DNA and RNA Structure Quiz: 20 Bases, Nucleosides, and Nucleotides

2026-10-04 8 min

Representative nucleic-acid-related chemical structures.

Can you recognize a nucleobase, nucleoside, or nucleotide from its chemical structure? Explore 20 representative compounds involved in DNA, RNA, and nucleotide metabolism, then test your knowledge with an interactive structure quiz.

How to Distinguish the Structures

Nucleobase: a nitrogen-containing base without a sugar or phosphate group. Nucleoside: a nucleobase attached to a sugar. Nucleotide: a nucleoside with one or more phosphate groups. Purines (adenine and guanine) have fused two-ring bases; pyrimidines (cytosine, thymine, and uracil) have single-ring bases.

In this set, adenosine, guanosine, cytidine, and uridine contain ribose; thymidine contains 2′-deoxyribose. AMP, GMP, CMP, UMP, ADP, ATP, GDP, GTP, and CTP are 5′-ribonucleotides. TMP denotes thymidine 5′-monophosphate (dTMP). This is a selected learning set, not a complete list of DNA and RNA nucleotides.

Reference: 20 Chemical Structures

Review each structure and its name before starting the quiz. Pay attention to the sugar and phosphate positions.

Nucleobases

Chemical structure of Adenine — **Adenine**
A purine nucleobase found in DNA and RNA.

Chemical structure of Guanine — **Guanine**
A purine nucleobase found in DNA and RNA.

Chemical structure of Cytosine — **Cytosine**
A pyrimidine nucleobase found in DNA and RNA.

Chemical structure of Thymine — **Thymine**
A pyrimidine nucleobase primarily found in DNA.

Chemical structure of Uracil — **Uracil**
A pyrimidine nucleobase primarily found in RNA.

Nucleosides

Chemical structure of Adenosine — **Adenosine**
Adenine linked to ribose.

Chemical structure of Guanosine — **Guanosine**
Guanine linked to ribose.

Chemical structure of Cytidine — **Cytidine**
Cytosine linked to ribose.

Chemical structure of Thymidine — **Thymidine**
Thymine linked to 2-deoxyribose.

Chemical structure of Uridine — **Uridine**
Uracil linked to ribose.

Nucleotides

Chemical structure of AMP — **AMP**
Adenosine 5′-monophosphate.

Chemical structure of GMP — **GMP**
Guanosine 5′-monophosphate.

Chemical structure of CMP — **CMP**
Cytidine 5′-monophosphate.

Chemical structure of TMP — **TMP**
Thymidine 5′-monophosphate (dTMP).

Chemical structure of UMP — **UMP**
Uridine 5′-monophosphate.

Chemical structure of ADP — **ADP**
Adenosine 5′-diphosphate.

Chemical structure of ATP — **ATP**
Adenosine 5′-triphosphate.

Chemical structure of GDP — **GDP**
Guanosine 5′-diphosphate.

Chemical structure of GTP — **GTP**
Guanosine 5′-triphosphate.

Chemical structure of CTP — **CTP**
Cytidine 5′-triphosphate.

Interactive Nucleic Acid Structure Quiz

Identify the compound name, whether it is a base, nucleoside, or nucleotide, and whether its base is a purine or pyrimidine. Each correct selection earns one point (20 structures × 3 answers = 60 points). Questions and answer choices are shuffled each time.

Draw Chemical Structures with BioChemCalc

BioChemCalc provides Multiple Structural Formula Drawing, a tool for drawing and comparing molecular structures from SMILES representations. For example, compare adenine, adenosine, AMP, ADP, and ATP to see how the addition of ribose and phosphate groups changes their chemical structures.

Open Multiple Structural Formula Drawing — BioChemCalc

Explore AMEZIST by TILS

AMEZIST is a research software platform from TILS that supports molecular structure analysis and computational workflows for biochemical and mass spectrometry research.

Learn More About AMEZIST — TILS