CityQ
Fill a 3x3 grid with cities matching both categories.
CityQ is a daily geography puzzle built around a 3x3 grid of cities. Each cell sits where a row category crosses a column category, and the city you type there has to satisfy both at once. Scoring rewards obscurity, so a lesser-known city that still fits both rules beats the obvious famous one.
What is CityQ?
The grid has three row labels and three column labels, which creates nine intersection cells. A row might read "Landlocked city" while a column reads "North America," and the cell where they meet needs a single city that is both. Other labels seen on the page include "Mountain city (1000m+)," "Mid-size (100K to 1M)," "Germanic (English, German, Dutch)," and "Major (1 to 10M)." You fill in one city per cell, working through all nine, and each valid answer counts toward a total. As you type, the game offers autocomplete for common names and alternate spellings, so you spend your attention on whether a city fits the two categories rather than on getting the spelling exactly right.
CityQ is a constraint puzzle rather than a single-answer quiz. There is usually more than one city that satisfies a given pair of categories, and the scoring is built around that. Each correct cell scores the city's fame, and lower is better: pick a famous city and you score high, which is bad, while an obscure city that still satisfies both categories scores low, which is good. Those scores add up across all nine cells for a total, which turns the puzzle into a hunt for the least obvious city you can still defend. Correctness alone is not the goal; the rare picks are what lower your score.
CityQ is published by FlightQ, which makes a suite of daily geography and travel games. It sits alongside other titles from the same publisher, including AirportQ, Chain, and Layover, so the geography-and-travel theme runs through the whole platform. The same daily puzzle is shown to everyone that day, and there is no time limit, so you can skip a stubborn cell and come back to it once the others are filled in.
When you finish, CityQ produces an emoji version of your grid that you can copy and post to compare scores with friends. CityQ is free and needs no account, and an optional premium tier only removes ads. An archive lets you look back at yesterday's answers and browse past CityQ puzzles, which is useful both for seeing how obscure the top solvers went and for studying which category pairings tend to show up.
How to play CityQ
- Open CityQ at flightq.app/cityq in your browser.
- Read the three row categories and three column categories that frame the 3x3 grid.
- For each cell, type a city that satisfies both its row category and its column category at the same time.
- Use the autocomplete suggestions to confirm a name or an alternate spelling as you type.
- Fill all nine cells, skipping any tough one and returning to it later since there is no time limit.
- Copy your emoji result grid to share and compare your fame score with others.
Tips and strategy
- Aim for valid cities that are less famous, because the scoring rewards obscurity and a rare pick scores lower (better) than an obvious one.
- Solve the easiest cells first to lock in the grid, then spend your effort hunting rarer options for the hard intersections.
- Read both the row and column label carefully before answering; a city that clearly fits one category may quietly fail the other.
- When a famous city fits, pause and see whether a smaller city with the same two traits would score better.
- Lean on the autocomplete to test spellings and alternate names rather than abandoning a city you think fits.
- Check the archive of past answers to learn which category pairings recur and how obscure strong solvers tend to go.
Good to know
- Category
- Geography
- Resets
- Daily, same puzzle for everyone
- Cost
- Free, no account required
- Guesses
- Nine, one city per grid cell
- Modes
- Single daily 3x3 grid puzzle
- Archive
- Yes, yesterday's answers and past puzzles
- Publisher
- FlightQ
- Feedback
- Copyable emoji result grid
CityQ FAQ
Is CityQ free?
Yes. CityQ is free to play and needs no account. There is an optional premium tier that only removes ads.
How do you play CityQ?
You fill a 3x3 grid with cities. Each cell sits where a row category crosses a column category, and the city you enter must satisfy both. Each cell scores the city's fame and lower is better, so obscure but valid picks score best.
When does CityQ reset and is there an archive?
CityQ resets daily and shows the same puzzle to everyone that day. There is an archive where you can view yesterday's answers and browse past puzzles.
Is CityQ like Wordle?
It shares the once-a-day format and a shareable result, but it is a constraint-grid puzzle rather than a word guesser. Each cell must satisfy two intersecting geography categories, and the score rewards obscurity instead of just correctness.
Who made CityQ?
CityQ is published by FlightQ, which makes a suite of daily geography and travel games including AirportQ, Chain, and Layover.