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50 free US Constitution trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
45 free US Constitution trivia questions with answers. These Constitution trivia questions and answers cover the whole story of America's founding document: the sweltering, secret 1787 convention in Philadelphia, the Great Compromise and the Three-fifths Compromise, the 39 men who signed, the ratification fight and the Federalist Papers, then the Bill of Rights and every notable amendment from the Twelfth to the Twenty-seventh. Early questions suit students and Constitution Day classroom quizzes: how many articles, what the Preamble begins with, which amendment gave women the vote. Later ones reward real buffs: who was paid $30 to write the parchment, which amendment took 202 years to ratify, and which state refused to send delegates. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries and the text of the Constitution itself before publishing.
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Q 01In which city did the Constitutional Convention meet in 1787?
Philadelphia
Delegates sat in Independence Hall from May 25 to September 17, with the windows nailed shut for secrecy despite the summer heat.
Q 02How many articles does the original Constitution contain?
Seven
Plus a preamble and a closing endorsement carrying the framers' signatures.
Q 03How many delegates signed the finished Constitution at the end of the 1787 convention?
39
Fifty-five delegates attended sessions in total, and 74 had originally been chosen from 12 states.
Q 04Which state refused to send any delegates to the Constitutional Convention?
Rhode Island
It was also the last of the 13 states to ratify, in May 1790, after a threatened trade embargo.
Q 05What document did the Constitution replace as the nation's frame of government on March 4, 1789?
The Articles of Confederation
Under the Articles, Congress could not even levy import taxes; Rhode Island vetoed an attempt in 1782.
Q 06With which three words does the Preamble begin?
We the People
Gouverneur Morris coined the phrase; an earlier draft followed it with a list of all 13 states.
Q 07Which Pennsylvania delegate is credited as primary author of the Preamble and the final wording?
Gouverneur Morris
He chaired the Committee of Style that distilled the 23 approved articles into the final draft in September 1787.
Q 08Who was the calligrapher paid $30 to hand-write the original Constitution on parchment?
Jacob Shallus
He used four sheets of animal-skin parchment; conservators still do not know whether it was calf, goat or sheep.
Q 09How many states had to ratify the Constitution for it to take effect?
Nine
Delegates chose two-thirds rounded up, suspecting Rhode Island at least might never ratify.
Q 10Which state was the first to ratify the Constitution, voting 30-0 in December 1787?
Delaware
That is why its licence plates read 'The First State'; Pennsylvania followed 46-23 and New Jersey unanimously.
Q 11Which state's ratification on June 21, 1788 was the ninth, putting the Constitution into effect?
New Hampshire
Virginia and New York, the big holdouts, followed within weeks.
Q 12Under what shared pen name did Hamilton, Madison and Jay write the 85 Federalist essays?
Publius
Hamilton chose the name and wrote 51 of the essays; Madison wrote 29 and Jay only five.
Q 13How many essays make up The Federalist Papers?
85
Numbers 78 to 85 were republished in New York newspapers between June 14 and August 16, 1788.
Q 14Which proposal, presented by Edmund Randolph on May 29, 1787, became the basis of the new government?
Q 21How many witnesses to the same overt act does the Constitution require to convict someone of treason?
Two
The alternative is a confession in open court; treason is the only crime the Constitution defines.
Q 22An amendment proposed by Congress needs what share of both houses?
Two-thirds
Ratification then needs three-quarters of the states; a convention of states has never been used to propose one.
Q 23How many times has the Constitution been amended since 1789?
27
Thousands of amendments have been proposed in Congress; only 33 were ever sent to the states.
The Virginia Plan
Madison sketched it while waiting for the convention to start; it proposed three branches of government.
Q 15The Great Compromise gave every state how many senators, regardless of population?
Two
Roger Sherman's deal kept proportional representation in the House and equal weight in the Senate.
Q 16For apportioning the House, the 1787 compromise counted what fraction of a state's enslaved population?
Three-fifths
It sits in Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 and boosted Southern power in the House.
Q 17What is the minimum age to serve in the House of Representatives?
25
Senators must be 30 and nine years a citizen; representatives need seven years of citizenship.
Q 18How many years must a president have been a resident of the United States, under Article Two?
Fourteen
They must also be at least 35 and a natural-born citizen (or a citizen at the time the Constitution was adopted).
Q 19Article Six forbids which kind of requirement as a qualification for any federal office?
A religious test
Officials may say 'so help me God' in an oath, but nobody can be required to.
Q 20Article Three says federal judges hold office during what?
Good behaviour
That phrase is read to mean life tenure, and their pay cannot be cut while they serve.
Q 24The Bill of Rights consists of how many amendments?
Ten
Congress actually sent twelve articles to the states in 1789; Articles Three through Twelve were ratified on December 15, 1791.
Q 25Which representative drafted the amendments that became the Bill of Rights?
James Madison
He wanted them woven into the main text; Congress instead added them as codicils at the end.
Q 26The Third Amendment restricts the government from doing what?
Quartering soldiers in private homes
It answered the British Quartering Acts and has never been the primary basis of a Supreme Court decision.
Q 27Which 1803 Supreme Court case established the power of judicial review?
Marbury v. Madison
The 4-0 decision struck down part of the Judiciary Act; the Constitution itself never explicitly grants judicial review.
Q 28The Twelfth Amendment followed an Electoral College tie in which election?
1800
Jefferson and his running mate Aaron Burr tied in the Electoral College, throwing the choice to the House.
Q 29Which amendment abolished slavery in 1865?
Thirteenth
Mississippi did not ratify it until 1995, and the paperwork was not certified until 2013.
Q 30Which amendment, adopted in 1868, contains the Citizenship, Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses?
Fourteenth
Its first section, written mainly by John Bingham, is the most litigated part of the entire Constitution.