128 or 100 Questions: Which Citizenship Test Is Yours?

The rule: your filing date decides

Filed on or after October 20, 2025: you take the 2025 test and its 128-question list. Filed before that date: you take the 2008 test and its 100-question list.

USCIS, the agency that decides your application, uses two civics tests today, and one date splits them. The rule goes by the date you filed your Form N-400, not by your interview date. Your interview date changes nothing: an application filed in September 2025 gets the 100-question test even if the interview happens in 2027.

Not sure of your date? Check the receipt notice USCIS mailed you after you filed. That notice is Form I-797C. It shows the date USCIS received your application. That date is your filing date.

The two tests, side by side

The 2025 test asks up to 20 questions from a list of 128, and you pass at 12 correct. The 2008 test asks up to 10 from a list of 100, and you pass at 6.

The 2025 test is an oral test. An officer reads you up to 20 questions from the 128-question list, and you pass at 12 correct answers. You fail if you get 9 of the 20 wrong. The officer stops asking as soon as you reach either number. So a strong start can end your civics test at question 12.

The 2008 test works the same way with smaller numbers. When USCIS built the 128-question test, it raised three numbers. The list grew from 100 to 128 questions. The officer asks up to 20 questions instead of 10. The passing score rose from 6 to 12. Officers on the 2008 test also stop once you have passed or failed.

Studied the wrong list? About 75 percent is the same

The overlap is official: the Federal Register notice says about 75 percent of the 128-question test's content came from the 2008 test.

The Federal Register is the government's official record of new rules. Filed on or after October 20 but spent weeks on the old 100-question list? Most of what you studied is on the new list too. You are adding questions, not starting over.

Filed before October 20 but accidentally studied the 128 list? The same notice has a warning for you too: some 2008 questions no longer appear in the new list, and about 25 percent of the new test is new content. So read quickly through the official 100-question list before your interview to catch what is different, and treat the extra studying as an advantage, not a loss.

The biggest change between the two tests is the number of questions. Twenty questions instead of ten gives you more chances to recover after early wrong answers, and you also need more correct answers to pass: 12 instead of 6. Practice for that length: the practice quiz on this site runs interview-sized sessions and brings back anything you get wrong the next day.

65 or older with 20 years as a resident?

You get a shorter test: USCIS asks you 10 questions from a special list of 20, and you pass with 6 correct answers, no matter when you filed.

The rule covers you if you are 65 or older and have lived in the United States as a lawful permanent resident for at least 20 years. Your filing date decides only whether those questions come from the 2008 or the 2025 list. The 65/20 page on this site lists the 20 questions from the current list.

Where the filing-date rule comes from

The 2025 test is the 2020 test brought back with one change: officers now stop asking once you have passed or failed, instead of reading all 20 questions.

USCIS first announced this test in November 2020, canceled it, and went back to the 2008 test on March 1, 2021. The full rule is in the Federal Register, 90 FR 45047.

Test rules can change again. Before your interview, confirm the current requirements at uscis.gov.

Your next step

Check your receipt notice for the filing date, then answer your first 15 questions today.

Open the practice quiz, pick your state, and start. The quiz fills in your state's answers for the questions that need them.