Civics
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50 free Civics trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Civics is the owner's manual for a country: who makes the rules, who enforces them, who settles the arguments, and what ordinary citizens can do about all of it. Most of us last studied it at school, which is why a good civics quiz can be surprisingly humbling. These questions cover the ground a civics class or a civics test does: the ideas behind the founding documents, the jobs of each branch of government, the rights in the amendments, landmark court cases, elections and voting, the duties of citizenship, and the basic economics that sits beside government in many school courses. It is pitched for students revising for a civics exam, families and teachers who want a classroom-friendly round, and anyone who wants to check how much of the system they still remember. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn the why as well as the what.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Schoolhouse Rock! song, first aired on ABC in 1976, follows a piece of legislation hoping to become law?
I'm Just a Bill
I'm Just a Bill was written by Dave Frishberg and sung by Jack Sheldon. The bill in the cartoon would make school buses stop at railroad crossings.
Q 02Which practice of drawing voting districts for party gain is named after a salamander-shaped Massachusetts district?
Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering blends 'salamander' with the name of Elbridge Gerry, who signed the 1812 map into law. The word first appeared in the Boston Gazette that March.
Q 03The Eighteenth Amendment, the only amendment ever repealed, banned the production, transport and sale of what?
Alcohol
Alcohol was not illegal to possess or drink under the amendment itself, only to make, transport or sell. The Twenty-first Amendment ended the ban in December 1933.
Q 04Which two words did Congress add to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, at the height of the Cold War?
Under God
Under God was added on Flag Day in 1954 and signed into law by Dwight Eisenhower. Supporters wanted to set the United States apart from the state atheism of communist countries.
Q 05Which president's four election victories led to the Twenty-second Amendment and its two-term limit?
Franklin Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt is the only president elected to a third and fourth term. He died 82 days into that fourth term, and the amendment took effect in 1951.
Q 06The Third Amendment, rarely tested in court, bars forcing homeowners to house whom during peacetime?
Soldiers
Soldiers were a sore point after Britain's Quartering Acts made the colonies lodge and feed its troops. The amendment has never been the main basis of a Supreme Court decision.
Q 07Which animal, popularized by cartoonist Thomas Nast in the 1870s, is the best-known symbol of the Democratic Party?
Donkey
Donkey imagery began as an insult: Andrew Jackson's enemies twisted his name into 'jackass'. Nast did not invent the symbol, but his cartoons made it stick.
Q 08Which bird did Benjamin Franklin call 'a bird of bad moral character' in a 1784 letter to his daughter?
Bald eagle
The bald eagle, on the Great Seal since 1782, drew Franklin's scorn. Despite the legend, there is no evidence he ever publicly backed the wild turkey as a national symbol instead.
Q 09Under the Miranda warning, born from a 1966 Supreme Court case, police must tell suspects in custody they may do what?
Remain silent
Remain silent, the warning says, because it protects suspects from incriminating themselves. Ernesto Miranda's case reached the justices from Arizona, where he was later retried and convicted again.
Q 10Which war, fought by drafted 18-year-olds who could not yet vote, spurred the 1971 amendment lowering the voting age?
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War draft gave new force to the slogan 'Old enough to fight, old enough to vote'. The states ratified the Twenty-sixth Amendment just over three months after Congress proposed it.
Q 11What name is given to the brief opening statement of the US Constitution, which begins 'We the People'?
The Preamble
The Preamble was mainly written by Gouverneur Morris, a Pennsylvania delegate to the 1787 convention. It introduces the document's purposes but assigns no powers to the federal government.
Q 12Which British king, who reigned for 59 years, is the target of the 27 grievances in the Declaration of Independence?
George III
George III is blamed for every grievance on the list, drafted by the Committee of Five. He remains Britain's longest-reigning king; only two queens have reigned longer.
Q 13Which document, sealed by England's King John at Runnymede in 1215, later influenced the framers of the US Constitution?
Q 21Which presidential power, named from the Latin for 'I forbid', lets a president return a bill to Congress unsigned?
Veto
Veto is not the last word on a bill: the president must put the objections in writing, and Congress is then required to reconsider the legislation.
Q 22Which process, begun by a House of Representatives majority vote, was used against Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton?
Impeachment
Impeachment is only the charge: a Senate trial follows, and conviction takes a two-thirds vote. In 1868 Andrew Johnson escaped removal by a single vote.
Q 23Which officer of the House of Representatives stands second in line for the presidency, after the vice president?
The Speaker
Magna Carta
Magna Carta, Latin for 'Great Charter', was forced on an unpopular king by rebel barons. Pope Innocent III annulled it, yet it survived as a lasting symbol of liberty.
Q 14What collective name is given to the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, ratified together in December 1791?
The Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights began as twelve proposed articles sent to the states in 1789, of which ten were ratified two years later. James Madison drafted them to answer Anti-Federalist critics.
Q 15Which system, tied to the separation of powers, lets each branch of US government respond to the others' actions?
Checks and balances
Checks and balances means Congress can confirm or reject a president's nominees, while justices chosen by presidents can overturn unconstitutional laws. The idea draws on Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws.
Q 16Which philosopher, the 'father of liberalism', wrote the Two Treatises echoed in the Declaration of Independence?
John Locke
John Locke is often credited with describing private property as a natural right. He trained as a physician as well as a philosopher.
Q 17Which 1786 uprising of indebted Massachusetts farmers showed how weak the Articles of Confederation had left Congress?
Shays' Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion had to be put down by Massachusetts militia because the national government could not finance troops. It became further evidence for those calling the 1787 convention.
Q 18Article IV of the US Constitution guarantees every state in the Union which form of government?
Republican
Republican government is promised by the Guarantee Clause, but the Supreme Court has ruled that enforcing it is a political question for Congress or the president, not for judges.
Q 19Which principle, resting on 'the consent of the governed', says a government's authority comes from its citizens?
Popular sovereignty
Popular sovereignty was summed up by Benjamin Franklin: 'In free governments, the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors and sovereigns.'
Q 20Which president warned against partisanship and permanent foreign alliances in a 1796 Farewell Address?
George Washington
George Washington never gave the address as a speech: it was printed in a newspaper, Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser. Alexander Hamilton helped him revise an earlier draft.
The Speaker has always been a sitting member, yet the Constitution does not explicitly require the House to choose one of its own.
Q 24Which Cabinet member, whose office dates from the Judiciary Act of 1789, heads the US Department of Justice?
Attorney General
The Attorney General worked without a department for 81 years: the Department of Justice was only established in 1870 to support the office.
Q 25Which power of US courts to strike down unconstitutional laws was established by Marbury v. Madison in 1803?
Judicial review
Judicial review grew out of a row over judges' commissions that John Marshall, then the outgoing secretary of state, had been unable to deliver. The ruling is often called the most important in American constitutional law.
Q 26Which Senate delaying tactic did Strom Thurmond use for more than 24 hours against the Civil Rights Act of 1957?
The filibuster
The filibuster failed: the bill passed two hours after Thurmond finished and was signed within two weeks. He had spoken for 24 hours and 18 minutes.
Q 27Which kind of presidential directive did Harry Truman issue in 1948 to end racial discrimination in the US armed forces?
An executive order
An executive order needs no vote in Congress, but courts can overturn one that lacks support in a statute or the Constitution. Truman's was numbered 9981.
Q 28Which Latin-named writ does the US Supreme Court grant when at least four of its nine justices agree to hear a case?
Certiorari
Certiorari is rarely granted: the court receives thousands of petitions each term and turns the vast majority away. The name comes from the Latin for 'to be made more certain'.
Q 29Which 1883 law, passed after a frustrated office-seeker killed James Garfield, began filling federal jobs on merit?
The Pendleton Act
The Pendleton Act broke the spoils system, in which officeholders rewarded allies with government jobs. It was signed by Chester Arthur, who had been Garfield's running mate.
Q 30Which 1973 law requires a president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing US armed forces to military action?
The War Powers Resolution
The War Powers Resolution became law only after two-thirds of both chambers overrode Richard Nixon. It also caps deployments without approval at 60 days, plus 30 more to withdraw.