Periodic Table Quiz
Learn the elements by symbol, name, number and place, and review the ones you miss.
Set up a quiz
Which elements
Lanthanoids and actinoids sit in their own rows in this table and have no group number: pick the f block or their kind instead.
Options
Again: you missed this one a moment ago.
Click the square where the element belongs. On a small screen, scroll the table sideways; the arrow keys move between squares.
Your result
Missed this time
| Element | Question | You answered | Right answer |
|---|
Every answer right. Elements you got right wait longer before they come up for review again.
Your progress
- Not asked yet
- Missed last time
- Learning (right once or twice in a row)
- Known (right three times running, on different days)
When an element comes up for review and you get it right, it moves up a box and waits longer before it is asked again (a day, three days, a week, then 16 days); a wrong answer sends it back to the start. Kept in this browser only.
About the Periodic Table Quiz
A quiz for learning the chemical elements the way chemistry classes test them: names to symbols, symbols to names, atomic numbers, where each element sits in a blank periodic table, and standard atomic weights. Answer by choosing one of four options — the wrong ones are the elements people really mix up, such as silver (Ag) and gold (Au) — or by typing the answer.
Pick the elements to practise: the first 20, 36 or 54, all 118, a range of atomic numbers, or one block, group, period or kind of element (halogens, noble gases, transition metals…). Missed elements come back a few questions later, and your progress is kept in boxes: elements you know are asked less often, ones you miss come back first next time. Names and symbols are the current IUPAC ones, including nihonium (Nh), moscovium (Mc), tennessine (Ts) and oganesson (Og); atomic weights are the CIAAW standard values.
How to use it
- Choose what to practise: names to symbols, symbols to names, atomic numbers, finding elements on the table, naming a marked square, standard atomic weights, or a mix.
- Choose Choosing (four options; keys 1 to 4 work) or Typing, and how many questions. Under Which elements, pick a range or narrow it to a block, group, period or kind of element.
- Press Start the quiz. After each answer you see whether it was right, the right answer and a line about the element; press Next question (or Enter).
- In Find it on the table, click the square where the element belongs — or choose its row and group from the lists below the table. Squares you find fill in with their symbols.
- At the end, see your score and the elements you missed, then Practise the missed ones. Next time, Practise missed elements and Review what is due start with the elements that need it.
Examples
Names → symbols · Choosing · 10 questions · the first 20
“What is the symbol for sodium?” with options such as Na, N, Ne and S. A wrong answer brings sodium back three questions later.
Find it on the table · every element once · period 2
Lithium to neon, one by one: click the right square and it fills in with the symbol, so the row builds up as you go.
Symbols → names · Typing · “Al”
Both “aluminium” (the IUPAC spelling) and “aluminum” count; the page shows the IUPAC spelling.
Standard atomic weights · “Which element has a standard atomic weight of 12.011?”
Carbon (C): 12.011 is its CIAAW abridged standard atomic weight.
Common uses
- Learning the first 20 or 36 elements for a school chemistry test.
- Drilling the symbols that are easy to confuse: Na and K, Ag and Au, S, Si, Sn and Sb.
- Practising where elements sit in the table, by block, group or period.
- A quick class warm-up on a projector, one question at a time.
- Revising atomic weights before a molar mass or stoichiometry topic.
How the repetition works
Each element has a box for each skill (symbols, names, atomic numbers, places, weights). A new element starts in no box. When an element comes up and you answer it right, it moves up a box and waits longer before it is asked again: a day, then three days, a week, then 16 days. An element right three times running, on different days, counts as known. A wrong answer sends it back to the first box, so it is asked again at once — and within a quiz, a missed element returns three questions later (at most twice).
Answering an element again before it is due counts as practice but does not move it up, so a long quiz over a short list does not mark everything as known. Your progress shows each element’s box on a small table, and the counts of known, learning and missed elements. It is kept only in this browser.
The table used
The blank table has the conventional long form of the IUPAC Periodic Table of the Elements, with groups numbered 1 to 18: scandium and yttrium in group 3, and the lanthanoids (57–71) and actinoids (89–103) in two rows below the main table, marked * and **. Those 30 elements have no group number in this layout, so a group filter leaves them out; choose the f block or their kind instead. IUPAC notes that which elements belong in group 3 below yttrium is still discussed, so some books put lanthanum and actinium, or lutetium and lawrencium, there.
Names, symbols and atomic weights
- Names and symbols are those of IUPAC, which assigned the names of elements 113, 115, 117 and 118: nihonium (Nh, after Nihon, Japan), moscovium (Mc, after the Moscow region), tennessine (Ts, after Tennessee) and oganesson (Og, after Yuri Oganessian). Typed names also accept the spellings aluminum, cesium and sulphur.
- Standard atomic weights are the CIAAW abridged values, quoted to five significant figures unless natural variation or measurement limits prevent it (chlorine 35.45, lead 207.2). Several standard atomic weights are really intervals, such as hydrogen’s [1.007 84, 1.008 11], because the element’s isotopes vary in nature; the abridged value (1.0080) is the one asked.
- 34 elements have no standard atomic weight — technetium, promethium, polonium to actinium, and neptunium to oganesson — so the weight questions leave them out.
Limitations
- Weight questions cover only the 84 elements with a standard atomic weight.
- Typed answers take English element names; a one-letter slip in a long name is forgiven only while that option is on.
- Progress is kept in this browser on this device; clearing the site’s data or using another browser starts afresh.
- The blank table follows one common layout (scandium and yttrium in group 3, both f series below); other layouts place lanthanum and actinium, or lutetium and lawrencium, in group 3.
Privacy
On this device: nothing is sent
The quiz runs in your browser. Your settings and progress are kept in this browser’s storage on this device; nothing is uploaded.
Frequently asked questions
Which element names and symbols does it use?
The current IUPAC names and symbols for all 118 elements, including nihonium (Nh), moscovium (Mc), tennessine (Ts) and oganesson (Og). When you type a name, the spellings aluminum, cesium and sulphur count too, and the page shows the IUPAC spelling.
Do I have to type symbols with the right capital letters?
A symbol typed in the wrong case (“FE”) still counts, and the page reminds you how it is written: a capital first letter and, for two-letter symbols, a small second letter (Fe). In chemistry the case matters — Co is cobalt, CO is carbon monoxide.
Where do the atomic weights come from?
From the IUPAC Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (CIAAW): the abridged standard atomic weights, such as 55.845 for iron and 35.45 for chlorine. Elements without a standard atomic weight are left out of those questions.
How does it decide which elements to ask?
Missed elements come first, then those due for review, then elements you have not been asked yet, then the rest. Within a quiz a missed element returns three questions later. Practise missed elements and Review what is due start a round with only those.
Can I practise just one part of the table?
Yes. Under Which elements, choose a range of atomic numbers and, if you like, one block (s, p, d, f), group, period or kind of element, such as the halogens or the noble gases. The page says how many elements match before you start.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. On a narrow screen the blank table scrolls sideways, and in Find it on the table you can also pick the row and group from two lists instead of clicking a square — which also works well with a keyboard or a screen reader.