Guides · The questions
The civics questions are public domain. Nobody should be renting them to you by the week.
USCIS wrote the questions, and works of the US government cannot be copyrighted. What the subscription apps are actually selling, and what we did instead.
Here is something most people preparing for the citizenship test do not know. The 128 questions on the 2025 civics test, and the 100 on the 2008 test, were written by USCIS, a US federal agency. Under US copyright law, works produced by the federal government are not eligible for copyright. The questions and their accepted answers are in the public domain. Anyone can use them, print them, or build with them.
Free at the source
USCIS publishes the questions free, as PDFs and on its website, and it publishes the reading and writing vocabulary lists the same way. There is nothing to license.
So what are the apps selling?
Open the citizenship category on the App Store and the top results charge subscriptions, some of them weekly. The content they are charging for is the same public list. What you are paying for is the packaging: flashcards, a quiz, a progress bar. Some of that packaging is good. None of it justifies a recurring charge for a test you take once.
Weekly subscriptions in this category rely on one thing: people forget to cancel after the interview. The customer who passed and moved on with their life keeps paying for a test they will never take again. That is the business model, and it is aimed at people at the end of a long and expensive process.
What we did instead
Every official question is free, in both versions, with no account, no ads and no tracking in the iPhone app, and free with an account in the browser. That includes study by topic, the state-specific answers for where you live, and the questions read aloud so you hear them before your interview. It stays free whether or not anyone ever pays.
Two things are paid: unlimited practice tests in the real format and the full mock interview. They are a single purchase of $9.99, once, plus local tax where it applies. There is no subscription to forget to cancel. That one purchase is what pays for the servers and for keeping the officials current.
The part that is actually work
If the questions are free, what takes effort? Keeping them right. Four questions depend on your state, and the answers change after every election. We cross-check governors against the National Governors Association and national officeholders against senate.gov, house.gov, whitehouse.gov and supremecourt.gov before each release, and the names update from our server without waiting for an app update. That is the part of a study tool that earns trust, and it is not the part anyone should be charging weekly for.
One caution about "free" material
The question text is public domain. Photographs and illustrations inside USCIS's study booklets sometimes are not, because USCIS licenses them from third parties. If you are building or sharing study material yourself, that distinction matters. The words are yours to use. The pictures may not be.
What to do with this
If you are paying a subscription for flashcards, cancel it. The official list is free from USCIS, and it is free from us with the packaging included. Spend the money on a nice dinner after the oath ceremony.
Frequently asked questions
Are the US citizenship test questions copyrighted?
No. The civics questions are written by USCIS, a US federal agency, and under 17 U.S.C. § 105 works of the United States Government are not eligible for copyright. The questions and accepted answers are in the public domain.
Do I have to pay to study the official citizenship test questions?
No. USCIS publishes them free, and both the 2008 and 2025 versions are free to study here, in the browser or the iPhone app.
Study the official questions, free
Both versions of the civics test, the answers for your state, and practice tests in the real format with the real pass line.
Prepare for Citizenship teaches the test; it does not advise on applications. Anything about your own case belongs with your lawyer or USCIS. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.