Citizenship tests

United States Citizenship Test

USCIS Naturalization Civics Test, 2025 edition

The 2025 civics test is spoken. An officer asks up to 20 of the 128 questions out loud at your naturalization interview, you answer in your own words, and it stops the moment you have 12 right. That is almost twice the questions of the older test, from a pool nearly a third larger. Nothing about it is hidden: USCIS publishes all 128 questions along with the answers it accepts, so the whole job is knowing the list.

Practice here is multiple choice, in both the units and the full test. The interview is spoken, so this page once asked you to type your answer instead, and that turned out to punish people for wording a right answer differently from USCIS, which is the one thing an officer would not do. Work through the units to learn the list, then sit the full test to check it holds. There is no official clock at the interview, so the 20 minutes on the full test is our own limit rather than a real rule.

Check which test you sit. This is the 2025 test, for applications filed on or after 20 October 2025. If you filed before that date you sit the 2008 test instead: 100 questions, up to 10 asked, 6 to pass. That one is still here, under the 2008 edition.
Practice 2008 edition
Full test
Up to 20 questions, multiple choice, spread across every topic instead of drawn purely at random. One 20:00 practice clock, pass at 12.
Every paper: 2 Principles of American Government, 6 System of Government, 2 Rights and Responsibilities, 3 Colonial Period and Independence, 2 The 1800s, 3 Recent American History, 1 Symbols, 1 Holidays.
13 units · 120 questions
A voter folding a ballot paper into the box at a polling station
Unit 1 of 13
The Constitution
8 questions · untimed · 5 to pass
Swedish questionsEnglish help

The supreme law: what it does, who it speaks for, and how it gets changed.

Juvaria, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The empty benches of a debating chamber, seen from the floor
Unit 2 of 13
Founding ideas and the rule of law
7 questions · untimed · 5 to pass
Swedish questionsEnglish help

The Declaration, the ideas it carries, and why power was split three ways.

JJ Harrison, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A parliamentary plenary chamber, the speaker’s rostrum in front of the government bench
Unit 3 of 13
The three branches and Congress
10 questions · untimed · 6 to pass
Swedish questionsEnglish help

Who writes the laws, how the two chambers are built, and how long each seat lasts.

Ole Neitzel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A town hall square, the council building at the head of it
Unit 4 of 13
Representation and elections
10 questions · untimed · 6 to pass
Swedish questionsEnglish help

Who a senator answers to, who picks the House, and what the Electoral College is for.

Pudelek (Marcin Szala), CC BY-SA 3.0 ee, via Wikimedia Commons
A supreme court chamber, the bench facing rows of counsel
Unit 5 of 13
The presidency and the Cabinet
9 questions · untimed · 6 to pass
Swedish questionsEnglish help

What the office can do, who takes over if it cannot, and who advises it.

Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A panelled courtroom with the bench raised above the floor
Unit 6 of 13
The courts and the states
10 questions · untimed · 6 to pass
Swedish questionsEnglish help

The Supreme Court, why its justices stay for life, and what Washington cannot decide.

Michael D Beckwith, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
A newspaper kiosk on a city street, the day’s papers racked outside
Unit 7 of 13
Rights and responsibilities
10 questions · untimed · 6 to pass
Swedish questionsEnglish help

Voting, the Oath, taxes and jury duty: what citizenship gives you and asks of you.

photobeppus, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A march filling a street behind a banner
Unit 8 of 13
The colonies and independence
9 questions · untimed · 6 to pass
Swedish questionsEnglish help

Who was already here, who was brought here, and the war that broke with Britain.

PantheraLeo1359531, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A wooden climbing frame in a public playground
Unit 9 of 13
Writing the Constitution
8 questions · untimed · 5 to pass
Swedish questionsEnglish help

1787, the Federalist Papers, and the five founders the test asks you to place.

Friedrich Haag, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A street sign lettered in two languages
Unit 10 of 13
The 1800s
10 questions · untimed · 6 to pass
Swedish questionsEnglish help

Louisiana to Lincoln: the century that doubled the country and then nearly split it.

Matti Blume, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A tower crane over a building going up in a city
Unit 11 of 13
The World Wars and the Depression
8 questions · untimed · 5 to pass
Swedish questionsEnglish help

Why the country entered each war, and what happened at home between them.

PortlandAppraisalBlog, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The daylit atrium of a modern hospital
Unit 12 of 13
The Cold War to today
11 questions · untimed · 7 to pass
Swedish questionsEnglish help

Korea, Vietnam, civil rights, September 11, and the conflicts that followed.

Alvesgaspar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A tractor and baler working a field at harvest
Unit 13 of 13
Symbols and holidays
10 questions · untimed · 6 to pass
Swedish questionsEnglish help

The flag, the anthem, the motto, and the four holidays the test names.

Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Worldly is not affiliated with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Official tests change: always confirm current requirements at the official source. Question set last verified August 11, 2026. Official source

About the USCIS Naturalization Civics Test

The civics test is the one part of United States naturalization with a public syllabus. USCIS publishes the full question list along with the answers it accepts, so there is nothing hidden to guess at: know the list and you cannot be surprised.

The 2025 edition asks more of you than the one it replaced. The pool is one hundred and twenty eight questions, the officer asks up to twenty, and twelve have to be right. Work through the units to learn the list a topic at a time, then sit the full test, which draws its twenty from across every topic rather than leaving your weakest subject to chance.

Common questions

Which civics test will I be given?

It depends on your filing date. Filed on or after 20 October 2025, you sit the 2025 test: one hundred and twenty eight questions in the pool, up to twenty asked, twelve to pass. That is the practice on this page. Filed before that date and you sit the 2008 test instead, which has its own practice here.

What changed in the 2025 test?

The pool grew from one hundred questions to one hundred and twenty eight, the officer now asks up to twenty rather than ten, and you need twelve right rather than six. The format did not change: it is still spoken, still open answer, and it still stops as soon as you have enough correct.

Is the real civics test multiple choice?

No. The officer asks each question out loud and you answer in your own words, so any correct phrasing counts. Practice here is multiple choice anyway, because there is no fair way for a website to mark a spoken answer: a right answer worded differently from the official list came back wrong, and that teaches you nothing an officer would ever tell you. Read the answer you picked back to yourself out loud and you have covered the difference.

What happens if you fail?

You get a second chance. USCIS re-tests you on the portion you failed at a second interview, normally sixty to ninety days later.

Is the civics test the whole naturalization test?

No. There is also an English test covering reading, writing and speaking. The speaking part is judged from your ordinary conversation with the officer during the same interview.

Are there exemptions for older applicants?

Yes. Applicants who are sixty-five or older and have been permanent residents for at least twenty years study only the twenty questions USCIS marks with an asterisk. The officer asks ten of those twenty and you need six right, and you may take it in your own language.

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