The Great Lakes Quiz is a fast, free way to learn and test the five Great Lakes — Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario — on an interactive map. Tap to name each lake, race to locate them against the clock, or take the daily challenge and share your streak. No sign-up, no app, and it works just as well on your phone as on a laptop.

Remember them with HOMES — Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. Together the five lakes hold about 21% of the world’s surface fresh water and form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth. This quiz turns that mnemonic into muscle memory: see a lake highlighted, pick its name, then learn what makes each one unique — the deepest, the shallowest, the only one entirely inside the United States.

There are two ways to play. Quiz the Great Lakes themselves (including Lake St. Clair, the unofficial “sixth Great Lake”), or switch to Great Lakes States and identify the eight U.S. states — plus the Canadian province of Ontario — that border the lakes. A new Daily Challenge gives everyone the same six lakes each day, with a shareable emoji-grid result and a day-streak to keep.

How to play

Pick what to quiz — the Great Lakes (six water bodies) or the Great Lakes States (nine states and provinces).
Identify — a lake or state lights up on the map; choose its name. Easy is multiple choice, Medium gives a first-letter hint, Hard is type-the-answer.
Find It — you’re given a name and tap the matching lake or state on the map.
Speed Round — name as many as you can before the clock runs out.
Daily Challenge — the same six lakes for everyone that day. Finish it to build a streak and share your 🟦/🟥 result grid.
Learn mode — tap any lake or state to see its size, depth, volume and the shores it touches, with no pressure.

The five Great Lakes explained

Lake Superior — the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, and the deepest, coldest and highest of the five. It alone holds about half of all the water in the Great Lakes.
Lake Huron — second-largest by area, with the longest shoreline. It contains Georgian Bay and Manitoulin Island, the world’s largest freshwater island.
Lake Michigan — the only Great Lake lying entirely within the United States, and second-largest by water volume.
Lake Erie — the shallowest and warmest, which makes it the most biologically productive. It is also the southernmost.
Lake Ontario — the smallest by surface area and the lowest in elevation, sitting below Niagara Falls as the last lake before the St. Lawrence River carries the water to the Atlantic.

Many people count a sixth: Lake St. Clair, the small, shallow lake that links Lake Huron to Lake Erie through the St. Clair and Detroit rivers. It isn’t one of the official five, but it’s included here as a bonus so you can spot it too.

Which states border the Great Lakes?

Eight U.S. states touch a Great Lake — Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York — along with the Canadian province of Ontario. Michigan is the only state that borders four of the five lakes, while Pennsylvania has the shortest Great Lakes shoreline of any state. Switch the quiz to Great Lakes States to learn them all on the same map.

Data & method

The lake and state outlines come from Natural Earth (public domain) — the ne_10m_lakes and ne_50m_admin_1_states_provinces datasets — and the lake facts (surface area, depth, volume and elevation) are standard public-domain physical geography. Everything is bundled into the quiz at build time, so it runs entirely in your browser with no tracking and no location access.

Great Lakes quiz FAQ

What are the five Great Lakes?

Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The mnemonic HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior) helps you recall all five.

Which is the largest and deepest Great Lake?

Lake Superior is both — the largest by surface area (and volume) and the deepest, reaching about 1,332 feet (406 m). Lake Erie is the smallest by volume and the shallowest.

Is Lake St. Clair a Great Lake?

Not officially. It’s a smaller lake connecting Huron and Erie, often called the “sixth Great Lake.” The quiz includes it as a bonus so you can learn it alongside the five.