First choose any US city by entering it and choosing it in the drop-down box. Then, name any US city in each 100 mile circle/ring as the rings expand outward from your city of choice, trying to name SECOND LARGEST city in each circle. The first circle will include your city of choice as a possible answer.
PLEASE NOTE - You must type a '.' (period) after each city to submit it to prevent answering another city with a name you would be have to type to get your answer. If multiple cities have the name you submitted, only the largest one will be counted.
You accumulate points based on the population of the city you named in relation to the second largest city in the circle. A smaller city’s point total will be the ratio of its population to the largest, so if you name a city of 75K people and the largest city has 100K, you get 75 points. Naming the largest city will get you points based on the ratio of the 2nd largest city's population to the largest city's.
When you run out of time or end the quiz, you will see the current ring’s 2nd largest city at right (under ‘Answer Stats’ by your coordinates).
For example, if you choose ‘Chicago’ – you will be shown a circle of radius 100 miles centered at Chicago. Naming any city in this circle (including Chicago) will cause another ‘ring’ of radius 100 miles to appear outside that circle, however - you will want to try naming the SECOND LARGEST city you can to get more points. After completing that circle, you now need to name any US city in the new ring (but not within any previous circles/rings), again trying to name the 2nd largest city. If there are not two cities within the next ring of that distance, the ring will keep expanding by that distance until two cities fall within it.
Quiz Takers 
Sources I’ve checked show it’s 193 miles from Columbia to Atlanta, but the map seems to indicate it’s just a shade over 200.
I can only use what the Google Maps API says is the distance…obviously minor discrepancies will exist. I’ll double check that the quiz is using routes based on shortest distance and not factoring time into the route choice.
Wait… are you using routes to determine distance? Saying “within 200 miles” seems to indicate that you’re using an as-the-crow-flies measurement, not a travel measurement.
oh whoops I was thinking this was a route based quiz without even looking above at what it was haha…no this is as the crow flies, so the difference is due to coordinates.
also consider the coordinates used – the coordinates I have for a city are not likely the exact coordinates some services use when just typing in the city name and requesting directions. mine are based on Geonames coordinates, whereas different directions services may use city hall, or some other area within the city as the endpoint.
Yes it’s working here too now, must have been a bug or something…or my score was too low…
Although I’m logged in, my scores won’t save at all..
hmm – i just tested twice and worked here – you sure you hit all 50 capitals? did you immediately leave the page after completing the quiz?
i fixed the bug with the score saving even though all capitals weren’t completed – i did remove the 23 score, if it was good sorry, you’ll have to post again.
The top score of 1 is pretty amazing. If it were true, though, all U.S. state capitals would be within 200 miles of each other.
yeah fixing this right now. that’s quite the sweet spot if it were legit!
For the leaderboard, there needs to be a mechanism to require you to finish the quiz to have your score posted. I got called away after 4 moves, and after time expired, my score was posted.
oh yeah forgot about that…I’ll fix shortly for both this and world one.