Two-Letter Country Codes Quiz

DE is Germany, CH is Switzerland: match countries to their ISO two-letter codes.

Two-letter country codes are the abbreviations behind domain names, shipping labels and passports. Match countries to their ISO codes, from easy ones like FR France to DE Germany and CH Switzerland.

How the country codes quiz works

Half the questions give a country and ask for its code; the other half give a code and ask for the country. The wrong answers are real codes or real countries that look close, so you cannot pass on letters alone. Harder levels ask more of the tricky codes, the ones that do not start with the country's first letter: 10% on Easy, 30% on Medium, 50% on Hard and 80% on Expert.

What the codes are

These are the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes, set by the International Organization for Standardization. They are the codes in most country abbreviations, in country domain names (with a few exceptions such as .uk for the United Kingdom, whose ISO code is GB) and in the first two letters of an IBAN. Kosovo is left out: it often uses XK, but that is a temporary user-assigned code, not an official ISO 3166-1 code.

Codes that do not start with the country's first letter

Most codes start with the country's first letter. These are the exceptions, the ones worth learning first:

Country	Code
Algeria	DZ
Cambodia	KH
Chad	TD
Comoros	KM
Croatia	HR
Democratic Republic of the Congo	CD
El Salvador	SV
Equatorial Guinea	GQ
Eswatini	SZ
Germany	DE
Ivory Coast	CI
Micronesia	FM
North Korea	KP
North Macedonia	MK
Saint Kitts and Nevis	KN
Saint Lucia	LC
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	VC
Samoa	WS
Serbia	RS
South Africa	ZA
South Korea	KR
Spain	ES
Sri Lanka	LK
Switzerland	CH
United Arab Emirates	AE
United Kingdom	GB

Many come from the country's name in its own language: DE for Deutschland, ES for España, CH for Confoederatio Helvetica, HR for Hrvatska, ZA for Zuid-Afrika.

Source

Codes from the ISO 3166-1 standard (ISO Online Browsing Platform, iso.org/obp), as stored in this site's country dataset.

Keep going

Flags for the same countries: Flag to Country
Currencies next: Currency to Country
US postal codes: US State Abbreviations

Frequently asked questions

What are two-letter country codes?

They are the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes, a two-letter abbreviation for every country set by the International Organization for Standardization, such as US for the United States, FR for France and JP for Japan.

Why is Germany DE?

Because the code comes from the country's own name, Deutschland. Spain is ES for España and Switzerland is CH for Confoederatio Helvetica, its Latin name.

Is the United Kingdom UK or GB?

Its ISO code is GB. The internet domain is .uk, one of the few country domains that does not match the ISO code.

Why is Kosovo not in the quiz?

Kosovo has no official ISO 3166-1 code. XK is widely used, but it is a user-assigned code rather than part of the standard.

Is the quiz free?

Yes. There is no sign-up, and your best score for each difficulty is saved in this browser.