US State Size Sorting Quiz

Only 3% Can Achieve 60+ on This Quiz

Ready to test your knowledge of US state sizes? Your score is based on the relative order of your answers, so don’t worry about being perfect, just try your best! It’s all about your understanding of their land area compared to each other. This quiz is tough - a perfect score is 100, but only 3% of people score higher than 60, and a mere 0.1% achieve a score above 90. Even among US citizens, only about 30% can score above 60!

After you see your results, we’ll reveal the correct order, so you can learn how you did and gain a better understanding of each state’s size. Drag and drop the states to begin!

FAQ

How is my score calculated?

Your score is determined by how well you order the states relative to each other, and we use a concept called "Inversion Count" to measure this. Here’s how it works:

Imagine each state has its correct position in the list (from largest to smallest). Now, consider the order you’ve provided. An "inversion" occurs when a state appears before another state that should come *before* it in the correct sequence. Let’s break it down with a simple example:

Correct Order: [A, B, C, D]

Your Order: [B, A, C, D]

In this example, we have one inversion: B comes before A, when it should be after it.

Formal definition:

An inversion is a pair of indices (i, j) in your list such that:

i < j (meaning i comes before j in your order)
But: CorrectOrder[i] > CorrectOrder[j] (the value at position 'i' should be placed later than that in position 'j' in the correct order)

The final score will then be calculated using the following formula:

Score = 100% - (Inversion Count / Maximum Possible Inversions) x 100%

Key Points:

Zero Inversions = Perfect Score: If you get all the states in the exact correct order (no state is out of place relative to any other), you’ll have zero inversions, and your score will be 100%.
Maximum Possible Inversions: The maximum possible number of inversions occurs when your list is the reverse of the correct order, the more the inversions the worse your result.
Relative Ranking is Key: The score is based on *how accurately you place each state relative to the others*, not necessarily on whether each state is in its "perfect" position in isolation.

By understanding how inversions are counted, you can appreciate why rearranging the order of the states can greatly impact your final score! Try your best to order the states correctly, Good luck!

Is it really that hard to get a high score?

Well, let’s just say that hitting 90% or more is pretty tough! If you manage to score above 95%, you’ve seriously mastered your state sizes. Take a screenshot and send it our way – we’d love to feature your name on the quiz and give you some well-deserved bragging rights! 😉

What about the lowest scores?

Actually, it’s also incredibly difficult to get a *really* low score! If you manage to score below 5%, you’ve somehow managed to reverse-sort the states with remarkable consistency. That’s impressive in its own way! Send us a screenshot, and we’ll feature your name too for your unique achievement. 😜