The 128 Civics Questions for the US Citizenship Test: What They Cover and How to Study Them

One of the first things people learn when they start preparing for US citizenship is that there is an official list of civics questions. In the current version of the test, that list has 128 questions. Your interviewing officer will ask you 10 of them, and you need to answer at least 6 correctly.

Knowing the list exists is easy. Actually learning it well enough to answer out loud in an interview is where the work happens.

Where the 128 questions come from

USCIS introduced the 2020 version of the naturalization civics test with 128 questions, updating the previous 2008 version which had 100 questions. Both versions are still in use depending on when you applied and which version USCIS assigns to your case.

The full list of 128 questions, along with all accepted answers, is published on the USCIS website and available for free. Nothing on your test can come from outside this list.

What the 128 questions cover

The questions are organised into three main sections.

The first section covers the principles of American democracy. This includes the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the branches of government, checks and balances, the amendment process and the role of the three branches. Questions here tend to be foundational and conceptual rather than date-specific.

The second section covers American history. This is the part that requires the most memorisation. Questions cover the colonial period, the American Revolution, the causes and results of the Civil War, major wars of the twentieth century and the civil rights movement. Some questions ask about specific documents like the Declaration of Independence or the Emancipation Proclamation.

The third section covers integrated civics. This includes the geography of the United States, national symbols, federal holidays and the relationship between the federal government and the states.

Which answers change over time

Some questions on the list do not have fixed answers. They depend on who currently holds a particular office or position. These include the President, the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, your state's two US senators and your congressional district's representative.

Before your interview, make sure you know the current answers to all of these. Politicians change, and an answer that was correct a year ago may not be correct today. USCIS accepts these answers as correct as long as they reflect the actual current officeholder at the time of your interview.

The reduced list for qualifying applicants

If you are 65 years or older and have held a green card for at least 20 years, you qualify for the reduced civics test. Your 10 questions will be drawn from a shorter list of 20 questions marked with an asterisk on the official USCIS document.

You still need to answer 6 of the 10 correctly, but studying only those 20 questions is a significant reduction in preparation time.

How to learn 128 questions

The oral format of the test means you cannot rely on recognition alone. You need to be able to produce the answers from memory, out loud, when asked.

The most effective approach is to treat the questions like flashcards. Go through them one at a time, cover the answer, say it aloud and then check. When you get one wrong, make a note and come back to it. After going through the full list once, focus your next session on the ones you missed.

Do not try to memorise all 128 at once. Work through one section at a time, test yourself on it and move on once you can get through that section consistently without looking.

Once you are comfortable with the material, practice under pressure. Set a timer, ask yourself 10 random questions and see how many you can answer correctly. This is much closer to the real interview experience than quietly reading through the list.

Where to practise

PassCitizen has all 128 civics questions in a free flashcard format, organised by section so you can study one topic at a time. You can also run a mock interview session with 10 random questions when you want to test yourself under realistic conditions. No account needed.

Start practising now