Everything people ask us about the “Vivre ensemble” exam

It is the civic education test taken by people applying for Luxembourg nationality by naturalisation or by option. It checks a basic knowledge of fundamental rights, the institutions of the State and the communes, and the history of Luxembourg and European integration. Passing this exam is one of the two ways to obtain the “Vivre ensemble” certificate; the other is to complete the full course.

They are two alternative routes to the same certificate. The course is 12 sessions of two hours, 24 hours in total, split across three modules; you must take an active part from start to finish of every required session. The exam is a single paper of 40 questions in 60 minutes. Anyone who completes the full course does not also sit the exam, and vice versa. The official portal recommends the exam route to people who are already well informed and able to prepare independently.

The paper has 40 multiple-choice questions and lasts 60 minutes. That works out at about one minute thirty per question, which is comfortable if you know the material and tight if you hesitate for long on several questions. Practising under timed conditions therefore matters at least as much as learning the content.

You need at least 28 correct answers out of 40, or 70 %. In other words, you can get up to 12 questions wrong. It is a demanding but attainable threshold: it does not require knowing everything, it requires a solid grasp of the central notions in all three subjects.

The paper splits into three blocks: 10 questions on the fundamental rights of citizens (25 %), 20 on the institutions of the State and the communes (50 %), and 10 on the history of Luxembourg and European integration (25 %). Institutions alone carry half the marks, so that is where most of your revision time belongs.

They are multiple-choice questions with one correct answer each. There is no essay, no open question and no oral component. The difficulty therefore does not come from expression but from precision: you need to tell apart institutions that resemble each other, such as the Council of State and the Chamber of Deputies, or the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The official documents we consulted mention no negative marking, but they do not explicitly rule it out either. In the absence of certainty, do not assume either way, and ask the Service de la formation des adultes if this point is decisive for your strategy. In every scenario, an unanswered question never earns a point.

The official portal offers courses in French, German or English. Exam sessions are announced on the same portal: check the language shown for each session when choosing your date, as the offer varies. The “Vivre ensemble” test does not assess your language level — that is the role of the Sproochentest, a separate exam.

It is a test of factual knowledge, not an exercise in complex reasoning. The difficulty comes from three things: the volume of notions to cover, the precision required on institutions, and the fact that many candidates discover the format on the day. With two to three weeks of regular preparation and several timed mock exams, the 28/40 threshold is well within reach.

Failing is not final: you can register for a later session. A new registration is only accepted one month after the exam date you previously chose. You can also switch route at any time and take the full 24-hour course, which leads to the same certificate.

A new exam registration is only accepted one month after the date of the exam previously chosen. This applies both after a failure and after an absence. Use that month well: a month of revision focused on your weak subjects usually changes the outcome.

Two documents are required: the identity document whose number you gave when registering, and your social security card. Arrive early — access rules are strict, and turning up late can cost you the session, with a one-month wait before you can register again.

Cheating results in immediate failure and may be reported to the competent authorities. Given the context — a nationality application — the risk/benefit calculation is obviously unfavourable.

No. Official sources publish the syllabus of subjects to prepare, but no list of questions. Be wary of any app, booklet or site claiming to give you “the official questions”: nobody has them. What is possible is to practise on questions written from the same teaching material and in the same format.

The discipline charter that applies to the course allows a delay of up to ten minutes to be tolerated once, at the trainer's discretion. A longer or repeated delay counts as an absence. Leaving early, taking a break of more than ten minutes, or any other partial attendance normally invalidates the session. No such tolerance is announced for the exam: arrive early.

Registration is online only, through the ministry's official “Vivre ensemble” portal. The portal lists available sessions with their date, location and language. Leaving the location filter empty shows every session; selecting a location narrows the results. Registering only with a trainer, without going through the portal, does not count towards certification.

No. Registration is final and cannot be modified once confirmed. Check the date, time, location and language carefully before you confirm. If something prevents you from attending, contact the Service de la formation des adultes rather than assuming your place will be moved automatically.

The course has three modules totalling 12 sessions of two hours, or 24 hours: three sessions on fundamental rights, six on the institutions of the State and the communes, and three on the history of Luxembourg and European integration. A complete module must be booked with the same trainer, and the portal does not allow two units on the same evening.

Not within the same module. In-person and online sessions cannot be combined inside one module. For remote attendance, a stable connection, a working camera and a working microphone are required, and the camera must stay on with your face visible throughout the session.

Once all required sessions have been validated — or the exam passed — the certificate is sent by post, normally in about three weeks. Remember to notify the Service de la formation des adultes of any change of address, otherwise your certificate may never reach you.

Yes. Holders of a certificate for civic instruction courses completed under the reception and integration contract (CAI) or the Biergerpakt are exempt from module 3, on history and European integration. According to the portal, the system recognises this exemption automatically, so you should not register for those three sessions.

Yes. Candidates who need the reasonable accommodations provided for by the nationality law must send a reasoned request, with supporting documents, to the Director of the Service de la formation des adultes. Do this well before registering for a session.

The Service de la formation des adultes (SFA) is the competent contact: by email at sfa@men.lu, by phone on 8002 4488, or at 14, porte de France, L-4360 Esch-sur-Alzette. We have no access to your file and cannot act on your registration.

An application for nationality by naturalisation or by option must include either a certificate of participation in the course or a certificate of success in the exam. The exact conditions depend on the route you take and on your personal situation: check guichet.public.lu or the Ministry of Justice for the list that applies to your case.

No, they are entirely separate tests. “Vivre ensemble” is a written multiple-choice test of civic knowledge. The Sproochentest is an oral Luxembourgish language exam, with an A2 level expected in speaking and B1 in listening comprehension. Passing one never exempts you from the other.

Naturalisation requires, among other things, a period of legal residence in Luxembourg, success in the Sproochentest and the “Vivre ensemble” certificate, plus conditions linked to the applicant's personal situation. Option procedures follow different conditions. Because these rules evolve and depend on each situation, rely on guichet.public.lu or the Ministry of Justice rather than any secondary source — including this one.

The official documents we consulted do not mention any period of validity for the “Vivre ensemble” certificate. If your nationality application will be filed long after you obtain the certificate, have this confirmed by the Service de la formation des adultes or the Ministry of Justice before assembling your file.

Timescales vary a great deal depending on the route chosen, how complete the file is and the volume of applications being processed. No reliable figure can be given here. The part you do control — obtaining the “Vivre ensemble” certificate — can be completed within a few weeks if you choose the exam route and a session is available.

No. It is an independent preparation app. It is not published, approved or endorsed by the Luxembourg Government, the Ministry of Education, Children and Youth, the Service de la formation des adultes or any other organiser of the exam. Where our content and the official portal differ, the official portal prevails.

No, and nobody can honestly claim otherwise: no official question bank is published. Our questions were written from publicly available teaching material, in the same format as the paper and on the same subjects. Their role is to train you on the notions and on the format, not to make you memorise a questionnaire.

The app contains 60 explained questions: 20 on fundamental rights, 20 on institutions and 20 on history and European integration. We would rather state that exact figure than talk about “thousands of questions”.

Yes, completely. Questions and explanations are bundled into the app at download. You can revise on a train, underground or on a plane. A connection is only needed to buy or restore full access.

French, English, German, Italian and Portuguese. The translation covers the interface and all 60 questions, answer options included. You can change language at any time in the settings without losing your progress.

No. The app asks for no sign-up, no email address and no password. Your progress is stored locally on your device and is never sent to a server. The trade-off is that it does not sync between devices and disappears if you uninstall the app.

Not yet. VivreEnsemblePrep is currently published on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. An Android version is in preparation. In the meantime, the free simulator on this site works in any mobile browser, including on Android.

It is free to download and usable without paying, up to 30 practice questions a day.

Subscriptions are managed by Apple, not by us. Open your iPhone Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions, select VivreEnsemblePrep and choose to cancel. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period already paid for, during which you keep Premium access. The one-off lifetime purchase does not renew, so there is nothing to cancel.

Refunds are handled by Apple, which collects the payments and applies its own conditions. Requests are made at reportaproblem.apple.com with your Apple ID. We have neither access to your payment details nor the power to trigger a refund, but we can point you to the right procedure if you write to us.

Sign in with the Apple ID used for the purchase, open the app, go to the settings and choose “Restore purchases”. Your Premium access is reinstated. Note that restoring only covers the subscription, not your progress, which stays on the original device.