How to play the United States map quiz
State Atlas uses the real outlines of all 50 U.S. states. Alaska and Hawaii appear as insets so that the whole country fits on one map. The District of Columbia is not a state and is not part of this quiz.
Explore in Practice
Choose a state’s shape to see its name, postal abbreviation and broad U.S. region. The Find a state list also lets you select any state by name. Practice has no score, timer or question order.
Start with familiar outlines, then look at neighbouring states. The Great Lakes, long coastlines and the block-shaped western states are useful landmarks.
Take the 50-state quiz
- Choose 50-state quiz. The quiz shuffles all 50 states into a new order.
- Read the state name above the map, then choose its shape.
- If you choose the wrong shape, the quiz tells you its name and keeps the same question open. Try another shape.
- When you find the right state, choose Next state. After the last state, choose See results.
What the score means
First try, no help counts a state only when you choose it correctly without a wrong guess, hint or named small-state button. The Found counter also includes states you eventually locate after help. A skipped state is not counted as found.
The score is a learning record in your browser, not a verified competition result. There is no timer or limit on attempts.
Hints and small states
Show a hint gives the state’s broad region and highlights its outline. This removes the state from the first-try-without-help score. Named small-state buttons have the same effect in a quiz, because their labels reveal the answer.
Zoom Northeast enlarges the tightly packed northeastern states. Zooming itself does not count as help. Choose Show full map to return to the complete country. On a small screen, use zoom or the named buttons when a shape is hard to tap.
Review what needs practice
At the end, Retry states that needed help starts a shorter round containing states you guessed incorrectly, used help for or skipped. Its score applies to that review round. A perfect unassisted round has no review states.
New 50-state quiz starts a fresh full-country round. Restarting a round or switching away from an unfinished quiz asks for confirmation because the saved round and results will be replaced.
Keyboard controls
Use Tab to focus a state shape, then Enter or Space to choose it. Arrow keys move focus towards a nearby shape in that direction. In Practice, the state-name list is an alternative to map navigation. In a quiz, map regions are labelled by region and number to avoid announcing the answer before you choose.
Map source and saved progress
The map comes from U.S. Census Bureau 2017 cartographic boundaries, distributed by us-atlas under its ISC license. The Alaska and Hawaii insets are positioning aids and do not depict their distances from the contiguous states.
The app saves the current round and results in this browser when storage is available. Read the privacy page for details.