Guess the Capital
Country to capital, or capital to country.
About this game
How to play
- Each day flips a coin: name the capital of a country, or name the country a capital belongs to. Same puzzle for everyone.
- Typed mode gives you 4 guesses with hints after each miss. Multiple choice is the easy mode: four options, one pick.
- Spelling is forgiving: accents, punctuation, case, and small typos do not matter, and alternate names count.
- Win to keep your streak.
Two directions, one puzzle
Each day the game picks a direction as well as a country. Some days you are given a country and asked for its capital; other days you get a capital and have to name the country. Both directions draw from the same pool of 203 countries and territories, and the direction is part of the daily seed, so everyone gets the same question in the same orientation.
The reverse direction is usually the harder one. Recognizing that Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia takes a different kind of recall than producing "Bratislava" from "Slovakia", which is why the game alternates rather than settling on one.
The capitals people get wrong
The reliable traps are countries whose largest city is not the seat of government. Turkey's capital is Ankara, not Istanbul. Switzerland's is Bern, not Zurich or Geneva. Brazil's is Brasilia, not Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo. Australia's is Canberra, not Sydney. Canada's is Ottawa, not Toronto. Nigeria's is Abuja, not Lagos. In almost every case the capital was chosen precisely because it was not the dominant city.
A few countries have more than one capital. South Africa has three: Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein. Where a country lists several, any of them is accepted.
Common questions
- Is Guess the Capital free?
- Yes. It is free, needs no account, and has no play limit. The daily puzzle is one round; practice mode is unlimited.
- How many guesses do you get?
- Typed mode gives you 4 guesses with a hint after each miss. Multiple choice gives you one pick from four options.
- Does spelling have to be exact?
- No. Accents, capitalization, punctuation, and small typos are all forgiven, and alternate names are accepted. Spacing is ignored too, so "washington dc" matches "Washington D.C.".
- What about countries with more than one capital?
- Any of the official capitals is accepted. South Africa, for example, accepts Pretoria, Cape Town, or Bloemfontein.
- Does everyone get the same capital each day?
- Yes. Both the country and the direction of the question are seeded from the calendar date, so every player gets the same puzzle on the same day, rolling over at your local midnight.