American Government — System of Government · Question 14 of 128
What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful?
Practice answer: Checks and balances
Why this is the answer
Checks and balances help keep any one branch from becoming too powerful. Each branch has ways to limit or check parts of the others’ power.
On the 2026 citizenship test, a USCIS officer asks up to 20 questions from the official 128-question pool — answering 12 correctly passes.
Study translations and question index
Practice index: 14. This is not the official 2025 syllabus question number. Translation indices share the same practice ID and answer-option order.
Español — practice:14:es
¿Qué impide que una rama del gobierno se vuelva demasiado poderosa?
Controles y equilibrios
العربية — practice:14:ar
ما الذي يمنع فرعًا واحدًا من الحكومة من أن يصبح قويًا جدًا؟
الضوابط والموازين
Official syllabus and legal sources
M-1778 (09/25) — 2025 USCIS syllabus. Retrieved 2026-10-15. Check current USCIS answers.
- 8 U.S.C. § 1423 — English, history and civics requirements
- 8 C.F.R. § 312.2 — Knowledge of history and government
These laws establish testing requirements; they are not individual legal advice or a citation for every historical answer. Practice questions and study translations are editorial learning aids, not official USCIS translations. Confirm the test version that applies to your filing date.
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