Countries, Capitals and Currencies for Competitive Exams

Countries, capitals and currencies is the cheapest scoring topic in the whole General Knowledge paper. There is nothing to understand and nothing to calculate: a question either names the capital of a country or the money it spends, and one line of memory answers it. SSC, Railway, Banking and State papers carry one or two of these every shift, and they are usually the fastest marks on the sheet. The trick is to learn them in groups rather than one by one, because a paper setter builds the wrong options out of the same group.

India and its neighbours

Start here, because papers begin here.

Two traps live in this table. Colombo is the commercial capital and the largest city of Sri Lanka, but the seat of the legislature is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. Yangon was the capital of Myanmar until the government moved to Naypyidaw in 2006.

Countries with more than one capital

These are the favourites of paper setters because the answer looks wrong at first sight.

• South Africa has three: Pretoria is the executive capital, Cape Town the legislative capital and Bloemfontein the judicial capital. Its currency is the rand.
• Bolivia has Sucre as the constitutional capital and La Paz as the seat of government. The currency is the boliviano.
• Netherlands has Amsterdam as the constitutional capital, while the government, parliament and the International Court of Justice sit at The Hague.
• Malaysia keeps Kuala Lumpur as the capital but has moved the administration to Putrajaya. The currency is the ringgit.
• Tanzania has Dodoma as the capital, although Dar es Salaam remains the largest city. The currency is the Tanzanian shilling.

Learning currencies in families

Currencies repeat across countries, so learn the family and then the exceptions. The rupee runs through India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Seychelles, while Indonesia uses the rupiah and Maldives the rufiyaa. The dinar belongs to Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Serbia. The riyal is used by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and the closely spelt rial by Iran and Oman. The dirham is the money of the United Arab Emirates and Morocco. The peso covers Mexico, Cuba, Chile, Colombia, Argentina and the Philippines. The krone or krona family is Scandinavian: Norway and Denmark use the krone, Sweden and Iceland the krona. The shilling runs across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia. The euro is shared by many members of the European Union, but Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Hungary and Czechia have kept their own money, which is a standing question.

Capitals worth a second look

A paper setter rarely asks for the capital of France. The marks lie where the capital is not the best known city of the country.

A quick world sweep

In Asia, Tokyo goes with the yen, Seoul with the won, Bangkok with the baht, Hanoi with the dong, Manila with the peso and Singapore with the Singapore dollar. In West Asia, Riyadh goes with the Saudi riyal, Doha with the Qatari riyal, Muscat with the Omani rial, Abu Dhabi with the dirham, Kuwait City and Manama with their dinars and Tehran with the Iranian rial. In Europe, London goes with the pound sterling, Moscow with the rouble, Warsaw with the zloty, Prague with the Czech koruna, Budapest with the forint and Bern with the Swiss franc. In Africa, Cairo goes with the Egyptian pound, Nairobi with the Kenyan shilling, Abuja with the naira, Accra with the cedi and Addis Ababa with the birr. In the Americas, Ottawa goes with the Canadian dollar, Mexico City with the Mexican peso, Brasilia with the real, Lima with the sol and Buenos Aires with the Argentine peso.