The Best Anki Decks to Learn Anything: Look Here First!

With thousands of available shared anki decks online, many of them incomplete or not useful, building a list of the best anki decks seemed like a good idea. I have downloaded and tested every deck on this list to ensure it’s worth your time and effort. I have also included screenshots so you can see what they’re really like before downloading them. If you’re learning something new or just looking for inspiring anki deck ideas, check out the decks below:

If you know of any shared decks that should be included on this list, let me know on X!

All of the decks recommended below are hosted on Ankiweb. Be wary of downloading random anki decks from Reddit or other places on the web.

How to Add Shared Decks to Anki

1. Click on one of the links in this list, or search for a shared deck over at Ankiweb.
2. Open Anki
3. Hit “Import File” as shown below

4. Navigate to and click on the file you downloaded (it will be a .apkg file)
5. Toggle “Import any deck presets”

6. Hit Import
7. The Deck will now appear in your “Decks” tab

Medicine

Anki is better known among medical students than any other demographic, and it makes sense! Med school students have so much to remember, from anatomy, like the names of bones and muscles in the body, to pathology, like the names, symptoms, and causes of disease, not to mention understanding how the organs function before we get into medicine, drug dosages, interactions, etc.

There are so many medical-related decks dedicated to different topics, exams, and countries that I’m not going to attempt to list them all here. Thankfully, someone has done the work so that you can find the best med school anki decks on the “medical school anki” subreddit.

• Reddit Medical School Index

Languages

Language learning and Anki are a match made in heaven! You have lots of vocabulary to learn and grammar to remember, and you need plenty of practice – Anki will help with all of that. I speak fluent Chinese and Tibetan and have used Anki extensively to learn vocabulary and practice getting comprehensible input with sentence decks. I recommend you take language decks in the following order:

1. Pronunciation or Alphabet – You need this down before moving on.
2. Vocabulary – Without any vocab, the grammar will seem too abstract.
3. Grammar – Learning some grammar before moving on to sentences will hold you in good stead.
4. Sentences – Remember to get out and actually talk to people. Sentence decks are good for solo practice, however.

French Flashcard Decks

• 5000 most frequently used French words – French Vocabulary
• French Pronunciation

Spanish Flashcard Decks

• Ultimate Spanish Conjugation (Lisardo’s KOFI Method)
• Spanish Top 5000 Vocabulary – Some of the cards here are NSFW

Chinese Flashcard Decks

• Most Common 3000 Chinese Hanzi Characters
• 20000 Chinese sentences – The sentences are taken from HSK exam exercises

Japanese Flashcard Decks

• Japanese Core 2000 2k – Sorted w/ Audio
• Japanese Basic Hiragana
• Japanese Katakana

General Knowledge

Even if you don’t plan on going on Jeopardy anytime soon and aren’t a member of your local pub quiz team, learning random trivia can be a fun way to impress your friends with your giant intellect.

• Trivia 26K – So called because there are over 26,000 cards in this deck
• 200,000+ Jeopardy! Questions/Answers – If 26,000 isn’t enough, here’s a deck with 220,000 notes

Art, Culture & History

Using Anki to become more knowledgeable about the world and more cultured is easy with some of these classy decks.

• Essential Architecture – Buildings from all over the world with multiple pictures for each – a really nice deck!
• AP World History Original Ultimate Set from Quizlet – World History Facts
• 50 key history dates – This deck is small enough for you to actually complete it, but it still includes 50 valuable dates and their historical significance to make it worthwhile.

Music

If you’re learning a new instrument or just want to have a broader knowledge of music at your fingertips these decks will help. Learn to read music, ear training or the greatest periods and pieces of classical music ever made.

• Periods of Classical Music
• 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music (German)
• Joe’s Ear: intervals, chords, scales

Philosophy

Philosophy is one of those subjects that’s interesting to read but hard to remember who said what. When you’re in a debate or just talking with friends, it’s so convenient to be able to name the philosopher and his central argument – that’s what this deck will give you.

• PHILOSOPHY FLASHCARDS – This deck gives the argument and asks the philosopher. However, some cards in this deck are structured differently—you may want to edit those.

Memory

I’ve been interested in memory since I took Kevin Treaudau’s Mega Memory in the 90s, and when I created my PAO, I would have loved to have Anki available – I wrote them all down in a notebook! Using a flashcard system to learn a memory system is pretty meta! Seriously though, if you’re looking to get into real competitive memorization, you’ll need to know the Major System. I recommend you build your own PAO (Person, Action, Object) as that will be more memorable, but you can still use the deck below as a starting point or just for some inspiration.

• Major System
• PAO

Bible and Scripture

The Psalmist said it well, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” You might already know the verses you want to commit to memory from your Bible notes, but if you don’t, the deck below contains 52 verses (originally, they were meant to be learned in a year, one per week) that hold key concepts or truths central to the Christian faith. So, even if you only use it as the foundation to create your own deck, you won’t go far wrong.

• Books of the Bible

Literature

• Books and Authors for competitive exams – 407 books and their authors. This is an excellent starting deck you can add to every time you read a new book.

Phonetic Alphabet

Coding

I looked up a few languages like C++ and Java but didn’t find any decks that were up to the standard for this list. However, the following three decks will be pretty useful whether you’re a programmer or not.

• Markdown – This is a good Anki deck, but my guide to Markdown in Obsidian is even better!
• Linux / Bash Cheatsheet – Dump Windows and move to Linux, here are the commands you need to feel comfortable in the terminal.

Other Shared Anki Decks You Should Check Out

• Jokes and Puns – Just Dad jokes and puns for a bit of fun
• World Flags – A simple deck with a picture of a flag on one side of the card and the country’s name on the other.
• Oscar Winners (updated version) All the Oscar winners for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Director from 1939-2023
• Famous People With Asteroids Named After Them – why not?
• Motivational Quotes – This deck uses multiple cloze deletions in each card so it may ask you for the start of the quote, the end of it, or the author.