2019 Updated U.S. Citizenship Test: 100 Questions with Answers (English Version)

AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

A. Principles of American Democracy

1. Question: What is the supreme law of the land?
   Answer: The Constitution
2. Question: What does the Constitution do?
   Answer:
   • Sets up the government
   • Defines the government
   • Protects basic rights of Americans
3. Question: The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution. What are these words?
   Answer: We the People
4. Question: What is an amendment?
   Answer:
   • A change (to the Constitution)
   • An addition (to the Constitution)
5. Question: What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?
   Answer: The Bill of Rights
6. Question: What is one right or freedom from the First Amendment?
   Answer:
   • Speech
   • Religion
   • Assembly
   • Press
   • Petition the government
7. Question: How many amendments does the Constitution have?
   Answer: Twenty-seven (27)
8. Question: What did the Declaration of Independence do?
   Answer:
   • Announced our independence (from Great Britain)
   • Declared our independence (from Great Britain)
   • Said that the United States is free (from Great Britain)
9. Question: What are two rights in the Declaration of Independence?
   Answer:
   • Life
   • Liberty
   • Pursuit of happiness
10. Question: What is freedom of religion?
    Answer: You can practice any religion, or not practice a religion.
11. Question: What is the economic system in the United States?
    Answer:
    • Capitalist economy
    • Market economy
12. Question: What is the “rule of law”?
    Answer:
    • Everyone must follow the law.
    • Leaders must obey the law.
    • Government must obey the law.
    • No one is above the law.

B. System of Government

13. Question: Name one branch or part of the government.
    Answer:
    • Congress
    • Legislative (branch)
    • President
    • Executive (branch)
    • The courts
    • Judicial (branch)
14. Question: What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful?
    Answer:
    • Checks and balances
    • Separation of powers
15. Question: Who is in charge of the executive branch?
    Answer: The President
16. Question: Who makes federal laws?
    Answer:
    • Congress
    • Senate and House (of Representatives)
    • (U.S. or national) legislature
17. Question: What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?
    Answer: The Senate and House (of Representatives)
18. Question: How many U.S. Senators are there?
    Answer: One hundred (100)
19. Question: We elect a U.S. Senator for how many years?
    Answer: Six (6)
20. Question: Who is one of your state’s U.S. Senators?
    Answer: Please click to view the current U.S. Senators for your state.
21. Question: The House of Representatives has how many voting members?
    Answer: Four hundred thirty-five (435)
22. Question: We elect a U.S. Representative for how many years?
    Answer: Two (2)
23. Question: Name your U.S. Representative.
    Answer: Please click to view the U.S. Representative for your district.
24. Question: Who does a U.S. Senator represent?
    Answer: All people of the state
25. Question: Why do some states have more Representatives than other states?
    Answer:
    • (Because of) the state’s population
    • (Because) they have more people
    • (Because) some states have more people
26. Question: We elect a President for how many years?
    Answer: Four (4)
27. Question: In what month do we vote for President?
    Answer: November
28. Question: What is the name of the President of the United States now? (Note: Answer reflects 2019 data)
    Answer: Donald Trump
29. Question: What is the name of the Vice President of the United States now? (Note: Answer reflects 2019 data)
    Answer: Mike Pence
30. Question: If the President can no longer serve, who becomes President?
    Answer: The Vice President
31. Question: If both the President and the Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President?Answer: The Speaker of the House
32. Question: Who is the Commander in Chief of the Military?
    Answer: The President
33. Question: Who signs bills to become laws?
    Answer: The President
34. Question: Who vetoes bills?
    Answer: The President
35. Question: What does the President’s Cabinet do?
    Answer: Advises the President
36. Question: What are two Cabinet-level positions?
    Answer:
    • Secretary of Agriculture
    • Secretary of Commerce
    • Secretary of Defense
    • Secretary of Education
    • Secretary of Energy
    • Secretary of Health and Human Services
    • Secretary of Homeland Security
    • Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
    • Secretary of the Interior
    • Secretary of State
    • Secretary of Transportation
    • Secretary of the Treasury
    • Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs
    • Secretary of Labor
    • Attorney General
    • Vice President
37. Question: What does the judicial branch do?
    Answer:
    • Reviews laws
    • Explains laws
    • Resolves disputes (disagreements)
    • Decides if a law goes against the Constitution
38. Question: What is the highest court in the United States?
    Answer: The Supreme Court
39. Question: How many justices are on the Supreme Court?
    Answer: Nine (9)
40. Question: Who is the Chief Justice of the United States? (Note: Answer reflects 2019 data)
    Answer: John Roberts (John G. Roberts, Jr.)
41. Question: 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 create an army
    • To make treaties
42. Question: Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the states. What is one power of the states?
    Answer:
    • Provide schooling and education
    • Provide protection (police)
    • Provide safety (fire departments)
    • Give a driver’s license
    • Approve zoning and land use
43. Question: Who is the Governor of your state?
    Answer: Please click to view the current Governor of your state.
44. Question: What is the capital of your state?
    Answer: Please click to view the capital of your state.
45. Question: What are the two major political parties in the United States?
    Answer: Democratic and Republican
46. Question: What is the political party of the President now? (Note: Answer reflects 2019 data)
    Answer: Republican (Party)
47. Question: What is the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives now? (Note: Answer reflects 2019 data)
    Answer: Paul Ryan

C. Rights and Responsibilities

48. Question: There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them.
    Answer:
    • Citizens eighteen (18) and older (can vote).
    • You don’t have to pay (a poll tax) to vote.
    • Any citizen can vote. (Women and men can vote.)
    • A male citizen of any race (can vote).
49. Question: What is one responsibility that is only for United States citizens?
    Answer:
    • Serve on a jury
    • Vote (in federal elections)
50. Question: Name one right only for United States citizens.
    Answer:
    • Vote in a federal election
    • Run for federal office
51. Question: What are two rights of everyone living in the United States?
    Answer:
    • Freedom of expression
    • Freedom of speech
    • Freedom of assembly
    • Freedom to petition the government
    • Freedom of worship
    • The right to bear arms
52. Question: What do we show loyalty to when we say the Pledge of Allegiance?
    Answer:
    • The United States
    • The flag
53. Question: What is one promise you make when you become a United States citizen?
    Answer:
    • Give up loyalty to other countries
    • Defend the Constitution and laws of the United States
    • Obey the laws of the United States
    • Serve in the U.S. military (if needed)
    • Serve (do important work for) the nation (if needed)
    • Be loyal to the United States
54. Question: How old do citizens have to be to vote for President?
    Answer: Eighteen (18) and older
55. Question: What are two ways that Americans can participate in their democracy?
    Answer:
    • 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. Question: When is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms?
    Answer: April 15 (each year)
57. Question: When must all men register for the Selective Service?
    Answer:
    • At age eighteen (18)
    • Between eighteen (18) and twenty-six (26)

AMERICAN HISTORY

A. Colonial Period and Independence

58. Question: What is one reason colonists came to America?
    Answer:
    • Freedom
    • Political liberty
    • Religious freedom
    • Economic opportunity
    • Practice their religion
    • Escape persecution
59. Question: Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?
    Answer:
    • Native Americans
    • American Indians
60. Question: What group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves?
    Answer:
    • Africans
    • People from Africa
61. Question: Why did the colonists fight the British?
    Answer:
    • Because of high taxes (taxation without representation)
    • Because the British army stayed in their houses (boarding, quartering)
    • Because they didn’t have self-government
62. Question: Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
    Answer: (Thomas) Jefferson
63. Question: When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
    Answer: July 4, 1776
64. Question: There were 13 original states. Name three.
    Answer:
    • New Hampshire
    • Massachusetts
    • Rhode Island
    • Connecticut
    • New York
    • New Jersey
    • Pennsylvania
    • Delaware
    • Maryland
    • Virginia
    • North Carolina
    • South Carolina
    • Georgia
65. Question: What happened at the Constitutional Convention?
    Answer:
    • The Constitution was written.
    • The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution.
66. Question: When was the Constitution written?
    Answer: 1787
67. Question: The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers.
    Answer:
    • (James) Madison
    • (Alexander) Hamilton
    • (John) Jay
    • Publius (joint pen name of the three above)
68. Question: What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?
    Answer:
    • U.S. diplomat
    • Oldest member of the Constitutional Convention
    • First Postmaster General of the United States
    • Writer of “Poor Richard’s Almanac”
    • Started the first free libraries
69. Question: Who is the “Father of Our Country”?
    Answer: (George) Washington
70. Question: Who was the first President?
    Answer: (George) Washington (served two terms)

B. 1800s

71. Question: What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803?
    Answer:
    • The Louisiana Territory
    • Louisiana
72. Question: Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s.
    Answer:
    • War of 1812
    • Mexican-American War
    • Civil War
    • Spanish-American War
73. Question: Name the U.S. war between the North and the South.
    Answer:
    • The Civil War
    • The War between the States
74. Question: Name one problem that led to the Civil War.
    Answer:
    • Slavery
    • Economic reasons
    • States’ rights
75. Question: What was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did?
    Answer:
    • Freed the slaves (Emancipation Proclamation)
    • Saved (or preserved) the Union
    • Led the United States during the Civil War
76. Question: What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
    Answer:
    • Freed the slaves
    • Freed slaves in the Confederacy
    • Freed slaves in the Confederate states
    • Freed slaves in most Southern states
77. Question: What did Susan B. Anthony do?
    Answer:
    • Fought for women’s rights
    • Fought for civil rights

C. Recent American History and Other Important Historical Information

78. Question: Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s.
    Answer:
    • World War I
    • World War II
    • Korean War
    • Vietnam War
    • (Persian) Gulf War
79. Question: Who was President during World War I?
    Answer: (Woodrow) Wilson
80. Question: Who was President during the Great Depression and World War II?
    Answer: (Franklin) Roosevelt (served four terms, 1933–1945)
81. Question: Who did the United States fight in World War II?
    Answer: Japan, Germany and Italy
82. Question: Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in?
    Answer: World War II
83. Question: During the Cold War, what was the main concern of the United States?
    Answer: Communism
84. Question: What movement tried to end racial discrimination?
    Answer: Civil rights (movement)
85. Question: What did Martin Luther King, Jr. do?
    Answer:
    • Fought for civil rights
    • Worked for equality for all Americans
86. Question: What major event happened on September 11, 2001 in the United States?
    Answer: Terrorists attacked the United States.
87. Question: Name one American Indian tribe in the United States.[Adjudicators will be supplied with a complete list of federally recognized tribes.]
88. Answer:
    • Cherokee
    • Navajo
    • Sioux
    • Chippewa
    • Choctaw
    • Pueblo
    • Apache
    • Iroquois
    • Creek
    • Blackfeet
    • Seminole
    • Cheyenne
    • Arawak
    • Shawnee
    • Mohegan
    • Huron
    • Oneida
    • Lakota
    • Crow
    • Teton
    • Hopi
    • Inuit

INTEGRATED CIVICS

A. Geography

88. Question: Name one of the two longest rivers in the United States.
    Answer:
    • Missouri (River)
    • Mississippi (River)
89. Question: What ocean is on the West Coast of the United States?
    Answer: Pacific (Ocean)
90. Question: What ocean is on the East Coast of the United States?
    Answer: Atlantic (Ocean)
91. Question: Name one U.S. territory.
    Answer:
    • Puerto Rico
    • U.S. Virgin Islands
    • American Samoa
    • Northern Mariana Islands
    • Guam
92. Question: Name one state that borders Canada.
    Answer:
    • Maine
    • New Hampshire
    • Vermont
    • New York
    • Pennsylvania
    • Ohio
    • Michigan
    • Minnesota
    • North Dakota
    • Montana
    • Idaho
    • Washington
    • Alaska
93. Question: Name one state that borders Mexico.
    Answer:
    • California
    • Arizona
    • New Mexico
    • Texas
94. Question: What is the capital of the United States?
    Answer: Washington, D.C.
95. Question: Where is the Statue of Liberty?
    Answer:
    • New York (Harbor)
    • Liberty Island[Also acceptable: New Jersey, near New York City, on the Hudson (River).]

B. Symbols

96. Question: Why does the flag have 13 stripes?
    Answer:
    • Because there were 13 original colonies
    • Because the stripes represent the original colonies
97. Question: Why does the flag have 50 stars?
    Answer:
    • Because there is one star for each state
    • Because each star represents a state
    • Because there are 50 states
98. Question: What is the name of the national anthem?
    Answer: The Star-Spangled Banner

C. Holidays

99. Question: When do we celebrate Independence Day?
    Answer: July 4 (commemorating 1776)
100. Question: Name two national U.S. holidays.[Note: Two answers are required.]
     Answer:

• New Year’s Day
• Martin Luther King, Jr., Day
• Presidents’ Day
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Columbus Day
• Veterans Day
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas