Morse Code Visual Quiz

A Morse code visual quiz shows you animated dots and dashes on screen and asks you to identify the corresponding letter, number, or punctuation mark. Unlike an audio quiz, no sound is required — it trains your eyes to recognise the visual pattern of each character. This is particularly useful for learning Morse code before moving to audio recognition, and for people who prefer visual learning.

The quiz covers 44 characters in total: all 26 letters A–Z, all 10 digits 0–9, and 8 common punctuation marks — period (·−·−·−), comma (−−··−−), question mark (··−−··), exclamation mark (−·−·−−), forward slash (−··−·), at-sign (·−−·−·), equals sign (−···−), and plus sign (·−·−·). Prosigns and Q-codes are not included in the quiz pool as they require audio or operational context to distinguish correctly.

In Decode mode you see an animated Morse pattern (dots and dashes) and must identify which letter it represents — choosing from four options. In Encode mode you see a letter and must pick the correct Morse pattern from four visual choices displayed as dots and dashes. Decode trains recognition; Encode trains recall. Both are needed for full Morse code fluency.

Speed mode is a timed version of Decode mode. The Morse pattern animates once at approximately 10 WPM (words per minute), then disappears. You have 8 seconds to select the correct answer before the question is marked wrong automatically. There is no replay and no hint available. Speed mode is locked until you reach Advanced difficulty (80%+ on Intermediate). It is designed for learners preparing for ham radio CW operation where real-time decoding speed matters.

The Beginner level uses only the 8 most common letters in English Morse: E (·), T (−), I (··), A (·−), N (−·), M (−−), S (···), O (−−−). These are the shortest, most frequently encountered patterns. Starting here avoids overwhelming new learners and reflects how professional Morse teachers (including the Koch method and ham radio CW courses) introduce the code — high-frequency characters first.

Every time you answer a question, the quiz records whether you got it right or wrong in your browser's localStorage — no account needed. Characters you miss more than 40% of the time are flagged as weak spots and appear twice as often in your next session. After each session your results screen shows your top 5 weak spots with their Morse patterns so you know exactly what to study. You can clear this data by clearing your browser's localStorage.

Each quiz session contains exactly 20 questions. At roughly 10–15 seconds per question this takes about 4–5 minutes — long enough to be meaningful practice but short enough to fit in a break. The question pool is weighted so your weak-spot characters appear more often. After 20 questions you see your score, accuracy percentage, best streak, and a breakdown of your top missed characters.

Distractor quality is what separates a useful quiz from an easy one. If the wrong answers were obviously different lengths or shapes, you could eliminate them without recognising the actual pattern. Our quiz always generates distractors with similar pattern lengths — for example, if the correct answer is K (−·−), the wrong options will also be 3-element patterns like R (·−·), D (−··), or G (−−·). This forces genuine pattern recognition rather than process of elimination.

Yes, as a supplementary visual training tool. Most ham radio CW examinations test audio recognition at 5 WPM (Technician) or 13+ WPM (Extra class in some regions), so you should also use our Morse Code Audio Quiz for ear training. The visual quiz is ideal for the initial memorisation phase — learning which pattern corresponds to which letter — before graduating to audio. Advanced + Speed mode at 10 WPM is a good bridge between the two.

Completely free, no account required. The quiz runs entirely in your browser. Progress tracking uses your browser's localStorage — your data stays on your device and is never sent to any server. You can use keyboard shortcuts (1–4) to answer quickly without clicking. It works on desktop, tablet, and mobile.