Let K be any field and G be a finite group. Let G act on the rational function field K(x g : g ∈ G) by K-automorphisms defined by g • x h = x gh for any g, h ∈ G. Denote by K(G) the fixed field K(x g : g ∈ G) G . Noether's problem asks whether K(G) is rational (=purely transcendental) over K. We will give a brief survey of Noether's problem for abelian groups and dihedral groups, and will show that Q(D n ) is rational over Q for n ≤ 10.