System of government: Congress

Every state has two senators no matter its size, so Wyoming and California each send two, while the House has 435 seats shared out by population.

Questions 16 to 35 on the 2025 list cover the three branches and Congress, the legislative branch. Many of the answers are numbers fixed by the Constitution or by law, which makes them good points to learn first: 100 senators, 6-year terms, 435 voting representatives, 2-year terms. The rest explain why the numbers are what they are.

Three branches

The federal government has three branches: legislative, executive and judicial, or in other words Congress, the President and the courts (question 16). The President is in charge of the executive branch (question 17). Congress, also called the U.S. or national legislature or the legislative branch, writes the laws (question 18). Article I of the Constitution, the longest article in the document, sets up Congress, and its very first sentence says so.

Two houses

Congress has two parts, the Senate and the House of Representatives (question 19). The 2025 list gives three powers of Congress: it writes laws, declares war and makes the federal budget (question 20, starred). Each state has two senators (question 27), so there are 100 (question 21). A senator serves a 6-year term (question 22) and represents the citizens or people of their state (question 31), who elect them (question 32). Senators have been elected directly by voters since the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913; before that, state legislatures chose them.

Why two senators per state, even for a small state? The answer on the list is equal representation for small states, through the Great Compromise, also called the Connecticut Compromise (question 28). At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, large states wanted seats by population and small states wanted equal seats. The compromise gave them both: a House by population and a Senate with two members from every state.

The House has 435 voting members (question 24), each elected for 2 years (question 25). A representative represents, and is elected by, the citizens of their congressional district (questions 33 and 34). Seats are divided among the states by population, which is why some states have more representatives than others (question 35); the division is redone after each census. Representatives serve shorter terms than senators so that they follow public opinion more closely (question 26).

Questions about your own state

Question 23 asks for one of your state’s U.S. senators and question 29 for your U.S. representative. The answers depend on where you live and change with elections. Residents of Washington, D.C. and the territories answer that they have no U.S. senators; territory residents can name their nonvoting delegate or resident commissioner. Question 30, starred, asks for the name of the Speaker of the House. Look up all three on uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates and congress.gov shortly before your interview, and say the names aloud a few times so they come out easily.

2008 version: questions 13 to 25