Pass the Canadian Citizenship Test

The Canadian citizenship test is a mandatory knowledge assessment for permanent residents applying to become naturalized Canadian citizens. Administered by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), it evaluates your understanding of Canadian history, government, values, rights, and the responsibilities of citizenship.

All test questions are drawn from the official study guide: Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship, published by IRCC and available free of charge on Canada.ca. There is no additional curriculum. If it is not in Discover Canada, it will not appear on the test.

As of March 9, 2026, the test is self-administered online and is the default format for virtually all eligible applicants. Each test session is generated from a database of 300 to 400 questions, balanced by topic and difficulty, meaning no two sessions are identical. You answer 20 questions in 45 minutes. IRCC uses webcam verification during the test to confirm identity.

After passing the test and meeting all remaining eligibility requirements, applicants aged 14 and older take the Oath of Citizenship, the final step in naturalization. You then receive a citizenship certificate and may apply for a Canadian passport, one of the most travel-capable passports in the world.

The knowledge test applies to permanent residents aged 18 to 54 at the time of application. Before sitting the test, you must meet all eligibility requirements for naturalization:

The Canadian citizenship test consists of 20 questions in a mix of multiple-choice and true-or-false formats. Each test session is generated dynamically from a question database of 300 to 400 questions, balanced across topics and difficulty levels. You will not see the same set of questions in each attempt.

You submit each answer before proceeding to the next question, mirroring the format of the real IRCC test. After submitting, you can mark questions for review and navigate back to them before final submission. If you do not submit manually, the test submits automatically at the 45-minute mark.

Every question on the test originates from Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship. The guide is organised into ten chapters, each corresponding to a distinct area of knowledge. Questions draw from all chapters, with no declared weighting by topic.

You apply for citizenship online through your IRCC account at canada.ca/citizenship. The application fee is $630 CAD for adults, comprising a $530 processing fee and a $100 right of citizenship fee. Children under 18 pay $100. Fees are non-refundable once processing begins.

The citizenship test has a 75% pass mark and a randomised question pool of 300 to 400 items, which means you cannot predict or memorise a fixed set of questions. The question pool is significantly larger than what many candidates expect: even with three attempts permitted, underprepared candidates regularly fail all three and face a hearing.

Effective preparation has three components:

When IRCC sends your test invitation, it will specify a window during which you must complete the test. Open the test link when you are in a quiet, well-lit location with a stable internet connection and a working webcam. IRCC photographs you automatically at intervals during the session; if these photos cannot be taken, the test result may be flagged for manual review.

You must take the test alone. Do not have books, notes, phones, or other people in the room. Close other browser tabs and applications. The system monitors for activity that may suggest assistance.

After submitting, you will see a temporary score on screen immediately. However, this is not final. IRCC reviews the identity verification data before confirming the result. If no issues are found, your IRCC Citizenship Tracker will update to show the knowledge assessment as passed. If there are concerns with the proctoring data, IRCC may contact you to retake the test or attend an interview.

If you fail, IRCC will contact you to arrange a second attempt. If you fail twice more, they will schedule a citizenship hearing. Hearings are more thorough: the officer assesses all aspects of your citizenship eligibility, not just your knowledge of Canada.

The Canadian citizenship test draws questions from a pool of 300 to 400 items, which means rote memorisation of a fixed question list is a fundamentally unreliable strategy. Candidates who study a small question set and expect to encounter those exact questions in their session regularly fail.

Citizenshipped's preparation platform is built around the full Discover Canada question bank. Our Anti-Rote methodology, developed by Sebastian Oliver, PhD, trains conceptual understanding rather than surface-level recall, so you can answer correctly regardless of how a question is phrased. Chapter-level accuracy tracking identifies exactly where your knowledge gaps are before you sit the real test.