Quiz Category · Geography
Geography
Countries, capitals, landforms, and physical geography.
Maps, mountains, rivers, and more — quiz your understanding of how the world is laid out.
Geography here is mostly world geography: capital cities, rivers, mountain ranges, oceans, deserts, islands and the countries they belong to, with some physical geography and a few questions on population and time zones. Indian geography appears only occasionally. Easy rounds cover continents, oceans and well-known capitals. Medium rounds ask which river flows through which city, which range a mountain belongs to, or which strait separates two continents. Hard rounds reach for less familiar capitals, lakes and rivers, and for record-holders such as the deepest lake or the country with the longest coastline. Where a common answer depends on a definition — the largest desert, the longest river — the notes on the sample questions say so. A good category for travellers, map-lovers, and anyone putting together a geography round for a quiz night.
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10 questions per round23 geography questions with answers
Across easy, medium and hard · reveal each answer to check yourself-
01 What is the largest country by area? easy
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The correct answer is C. Russia.
Russia covers about 17.1 million km², roughly 11% of the world's land and nearly twice the size of the next largest, Canada. It spans eleven time zones.
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02 What is the capital of Australia? easy
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The correct answer is C. Canberra.
Canberra, purpose-built as a compromise because Sydney and Melbourne could not agree which should be capital. It was founded in 1913 and sits roughly between the two.
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03 What is the longest river in the world? easy
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The correct answer is B. Nile.
The Nile, at around 6,650 km, is the conventional answer. The Amazon is close enough — and carries vastly more water — that some surveys measuring from different Peruvian headwaters put it first instead.
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04 Which ocean is the largest? easy
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The correct answer is D. Pacific.
The Pacific covers about 165 million km², larger than all of Earth's land area combined and roughly double the Atlantic. It also holds the deepest point on the planet.
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05 What is the tallest mountain in the world? easy
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The correct answer is B. Mount Everest.
Everest reaches 8,849 m above sea level, the highest elevation. Measured from base to summit, Mauna Kea in Hawaii is taller — but most of it sits underwater.
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06 What is the capital of Canada? easy
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The correct answer is C. Ottawa.
Ottawa, chosen by Queen Victoria in 1857 partly because it sat on the border between English and French Canada, and was far enough from the United States to be defensible.
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07 Which desert is the largest in the world? easy
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The correct answer is D. Antarctic.
The Sahara is the largest hot desert at about 9.2 million km². Antarctica is the largest desert overall — deserts are defined by low precipitation, not by heat.
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08 What country has the most population? easy
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The correct answer is B. China.
China, though the margin has effectively closed: India overtook it by UN estimates in 2023, and the two are within a few million of each other depending on whose figures you use.
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09 What is the capital of Kazakhstan? medium
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The correct answer is B. Astana.
Astana — though the name has moved around. The city was renamed Nur-Sultan in 2019 to honour the departing president, then changed back to Astana in September 2022.
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10 Which strait separates Europe from Africa? medium
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The correct answer is B. Strait of Gibraltar.
The Strait of Gibraltar, about 13 km across at its narrowest. It is the only natural connection between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
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11 What is the largest lake in Africa? medium
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The correct answer is C. Lake Victoria.
Lake Victoria, roughly 68,800 km² and shared by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. It is the world's largest tropical lake and second-largest freshwater lake by surface area.
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12 Which country has the most islands? medium
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The correct answer is C. Sweden.
Sweden, with roughly 267,000 islands — most of them tiny and uninhabited, scattered through its coastal archipelagos. Only a few thousand have anyone living on them.
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13 What is the deepest point in the ocean? medium
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The correct answer is C. Mariana Trench.
The Mariana Trench, whose Challenger Deep reaches about 10,935 m. Everest would fit inside it with well over a kilometre of water still overhead.
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14 Which city is known as the 'City of Seven Hills'? medium
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The correct answer is B. Rome.
Rome, built across the Palatine, Aventine, Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline and Caelian hills. The Palatine is traditionally where Romulus founded the city.
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15 What is the official language of Brazil? medium
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The correct answer is B. Portuguese.
Portuguese, a legacy of the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas which assigned the eastern part of South America to Portugal. Brazil is by far the largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world.
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16 Which country is both in Europe and Asia? medium
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The correct answer is D. All of the above.
All three listed qualify. Russia, Turkey and Kazakhstan are each transcontinental, straddling the conventional Ural–Caucasus–Bosphorus dividing line between Europe and Asia.
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17 What is the capital of Burkina Faso? hard
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The correct answer is B. Ouagadougou.
Ouagadougou, usually shortened to Ouaga. The country itself was called Upper Volta until 1984, when its name was changed to mean roughly 'land of upright people'.
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18 Which country has the highest number of active volcanoes? hard
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The correct answer is B. Indonesia.
Indonesia, with around 130 active volcanoes, a consequence of sitting where several tectonic plates converge along the Pacific Ring of Fire.
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19 What is the smallest country in South America? hard
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The correct answer is B. Suriname.
Suriname, about 164,000 km² — smaller than the next-smallest, Uruguay. It is also the only sovereign state in the Americas where Dutch is the official language.
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20 Which river flows through the most countries? hard
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The correct answer is C. Danube.
The Danube passes through or borders ten countries, more than any other river, running from Germany's Black Forest to the Black Sea.
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21 What is the driest place on Earth? hard
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The correct answer is D. McMurdo Dry Valleys.
The McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica, where some areas are thought to have had no meaningful rainfall for around two million years. Katabatic winds strip moisture away before it can settle.
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22 What is the capital of Mongolia? hard
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The correct answer is A. Ulaanbaatar.
Ulaanbaatar, home to about half the country's population. It is the coldest national capital in the world, with winter averages below −20°C.
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23 Which lake is the deepest in the world? hard
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The correct answer is C. Lake Baikal.
Lake Baikal in Siberia, reaching about 1,642 m. It holds roughly a fifth of the world's unfrozen fresh water — more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.
The full geography pool runs to 297 questions — 89–115 questions per difficulty across easy, medium and hard. Each round you play is shuffled fresh, so the same ten never come up twice in a row. Pick a difficulty above to start a timed round, or scroll on for related categories.
Frequently asked questions
About the geography quiz- What does the geography quiz cover?
- Mainly world political and physical geography: countries and capitals, rivers, mountains, oceans, deserts and lakes.
- Is Indian geography included?
- Only in a few questions. The competitive exams category has more on Indian geography.
- Are map-reading questions included?
- No. All questions are text-only multiple choice.
- What about answers that depend on a definition?
- Some classic answers do, such as the largest desert. Questions are worded to have one defensible answer, and the notes on the sample questions explain the distinction.