The second exam for citizenship — knowledge of the Constitution and the Citizenship Act

People applying for Estonian citizenship usually discover only halfway through that there are two exams. The first is the Estonian B1 language proficiency exam. The second is the exam on knowledge of the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia and the Citizenship Act — and it is a completely different animal.

What kind of exam it is

• Administered by: the Education and Youth Board (Harno), with registration in EIS — the same system you use for the language exam.
• Legal basis: the Citizenship Act. Language proficiency (§ 6 and § 8) and knowledge of the Constitution and the Citizenship Act (§ 6 and § 9) are two separate conditions.
• Format: a multiple-choice test, in Estonian, lasting about 60 minutes.
• Level: this exam has no CEFR level. It is not A2, B1 or B2 — it is a knowledge test, not a language test. It is nonetheless sat in Estonian, which in practice is why most people take the language exam first.

What it covers

The content areas are fixed by regulation, and there are four:

1. The principles of the Estonian state order — chapters I and III of the Constitution;
2. Fundamental rights, freedoms and duties — chapter II of the Constitution;
3. The competences of the Riigikogu, the President, the Government and the courts;
4. Acquisition, restoration and loss of Estonian citizenship under the Citizenship Act.

Why it is easier than people fear

Here is something the language exam does not give you: the questions are public. The exam questions are published as a legal instrument in the State Gazette ("Eesti Vabariigi põhiseaduse ja kodakondsuse seaduse tundmise eksami küsimused", https://www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/31893), and there is in addition an official question-and- answer book plus free training courses from the Integration Foundation.

A closed, public question bank makes preparation mechanical: read the questions, check the answers against the official source, repeat. The pass rate has historically been high — clearly higher than for the language exam.

What order to take them in

No order is prescribed by law, but the practical order is usually:

1. Language first — because the civics exam is taken in Estonian, B1 is what makes reading the questions possible in the first place.
2. Then the Constitution exam, whose preparation is short and well bounded.
3. Only then the citizenship application, once both certificates are in hand.

If any exemption ground might apply to you, check it before both exams — see who is exempt. For instance, a citizenship applicant aged 65 or over is released from the writing paper of the B1 exam.

What we cannot do for you here

This site prepares you for the Estonian B1 language proficiency exam. We do not provide material for the Constitution and Citizenship Act exam — for that there is the official question bank and the Integration Foundation's courses, which are free and tied directly to the exam. If you plan to take both, do the language exam first: it is the longer road, and the second exam goes much faster afterwards.

A detail we deliberately do not state: public sources disagree on the number of questions and on how many correct answers are needed to pass, so we do not quote either figure here. Read the exact numbers from Harno's page or from the regulation on the conduct of the exam.

Sources: the Citizenship Act and the published question list in the State Gazette; Harno; the Integration Foundation. Facts reviewed on 13 August 2026.

An explanatory article, not legal advice. We are not an examination centre and not a public authority.