How well do you know South Africa?

10 rounds, 100 points

What Is in the South Africa Quiz?

Ten rounds, alternating between four-option questions and puzzles. The five questions ask what apartheid was, where Africa really ends, what the country's first democratic president asked of its people, what one famous street dish is, and what South Africa alone has done with nuclear weapons. The puzzles are different in kind: a run of five where you decide whether a city is South African, a run of five where you decide whether a well known person is South African, two ordering rounds where seven countries are already in the right order by population and then by area and you place South Africa among them, and one round where a color on the South African flag has been replaced and you drag a slider until it looks right.

There is no timer and no daily reset. Nothing is revealed between rounds, so the result screen is the first time you find out how any round went. It shows your score out of a hundred, a verdict, and what each of the ten rounds was worth.

What Does Your Score Mean?

The quiz ends with one of five verdicts. 90 to 100 points: You could give the tour. 75 to 89 points: You've earned the window seat. 60 to 74 points: Good enough for small talk. 45 to 59 points: You've only seen it on a map. 0 to 44 points: South Africa remains a mystery.

The bottom band ends where it does on purpose. A player tapping at random averages about 39 points of 100, nearly all of it partial credit from the two ordering rounds and the color slider, so guessing never earns a verdict that reads as praise. A score of 60 or more means you answered rather than guessed.

Facts About South Africa

South Africa has more than 60 million people on about 1.2 million square kilometers, with coasts on both the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. It is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world, and its government is spread over three cities rather than one.

Democracy for all South Africans is recent: the first election open to every race was held in 1994, after decades of racial laws. The country has one of the largest economies in Africa, built in large part on mining, and it remains among the most unequal societies in the world.

Where Do the Questions Come From?

Every question's correct answer was checked against a published source before it shipped, and the decoys were checked too, for the opposite reason: a decoy that turns out to be true would give the question two defensible answers.

The population and area figures behind the two ordering rounds come from the same dataset the rest of the geography games use, so a country's rank here matches its rank in Order the Country and Match the Country. Scoring and sources work the same way on every country quiz, and are set out in full on the country quizzes page.

The 10 Rounds

Every round in this quiz, with what it asks and what it offers. No correct answer is marked, and the ordering rounds list their other countries alphabetically rather than in the real order, so nothing here is given away.

From 1948 to 1994, what was apartheid in South Africa?A British trade ban that isolated the country · A civil war between Black and white armies · A military dictatorship under one general · Laws separating races, with power for whites

Is this a South African city?Johannesburg · Gaborone · Maputo · Durban · Windhoek

Which cape is really the southernmost point of Africa?Cape Agulhas · Cape Point · Cape St Francis · Cape of Good Hope

Order by population: insert South Africa at the correct positionFrance · Germany · Italy · Myanmar · Tanzania · Thailand · United Kingdom

After 27 years in prison, what did President Mandela ask of South Africans?To hand white-owned land to Black families · To forgive and build one nation together · To rebuild the old African kingdoms · To punish those who ran apartheid

Fix the color that has been changed on the flag

What is bunny chow?Curry served inside a loaf of bread · Rabbit stew served with maize porridge · A sweet porridge made with corn · Grilled sausage in a bread roll

Is this person South African?Kofi Annan · Elon Musk · Mahatma Gandhi · Siya Kolisi · Charlize Theron

South Africa is the only country ever to have done what with nuclear weapons?Lost one at sea and never found it · Took them over when a bigger state collapsed · Built its own, then destroyed them all · Bought them ready-made from an ally

Order by area: insert South Africa at the correct positionAngola · Bolivia · Colombia · Ethiopia · Mali · Mauritania · Niger

What Else Is on Quizebra?

Everything is free, nothing needs an account, and the daily games reset at midnight London time.