Countries, Capitals and Currencies for Competitive Exams

The correct answer is B, Yen. The yen is the money of Japan and its capital is Tokyo. It is one of the most traded currencies in the world, along with the United States dollar, the euro and the pound sterling.

Option A, the won, is the currency of both South Korea, whose capital is Seoul, and North Korea. Option C, the yuan, also called the renminbi, belongs to China, whose capital is Beijing; students confuse yen and yuan because the names look alike, so remember that the longer name goes with the larger country. Option D, the baht, is the currency of Thailand, whose capital is Bangkok. All four options come from East and South East Asia, which is exactly how a paper setter builds a trap for this question.

The correct answer is C, Canberra. Canberra was planned and built as the capital of Australia because Sydney and Melbourne could not agree on which of them should hold the seat of government, and the new city was placed between them. It lies in the Australian Capital Territory and holds the Parliament House and the High Court. The currency of Australia is the Australian dollar.

Option A, Sydney, is the largest city of Australia and the capital of the state of New South Wales, known for its Opera House and Harbour Bridge, which is why most students pick it. Option B, Melbourne, is the capital of Victoria and was the temporary seat of the federal parliament before Canberra was ready. Option D, Perth, is the capital of Western Australia. None of the three is the national capital.

The correct answer is B, Bhutan. The ngultrum is the currency of Bhutan, whose capital is Thimphu. It is pegged to the Indian rupee at par, and the Indian rupee is accepted across Bhutan, which is why the two economies are closely tied. Bhutan is a landlocked Himalayan kingdom that shares its borders only with India and China.

Option A, Nepal, uses the Nepalese rupee and its capital is Kathmandu. Option C, the Maldives, uses the rufiyaa and its capital is Male. Option D, Myanmar, uses the kyat and its capital is Naypyidaw, which replaced Yangon in 2006. All four are neighbours of India, so the question is really testing whether the currency list of the neighbourhood has been learnt as a block rather than in pieces.

The correct answer is C, South Africa. South Africa is the standard example of a country with three capitals. Pretoria holds the executive and the office of the President, Cape Town holds the Parliament and is therefore the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein holds the Supreme Court of Appeal and is the judicial capital. The currency of South Africa is the rand, and the country is a member of BRICS along with Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Option A, Nigeria, has a single capital at Abuja, which replaced Lagos, and its currency is the naira. Option B, Kenya, has its capital at Nairobi and uses the Kenyan shilling. Option D, Zimbabwe, has its capital at Harare. Only South Africa splits the three branches of government across three cities.

The correct answer is C, Myanmar. Naypyidaw became the capital of Myanmar in 2006, when the government moved out of Yangon, which had been the capital under the older name Rangoon. Myanmar shares a long land border with India in the north east, touching Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, and its currency is the kyat.

Option A, Cambodia, has its capital at Phnom Penh and uses the riel. Option B, Laos, has its capital at Vientiane and uses the kip. Option D, Vietnam, has its capital at Hanoi and uses the dong, and its best known city is Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. Since all four are South East Asian neighbours, the safest way to hold this group is to learn capital and currency together rather than separately.

The correct answer is A, Bangladesh. The taka is the currency of Bangladesh, whose capital is Dhaka. Bangladesh was created in 1971 and shares the longest land border that India has with any country, touching West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

Option B, Sri Lanka, uses the Sri Lankan rupee; its commercial capital is Colombo but the legislative capital is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. Option C, Nepal, uses the Nepalese rupee and its capital is Kathmandu. Option D, Afghanistan, uses the afghani and its capital is Kabul. Candidates lose this mark by pairing the taka with Sri Lanka, so fix in memory that the two names Dhaka and taka rhyme, which ties the capital and the currency of Bangladesh together.

Remember also that Dhaka is both the capital and the largest city of Bangladesh, and that the note issuing central bank of the country is the Bangladesh Bank.

The correct answer is B, Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur remains the national capital of Malaysia and the seat of its parliament, but the offices of the government and the judiciary were shifted to the planned city of Putrajaya to ease the crowding of the capital. The currency of Malaysia is the ringgit, and Kuala Lumpur is known for the Petronas Twin Towers.

Option A, Indonesia, is a large island country in South East Asia whose currency is the rupiah. Option C, Brunei, is a small oil rich sultanate on the island of Borneo with its capital at Bandar Seri Begawan and the Brunei dollar as its money. Option D, the Philippines, has Manila as its capital and the Philippine peso as its currency. Only Malaysia runs its administration from a second city while keeping the older capital.

The correct answer is B, Lira. The Turkish lira is the money of Turkey, whose capital is Ankara, not Istanbul. Istanbul is the largest city and the only city in the world spread over two continents, Europe and Asia, divided by the Bosphorus strait, which is why students wrongly treat it as the capital.

Option A, the dinar, is used by Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Serbia. Option C, the dirham, is the currency of the United Arab Emirates, whose capital is Abu Dhabi, and of Morocco, whose capital is Rabat. Option D, the rial, is used by Iran with its capital Tehran and by Oman with its capital Muscat, while the similar sounding riyal belongs to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Grouping West Asian currencies in this way removes most of the confusion.

The correct answer is A, New Zealand. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and sits at the southern end of the North Island, which makes it the southernmost national capital in the world. The largest city of New Zealand is Auckland, and the currency is the New Zealand dollar. New Zealand was the first self governing country to give women the right to vote, in 1893.

Option B, Australia, has its capital at Canberra and its largest city at Sydney. Option C, Fiji, is an island country in the Pacific with its capital at Suva. Option D, Papua New Guinea, has its capital at Port Moresby. All four lie in the Pacific region, and the usual error is to pair Wellington with Australia because the two countries are so often mentioned together.

The correct answer is B, Thailand. The baht is the currency of Thailand, whose capital is Bangkok. Thailand is the only country in South East Asia that was never a European colony, and it is a founder member of the grouping known as ASEAN, whose headquarters is at Jakarta.

Option A, Vietnam, uses the dong and its capital is Hanoi. Option C, Indonesia, uses the rupiah, a name close to the Indian rupee but a different currency altogether. Option D, Singapore, is a city state whose currency is the Singapore dollar and whose name serves as both country and capital. Because these four countries appear together in almost every question on this region, it is worth writing the four pairs of capital and currency on one line and revising them as a set.

The correct answer is C, The Hague. The Netherlands keeps Amsterdam as its constitutional capital, but the seat of government, the parliament, the residence of the monarch and the supreme court are all at The Hague. The International Court of Justice, the chief judicial organ of the United Nations, sits there in the Peace Palace, and so does the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The currency of the Netherlands is the euro.

Option A, Amsterdam, is the capital in name and the largest city, known for its canals. Option B, Rotterdam, is one of the busiest ports of Europe but has no such role. Option D, Utrecht, is an old university city. Remember the pairing that Amsterdam is the capital on paper while The Hague is where the work of the state is actually done.