US Citizenship Test
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50 free US Citizenship Test trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
To become an American citizen, an immigrant sits down with a USCIS officer and answers civics questions out loud, from memory. Plenty of lifelong Americans wonder whether they could do the same. This quiz lets you find out. The questions follow the subjects on the official naturalization civics list: the principles of American democracy, the branches of government, what citizens owe their country, the founding era, the 1800s, recent history, geography, symbols and holidays. The real exam is spoken rather than multiple choice. Here every question comes with four options and a short explanation, so you learn something even when you miss. It is made for anyone preparing for a naturalization interview, for students in a civics or government class, and for the curious who want to know if they would pass. Treat it as practice, not as the official study guide: for the current official questions and accepted answers, always check the USCIS website.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Founding Father, the oldest delegate at the Constitutional Convention, was the first US Postmaster General?
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin also invented the lightning rod and bifocal glasses. The Continental Congress named him postmaster general in 1775.
Q 02Under a 1947 law, who becomes US President if both the President and Vice President can no longer serve?
Speaker of the House
The Speaker of the House was moved ahead of the Senate's president pro tempore, reversing the order set in 1792. Harry Truman wanted an elected official next in line.
Q 03Which women's rights leader was arrested for voting in the 1872 presidential election and refused to pay her fine?
Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony told the judge she would never pay a dollar of the $100 fine, and she never did. In 1979 she became the first female citizen shown on US coinage.
Q 04Which territory did the United States buy from France in 1803, nearly doubling the size of the country?
Louisiana
Louisiana cost $15 million, which averages out to less than three cents an acre. American envoys had only been ready to buy New Orleans and its surroundings.
Q 05Which American Indian nation's language did US Marine code talkers use for secret radio messages in World War II?
Navajo
Navajo code talkers served in all six Marine divisions, and their code was never broken. Lacking a word for submarine, they called it an iron fish.
Q 06On the flag of the United States, what do the 13 red and white stripes represent?
The original colonies
The original colonies get the stripes, while the 50 stars stand for the states. An early flag of 1775 kept the British Union Jack in its corner.
Q 07Which body of 538 members, meeting in their own states every fourth December, formally chooses the US President?
The Electoral College
The Electoral College needs a majority of 270 votes to pick a winner. If no candidate gets there, the House of Representatives decides instead.
Q 08Which general commanded the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day before winning the US presidency in 1952?
Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower went on to serve as the first supreme commander of NATO before entering the presidential race as a Republican.
Q 09The Declaration of Independence names life, liberty and which third unalienable right?
Pursuit of happiness
Pursuit of happiness may echo the philosopher John Locke, whose own list of rights was life, liberty and estate.
Q 10Which date, known as Tax Day, is normally the deadline for sending in federal income tax forms?
April 15
April 15 has only been the deadline since 1955. Under the income tax law of 1913, forms were due on March 1.
Q 11Which Founding Father, the first Secretary of the Treasury, was killed in an 1804 duel with Aaron Burr?
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was shot at Weehawken, New Jersey, and died the next day. Burr was the sitting Vice President at the time.
Q 12Which 1863 speech by Abraham Lincoln begins with the words "Four score and seven years ago"?
Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address took Lincoln about two minutes to deliver. The featured orator before him, Edward Everett, had talked for two hours.
Q 13Which song, with lyrics by Francis Scott Key about a British attack on Fort McHenry, is the US national anthem?
The Star-Spangled Banner
Q 21What do new US citizens recite at a naturalization ceremony, renouncing all loyalty to foreign states?
The Oath of Allegiance
The Oath of Allegiance also has new citizens promise to bear arms for the United States when the law requires it. Anyone holding a foreign noble title must give that up too.
Q 22Which system, in which each branch of the US government can limit the others, stops one from growing too powerful?
Checks and balances
Checks and balances cut every way: the President can block a bill from Congress, Congress can overrule him, and the courts can check them both.
Q 23Which 1863 order by Abraham Lincoln declared enslaved people in the rebelling Southern states to be free?
The Star-Spangled Banner only became the official anthem in 1931. Its tune came from a song written for a gentlemen's club in London.
Q 14What name is given to the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, ratified together in 1791?
The Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights began as twelve amendments that Congress sent to the states in 1789. Only ten of them were ratified at the time.
Q 15Which US holiday, observed on the last Monday in May, honors those who died in military service?
Memorial Day
Memorial Day was first observed nationally in 1868 under the name Decoration Day. It stayed on May 30 until Congress moved it to a Monday.
Q 16Which Virginian, later the third US President, was the main author of the Declaration of Independence?
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was 33, one of the youngest delegates, when he wrote the draft mostly alone over a few weeks in June.
Q 17On which date was the Declaration of Independence adopted, two days after Congress voted to break from Britain?
July 4, 1776
July 4, 1776 is the day the final wording was approved. John Adams predicted that July 2, the day of the vote itself, would become the great American holiday.
Q 18Which power lets the US President refuse to sign a bill passed by Congress and send it back?
The veto
The veto is not always the last word: Congress can override it with a two-thirds vote in both chambers.
Q 19Which civil rights leader won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for nonviolent resistance to racial inequality?
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was then the youngest person to win the prize. A year earlier, about a quarter of a million people had heard him say "I have a dream."
Q 20Which general, known as the Father of His Country, presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787?
George Washington
George Washington was chosen to preside without a single vote against him. He went on to win two presidential elections unanimously as well.
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation covered more than 3.5 million people, but it left out the slaveholding border states that had stayed in the Union.
Q 24Every US state has two senators, but what decides how many seats a state gets in the House of Representatives?
Its population
Its population is counted in a census every ten years, and the 435 House seats are then shared out again among the states.
Q 25In which month do Americans vote for President, always on the Tuesday after the first Monday?
November
November suited a nation of farmers: the harvest was finished, but the worst winter weather had not yet arrived to make travel hard.
Q 26Which power does the US Constitution give to the federal government but forbid to the individual states?
Printing money
Printing money belongs to the federal government alone: the Constitution says no state may coin money or issue its own bills of credit.
Q 27Which group of department heads, not explicitly set up by the US Constitution, advises the President?
The Cabinet
The Cabinet has no collective powers of its own and never needs to take a vote. Each member answers directly to the President.
Q 28What is the process called when the House of Representatives brings formal charges against a US President?
Impeachment
Impeachment takes only a simple majority in the House. The Senate then holds the trial, where a conviction needs two-thirds of the members present.
Q 29Which future fourth President is called the Father of the Constitution for his role in drafting it?
James Madison
James Madison arrived with the Virginia Plan, an outline for a new government that became the basis for the Convention's debates.
Q 30In which city was the US Constitution written in 1787, in the same hall where independence had been declared?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia's Pennsylvania State House hosted the Convention from May to September 1787. The building is now known as Independence Hall.