Official French civic exam questions: answers in English and PDF

How the official lists work

The French civic exam (examen civique) has 40 multiple-choice questions: 28 knowledge questions and 12 real-life situations, in 45 minutes at most. You need at least 32 correct answers out of 40. The exam is in French.

The French Ministry of the Interior publishes one list of knowledge questions per application: 191 for a first multi-year residence card (carte de séjour pluriannuelle, French level A2), 209 for the resident card (carte de résident, level B1) and 258 for naturalisation (level B2). They are grouped into 5 themes. Each list matches one version of the exam: multi-year residence card, resident card or naturalisation.

Some questions appear on more than one list: of the 525 published questions, 130 appear on at least two lists. Each question has a single page here, which shows the lists it appears on.

The French state publishes neither the answers nor the situation questions. The answers, the explanations (in English, French and Arabic), the English translations and the sources are written by Recite, based on the official texts cited. Recite is not affiliated with the French Ministry of the Interior.

• Practise with the free quiz→
• See the situation questions, explained→
• See the mock exam format→
• Do I need the French civic exam?→
• Key dates to remember, on a timeline→
• Numbers to remember: terms, ages, emergency numbers→
• Trick questions that are easy to confuse→
• The geography to remember, on a map→
• The symbols of the Republic to remember→
• History and culture to remember→
• Institutions and Europe, explained→
• Principles, rights and duties, explained→