The CCSE exam: what you will be asked, and how to prepare

The CCSE (Conocimientos Constitucionales y Socioculturales de España) is the Instituto Cervantes test required when applying for Spanish nationality by residence. It is not a language exam — that is the DELE — but a test of knowledge about Spain: its constitution, its institutions, its geography and its everyday life.

How the exam works

• 25 questions, multiple choice and true/false
• 45 minutes
• You pass with 15 correct (60 %)
• The questions come from a public manual of 300 questions, updated each year by the Instituto Cervantes

That last point makes this exam unlike almost any other: the questions are not secret. They are published. Passing is, quite literally, a matter of working through the 300.

The five tasks

The manual organises the questions into two groups and five tasks:

Government, legislation and citizen participation

1. The Constitution and territorial organisation — rights and duties, autonomous communities, who does what 2. The institutions — the Crown, the Cortes Generales, the Government, the Constitutional Court 3. Citizen participation — elections, rights and obligations, administrative procedures

Spanish culture, history and society

4. Geography, culture and history — provinces, rivers, heritage, figures and dates 5. Society and daily life — healthcare, education, timetables, festivals, customs

Tasks 1 and 2 hold most of the institutional questions, and they are the ones most often forgotten: the names of bodies, who elects them, and for how long.

Where candidates lose marks

Studying by topic and being examined by task. The exam is organised by task, so preparation should follow the same structure. Practising everything shuffled leaves you unable to say which task you are weak in.

Confusing similar institutions. Congreso and Senado, Tribunal Supremo and Tribunal Constitucional, Defensor del Pueblo and Fiscal General. These are easy marks to win and easy marks to lose.

Leaving geography until last. Provinces, communities and rivers look like the least serious part of the manual. They are free marks if revised and lost marks if not.

Not using a clock. 45 minutes for 25 questions is plenty — but only if you do not freeze. One full timed simulation before the day removes that problem.

A plan that works

Sittings are monthly (the last Thursday of most months), so there is almost always a date four to six weeks out. With that:

• One task per week, and a fifth week for general revision
• Short daily sessions: 300 questions stick better spread out than crammed
• Revise your mistakes, not the ones you already get right
• Two full timed simulations before the sitting

What this app does

Aprueba: CCSE 2026 works through the 300 questions of the official manual, organised by the exam's five tasks, so you practise with the same structure you are assessed on. The simulation keeps the real format — 25 questions, pass at 15 — and the mistake drill returns what you have not yet mastered. You can mark your sitting and watch how you are tracking towards it.

It works offline and without an account. One payment for full access, no subscription.

Download on the App Store