Capitals of the world MCQs | PDF Free Download

ByRaeesa Mazhar
Capitals of the world

Capitals of the world MCQs are one of the most predictable sections of any Pakistani general knowledge paper, and this practice set of eighty questions, each with a short explanation, covers the standard capitals as well as the trickier exceptions examiners like to test.

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1. What is the capital of Japan?

Correct answer: B. Tokyo has been Japan's capital since 1868, when the emperor's court moved there from Kyoto.

2. Capital of South Africa (administrative):

Correct answer: C. South Africa splits its capital functions across three cities. Pretoria handles the executive branch, Cape Town hosts parliament, and Bloemfontein is home to the judiciary.

3. Capital of Australia:

Correct answer: C. Canberra was purpose-built as a compromise capital between Australia's two largest rivals, Sydney and Melbourne.

4. Capital of Argentina:

Correct answer: B. Buenos Aires has served as Argentina's capital and largest city since the country's founding.

5. Capital of Italy:

Correct answer: C. Rome has been Italy's capital since the country's unification was completed in 1871.

6. Capital of Mexico:

Correct answer: C. Mexico City sits on the site of the former Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, and remains the country's political and economic centre.

7. Capital of New Zealand:

Correct answer: C. Wellington replaced Auckland as New Zealand's capital in 1865, chosen partly for its central location between the North and South Islands.

8. Capital of Spain:

Correct answer: C. Madrid has been Spain's capital since the sixteenth century, chosen for its central location on the Iberian Peninsula.

9. Capital of Malaysia:

Correct answer: B. Kuala Lumpur remains Malaysia's official capital and seat of parliament, even though many administrative offices moved to the purpose-built city of Putrajaya in the late 1990s.

10. Capital of Kenya:

Correct answer: C. Nairobi grew from a railway depot into Kenya's capital and largest city.

11. Capital of Germany:

Correct answer: C. Berlin regained its status as Germany's capital in 1990, after reunification ended the division between East and West Germany.

12. Capital of Turkey:

Correct answer: C. Ankara became Turkey's capital in 1923, when the modern republic was founded, replacing Istanbul in that role.

13. Capital of Colombia:

Correct answer: C. Bogota sits high in the Andes and has been Colombia's capital since the country's independence.

14. Capital of Norway:

Correct answer: C. Oslo has been Norway's capital for most of its modern history.

15. Capital of Singapore:

Correct answer: A. Singapore is unusual in that the city and the country are effectively the same place, making it both a city and a sovereign nation.

16. Capital of Pakistan:

Correct answer: C. Islamabad was purpose-built starting in the 1960s to replace Karachi as Pakistan's capital.

17. Capital of India:

Correct answer: B. New Delhi became India's capital in 1911, replacing Calcutta, now called Kolkata, under British colonial rule.

18. Capital of China:

Correct answer: C. Beijing has served as China's capital for most of the past several centuries, aside from a few historical interruptions.

19. Capital of Afghanistan:

Correct answer: C. Kabul has been Afghanistan's capital and largest city for centuries, sitting along a historic mountain trade route.

20. Capital of Iran:

Correct answer: C. Tehran became Iran's capital in the late eighteenth century and has grown into one of the largest cities in the Middle East.

21. Capital of Saudi Arabia:

Correct answer: C. Riyadh sits near the centre of the Arabian Peninsula and has been Saudi Arabia's capital since the kingdom's founding in 1932.

22. Capital of Egypt:

Correct answer: C. Cairo is both Egypt's capital and the largest city in the Arab world.

23. Capital of Bangladesh:

Correct answer: C. Dhaka became Bangladesh's capital when the country gained independence in 1971.

24. What is the official, legislative capital of Sri Lanka?

Correct answer: C. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte has held official capital status since 1985 and houses the country's parliament, while Colombo remains the larger commercial centre.

25. Capital of Nepal:

Correct answer: B. Kathmandu sits in a valley in the Himalayas and has been Nepal's capital for centuries.

26. Capital of Myanmar:

Correct answer: C. Myanmar's government moved the capital from Yangon to the purpose-built city of Naypyidaw in 2005.

27. Capital of Thailand:

Correct answer: C. Bangkok has been Thailand's capital since the late eighteenth century.

28. Capital of Vietnam:

Correct answer: C. Hanoi became the capital of a unified Vietnam in 1976, having earlier served as the capital of North Vietnam.

29. Capital of the Philippines:

Correct answer: C. Manila is the Philippines' capital, sitting on the island of Luzon.

30. As of its current legal status, what is Indonesia's capital?

Correct answer: B. Jakarta remains Indonesia's legal capital, even as the government gradually builds out a planned replacement capital, Nusantara, in East Kalimantan.

31. Capital of South Korea:

Correct answer: C. Seoul has been Korea's capital for over six centuries and is now one of the world's largest metropolitan areas.

32. Capital of Russia:

Correct answer: B. Moscow has been Russia's capital for most of its history, aside from a period when St. Petersburg held that role.

33. Capital of France:

Correct answer: C. Paris has been France's capital for over a thousand years.

34. Capital of the United Kingdom:

Correct answer: C. London has served as the United Kingdom's capital for centuries and remains one of the world's leading financial centres.

35. Capital of Portugal:

Correct answer: C. Lisbon sits on the Atlantic coast and has been Portugal's capital since the thirteenth century.

36. What is the constitutional capital of the Netherlands?

Correct answer: C. Amsterdam is the Netherlands' constitutional capital, even though the government and royal residence are based in The Hague.

37. Capital of Switzerland:

Correct answer: C. Bern, not the larger city of Zurich, is Switzerland's federal capital.

38. Capital of Sweden:

Correct answer: C. Stockholm is built across a series of islands and has been Sweden's capital since the thirteenth century.

39. Capital of Poland:

Correct answer: C. Warsaw was rebuilt largely from ruins after extensive damage during the Second World War and remains Poland's capital.

40. Capital of Greece:

Correct answer: C. Athens, one of the world's oldest cities, has been modern Greece's capital since the country's independence in the nineteenth century.

41. Capital of Austria:

Correct answer: C. Vienna has been Austria's capital for centuries and was once the seat of the Habsburg Empire.

42. Capital of Ireland:

Correct answer: C. Dublin sits on Ireland's east coast and has been the country's capital since independence.

43. Capital of Ukraine:

Correct answer: C. Kyiv has been Ukraine's capital since the country regained independence in 1991.

44. Capital of Denmark:

Correct answer: C. Copenhagen sits on Denmark's eastern coast and has served as its capital for centuries.

45. Capital of Finland:

Correct answer: C. Helsinki became Finland's capital in the early nineteenth century, replacing the city of Turku.

46. Capital of Belgium:

Correct answer: C. Brussels is Belgium's capital and also hosts the headquarters of several major European Union institutions.

47. Capital of the Czech Republic:

Correct answer: C. Prague, known for its well preserved medieval architecture, is the Czech Republic's capital.

48. Capital of Hungary:

Correct answer: C. Budapest was formed by merging the cities of Buda and Pest, which sit on opposite banks of the Danube River.

49. Capital of Romania:

Correct answer: C. Bucharest has been Romania's capital since the country's formation in the nineteenth century.

50. Capital of Nigeria:

Correct answer: C. Nigeria moved its capital from Lagos to the purpose-built city of Abuja in 1991.

51. Capital of Ghana:

Correct answer: C. Accra sits on Ghana's Atlantic coast and has been the country's capital since independence.

52. Capital of Morocco:

Correct answer: C. Rabat, not the larger city of Casablanca, is Morocco's capital.

53. Capital of Ethiopia:

Correct answer: C. Addis Ababa is Ethiopia's capital and also hosts the headquarters of the African Union.

54. What is the official capital of Tanzania?

Correct answer: C. Dodoma has held official capital status since the 1970s, though Dar es Salaam remains Tanzania's largest city and commercial centre.

55. Capital of Libya:

Correct answer: C. Tripoli sits on Libya's Mediterranean coast and is the country's capital and largest city.

56. Capital of Sudan:

Correct answer: C. Khartoum sits at the meeting point of the Blue Nile and White Nile rivers.

57. What is the official capital of Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)?

Correct answer: C. Yamoussoukro has held official capital status since 1983, though Abidjan remains the country's largest city and the seat of most government activity.

58. Capital of the United Arab Emirates:

Correct answer: C. Abu Dhabi is the political capital of the UAE, distinct from Dubai, which remains the country's best known city internationally.

59. Capital of Qatar:

Correct answer: C. Doha is both Qatar's capital and its largest city.

60. Capital of Jordan:

Correct answer: C. Amman, built across several hills, is Jordan's capital and largest city.

61. Capital of Iraq:

Correct answer: C. Baghdad sits along the Tigris River and has a history as a centre of learning stretching back over a thousand years.

62. Capital of Lebanon:

Correct answer: C. Beirut sits on the Mediterranean coast and is Lebanon's capital and largest city.

63. Capital of Kuwait:

Correct answer: C. Kuwait City sits on the Persian Gulf and is Kuwait's capital and largest city.

64. Capital of Oman:

Correct answer: C. Muscat sits along Oman's coast on the Arabian Sea.

65. Capital of the United States:

Correct answer: C. Washington, D.C. was purpose-built as a federal capital and belongs to no individual state.

66. Capital of Canada:

Correct answer: C. Ottawa was chosen as Canada's capital partly as a compromise between English and French speaking regions.

67. Capital of Brazil:

Correct answer: C. Brazil moved its capital from Rio de Janeiro to the purpose-built city of Brasilia in 1960.

68. Capital of Chile:

Correct answer: C. Santiago sits at the foot of the Andes and is Chile's capital and largest city.

69. Capital of Peru:

Correct answer: C. Lima sits on Peru's Pacific coast and has been the country's capital since Spanish colonial times.

70. Capital of Venezuela:

Correct answer: C. Caracas sits in a valley near Venezuela's Caribbean coast.

71. Capital of Cuba:

Correct answer: C. Havana is Cuba's capital and is known internationally for its cigar industry.

72. What is the constitutional capital of Bolivia?

Correct answer: C. Sucre holds constitutional capital status and houses Bolivia's judiciary, while La Paz, the seat of government, functions as the country's administrative capital.

73. Capital of Ecuador:

Correct answer: C. Quito sits high in the Andes and is one of the highest official capital cities in the world.

74. Capital of Uruguay:

Correct answer: C. Montevideo sits on the northern shore of the Rio de la Plata.

75. Capital of Paraguay:

Correct answer: C. Asuncion sits along the Paraguay River and is the country's capital and largest city.

76. Capital of Fiji:

Correct answer: C. Suva sits on the island of Viti Levu and is Fiji's capital.

77. Capital of Papua New Guinea:

Correct answer: C. Port Moresby is Papua New Guinea's capital and largest city.

78. Capital of Kazakhstan:

Correct answer: C. Kazakhstan's capital has carried several names over the years, most recently switching from Nur-Sultan back to Astana in 2022.

79. Capital of Uzbekistan:

Correct answer: C. Tashkent is Uzbekistan's capital and the largest city in Central Asia.

80. Capital of Azerbaijan:

Correct answer: C. Baku sits on the Caspian Sea and has long been a centre of the oil industry, alongside its role as Azerbaijan's capital.

Why capitals are the safest bet in general knowledge

Ask a hundred people to name one fact about a country, and a large share will reach for its capital before anything else. That familiarity is exactly why capitals of the world MCQs are such a dependable part of Pakistani competitive exams, testing a fact almost every student has some exposure to, while still leaving plenty of room for genuine tricky cases.

Most capitals are straightforward once learned. A smaller group of exceptions, cities that used to be the capital, countries with more than one capital, and capitals that were purpose-built rather than growing naturally, account for most of the marks students lose on this topic.

Treating capitals as a single flat list tends to backfire for exactly that reason. A student who has memorized a hundred straightforward pairings can still lose marks on the handful of countries that do not follow the pattern, which is why this set spends as much time on the exceptions as it does on the standard cases.

Capitals that break the usual pattern

Most capitals are simply a country’s largest or most historically significant city. The table below covers the recurring exceptions to that pattern, the kind of detail exam writers reach for specifically because it catches students off guard.

PatternWhat it meansExample
Purpose-built capitalA city constructed specifically to serve as the seat of governmentIslamabad, Brasilia, Canberra, Naypyidaw, Abuja
Split capitalLegislative, judicial, or administrative roles divided across two or three citiesSouth Africa, Bolivia, Netherlands
Former capitalA city that once held the role but was later replacedIstanbul (Turkey), Lagos (Nigeria), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Capital in transitionA country legally changing its capital, with the move not yet completeIndonesia, moving from Jakarta to Nusantara
Capital and country share a nameThe capital city and the country are effectively the same placeSingapore, Kuwait City and Kuwait

Some capitals fit more than one row. Islamabad is both purpose-built and the successor to a former capital, Karachi, which is exactly the sort of overlap that makes a single country worth more than one exam question.

Recognizing which pattern a question is testing often narrows the answer before recalling the exact city. A question that mentions a capital being replaced points toward the former-capital category, while one that asks specifically about a legislature or judiciary points toward a split capital instead.

A country’s capital is often assumed to be its largest, richest, or most famous city. More often than exam takers expect, it is none of the three.

How common are the exceptions, really?

Most of the world’s roughly two hundred capital cities follow the simple pattern, a country’s largest or most historically significant city holding the role without complication. The bars below give a rough sense of how much smaller the exception categories are by comparison, even though they get a disproportionate share of exam attention.

Standard capitals
The country’s largest or most historically central city
Purpose-built capitals
Deliberately constructed to serve as a seat of government
Split-role capitals
Legislative, judicial, or administrative functions divided across cities
Capitals that have changed
The seat of government has moved at least once in living memory

The bars are rough estimates rather than an exact census of every country, since the lines between categories blur in places. What matters for exam purposes is the shape of the picture: exceptions are a minority overall, concentrated enough that learning this smaller list pays off far more than its size would suggest.

It also helps to notice that these categories overlap with region. Purpose-built capitals cluster heavily in countries that gained independence or restructured their government in the twentieth century, including Pakistan, India, Brazil, Nigeria, and Myanmar, which is worth keeping in mind when a question describes a capital without naming it directly.

Countries with more than one capital

A handful of countries split their capital duties across two or three cities rather than concentrating everything in one place, usually for historical or regional balance reasons. These six come up often enough in exams to be worth learning individually.

  • South Africa splits the role three ways: Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative), and Bloemfontein (judicial).
  • Bolivia divides the role in two: Sucre holds constitutional capital status and the judiciary, while La Paz is the seat of government.
  • Sri Lanka divides the role in two: Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is the official, legislative capital, while Colombo remains the larger commercial centre.
  • The Netherlands divides the role in two: Amsterdam is the constitutional capital, while The Hague hosts the government and royal residence.
  • Cote d’Ivoire divides the role in two: Yamoussoukro is the official capital, while Abidjan remains the country’s largest city and seat of most government activity.
  • Tanzania divides the role in two: Dodoma is the official capital, while Dar es Salaam remains the country’s largest city and commercial centre.

Several of these same countries appear directly inside the capitals of the world MCQs above, so recognizing which specific role a question is asking about, legislative, judicial, or simply the largest city, is often the key to picking the right option.

The pattern is more common in practice than most students expect going in. Once a country is known to split its capital duties, the safest approach is to read the question stem carefully for the specific word it uses, official, administrative, legislative, or largest, rather than assuming only one answer could possibly be correct.

Cities built to be capitals

Most capitals grew into the role over centuries. A smaller list were deliberately built for it, usually to sit at a more central or neutral point within the country than the previous capital did. The timeline below lines up eight examples in the order they were founded or chosen.

1790 Washington, D.C. USA 1913 Canberra Australia 1911 New Delhi India 1960 Brasilia Brazil 1960s Islamabad Pakistan 1991 Abuja Nigeria 2005 Naypyidaw Myanmar in progress Nusantara Indonesia (planned)

Islamabad fits this pattern closely. Construction began in the 1960s specifically to move Pakistan’s capital away from Karachi to a location nearer the country’s geographic centre and closer to the military headquarters in Rawalpindi. Brasilia, Canberra, and Abuja were each built for a similar mix of central location and political compromise, while Nusantara, still under construction in Indonesia, shows the same process happening in real time.

Purpose-built capitals share a few recognizable traits worth remembering as a group. They tend to sit inland rather than on a coast, away from the crowding and flooding risk of an older port city. They are usually smaller than the country’s largest city for decades after construction, sometimes for good. And they are almost always chosen for political balance as much as geography, sitting at a point that does not obviously favor one region or ethnic group over another.

Capitals that used to be somewhere else

A country’s capital is not always where it started. Several countries have moved the role from one city to another, sometimes centuries ago and sometimes within living memory.

Japan’s capital moved from Kyoto to Tokyo in 1868, when the emperor’s court relocated as part of the Meiji Restoration. Russia’s capital shifted from Moscow to the newly built St. Petersburg in 1712, then back to Moscow again in 1918, after the Russian Revolution.

More recent moves tend to be deliberate, planned relocations rather than historical drift. Brazil moved its capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia in 1960. Nigeria moved from Lagos to Abuja in 1991. Myanmar made a similar move in 2005, shifting from the coastal city of Yangon to the newly built Naypyidaw, several hundred kilometers inland. Pakistan moved from Karachi to Islamabad over the course of the 1960s, following the same underlying pattern: shifting government away from a crowded coastal city toward a centrally located, purpose-built alternative.

A former capital rarely fades into obscurity once it loses the role. Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, Lagos, and Karachi all remain their countries’ largest city, busiest port, or most recognized name internationally, which is exactly why exam questions keep circling back to test whether students can tell a country’s most famous city apart from its actual capital.

A few capitals worth knowing for their extremes

A handful of capitals stand out for reasons that have nothing to do with politics, which makes them easy to remember even when the surrounding facts blur together.

Quito, Ecuador, and La Paz, Bolivia, are regularly cited among the highest capital cities in the world, both sitting well over two and a half kilometers above sea level in the Andes. Astana, Kazakhstan, is consistently ranked among the coldest capital cities on Earth, with winter temperatures regularly dropping far below freezing.

Vatican City, though a city-state rather than a national capital in the usual sense, remains the smallest sovereign state in the world by a wide margin, a fact that occasionally shows up dressed as a capitals question even though it belongs to a slightly different category than the rest of this set.

None of these extremes change how the underlying question gets answered, but they make a useful backup strategy. If a country’s exact capital slips your mind mid-exam, a fact about its climate, altitude, or size sometimes surfaces first and points you back toward the right city.

Common capitals mix-ups worth clearing up

A handful of assumptions trip up students often enough in capitals of the world MCQs that they deserve a direct answer.

Istanbul is often assumed to still be Turkey’s capital, a leftover from its long history as the seat of the Ottoman Empire. Modern Turkey’s capital has been Ankara since the republic was founded in 1923.

Sydney is commonly assumed to be Australia’s capital, since it is by far the country’s best known city internationally. Canberra, a smaller planned city, holds that role instead.

Dubai is frequently assumed to be the capital of the United Arab Emirates for the same reason. The actual capital is Abu Dhabi, a separate emirate within the same country.

Finally, a country’s capital and its largest city are often assumed to be the same place by default. Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, Myanmar, and several other countries in this set all break that assumption, each for its own historical reasons.

A related trap involves cities that have changed names entirely rather than simply losing capital status. Kazakhstan’s capital has been called Akmola, Astana, and Nur-Sultan at different points within the past few decades, and a question using an older name is not automatically wrong, just outdated.

Exam tip. When a capital question feels too easy, treat that as a signal to double check rather than a reason to relax. Exam writers often place a well known but wrong city, the country’s largest or most famous one, right next to the correct answer specifically because it looks obviously right at a glance.

Why this topic keeps showing up in exams

Pakistan’s major competitive exams, including PPSC, FPSC, NTS, and CSS, treat world capitals as one of the most reliable general knowledge categories there is. A capital is a single, checkable fact, which makes it easy to write a fair question around, and the standard list is stable enough that a well-built capitals of the world MCQs set stays useful for years rather than going out of date after one exam cycle.

Vocabulary is worth building alongside geography, a little at a time rather than in one cram session. This English vocabulary playlist pairs well with general knowledge revision for exactly that reason. For broader preparation, alvipedia’s PPSC exam guide rounds up related general knowledge material that pairs naturally with a capitals-focused set like this one.

A well-built MCQs set is also useful simply as a study habit. Working through eighty questions in smaller batches, then returning a few days later to whichever ones got marked wrong, tends to stick better than rereading a list of capitals passively from a textbook.

Capitals rarely appear as an isolated topic either. A single paper might ask about a capital in one question, then pivot to that same country’s largest city, currency, or a recent news event in the next. Building a broad, connected picture of each country, rather than memorizing capitals in isolation, tends to pay off across several questions at once rather than just one.

Final word

Capitals look like the simplest topic in general knowledge until an exam reaches for one of the exceptions instead of the obvious answer. Purpose-built capitals, split capitals, and former capitals account for a small share of the world’s countries but a large share of the marks students lose. Working through these eighty capitals of the world MCQs is a solid way to find out which of those exceptions still feel shaky before an exam does it for you. Revisit whatever you got wrong, read the explanation again, and try the set a second time in a few days.

Frequently asked questions

1 How many capitals MCQs are in this practice set? +

All eighty, each with a short explanation, covering standard national capitals along with a handful of countries that have more than one capital city.

2 Can I download these capitals MCQs with the answers? +

Yes. Use the button above the quiz to generate a PDF with all eighty questions, correct answers, and explanations.

3 Are these capitals MCQs useful for PPSC, FPSC, NTS, and CSS prep? +

Yes. World capitals are one of the most consistently tested general knowledge topics across these exams.

4 Why do some countries have more than one capital? +

Usually for historical or practical reasons. South Africa, the Netherlands, Bolivia, Sri Lanka, and Cote d’Ivoire each split legislative, judicial, or administrative functions across two or three different cities.

5 Is Kuala Lumpur still Malaysia’s capital, or is it Putrajaya? +

Kuala Lumpur remains the official capital and seat of parliament. Putrajaya, a planned city, holds many administrative government offices but is not the constitutional capital.

6 Which capital cities were purpose-built rather than growing naturally? +

Islamabad, Brasilia, Canberra, Naypyidaw, and Abuja are among the best known examples of capitals built specifically to serve that role.

7 Do capital cities ever change? +

Yes. Nigeria moved its capital from Lagos to Abuja in 1991, Myanmar moved from Yangon to Naypyidaw in 2005, and Kazakhstan’s capital has changed names several times over the past few decades.

8 What is the difference between a capital city and a country’s largest city? +

They are not always the same place. Pakistan’s capital is Islamabad, while Karachi is its largest city, and the same pattern shows up in Australia, Turkey, Nigeria, and several other countries in this set.

9 How should I use this practice set to prepare effectively? +

Work through the questions in smaller batches rather than all at once, note which ones you got wrong, and revisit those explanations a few days later.

10 Where can I find more general knowledge practice like this? +

Alvipedia’s PPSC exam guide, linked in the article below, rounds up related general knowledge material that pairs well with a capitals-focused set like this one.

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