US Citizenship sample exam questions and answers

These 105 sample questions that are typically used in the U.S. citizenship exam. The questions cover a range of topics related to U.S. history, government, and civics.

1. What is the supreme law of the land? Answer: The Constitution.
2. What does the Constitution do? Answer: Sets up the government, defines the government, and protects basic rights of Americans.
3. The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution. What are these words? Answer: "We the People."
4. What is an amendment? Answer: A change to the Constitution.
5. What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution? Answer: The Bill of Rights.
6. What is one right or freedom from the First Amendment? Answer: Speech, religion, assembly, press, and petition the government.
7. How many amendments does the Constitution have? Answer: 27.
8. What did the Declaration of Independence do? Answer: Announced our independence (from Great Britain), declared our freedom from Great Britain, and said that the United States is free.
9. What are two rights in the Declaration of Independence? Answer: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
10. What is freedom of religion? Answer: You can practice any religion or not practice a religion.
11. What is the economic system in the United States? Answer: Capitalism or market economy.
12. What is the "rule of law"? Answer: Everyone must follow the law, including the government and its leaders.
13. Name one branch or part of the government. Answer: Legislative, executive, or judicial.
14. What is the role of the legislative branch? Answer: Makes laws.
15. What is the role of the executive branch? Answer: Carries out laws.
16. What is the role of the judicial branch? Answer: Evaluates laws.
17. What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress? Answer: The Senate and the House of Representatives.
18. How many senators are there in Congress? Answer: 100.
19. We elect a U.S. senator for how many years? Answer: Six.
20. Who is one of your state's U.S. senators now? Answer: The answer will depend on the state you live in.
21. How many voting members are in the House of Representatives? Answer: 435.
22. We elect a U.S. representative for how many years? Answer: Two.
23. Name your U.S. representative. Answer: The answer will depend on the district you live in.
24. Who does a U.S. senator represent? Answer: All people of the state.
25. Why do some states have more representatives than other states? Answer: Because of the state's population.
26. We elect a President for how many years? Answer: Four.
27. In what month do we vote for President? Answer: November.
28. What is the name of the President of the United States now? Answer: The answer will depend on who is currently serving as President.
29. What is the name of the Vice President of the United States now? Answer: The answer will depend on who is currently serving as Vice President.
30. If the President can no longer serve, who becomes President? Answer: The Vice President.
31. If both the President and the Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President? Answer: The Speaker of the House.
32. Who is the Commander in Chief of the military? Answer: The President.
33. Who signs bills to become laws? Answer: The President.
34. Who vetoes bills? Answer: The President.
35. What does the President's Cabinet do? Answer: Advises the President.
36. What are two Cabinet-level positions? Answer: Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury,
37. What does the judicial branch do? Answer: Evaluates laws, resolves disputes, and interprets the Constitution.
38. What is the highest court in the United States? Answer: The Supreme Court.
39. How many justices are on the Supreme Court? Answer: Nine.
40. Who is the Chief Justice of the United States now? Answer: The answer will depend on who is currently serving as Chief Justice.
41. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government? Answer: To print money, to declare war, to make treaties, to regulate commerce between states, and to establish post offices.
42. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the states. What is one power of the states? Answer: To provide schooling and education, to provide protection and safety (police), to provide health and safety regulations, and to regulate trade within the state.
43. Who is the Governor of your state now? Answer: The answer will depend on the state you live in.
44. What is the capital of your state? Answer: The answer will depend on the state you live in.
45. What are the two major political parties in the United States? Answer: Democratic and Republican.
46. What is the political party of the President now? Answer: The answer will depend on who is currently serving as President.
47. What is the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives now? Answer: The answer will depend on who is currently serving as Speaker of the House.
48. There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them. Answer: Citizens eighteen and older can vote (26th Amendment), and citizens cannot be denied the right to vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude (15th Amendment).
49. What is one responsibility that is only for United States citizens? Answer: Serve on a jury, vote in a federal election, and run for federal office.
50. What are two rights of everyone living in the United States? Answer: Freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and the right to bear arms.
51. What do we show loyalty to when we say the Pledge of Allegiance? Answer: The flag and the United States.
52. What is one promise you make when you become a United States citizen? Answer: Support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States.
53. How old do citizens have to be to vote for President? Answer: 18 and older.
54. What are two ways that Americans can participate in their democracy? Answer: Vote, join a political party, run for office, and contact elected officials.
55. When is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms? Answer: April 15th.
56. When must all men register for the Selective Service? Answer: At age 18, but before age 26.
57. What is one reason colonists came to America? Answer: Religious freedom, political freedom, and economic opportunity.
58. Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived? Answer: Native Americans or American Indians.
59. What group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves? Answer: Africans.
60. Why did the colonists fight the British? Answer: Because of high taxes (taxation without representation), and because the British army stayed in their houses (boarding, quartering).
61. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? Answer: Thomas Jefferson.
62. When was the Declaration of Independence adopted? Answer: July 4, 1776.
63. There were 13 original states. Name three. Answer: New York, New Jersey, and Virginia.
64. What happened at the Constitutional Convention? Answer: The Constitution was written.
65. When was the Constitution written? Answer: 1787.
66. The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers. Answer: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, or John Jay.
67. What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for? Answer: He was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, an inventor, a writer, and a diplomat.
68. Who is the “Father of Our Country”? Answer: George Washington.
69. Who was the first President? Answer: George Washington.
70. What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803? Answer: The Louisiana Territory.
71. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s. Answer: The Mexican-American War.
72. Name the U.S. war between the North and the South. Answer: The Civil War.
73. Name one problem that led to the Civil War. Answer: Slavery, economic issues, and states’ rights.
74. What was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did? Answer: He freed the slaves (Emancipation Proclamation), and he preserved the Union during the Civil War.
75. What did the Emancipation Proclamation do? Answer: It declared slaves in Confederate territory to be free.
76. What did Susan B. Anthony do? Answer: She fought for women’s rights and suffrage (right to vote).
77. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s. Answer: World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and Gulf War.
78. Who was President during World War I? Answer: Woodrow Wilson.
79. Who was President during the Great Depression and World War II? Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt.
80. Who did the United States fight in World War II? Answer: Japan, Germany, and Italy.
81. Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in? Answer: World War II.
82. During the Cold War, what was the main concern of the United States? Answer: Communism and the Soviet Union.
83. What movement tried to end racial discrimination? Answer: The Civil Rights Movement.
84. What did Martin Luther King, Jr. do? Answer: He fought for civil rights and equality for African Americans through nonviolent protests and speeches.
85. What major event happened on September 11, 2001, in the United States? Answer: Terrorists attacked the United States by flying airplanes into buildings in New York City and Washington, D.C.
86. Name one American Indian tribe in the United States. Answer: Navajo, Cherokee, or Sioux.
87. Name one state that borders Canada. Answer: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, or Alaska.
88. Name one state that borders Mexico. Answer: California, Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas.
89. What is the capital of the United States? Answer: Washington, D.C.
90. Where is the Statue of Liberty? Answer: New York Harbor, Liberty Island.
91. Why does the flag have 13 stripes? Answer: The stripes represent the original 13 colonies.
92. Why does the flag have 50 stars? Answer: Each star represents a state in the United States.
93. What is the name of the national anthem? Answer: The Star-Spangled Banner.
94. Who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner? Answer: Francis Scott Key.
95. What is the Pledge of Allegiance? Answer: A promise to be loyal to the United States and its flag.
96. What is Independence Day? Answer: July 4th, the day the United States declared its independence from Great Britain.
97. Name two national U.S. holidays. Answer: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day.
98. What is Memorial Day? Answer: A day to honor and remember those who died while serving in the U.S. military.
99. What is Veterans Day? Answer: A day to honor and thank all those who served in the U.S. military.
100. Name one branch or part of the government. Answer: Executive, Legislative, or Judicial.
101. What is the executive branch of the U.S. government? Answer: The President, Vice President, and Cabinet.
102. What is the legislative branch of the U.S. government? Answer: Congress, which includes the Senate and the House of Representatives.
103. What is the judicial branch of the U.S. government? Answer: The Supreme Court and other federal courts.
104. What are the two major political parties in the United States? Answer: Democratic and Republican.
105. What is the Constitution? Answer: The supreme law of the United States, which outlines the structure and powers of the government and protects individual rights.

by Zed Alabed

04/07/2023