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How to play
- Find it: click or tap the country shown above the map. Green means you got it first time, yellow means it took two or three tries, and red means it was shown after three misses.
- Type it: a country lights up in blue and you type its name. Accents and small spelling slips are fine, and common alternatives work too: Czech Republic for Czechia, Holland for the Netherlands, Macedonia for North Macedonia, UK or Great Britain for the United Kingdom.
- Wrong clicks tell you which country you actually hit, so every mistake teaches you something.
- Your score, time and missed countries appear at the end, and your best result stays saved on this device.
The tiny countries have a small circle on top so you can hit them: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City. On a phone, the zoom buttons above the map help a lot in the Balkans and around the Alps. Countries shaded light grey, such as Türkiye and Georgia, are on the map for context but are not asked.
How to learn the map of Europe
Trying to memorize 46 shapes in one go rarely works. Learning a handful of groups, and the order inside each group, is much faster.
Start with the big anchors
Russia, Ukraine, France, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Poland, Italy and the United Kingdom are large and easy to spot. Get these right first. Every smaller country is then described by which anchors it touches.
Then learn the groups
| Group | Countries | Memory hook |
|---|---|---|
| Nordic countries | Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark | Norway is the long west coast, Sweden the middle, Finland the east. Denmark is the small peninsula pointing up at them. |
| Baltic states | Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania | North to south they run in alphabetical order: E, La, Li. |
| Benelux | Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg | The Netherlands is on top, Belgium below, Luxembourg the tiny one tucked under Belgium. |
| Central Europe | Germany, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Liechtenstein | Czechia is the wider shape on the left and Slovakia the narrower one to its east. Austria hangs below both. |
| The Balkans | Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece | Croatia is the boomerang wrapped around Bosnia and Herzegovina. Follow the coastline south: Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece. Bosnia and Herzegovina touches the sea too, but only along a very short strip. |
| Eastern Europe | Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Russia | Moldova is the small country squeezed between Romania and Ukraine. |
| Southwest | Portugal, Spain, Andorra, France, Monaco, Italy, San Marino, Vatican City, Malta | Andorra sits in the Pyrenees between Spain and France. San Marino and Vatican City are both inside Italy. |
Shapes that help
- Italy is the boot. Sicily is the ball at its toe, and Malta is the dot just south of Sicily.
- Ireland is the island to the west of Great Britain. The United Kingdom includes Northern Ireland, the top right corner of that island.
- Cyprus is the island far out in the eastern Mediterranean, south of Türkiye.
- Liechtenstein is the dot between Switzerland and Austria. It is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world, along with Uzbekistan.
- Vatican City is the smallest country in the world, both by area and by population. On the map its circle sits right where Rome is.
A practice routine
Play one round in Find it mode and check the red and yellow names at the end. Then switch to Type it mode, which is harder because you have to recall the name with no prompt. When you can finish Type it with only a few yellows, you know the map.
More map quizzes
Head across the Atlantic with the South America map quiz or the US states quiz, try the Canada provinces quiz, or test yourself on the flags of every country. If you like daily brain teasers, today's Canuckle is waiting too.