The CCSE: 300 published questions, 25 on the day, and you need 15

The test has five tasks and 25 questions in 45 minutes. Most questions offer three options, one of them correct; the three questions of task 2 are true or false. Each question is 30 to 40 words at most, and Instituto Cervantes says the texts are adapted so that most of the grammar and vocabulary are accessible to candidates.

Scoring is one point per correct answer and zero otherwise. Wrong answers and blank answers are not penalised, so a blank answer is a point given away. The pass mark is 15 of 25, 60%, which Instituto Cervantes notes is the same criterion as the DELE.

The questions split 60/40. Government, legislation and civic participation take 60%: task 1 (10 questions on the state, its powers and institutions) and task 2 (3 true-or-false statements on rights and duties). Culture, history and society take 40%: task 3 (2 questions on territorial organisation and geography, sometimes with a map), task 4 (3 on traditions, culture and history) and task 5 (7 on daily life and administrative procedures).

One detail matters for anyone who learned Spanish in Latin America: the instructions and the questions are written in contemporary peninsular Spanish.

This count is ours, made from the answer key at the back of the 2026 manual.

The manual's 300 questions are not spread evenly. Task 1 has 120, task 2 has 36, task 3 has 24, task 4 has 36 and task 5 has 84. Set those against the questions each task contributes to the test (10, 3, 2, 3 and 7) and the ratio is the same in every case: one in twelve. 10 of 120, 3 of 36, 2 of 24, 3 of 36, 7 of 84.

That gives a study plan that is proportional by construction. Task 1 alone is 40% of the bank and 40% of the test. Task 5, the one about daily life and paperwork, is the second biggest at 84 questions and 7 points, and it is the part a person who already lives in Spain often knows best. Tasks 2, 3 and 4 together are 96 questions and 8 points.

Because 15 of 25 passes, the arithmetic is forgiving: a candidate who knows tasks 1 and 5 completely has 17 points before reading the rest.

Also ours: next to Germany and Norway, Spain's 60% sits in the middle, and all the citizenship tests we compare run from about 52% to 80%. Germany's Einbürgerungstest passes at 17 of 33, and also publishes every question; Norway's statsborgerprøven asks 24 of 32 scored answers, 75%, and publishes no question bank at all.

Instituto Cervantes states that the questions in the 2026 manual are the ones used in every test from January 2026, and that 25% of the questions were renewed compared with 2025.

So a question list, a printed book or an unofficial app built on the 2025 manual is wrong for about a quarter of the bank. The 2026 manual, the specifications, a model test and a multilingual glossary (English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish and Hebrew) are free on examenes.cervantes.es, and Instituto Cervantes publishes its own app, which it describes as the only official one. The questions are also available as audio for blind and non-literate candidates.

The fee is €85, unchanged since 2023. It includes the exam, the certificate and the preparation materials.

One registration covers up to two attempts, but only if you fail the first one or do not turn up. You can register for the second attempt without paying again once the results of the first sitting are published.

Results arrive about 20 days after the test, online, in your private area on the Cervantes site. The certificate says APTO, NO APTO or NO PRESENTADO and does not show your score. It is valid for the nationality application for four years from the date it is issued.

A candidate who fails can ask for one review of the result through the private area. Instituto Cervantes does not return or copy exam papers.

Refunds: you have 14 calendar days from registration to ask for your money back. Changing the date or the centre is possible while both sittings are still open for registration and have places.

The ordinary sittings are held only in Spain, at Instituto Cervantes centres and a network of more than 200 exam centres, and not every centre runs every sitting. There is one sitting a month except August and December.

The rest of 2026, as published: 29 October (registration closes 8 October) and 26 November (registration closes 5 November).

2027: registration opens on 23 November 2026. The official sitting dates are 28 January, 25 February, 18 March, 29 April, 27 May, 24 June, 29 July, 30 September, 28 October and 25 November. Each closes for registration three weeks earlier.

You must register with your NIE if the test is for nationality. Anyone who registered on the Cervantes site with another identity document has to ask Instituto Cervantes' user service to change it.

Registration is open to anyone aged 16 or over with legal capacity, of any nationality.

Nationals of Spanish-speaking countries still sit the CCSE. Real Decreto 1004/2015 exempts them from the DELE when that nationality is their original one, not from the CCSE. Minors and people under guardianship are exempt from both tests under the same decree. Instituto Cervantes lists one total exemption from the CCSE on its own page: holders of Spain's ESO secondary school certificate.

Candidates with a visual, hearing or mobility impairment, dyslexia or dysgraphia, or who live in an enclosed religious community, a hospital for more than two months or a prison, can ask for special conditions. The form goes to the exam centre at least two weeks before the test. There is a separate version of the test for candidates who cannot read.

For the language half of the requirement, and how Spain's A2 compares with the level other countries ask, see citizenship language requirements by country.