Flag Quiz Duel

How to play Flag Quiz Duel

1. Choose the flags before you start: Famous (35 of the best-known flags), More (69) or All (103). The lists are further down this page.
2. Each player has a pad in their own colour. On a phone held upright, Orange's pad is at the bottom and Purple's is at the top, turned to face the other player. On a wide screen the pads sit side by side.
3. A flag appears on both pads at once, with four country names under it. Both players see the same four names.
4. The first right answer wins the point. The bar between the pads shows the time left: 10 seconds for each flag.
5. A wrong answer locks you out until the next flag, and your rival gets the chance to answer. If nobody gets it right in time, nobody scores.
6. After every flag the right country lights up in green and its name is shown, so you learn the flags you didn't know.
7. The first player to 7 points wins the round. Press Play again for a rematch with new flags.

Within a round, every flag in your chosen set comes up once before any flag comes up again.

The wrong answers look right

The three wrong answers aren't picked at random. They come from flags that look like the right one: flags with the same colours, the same kind of stripes, or a cross, star or crescent in the same place. So when the flag of Ireland appears, Italy and Ivory Coast may well be among the answers, and Chad comes with Romania. Guessing from the colours alone isn't enough. You have to know the flag.

Which flags are in the quiz?

We draw every flag ourselves, in its own shape: the flag of Switzerland is square, Qatar's is long and thin, and Belgium's is almost square. Flags with a detailed coat of arms or with writing on them, such as those of Brazil, Mexico, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, aren't in the quiz yet, because a small drawing wouldn't do them justice. Spain and Peru are shown as their civil flags, which have no coat of arms, and the emblems of Portugal and Kenya are drawn a little simpler than on the real flags.

Controls

The keys follow the answer buttons in reading order: top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right. On a computer, each button shows its key. Against the computer, either set of keys works for you, and so do 1 to 4 on the number pad.

Computer levels

The computer sees each flag at the same moment you do, then needs a moment to place it. Like a person, it takes longer over the flags fewer people know, and it is more likely to mix up two flags that look alike. When it picks a wrong answer it gets locked out, just like you.

On rarer flags every level is slower and makes more mistakes. Easy is a good match for young children who are just learning their first flags.

Tips for telling look-alike flags apart

• Ireland and Ivory Coast use the same three colours in mirror order. Ireland has green next to the flagpole (the side called the hoist), and Ivory Coast has orange there. Italy is green, white and red.
• Chad and Romania are almost the same: blue, yellow and red stripes. Chad's blue is a darker, deeper shade.
• Indonesia and Monaco are both red above white. Monaco's flag is shorter and closer to square. Poland is the other way round: white above red.
• Netherlands and Luxembourg both have red, white and blue stripes across. Luxembourg's blue is a light sky blue. Russia is white, blue and red from the top.
• Australia and New Zealand both have the Union Flag in the corner. Australia's stars are white, with a big seven-pointed star under the Union Flag. New Zealand has four red stars with white edges.
• The Nordic crosses: Denmark is a white cross on red, Sweden a yellow cross on blue, Finland a blue cross on white, Norway a blue cross edged in white on red, and Iceland a red cross edged in white on blue.
• Colombia and Venezuela are yellow, blue and red. In Colombia the yellow fills the top half; Venezuela has three equal stripes and an arc of eight white stars.
• Mali, Senegal and Guinea: Mali is green, yellow and red; Senegal adds a green star in the middle; Guinea has the same colours in the opposite order, starting with red. Cameroon is green, red and yellow, with a yellow star.
• Belgium and Germany share black, yellow and red. Belgium's stripes go up and down; Germany's go across.
• Japan and Bangladesh both have a red disc. Japan's sits on white; Bangladesh's sits on green and a little towards the flagpole.
• China and Vietnam are both red with yellow stars. Vietnam has one big star in the middle; China has a big star and four small ones in the top corner.
• Turkey and Tunisia: Turkey's white crescent and star sit straight on the red; Tunisia's are red, inside a white circle.
• Malaysia, Liberia and the United States all have red and white stripes and a blue corner. Malaysia has 14 stripes and a yellow crescent and star, Liberia 11 stripes and a single star, and the United States 13 stripes and 50 stars.
• Qatar and Bahrain both have a white band with a zigzag edge. Qatar's flag is maroon with nine white points; Bahrain's is red with five.

Good for families and classrooms

A flag quiz is a fun way to learn about the world: where countries are, which ones are neighbours, and why some flags look alike. Start young players on Famous and the Easy computer, and move on to More and All as they learn. Because the answer is shown after every flag, every round teaches a few new flags. In class, pairs can share one tablet and race each other, with nothing to install and no sign-up. See our page for parents and teachers.

About flags

Most national flags are rectangles with a length about one and a half or two times their height, but a few have their own shapes: the flags of Switzerland and Vatican City are square, and Nepal's flag, made of two triangles, is the only national flag that isn't a rectangle or a square. Colours often carry meaning chosen by each country, and neighbours in a region often share colours: many West African flags use green, yellow and red, while the Nordic countries share the cross set towards the flagpole.

Questions

Updated 10 November 2026