20 questions with the correct answer and an explanation for each. Topic: Civics Test. Free, no account needed.
This bank covers 120 of the 128 official questions. The other eight have no fixed answer, so a practice test cannot mark them. Four ask who currently holds an office — President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, Chief Justice — which USCIS answers with whoever is serving on the day of your interview. Four depend on where you live: your senators, your representative, your governor, your state capital. Look those up before your interview; the officeholders are at uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates.
Answer: A — First Secretary of the Treasury
Alexander Hamilton served as the first Secretary of the Treasury, appointed by George Washington in 1789. Washington was the first president, Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, and John Jay was the first Chief Justice — different founders with different roles.
Answer: C — Louisiana Territory
In 1803 the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, roughly doubling the size of the country. Alaska was bought from Russia and Florida from Spain, while the Oregon Territory was acquired by treaty with Britain, not purchase.
Answer: B — War of 1812
The War of 1812 was fought by the United States against Britain in the 1800s. The Revolutionary War took place in the 1700s, while World War I and the Korean War were fought in the 1900s.
Answer: D — The Civil War
The Civil War (1861–1865) was fought between the Northern and Southern United States. The Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Spanish-American War were all fought against foreign powers, not between North and South.
Answer: A — Fort Sumter
The key lists the attack on Fort Sumter among the important events of the Civil War. The Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Yorktown belong to the colonial and Revolutionary periods, and the bombing of Pearl Harbor is what the key gives as the reason the United States entered World War II.
Answer: C — Freed the slaves
Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves — one of the achievements the key credits to him. Writing the Declaration of Independence, serving as first president, and purchasing the Louisiana Territory are achievements of Jefferson or Washington, not Lincoln.
Answer: B — Freed the slaves
The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves, as the key states. It did not grant women's suffrage (the 19th Amendment), abolish slavery everywhere including the Union states — the key's other accepted wordings limit it to the Confederacy and most Southern states — or grant citizenship to freed people (the 14th Amendment).
Answer: A — The Civil War
The Civil War ended slavery in the United States, as the key states. The Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and World War I were fought for different reasons and did not end slavery.
Answer: C — 14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment declares that all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to its jurisdiction, are citizens. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, the 15th protected voting rights regardless of race, and the 19th gave women the right to vote.
Answer: B — After the Civil War
The key states that all men got the right to vote after the Civil War, during Reconstruction. The 19th Amendment and 1920 relate to women gaining the right to vote, and the Revolutionary War predates this change by nearly a century.
Answer: D — Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony was a leader of the women's rights movement in the 1800s, as the key states. Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist leader, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross, and Dorothea Dix was a mental-health reform advocate — different causes, and none of them appear in the key.
Answer: C — World War I
World War I was fought by the United States in the 1900s, as the key states. The Civil War and the War of 1812 were fought in the 1800s, and the Revolutionary War was fought in the 1700s.
Answer: A — Because Germany attacked U.S. ships
The key states the United States entered World War I because Germany attacked U.S. ships. Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor led to U.S. entry into World War II, the key names the Allied Powers rather than the Axis as the side the U.S. supported, and the Archduke's assassination triggered the war in Europe but is not in the key.
Answer: C — 1920
The key states that all women got the right to vote in 1920, with the 19th Amendment. 1870 and the 15th Amendment relate to voting rights after the Civil War for men, and 1965 marks the Voting Rights Act, a later and separate law.
Answer: B — Longest economic recession in modern history
The key defines the Great Depression as the longest economic recession in modern history. The 1920s boom preceded it, the 2008 crisis is a separate and much later event, and the key places the start of the Great Depression at the Great Crash — before World War II, not after it.
Answer: D — The Great Crash
The key identifies the Great Crash of 1929 as the start of the Great Depression. Pearl Harbor (1941) and the start of World War II (1939) came later, and the end of World War I (1918) came before the crash.
Answer: A — Roosevelt
The key credits (Franklin) Roosevelt as president during the Great Depression and World War II. Hoover was president just before Roosevelt, Truman succeeded him, and Wilson was president during World War I, decades earlier.
Answer: C — Pearl Harbor
The key states that the United States entered World War II because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Lusitania and the Archduke's assassination relate to World War I, and Germany's invasion of Poland started the war in Europe but was not the reason the U.S. entered it.
Answer: B — General during World War II
The key credits Eisenhower as a general during World War II — not World War I, which ended before his military career made him a commander. The key ties his presidency to the Korean War rather than Vietnam, and it says nothing about the FBI.
Answer: D — Soviet Union
The key states that the Soviet Union was the United States' main rival during the Cold War. China, North Korea, and Cuba were allied with or sympathetic to the Soviet bloc, but the key does not name any of them as the main rival.