Think you know your South American geography? The South American Capitals Quiz gives you a country and asks for one thing: its capital city. From the easy anchors — Buenos Aires, Lima, Santiago, Bogotá, Brasília — to the ones that catch everyone out, it covers all 12 South American countries and their capitals on a fast, clean map that actually works on your phone.
Play it whichever way suits you. Get a country name and name its capital, flip it around and name the country from its capital, or locate the country on an interactive map of South America. Each question highlights the country in question, so you build the map and the capitals together. Choose Easy for multiple choice, Medium for a first-letter hint, or Hard to type the answer from memory.
New every day: a Daily Challenge of ten South American capitals that is identical for everyone, with a shareable results grid so you can compare scores with friends. Or race the clock in a 90-second Speed Run and see how many capitals you can rattle off.
How to play
- Daily Challenge — ten South American capitals to name, the same for every player today. Finish to reveal your green-and-red result grid and share it.
- Name the Capital — you are given a country and name its capital, by multiple choice (Easy), first-letter hint (Medium) or typing (Hard).
- Name the Country — the reverse: a capital city is shown and you name the country it belongs to.
- Locate — you are given a capital and click the country it belongs to on the map of South America.
- Speed Run — name as many capitals as you can in 90 seconds, building a streak multiplier.
Every mode tracks your streak, score and accuracy, and a local leaderboard keeps your best runs. There is also a Learn mode — tap any country to see its capital, region, area, language and currency before you test yourself.
How many capital cities are in South America?
South America has 12 sovereign countries that are UN members with their own capital, and this quiz covers every one — from Caracas and Bogotá in the north down to Santiago and Buenos Aires in the south. That is Argentina (Buenos Aires), Bolivia (Sucre), Brazil (Brasília), Chile (Santiago), Colombia (Bogotá), Ecuador (Quito), Guyana (Georgetown), Paraguay (Asunción), Peru (Lima), Suriname (Paramaribo), Uruguay (Montevideo) and Venezuela (Caracas). French Guiana is an overseas region of France rather than an independent country, so it is not one of the answers.
Tips for learning the capitals of South America
- Learn them north to south — start on the Caribbean coast with Caracas and Bogotá, drop down the Andes through Quito, Lima, Sucre and Santiago, then finish in the Southern Cone with Asunción, Montevideo and Buenos Aires.
- Watch the country–capital traps: Brazil’s capital is Brasília (not Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo) and Ecuador’s is Quito (not Guayaquil) — the capital is often not the country’s biggest or most famous city.
- Know the Bolivia answer: this quiz uses Sucre, Bolivia’s constitutional capital and seat of the judiciary. La Paz is the seat of government, so many quizzes accept it too — but the official capital is Sucre.
- Don’t overlook the two Guianas: Guyana’s capital is Georgetown and Suriname’s is Paramaribo — the pair most often missed on the north-east coast.
- Use the daily challenge to lock in the whole continent — with only twelve countries, a few days of play is enough to get every capital cold.
How the daily challenge works
The daily set is generated from the calendar date with a seeded shuffle, so every player in the world gets the same ten capitals on the same day — no account, no server tracking you. When you finish, your result is encoded as a grid of green (correct) and red (wrong) squares, ready to copy or share. Come back tomorrow for a fresh set and keep your streak alive.
Data & method
Capitals and country facts come from the open mledoze/countries dataset (ODbL), and the map of South America is drawn from Natural Earth (public domain) via the world-atlas 1:50m dataset. Countries are joined on their ISO-3166 numeric code, filtered to the South American set with a capital, and the whole dataset is bundled into the app — so it loads instantly and works offline, with no tracking.
Frequently asked questions
How many South American capitals are in the quiz?
All 12 — every UN-member country in South America with its own capital: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. French Guiana is a region of France, not an independent country, so it is not included.
What is the capital of Bolivia — Sucre or La Paz?
Both, in a sense. Sucre is Bolivia’s official constitutional capital and home of the supreme court, while La Paz is the seat of the executive and legislative branches. This quiz follows the official designation and uses Sucre as the answer, but it is worth knowing La Paz for any quiz that expects the seat of government.
Is the South American Capitals Quiz free?
Yes, completely free. There is no sign-up, no app to install and no paywall — just open the page and play, on any device.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes. The quiz is mobile-first and runs in any modern browser on phone, tablet or desktop — no app, no sign-up. Tap an answer, or in Locate mode pinch to zoom and drag to pan the map before tapping a country.
Where does the data come from?
Capitals and country facts come from the open mledoze/countries dataset (ODbL), and the map of South America from Natural Earth (public domain) via the world-atlas dataset. All data is bundled into the app, so it loads instantly and works offline.
More geography quizzes
- World Capitals Quiz — match all 194 countries to their capitals.
- South America Map Quiz — locate every South American country on the map.
- African Capitals Quiz — name the capital of every African country.
- European Capitals Quiz — name the capital of every European country.
- Population Explorer — explore the population of every country on an interactive map.
- All Mappr geography quizzes.
