U.S. Citizenship Test Questions and Answers (2008 Version)
People who wish to naturalize as U.S. citizens have to pass a U.S. citizenship test. In addition to English language questions, the test includes civics questions about American government, history, geography, symbols, and holidays. This article contains all 100 of the civics questions from the current citizenship test and their answers, as taken from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) website. The USCIS officer quizzing you will ask you 10 of these 100 questions. You’ll pass the naturalization test if you answer at least six out of those 10 questions correctly. We hope you find this study guide helpful!
Written by Jonathan Petts.
Written May 30, 2022
Questions on American Government
These questions will test your knowledge of American government, including the principles of American democracy, the American system of government, and the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizens.
Principles of American Democracy
1. What is the supreme law of the land?
Correct Answer: The Constitution
2. What does the Constitution do?
Correct Answers:
Protects basic rights of Americans
Sets up the government
Defines the government
3. The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution. What are these words?
Correct Answer: We The People
4. What is an amendment?
Correct Answers:
A change to the Constitution
An addition to the Constitution
5. What do we call the first ten amendments of the Constitution?
Correct Answer: The Bill of Rights
6. What is one right or freedom from the first amendment?*
Correct Answers:
Petition the government
Speech
Religion
Assembly
Press
7. How many amendments does the Constitution have?
Correct Answer: Twenty-seven (27)
8. What did the Declaration of Independence do?
Correct Answers:
Declared that America is free from Great Britain
Said that America is free from Great Britain
Announced that America is free from Great Britain
9. What are two rights in the Declaration of Independence?
Correct Answers:
Life
Liberty
The pursuit of happiness
10. What is freedom of religion?
Correct Answer: You can practice any religion, or not practice a religion.
11. What is the economic system in the United States?*
Correct Answers:
Market economy
Capitalist economy
12. What is the “rule of law”?
Correct Answers:
No one is above the law
Everyone must follow the law
Leaders must obey the law
Government must obey the law
System of Government
13. Name one branch or part of the government.*
Correct Answers:
Executive
Judicial
Congress
President
The Courts
Legislative
14. What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful?
Correct Answers:
Checks and balances
Separation of powers
15. Who is in charge of the Executive branch?
Correct Answer: The President
16. Who makes federal laws?
Correct Answers:
Congress
Senate and House of Representatives
Legislature
17. What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?*
Correct Answer: The Senate and The House of Representatives
18. How many U.S. Senators are there?
Correct Answer: One hundred (100)
19. We elect a U.S. Senator for how many years?
Correct Answer: Six (6) years
20. Who is one of your state’s U.S. Senators now?*
Correct Answer: Correct answers will vary by state. If you live in Washington D.C. or in a U.S. territory, the correct answer is that you have no U.S. senators.
21. The House of Representatives has how many voting members?
Correct Answer: Four hundred and thirty-five (435)
22. We elect a U.S. Representative for how many years?
Correct Answer: Two (2) years
23. Name your U.S. Representative?
Correct Answer: Correct answers will vary by state. If you live in a U.S. territory with non-voting Delegates or Resident Commissioners, you can provide their name. You will also be correct if you opt to say that your territory has no voting Representatives in Congress.
24. Who does a U.S. Senator represent?
Correct Answer: All the people of the state
25. Why do some states have more Representatives than others?
Correct Answers:
Some states have more people than others
Some states have a higher population than others
26. We elect a President for how many years?
Correct Answer: Four (4) years
27. In what month do we vote for President?*
Correct Answer: November
28. What is the name of the President of the United States now?*
Correct Answer: See uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates for the most updated information on who the President of the United States is.
29. What is the name of the Vice President of the United States now?
Correct Answer: See uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates for the most updated information on who the Vice President of the United States is.
30. If the President can no longer serve, who becomes President?
Correct Answer: The Vice President
31. If the President and Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President?
Correct Answer: The Speaker of the House
32. Who is the Commander in Chief of the military?
Correct Answer: The President
33. Who signs bills to become laws?
Correct Answer: The President
34. Who vetoes bills?
Correct Answer: The President
35. What does the President’s Cabinet do?
Correct Answer: Advise the President
36. What are two Cabinet-level positions?
Correct Answers:
Vice President
Attorney General
Secretary of Defense
Secretary of Homeland Security
Secretary of Education
Secretary of Agriculture
Secretary of Commerce
Secretary of Energy
Secretary of Health and Human Services
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Secretary of the Interior
Secretary of Labor
Secretary of State
Secretary of Transportation
Secretary of the Treasury
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
37. What does the judicial branch do?
Correct Answers:
Explains laws
Reviews laws
Decides if a law goes against the Constitution
Resolves disagreements and disputes
38. What is the highest court in the United States?
Correct Answer: The Supreme Court
39. How many justices are on the Supreme Court?
Correct Answer: Check uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates for the number of justices on the Supreme Court.
40. Who is the Chief Justice of the United States now?
Correct Answer: Check uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates for the name of the Chief Justice of the United States.
41. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government?
Correct Answers:
To print money
To create an army
To declare war
To make treaties
42. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the states. What is one power of the states?
Correct Answers:
Provide schooling and education
Provide protection through the police
Provide safety through fire departments
Give out driver’s license
Approve zoning and land use
43. Who is the Governor of your state now?
Correct Answer: Correct answers will differ on a state-to-state basis. If you live in Washington D.C., the correct answer is that you have no governor.
44. What is the capital of your state?*
Correct Answer: Correct answers will differ on a state-to-state basis. If you live in Washington D.C., the correct answer is that D.C. is not a state and so has no capital. If you live in a U.S. territory, you should name the capital of the territory.
45. What are the two major political parties in the United States?*
Correct Answer: The Democratic Party and the Republican Party
46. What is the political party of the President now?
Correct Answer: See uscis.gov/citizenship/check-for-test-updates for the political party of the President of the United States.
47. What is the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives now?
Correct Answer: See uscis.gov/citizenship/check-for-test-updates for the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States.
Rights & Responsibilities
48. There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them.
Correct Answers:
A male citizen of any race can vote
Women and men can vote
You don’t have to pay to vote
Any citizen 18 years and older can vote
49. What is one responsibility that is only for United States citizens?*
Correct Answers:
Vote in a federal election
Serve on a jury
50. Name one right only for United States citizens.
Correct Answers:
Run for federal office
Vote in a federal election
51. What are two rights of everyone living in the United States?
Correct Answers:
Freedom of expression
Freedom of speech
Freedom of religion
Freedom of assembly
Freedom to petition the government
The right to bear arms
52. What do we show loyalty to when we say the Pledge of Allegiance?
Correct Answers:
The United States
The flag
53. What is one promise you make when you become a United States citizen?
Correct Answers:
Be loyal to the United States
Give up loyalty to any other countries
Obey the laws of the United States
Defend the Constitution and laws of the United states
Serve in the U.S. military if needed
Serve the nation if needed
54. How old do citizens have to be to vote for President?*
Correct Answer: Eighteen (18) years old
55. What are two ways that Americans can participate in their democracy?
Correct Answers:
Vote
Join a political party
Help with a campaign
Join a civic group
Join a community group
Give an elected official your opinion on an issue
Call Senators and Representatives
Publicly support or oppose an issue or policy
Run for office
Write to a newspaper
56. When is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms?*
Correct Answer: April 15
57. When must all men register for the Selective Service?
Correct Answers:
Age eighteen (18)
Between ages eighteen (18) and twenty-six (26)
Questions on American History
This class of questions tests your knowledge of U.S. history, from the colonial period and independence, to the 1800s and more recent American history.
The Colonial Period & Independence
1. What is one reason colonists came to America?
Correct Answers:
Freedom
Political liberty
Religious freedom
Economic opportunity
To escape persecution
2. Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?
Correct Answers:
Native Americans
American Indians
3. What group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves?
Correct Answers:
People from Africa
Africans
4. Why did the colonists fight the British?
Correct Answers:
High taxes
The British army stayed in their houses
Colonists didn’t have self-government
5. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
Correct Answer: Thomas Jefferson
6. When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
Correct Answer: July 4, 1776
7. There were 13 original states. Name three.
Correct Answers:
New Hampshire
North Carolina
South Carolina
New York
New Jersey
Rhode Island
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Pennsylvania
Delaware
Maryland
Virginia
Georgia
8. What happened at the Constitutional Convention?
Correct Answers:
The Constitution was written
The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution
9. When was the Constitution written?
Correct Answer: 1787
10. The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers.
Correct Answers:
James Madison
Alexander Hamilton
John Jay
Publius
11. What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?
Correct Answers:
U.S. diplomat
Started the first free libraries
Oldest member of the Constitutional Convention
First Postmaster General of the United States
Writer of “Poor Richard’s Almanac”
12. Who is the “Father of Our Country”?
Correct Answer: George Washington
13. Who was the first President?*
Correct Answer: George Washington
The 1800s
14. What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803?
Correct Answers:
Louisiana
Louisiana territory
15. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s.
Correct Answers:
Civil War
War of 1812
Mexican-American War
Spanish-American War
16. Name the U.S. war between the North and the South.
Correct Answers:
The Civil War
The War between the States
17. Name one problem that led to the Civil War.
Correct Answers:
Slavery
States’ rights
Economic reasons
18. What was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did?*
Correct Answers:
Emancipation Proclamation
Freed the slaves
Saved the union
Led the United States during the Civil War
19. What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
Correct Answers:
Freed slaves
Freed slaves in the southern states
Freed slaves in the Confederacy
Freed slaves in the Confederate states
20. What did Susan B. Anthony do?
Correct Answers:
Fought for women’s rights
Fought for civil rights
Recent American History & Other Important Historical Information
21. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s.*
Correct Answers:
World War I
World War II
Vietnam War
Korean War
Persian War/Gulf War
22. Who was President during World War I?
Correct Answer: Woodrow Wilson
23. Who was President during the Great Depression and World War II?
Correct Answer: Franklin Roosevelt
24. Who did the United States fight in World War II?
Correct Answer: Italy, Japan, and Germany
25. Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in?
Correct Answer: World War II
26. During the Cold War, what was the main concern of the United States?
Correct Answer: Communism
27. What movement tried to end racial discrimination?
Correct Answer: Civil Rights Movement
28. What did Martin Luther King, Jr. do?*
Correct Answers:
Fought for civil rights
Fought for equality for all Americans
29. What major event happened on September 11, 2001, in the United States?
Correct Answer: Terrorists attacked the United States
30. Name one American Indian tribe in the United States.
Correct Answers:
Cherokee
Navajo
Inuit
Hopi
Cheyenne
Sioux
Chippewa
Choctaw
Pueblo
Apache
Iroquois
Creek
Blackfeet
Seminole
Arawak
Shawnee
Mohegan
Huron
Oneida
Lakota
Crow
Teton
Questions on Integrated Civics
This group of questions tests your knowledge of U.S. Geography, symbols, and holidays.
Geography
1. Name one of the two longest rivers in the United States.
Correct Answers:
Mississippi River
Missouri River
2. What ocean is on the West Coast of the United States?
Correct Answer: Pacific Ocean
3. What ocean is on the East Coast of the United States?
Correct Answer: Atlantic Ocean
4. Name one U.S. territory.
Correct Answers:
Puerto Rico
U.S. Virgin Islands
American Samoa
Guam
Northern Mariana Islands
5. Name one state that borders Canada.
Correct Answers:
New York
Maine
Pennsylvania
Montana
Idaho
Alaska
Washington
North Dakota
Vermont
Ohio
Michigan
Minnesota
New Hampshire
6. Name one state that borders Mexico.
Correct Answers:
Arizona
Texas
California
New Mexico
7. What is the capital of the United States?*
Correct Answer: Washington D.C.
8. Where is the Statue of Liberty?*
Correct Answers:
New York Harbor
Liberty Island
On the Hudson River
New Jersey
Near New York City
Symbols
9. Why does the flag have 13 stripes?
Correct Answers:
There were 13 original colonies
The stripes represent the 13 original colonies
10. Why does the flag have 50 stars?*
Correct Answers:
There are 50 states
Each star represents each state
There is one star for each state
11. What is the name of the national anthem?
Correct Answer: The Star-Spangled Banner
Holidays
12. When do we celebrate Independence Day?*
Correct Answer: July 4
13. Name two national U.S. holidays.
Correct Answers:
New Year’s Day
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Presidents’ Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Veterans Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas
Key
Some of the questions in this article have a star (*) next to them. If you’re 65 years or older, you will not be asked any of the starred questions.