Flag Quiz: Name the Flags of All 197 Countries
Updated · By Edulist · 4 sources
197 flags · Name the flag
Timed. Three tries each; first-try answers count.
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How to use it
- Pick a mode
Learn shows every flag; hide the names to test yourself. Practice has no timer, Quiz is timed and scored, and Challenge lasts 60 seconds.
- Choose a quiz type
Name the flag gives four country names. Type the country has no choices. Pick the flag shows four flags for one country name.
- Choose your flags
Use Flags from to play the whole world or one region: Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas or Oceania.
- Retry what you missed
Results show every flag you missed. Retry missed runs just those, and your best score stays on this device.
Printables to go with it
How to play the flag quiz
There are three ways to play, and each keeps its own best score:
- Name the flag. A flag appears with four country names. The wrong answers are look-alike flags or neighbors, so you have to really look at the details.
- Type the country. The same, but with no choices. Spelling is forgiving and accents are optional; "Ivory Coast" and "Burma" are accepted.
- Pick the flag. The quiz names a country and shows four flags. This is the reverse skill, and it's harder than it sounds.
Then choose a mode. Learn is a wall of every flag; tap one to see the country's capital, region and look-alike flags, or hide the names and tap to check yourself. Practice has no timer and brings missed flags back later. The Quiz is timed, with three tries per flag, and only first tries count. Challenge gives you 60 seconds; every five in a row multiplies your points.
Use Flags from to play the whole world (197 flags) or one region. Europe has 45 flags, Africa 54, Asia 49, the Americas 35 and Oceania 14.
How to recognize flags faster
Most flags are built from a few patterns. If you notice the pattern first, the country is much easier to remember.
| Pattern | What it looks like | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Tricolor, vertical | Three vertical stripes | France, Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Nigeria (two colors), Mexico |
| Tricolor, horizontal | Three horizontal stripes | Germany, Russia, the Netherlands, Hungary, India |
| Nordic cross | A cross shifted toward the flagpole | Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland |
| Union Jack in the corner | The UK flag in the top left | Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tuvalu |
| Crescent and star | Islamic symbol, often on red or green | Türkiye, Tunisia, Pakistan, Algeria, Malaysia |
| Pan-African colors | Red, gold and green, sometimes with black | Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Ethiopia, Cameroon |
| Pan-Arab colors | Red, white, black and green | Jordan, Kuwait, the UAE, Sudan, Palestine |
| Stars and stripes | Stripes with stars in the corner | United States, Liberia, Malaysia |
Look-alike flags to learn in pairs
| Flags | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Chad and Romania | Nearly identical blue, yellow and red stripes; Chad's blue is a little darker |
| Indonesia and Monaco | Both red over white; Monaco's flag is shorter and squarer |
| Poland | White over red, the reverse of Indonesia and Monaco |
| Ireland and Côte d'Ivoire | Ireland is green, white, orange from the pole; Côte d'Ivoire is orange, white, green |
| Netherlands and Luxembourg | Luxembourg's blue is lighter |
| Australia and New Zealand | Australia's stars are white and include a big seven-pointed star; New Zealand's are red with white borders |
| Senegal, Mali and Guinea | Same three colors; Senegal has a green star, Guinea's order is reversed from Mali's |
| Slovenia, Slovakia and Russia | Same white, blue and red stripes; Slovenia and Slovakia add a coat of arms in different places |
What flag colors and symbols often mean
Flag designers usually explain their colors, and some meanings show up again and again. Red often stands for courage or for the blood of people who fought for independence. White often means peace. Blue frequently represents the sea, the sky or freedom. Green often stands for the land, farming or Islam. Yellow or gold can mean the sun or mineral wealth. Stars often represent states, islands or ideals: the 50 stars on the US flag stand for the 50 states, and the five stars on Australia's flag show the Southern Cross constellation.
A few flags break the usual rules. Nepal's is the only national flag that isn't a rectangle; it's two stacked triangles. Switzerland's and Vatican City's are square. Mozambique's includes a rifle, and Cyprus's shows a map of the island.
Flags with a story
Every flag has a history, and a story is the easiest way to remember one:
- Denmark's red flag with a white cross, the Dannebrog, is often called the oldest national flag still in use; the other Nordic crosses are modeled on it.
- The United States flag has changed 27 times as states joined. The current 50-star design became official on July 4, 1960, after Hawaii became a state.
- Canada adopted its red maple leaf flag in 1965. Before that, it used a version of the British Red Ensign.
- South Africa's six-color flag was first raised in 1994, the year of the country's first election open to all races. Its Y shape stands for different paths coming together.
- Japan's flag, a red disc on white, represents the sun; Japan's name in Japanese means "origin of the sun."
- Bhutan's flag shows a white dragon, called the Druk, holding jewels in its claws. Bhutan's own name for itself means "land of the thunder dragon."
- Lebanon's flag shows a green cedar tree, a symbol of the country for thousands of years.
Telling one of these stories while your child studies the flag on the Learn wall turns memorizing into a conversation.
A plan for learning all the flags
- Start with one region. Europe and South America have many simple tricolors, which makes them friendly first sets.
- Use Learn with names hidden. Say each country out loud, then tap the flag to check. Children often enjoy this more than a timed quiz.
- Learn look-alikes together. When you miss one, open the Learn card and read the "Looks like" line.
- Switch quiz types. Name the flag teaches recognition; Pick the flag teaches recall. Typing is the toughest test.
- Connect flags to maps. Find each country on the world map quiz after you learn its flag. Location and flag reinforce each other.
Keep learning
For a faster, game-style round, try the flag game. Guess the flag is a relaxed version with no clock, and the world flags quiz is the full 197-flag test. The continent sets are the Europe flags quiz, the African flags quiz, the Asian flags quiz and the Americas flags quiz.
Sources
Questions
How many flags are in the quiz?
197, one for each country in our world map quiz: the 193 UN members, Vatican City, Palestine, Kosovo and Taiwan. Flags of territories such as Puerto Rico and Greenland are not included.
Which flags are hardest?
Look-alike pairs: Chad and Romania are almost identical, Indonesia and Monaco differ only in shape, and Ireland and Côte d'Ivoire use the same colors in reverse order. The multiple-choice answers deliberately include look-alikes, so practice those pairs in Learn mode.
Where do the flag images come from?
From flag-icons, an open-source set of SVG flags published under the MIT License. They're drawn in a standard 4:3 frame, so a few flags with other shapes, such as Nepal's and Switzerland's, are shown inside a rectangle.
Are any flags new or changed?
Yes, flags do change. Syria adopted a new flag in 2025 (green, white and black stripes with three red stars), and Mauritania added red stripes in 2017. For Afghanistan, the quiz shows the black, red and green flag still used by many international bodies; the Taliban government uses a white flag.
Can I play with only a keyboard?
Yes. Number keys 1 to 4 pick an answer, Tab moves between buttons, and Enter submits typed answers. The quiz is visual by nature, so screen-reader users may find the map quizzes a better fit.