How a round is scored
A round has ten questions; the daily Venture lamp uses eight. A right answer is worth 100 points and up to 50 more for speed: the full bonus under two seconds, nothing after twelve. The hint removes two wrong answers and halves the points of that question.
The level decides two things: which countries you are asked about and how tempting the wrong answers look. On easy the questions stick to the famous countries of the region and the wrong answers come from far off. Medium mixes in more countries and takes the wrong options from the same continent. Hard draws on almost the whole region and offers the neighbours and the flags that look most alike.
Look-alike pairs that are identical at this size, such as Chad and Romania or Indonesia and Monaco, are never offered together.
Telling similar flags apart
- Nordic crosses: count the colours and look at the cross. A red cross with a white border on blue is Norway; a yellow cross on blue is Sweden.
- Tricolours: note the direction of the stripes first, then the order of colours from the flagpole side.
- Pan-African colours: red, yellow and green appear on many flags. The order of stripes and the position of a star separate them.
- Stars and crescents: count the stars and see whether the crescent faces the pole or the edge.
The Atlas pages list every country of a region with its capital, a good way to revise before the hard level.
Levels in practice
Start a region on easy to meet its well-known flags, then move to medium, where the wrong answers come from the same continent and you have to look at the details. Hard adds the less familiar countries and puts neighbours and look-alikes side by side. The results list every mistake with the flag and your answer, which is the quickest way to learn the pairs you keep mixing up.
Questions
Which countries are included?
The 193 member states of the United Nations and Vatican City. Disputed territories are left out of the questions.
Where do the flags come from?
From the open flag-icons set (MIT licence), drawn in a 4:3 frame. Names come from the Unicode CLDR data in four languages.
What counts for the Venture lamp?
Finishing the eight questions lights the lamp. Five right answers give two rays and seven or eight give three.
Can I practise one region only?
Yes. Choose a region and a level above the quiz, or open a region's atlas round.