mainland are left off so the main shape is clear. Countries with disputed borders are not used, so every outline has one right answer.
How to play Country Shapes Quiz
- Press Start for the first of ten questions. The clock starts with it and stops at your last answer.
- Each question shows a country’s outline, not to scale and without far-off islands: pick the country.
- Tap an answer, or press 1 to 4 (or A to D) on a keyboard. Answers are final: you see the right one and a one-line explanation, then press Next.
- Most correct answers ranks first, then the fastest time. Only a member’s first finished quiz of the day counts for the leaderboard.
Tips & strategy
- Coastlines are the best clue: a long ragged coast, a peninsula or a big bay is easier to place than a straight border.
- Straight lines often mean borders drawn on a map, common in the Americas, Africa and the Middle East.
- Think about the shape in its usual direction: north is always up, so the slant of the outline tells you a lot.
Country Shapes Quiz: questions and answers
Are the countries shown at their real size?
No. Each outline is scaled to fill the same box, so a small island nation and a large country appear about the same size. Only the shape counts.
Where do the outlines come from?
From Natural Earth, a public domain map collection, redrawn for the quiz with distant islands and overseas territories left off.
How many questions does the Country Shapes Quiz have?
156 checked questions: 46 easy and 110 hard. Each day takes ten, easiest first, and a question doesn’t come back until its level has been used up.