Ace Citizenship

A free iOS app for U.S. citizenship test preparation. All 128 official USCIS civics questions for the 119th Congress, a spaced-repetition learning engine that surfaces what you don't know yet, and state-specific personalization so questions about senators and governors match your actual test conditions. Built originally for an audience of one. The app is free, has earned a 5-star App Store rating, and will remain free.

What's in the app

• All 128 USCIS civics questions. Current for the 119th Congress, updated when USCIS revises the official list.
• Spaced-repetition engine. Questions you struggle with go into a separate queue that mixes into your next study session, so difficult material appears more often until you've mastered it.
• State-specific personalization. A database of all 50 states plus territories. When you select your state, questions about senators, governors, and capitals are personalized to your real test conditions.
• Instant feedback. Every answer gives you correct/incorrect feedback immediately, with the canonical USCIS-accepted answer visible.
• No ads, no subscriptions, no account. Free, and will remain free.
• iCloud sync across iPhone and iPad. Progress carries automatically; no signup required.

Why the studio shipped this

Ace Citizenship was built originally for an audience of one. Blake's wife was preparing for her U.S. naturalization test, and the existing apps on the market were disappointing — intrusive ads interrupted study sessions, subscription paywalls blocked access to essential content, and the design felt like an afterthought on what is, for many people, a profoundly important life event.

She passed her test. She is now an American citizen. The app worked exactly as intended.

After that, the studio published Ace Citizenship to the App Store. It has earned a 5-star rating, and users consistently report that the app helped them pass — one user wrote that they "practiced 30 minutes daily for a month and passed." The app continues to help immigrants achieve their goal of becoming U.S. citizens, one study session at a time. The full personal story behind it, including the studio's design process and what it meant to ship, lives on blakecrosley.com/work/ace-citizenship. This page is the studio's product overview.

How spaced repetition actually works in the app

The core learning engine prioritizes questions you struggle with. When you answer a question incorrectly, that card goes into a separate queue that gets mixed into your next study session at a higher frequency than the cards you've already mastered. Cards you answer correctly multiple times in a row fade into longer review intervals.

The effect: you spend study time on what you don't yet know, instead of mindlessly cycling all 128 questions over and over. This is the same evidence-based technique behind Duolingo, Anki, and most serious flashcard apps. The studio's contribution was to implement it specifically for USCIS test prep, with the right cadence for the volume of material a citizenship candidate actually has to learn.

State personalization, in detail

Several USCIS questions have answers that depend on your specific situation — your state of residence, your Congressional representatives. "Who is one of your state's U.S. Senators now?" cannot be answered in the abstract. The app maintains a database of all fifty states plus territories, updated for the current 119th Congress.

When you select your state, questions about senators, governors, and capitals are personalized to match your actual test conditions. The studio's intent: you aren't memorizing generic answers; you're learning the exact information you will need on test day.

How it was made

Built entirely in SwiftUI for iOS, taking full advantage of Apple's modern frameworks. SwiftData handles local persistence; iCloud handles sync across iPhone and iPad without requiring a user account. The spaced-repetition engine runs entirely on-device for instant feedback, so there is no network round-trip between answering and seeing the result.

The theming system uses Swift's KeyPath feature for compile-time safety. Instead of stringly-typed color lookups that can fail silently at runtime, every color access is verified by the compiler. It's a small thing, but the kind of small thing that the studio uses to make sure every detail in a free app is at least as solid as it would be in a paid one.

Every illustration in the app was generated in Midjourney using prompts refined across more than 100,000 image generations. The studio cared about getting the visual identity right because what citizenship represents deserves to be treated with care. The soft blue and pink palette is intentional — calm with patriotic undertones, not a typical government-app aesthetic.

Why it stays free

The app is and will remain completely free. No ads. No subscriptions. No catch.

The studio's reasoning is simple: helping people become citizens of the country they've chosen to call home is more important than revenue. Anyone studying for the USCIS naturalization test deserves a tool that is at least as well-built as the apps they pay for. The cost of running this app on the studio's side is small enough that it is sustained as a free service indefinitely.

Frequently asked

Is Ace Citizenship really free?

Yes, and it always will be. No ads, no subscriptions, no in-app purchases, no premium tier. Some things are more important than revenue, and helping people become citizens of the country they've chosen to call home is one of them.

How many USCIS questions does the app cover?

All 128 official USCIS civics questions for the 2024 / 119th Congress test. The app's database is updated when USCIS revises the official list.

What is spaced repetition and how does the app use it?

Spaced repetition is the same evidence-based learning technique behind Duolingo and Anki. Questions you struggle with appear more frequently; mastered material fades into longer review intervals. Instead of mindlessly reviewing all 128 questions over and over, you focus your study time on what you don't yet know.

Why are state and Congressional questions personalized?

Several USCIS questions have answers that depend on your specific state of residence and your Congressional representatives. The app maintains a database of all fifty states plus territories, updated for the current 119th Congress. When you select your state, questions about senators, governors, and capitals are personalized to match the exact answers you'll be tested on.

Does Ace Citizenship work without an account?

Yes. No signup, no email, no password. Progress syncs across your iPhone and iPad via iCloud automatically — Apple's infrastructure, no 941 Apps server.

What devices does Ace Citizenship support?

iPhone and iPad. Built entirely in SwiftUI for iOS, with SwiftData for local persistence and iCloud for cross-device sync. Follows Apple's Human Interface Guidelines so the app feels native and familiar.

Why does the app look the way it does?

Every illustration was generated in Midjourney using prompts refined across 100,000+ image generations. The soft blue and pink palette evokes calm while maintaining patriotic undertones. The studio's intent was to make studying feel less like a government chore.

Where is the personal case study?

Blake's founder portfolio piece on Ace Citizenship — including the audience-of-one story behind it and the visual-design process — lives at blakecrosley.com/work/ace-citizenship. This page is the studio's product overview.