How many questions are in the Australian citizenship test?

Twenty questions, four options, one answer

Each question offers a choice of answers and one is correct. The Department's practice test page describes the rules of the room: you can answer the questions in any order, skip questions and come back to them later, and you cannot refer to books, notes or other written materials or use a phone. Text-to-speech is available, so a question and its options can be read to you if you prefer to listen.

The test is in English only. The booklet it is based on is published in English and 40 community languages, so the content can be learned in your own language, but the questions on the day are English, and the pass is also what satisfies the English-language requirement for citizenship.

Where the 20 questions come from

The booklet says the test consists of 20 randomly selected questions, and since 15 November 2020 five of them are on Australian values. The Department's page lists the sources: Australia and its people; Australia's democratic beliefs, rights and liberties; government and the law in Australia; and an understanding and commitment to Australian values based on freedom, respect and equality. Those are the four testable parts of the booklet, pages 7 to 39, plus a short glossary.

Because the selection is random, two people sitting the test on the same morning get different questions, and nobody outside the Department has the bank. Its own practice test is described as a sample test only, with the questions different on the day.

A worked example

This question is from the Australian Citizenship app rather than the real bank, but it is the shape the values questions take: a principle rather than a date. Why are Australian values important? A: they are only for ceremonial purposes. B: they define and shape Australia as a country. C: they apply only to government officials. D: they are suggestions, not requirements.

The answer is B. Part 4 of the booklet opens by saying that our values define and shape our country, that Australian laws apply to all people in Australia, and that citizenship is about living out these values in everyday life. Options A, C and D each contradict one of those sentences, which is how values questions usually work: three options describe values as optional or partial, one describes them the way the booklet does.

How the app's questions compare with the real ones

The app has 357 questions across the four testable parts, each with an explanation and a source reference, and its mock tests draw 20 of them against a 45-minute clock. They are not the Department's questions, which are not published, and no app can honestly claim otherwise. What practice questions teach is the material and the shape of the questions, and because the real bank is drawn from the same 38 pages, that is what the test rewards.

What 45 minutes feels like

Forty-five minutes for 20 questions is over two minutes each, and vendor guides consistently report that most applicants finish in under 20 minutes. Time is rarely the problem. The values condition is, because one careless answer among five outweighs a strong score on the other fifteen, which is why the questions worth reading twice are the ones about principles.