Africa · Middle Africa
How to draw DR Congo from memory
DR Congo is a single continuous landmass, roughly as wide as it is tall. Lock that proportion in before you worry about any individual stretch of border. Its border sits in the middle of the difficulty range — enough straight sections to anchor you, enough detail to punish a careless stroke.
- Difficulty
- medium
- Population
- 86.8 m
- Code
- COD
Draw DR Congo
Practice · draw from memory
DR Congo
A four-step strategy for DR Congo
- 01
Start by fixing the overall footprint. DR Congo is close to square overall, so a lopsided sketch loses points fast.
- 02
Anchor one unmistakable feature — the straightest border section or the sharpest cape — and draw outward from it in a single continuous stroke.
- 03
Close the loop back to where you started. An open shape gets filled unpredictably and drags your score down.
- 04
Submit, read the nine-sector grid, and redraw immediately. The sector readout names the region you under-drew, and a second attempt typically gains 10–20 points.
Top scores for DR Congo
Nobody has submitted a score for DR Congo yet. Draw it above and you are first on this board.
Full leaderboard →Quick facts
- Continent
- Africa
- Subregion
- Middle Africa
- Outline pieces
- 1
- Detail score
- 2.52
Three things that go wrong when people sketch DR Congo
Each one is measured off the outline the game scores, not copied from a reference atlas: the proportions, the straight sections and the way the shape breaks into pieces are all properties of the coordinates your stroke gets compared against.
It narrows sharply toward the south
Measured across, the outline is 3× wider near its northern edge than near its southern one. A sketch that keeps the same width all the way down looks plausible and scores badly, because a missing taper is missing area.
DR Congo is close to square
Width against height comes out at 1.01 to 1, so the shape neither runs away sideways nor stretches vertically. Set that box first: with a near-square country almost every lost point comes from the coast detail inside it, not the footprint.
Most of the mass sits to the east
The area centre is well off the middle of the outline, and the thin side is the part people extend too early. Draw the heavy side first and let the tail grow out of it.
Answer key: the real shape of DR Congo
- Box on the canvas
- 440 × 436 units
- Width to height
- 1.01 : 1
- Separate landmasses
- 1
- Longest straight run
- Nothing over 8% of the perimeter
- Coast against silhouette
- 1.27× the wrapping outline
Open it after you have drawn DR Congo at least once. Seeing the shape first replaces the recall the score is meant to measure with tracing, and tracing always scores higher than remembering.
Why DR Congo is scored this way
Country Drawing does not compare your sketch to a picture of DR Congo. It scales and centres both your stroke and the real border into the same box, fills them, and measures how much of the two shapes overlap relative to their combined area. That means you are never punished for drawing DR Congo small, off to one side, or rotated slightly — only for getting the shape itself wrong. The nine-sector grid then splits the real border into a 3×3 mesh and reports coverage per cell, which is how it can tell you that you lost the whole eastern edge rather than just handing you a number.
DR Congo by the numbers
DR Congo covers 2,344,858 km², which makes it the 10th largest of 190 countries in the game and the 2nd largest in Africa. The capital is Kinshasa at about 0°N, 25°E, and it sits in Middle Africa. It touches Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, and 100% of its area sits in one main landmass. The rest of the perimeter is water.
Next to DR Congo: its land neighbours
Size is what the outline has to fill, so comparing the countries that share this border side by side is the fastest way to get the proportions into your head before you draw.
| Country | Area | Population | Capital | Pieces | vs DR Congo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DR Congothis page | 2,344,858 km² | 86.8 m | Kinshasa | 1 | — |
 Angola | 1,246,700 km² | 31.8 m | Luanda | 1 | 0.53× |
 Burundi | 27,834 km² | 11.5 m | Gitega | 1 | 0.01× |
 Central African Republic | 622,984 km² | 4.7 m | Bangui | 1 | 0.27× |
 Republic of the Congo | 342,000 km² | 5.4 m | Brazzaville | 1 | 0.15× |
 Rwanda | 26,338 km² | 12.6 m | Kigali | 1 | 0.01× |
 South Sudan | 619,745 km² | 11.1 m | Juba | 1 | 0.26× |
 Tanzania | 945,087 km² | 58.0 m | Dodoma | 1 | 0.4× |
 Uganda | 241,550 km² | 44.3 m | Kampala | 1 | 0.1× |
Draw these next
Countries near DR Congo share border conventions and coastline styles, which makes them the most useful follow-up practice.
Working through one country at a time is slow. Take the blank map of africa and label the whole region from memory — it shows you which neighbours you have never actually seen.
DR Congo drawing questions
How big is DR Congo?
DR Congo covers 2,344,858 km², ranking 10th of 190 countries here by land area and 2nd in Africa. That is 1.9 times the area of Angola.
What is the capital of DR Congo?
The capital is Kinshasa at about 0°N, 25°E. The game scores the shape of the border rather than the position of any city, so the capital and its coordinates are here to help you place DR Congo on a blank map.
Is DR Congo hard to draw?
It is rated medium, and carries more outline detail than 46% of the 190 borders in this game. The shape has to be placed as 1 landmass, with no straight edge longer than 8% of the perimeter to anchor it.
Which countries border DR Congo?
DR Congo shares a land border with Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The remaining perimeter is coast, which is the part that usually costs points.