How many questions are on the CCSE and how long does it take?

The CCSE has 25 questions and lasts 45 minutes. The questions are drawn from the official 300-question bank in five tareas, in the fixed proportions 10, 3, 2, 3, and 7.

What score do you need to pass the CCSE?

You need 15 of 25 correct (60 percent). Each correct answer scores 1 point and there is no negative marking for wrong or blank answers. The certificate reports only APTO (pass) or NO APTO, not the score.

Where do the CCSE questions come from?

From the bank published by the Instituto Cervantes in its free Manual de preparación de la prueba CCSE: 300 questions with a printed answer key. Sittings draw their 25 questions from that bank. The manual is renewed every year, so the edition matters; the current one is the Manual 2026.

Do you need the DELE as well as the CCSE for Spanish nationality?

Generally yes: the nationality application normally requires both a CCSE pass (constitutional and sociocultural knowledge) and a DELE A2 or higher diploma (the language itself). The CCSE tests knowledge about Spain in Spanish; the DELE tests the Spanish language.

Back to CCSE practice

What is the CCSE?

The CCSE (Prueba de Conocimientos Constitucionales y Socioculturales de España) is Spain's constitutional and sociocultural knowledge test. It is a short written exam, administered by the Instituto Cervantes, that checks whether you know how Spain is governed, what rights and duties its constitution sets out, how the country is organised, and the basics of its history, culture, and everyday society.

Who needs it

The CCSE is one of the two exam requirements in a Spanish nationality application by residence. Applicants generally have to show two results: a pass in the CCSE, which covers knowledge about Spain, and a DELE A2 (or higher) diploma, which covers the Spanish language itself. The two are a pair: the CCSE questions are in Spanish, but what they test is knowledge, not language level. Solvi's CCSE section covers the knowledge half of that pair.

The format: 25 questions, 45 minutes, pass at 15

A sitting has 25 questions and lasts 45 minutes. It is taken in person, on paper, at Instituto Cervantes centres and its network of exam centres, and it is written in contemporary Peninsular Spanish. There is no listening, writing, or speaking part: every question is either a three-option multiple choice item or, in Tarea 2, true or false.

The 25 questions are always drawn in the same proportions from the five tareas (subject areas):

Tarea 1, Gobierno, legislación y participación ciudadana: 10 questions. Government, legislation, and citizen participation.
Tarea 2, Derechos y deberes fundamentales: 3 questions, true or false. Fundamental rights and duties.
Tarea 3, Organización territorial de España. Geografía física y política: 2 questions. How Spain is organised territorially, and its physical and political geography.
Tarea 4, Cultura e historia de España: 3 questions. Spanish culture and history.
Tarea 5, Sociedad española: 7 questions. Spanish society.

Grouped the way Cervantes presents them, the government group (Tareas 1 to 3) is 15 of the 25 questions, and culture, history, and society (Tareas 4 and 5) are the other 10.

Scoring is simple: each correct answer is 1 point, wrong and blank answers score 0, and there is no negative marking, so guessing is never worse than leaving a question blank. You pass (APTO) at 15 of 25, which is 60 percent. The certificate reports only APTO, NO APTO, or NO PRESENTADO; it does not print your score. An APTO certificate is valid for 4 years. At the time of writing (October 2026), the registration fee is 85 euros, which includes a second sitting if the first is failed or missed.

The question bank: the Manual 2026

The CCSE is unusual among citizenship exams in one way that matters a lot for preparation: the whole question bank is published. The Instituto Cervantes issues a free preparation manual each year, the Manual de preparación de la prueba CCSE, containing all 300 bank questions together with the complete printed answer key, and the sittings draw their 25 questions from that bank. The 300 questions split across the tareas as 120, 36, 24, 36, and 84, in the same proportions as the exam draw.

The catch is the annual renewal. A new manual appears every year ahead of the January sittings, and roughly a quarter of the questions change between editions. Last year's bank is the wrong bank from January, so preparation material has to name its edition. Everything on Solvi is pinned to the current edition, the Manual 2026.

How practice on Solvi works

The section is built around the bank's own structure. You can practise one tarea at a time (all of its questions, in bank order, at the real exam pace of 108 seconds per question), run the full 300-question bank as one long practice session, or sit a simulacro: a 25-question mock in the real 10 / 3 / 2 / 3 / 7 proportions, with the real 45 minutes and the real pass mark of 15. If you would rather read than be tested, the question bank browse pages show every question with its correct answer marked, free and without an account.

What Solvi adds over the manual itself is the explanation layer, because the manual prints the key but not the reasoning. In review, every question carries a bilingual explanation: the underlying fact in English, with the key Spanish terms kept in view, and a concise Spanish version alongside. That is what turns a wrong answer into the piece of knowledge the next question will test.

Go to the CCSE hub to start with a tarea or a simulacro.

Source note: the question bank used on Solvi is the Manual de preparación de la prueba CCSE 2026, published by the Instituto Cervantes. Solvi is an independent practice site and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Instituto Cervantes.