US State Capitals Quiz

How to play

• Find it: you see a capital city, such as Tallahassee. Click or tap the state it belongs to.
• Type it: a state is highlighted and named. Type its capital and press Enter. Saint Paul and St. Paul both work, and minor typos are forgiven.
• Green means first try, yellow means two or three tries, red means the answer was shown after three misses.
• Zoom in with the buttons above the map to reach the small Northeast states. Rhode Island and Delaware also have a small circle you can tap.

The end screen lists every state and capital you missed so you know exactly what to study before the next round. Learning where the states are first makes this quiz much easier, so if the map itself is still shaky, warm up with the 50 states map quiz.

Why state capitals are tricky

Most people guess the biggest or most famous city, and in many states that is wrong. These are the classic traps:

• New York: Albany, not New York City
• California: Sacramento, not Los Angeles
• Illinois: Springfield, not Chicago
• Florida: Tallahassee, not Miami
• Texas: Austin, not Houston
• Pennsylvania: Harrisburg, not Philadelphia
• Washington: Olympia, not Seattle
• Nevada: Carson City, not Las Vegas
• Louisiana: Baton Rouge, not New Orleans
• Kentucky: Frankfort, not Louisville
• Michigan: Lansing, not Detroit
• Oregon: Salem, not Portland

Some capitals are also the largest city in their state, which makes them easy points: Phoenix, Denver, Atlanta, Boston, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Nashville and Salt Lake City.

Memory tricks

These are silly on purpose. Silly is what sticks.

• Idaho, Boise: picture an Idaho boy pointing at a map: "Boy, see? Boise."
• Alaska, Juneau: "Do you know Juneau is in Alaska?"
• Montana, Helena: picture a big "Hello, Helena" sign at the Montana border.
• Maryland, Annapolis: Mary and Ann are sisters. Mary-land, Ann-apolis.
• Columbus and Columbia: Ohio takes the bus (Colum-bus). South Carolina gets the other one, Columbia.
• Charleston: it is the capital of West Virginia, not South Carolina, even though South Carolina has a well-known Charleston too.
• Jackson and Jefferson City: two J capitals for two M states. Mississippi has Jackson, Missouri has Jefferson City.
• Minnesota, Saint Paul: Minneapolis is the bigger twin, but the capital is its neighbour across the river.
• South Dakota, Pierre: locals say it like "peer". North Dakota's capital is Bismarck.

Study in regions

Take one region per round. New England is Augusta, Concord, Montpelier, Boston, Providence and Hartford. The Pacific coast is Olympia, Salem and Sacramento. The Four Corners states are Salt Lake City, Denver, Santa Fe and Phoenix. Short lists like these are much easier to hold than one long list of 50.

All 50 state capitals

Other quizzes to try

Canada has its own capitals round on the Canada provinces quiz, and the world flags quiz covers every country. Between rounds, see if you can solve today's Canuckle.