Free, Official, and Surprisingly Misused
The SRA hosts a bank of SQE1 sample questions that any candidate can access without paying anything, registering, or even creating an account. Since the release of 28 November 2025, the bank contains 220 questions, 110 for FLK1 and 110 for FLK2. 130 of those are the pre-tested set: questions used in real SQE1 assessments and published with performance data. The other 90 are the original set, released before the first sitting in November 2021, with no performance data. The latest 50, released in November 2025, are the newest sample of what the SRA's assessment looks like.
This is, on paper, a generous resource. It is also easy to misuse. Some candidates burn through the bank in a single weekend and treat one score as a verdict on their readiness. Others ignore it entirely, on the assumption that anything free must be of marginal quality. Both responses leave value on the table.
This post explains what the SRA bank is, what it is not, what the SRA's own data says about how hard it is, and how to get the most exam-relevant value from a finite, free, official resource, before turning to a larger bank like our 4,400+ practice question library for the volume the SRA cannot supply.
What the Bank Actually Contains
The SRA has released SQE1 sample questions in four batches:
| Release | Questions added | Cumulative total | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original set | 90 | 90 | Released before the first sitting in November 2021. Taken from the SQE1 question bank and written by the same process as live questions, with no performance data |
| 30 November 2023 | 40 | 130 | Pre-tested: used in real SQE1 assessments |
| 29 November 2024 | 40 | 170 | Pre-tested: used in real SQE1 assessments |
| 28 November 2025 | 50 | 220 | Pre-tested; all 130 pre-tested questions now shown with performance data |
Today's bank holds 220 questions, split evenly between FLK1 and FLK2, and the SRA now presents them as two separate sets:
- The pre-tested set: 130 questions (65 per paper). All have been used in real SQE1 assessments and, in the SRA's words, were selected to be representative of the SQE1 assessments "both in terms of their difficulty and length". They are published with their performance data.
- The original set: 90 questions (45 per paper). Released before the first sitting in November 2021, taken from the SQE1 question bank and written by the same process as live questions. No performance data is attached.
What "Pre-Tested" Actually Means
In the SRA's usage, pre-tested means these questions have already been used in real SQE1 assessments: real candidates have sat them, and the SRA now publishes how they performed.
That is why the split matters. The 130 pre-tested questions come with evidence of how hard they actually were. The original 90 do not.
Each sample question includes:
- A scenario. The pre-tested questions average 208 words, against 206 in real SQE1 assessments (SRA data).
- Five answer options labelled A to E.
- The correct answer: in an answer grid at the end of each PDF, or in a drop-down next to each question online.
- For the 130 pre-tested questions only, the percentage of candidates who answered correctly, rounded.
What the bank does not yet include is an explanation of why each answer is right. The SRA said on 22 May 2026 that it will publish the rationale alongside the existing sample questions towards the end of 2026; until then, you get the answer but not the reasoning.
The performance data is the most underused part of the bank. We come back to it later.
Where to Find Them
The official location is the SRA's SQE site at sqe.sra.org.uk/assessments/sqe1-assessments/sqe1-sample-questions. Each set is available for FLK1 and FLK2, in English and Welsh, as an online version or a PDF. The same page links to a Pearson VUE demonstration of the SQE1 exam interface, which is worth trying before exam day.
Do not download SRA sample questions from third-party sites. Copies get re-typed, sometimes incorrectly, and they go out of date: the SRA reviews the questions every year and says they will always reflect the law and practice examinable in the upcoming SQE1 assessment. The official SRA pages are the canonical version.
How Hard Are They Compared With the Real Exam?
The SRA publishes the answer: on average the pre-tested set is slightly harder than the real assessments. The SRA compares the 130 pre-tested questions with all SQE1 assessments up to and including July 2025:
| Percentage of candidates answering correctly | FLK1 | FLK2 | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-tested sample questions | 57.0% | 49.2% | 53.1% |
| SQE1 assessments (to July 2025) | 57.5% | 54.9% | 56.2% |
The FLK1 samples sit almost exactly at live difficulty. The FLK2 samples were answered correctly less often than the FLK2 papers, by about six points. Question length matches too: 208 words on average against 206.
So a score on the pre-tested set is a fair check of difficulty, but it is still not a pass or fail verdict:
- It is a small sample. There are 65 pre-tested questions per paper, against 170 on each real paper from January 2027, and the SRA says the samples "do not cover all assessment material contained in the FLK".
- The pass mark is set per paper, per sitting. The SRA's Assessment Board sets each FLK paper's pass mark, considering the difficulty of the questions in that sitting, so no fixed percentage on the samples guarantees a pass.
- Time matters. The real exam allows about 1.8 minutes a question. Take the samples under the clock if you want the score to mean anything.
- The original 90 have no data. You cannot compare your score on them with real candidates at all.
What the Bank Is Genuinely Useful For
The reason to use the SRA bank is not its difficulty. It is its authority. Every other question writer, including us, works from the published assessment specification and this small published bank. The SRA bank is, by definition, the closest thing you have to questions written by the people who write the real exam.
Three specific uses where the bank is irreplaceable.
1. Calibrating Question Style and Length
Real SQE1 questions average about 206 words, on the SRA's figures, and every one follows the same structure: a stem (the fact pattern), a lead-in (the question) and five options. Working through the SRA's own questions is the best way to learn how that structure reads.
If you have only ever practised on third-party banks, you will be familiar with the content of the exam but not its texture. A candidate who has worked through 50 SRA samples has a much sharper sense of how SRA questions phrase scenarios, where the discriminator usually lives, and how the wrong answers are constructed. That texture is hard to learn from explanations alone.
2. Studying the Performance Data
This is the single most underused feature of the bank. Every pre-tested question (130 of the 220) shows the rounded percentage of real candidates who answered it correctly. The data is useful for two reasons.
It identifies hard topics. If 35% of candidates got a question on equitable interests right, that topic is genuinely hard for the median candidate. If 80% got a question on contract formation right, that topic is unlikely to be where you fail. Use the published data to rank your revision time by topic difficulty, not by topic interest. The SQE1 hardest subjects ranked guide covers this prioritisation in detail.
It identifies your blind spots. If you got a question wrong that 70% of candidates got right, you have a knowledge gap that the median candidate does not. That gap should go straight onto a flashcard, using the protocol in our SQE1 flashcard strategy.
3. Stress-Testing Your Test-Reading Speed
From January 2027 each FLK paper is two sessions of 85 questions, 2 hours 33 minutes each: about 1.8 minutes (108 seconds) per question, as the SRA puts it. The 220 sample questions are a fair training set for reading the question, identifying the issue, and choosing an answer under time. Pace the bank at 1.8 minutes per question with a hard cut-off: even if you would normally spend longer on a hard question, training to the timing is more valuable than getting one extra question right in slow conditions.
How to Work Through the Bank: A 5-Day Protocol
It is tempting to speed-run the SRA bank in a weekend, get tired, do the questions sloppily, and miss the value. A better protocol uses five focused sessions and converts the bank into a learning resource rather than a one-time test.
Day 1: Diagnostic, FLK1 Original Set (45 questions, 81 minutes)
Sit the 45 original FLK1 questions under timed conditions, at the SRA's pace of 1.8 minutes a question. No notes. No pausing. Mark your answers as you go.
After the timer ends, do not look at the answers immediately. Take a 30-minute break. Then go through every question:
- For correct answers: check that you got there for the right reason. Until the SRA publishes its rationales, test your reasoning against the rule in your notes.
- For wrong answers: work out from your notes why the SRA's answer is right. Identify whether the gap is knowledge (you did not know the rule) or application (you knew the rule but mis-applied it).
- For each wrong answer: write a flashcard for the missing fact or pattern. One fact per card.
Day 2: Diagnostic, FLK1 Pre-Tested Set (65 questions, 117 minutes)
Same protocol. By the end of day 2, you have completed all 110 FLK1 questions once and made a flashcard for every gap.
Day 3: Diagnostic, FLK2 (Both Sets, 110 Questions Over Two Sittings)
FLK2 has the same 45 original and 65 pre-tested questions as FLK1. Sit them as two timed sittings on the same day (81 and 117 minutes), with a 30-minute break.
Day 4: Performance Data Review
Open the SRA pages and sort your wrong answers on the pre-tested questions by the percentage of candidates who got the question right. This is the prioritisation step. (The original 90 have no data.)
- Wrong answers where 80%+ of candidates got it right: critical gaps. Triple-check your flashcards. These are knowledge points the median candidate has and you do not.
- Wrong answers where 50–80% got it right: standard misses. Keep the flashcards in rotation.
- Wrong answers where <50% got it right: hard questions. Worth understanding, but if you are short on time, prioritise the high-percentage misses first.
Day 5: Re-Run Your Wrong Answers Only
Re-do every question you got wrong on days 1–3. Do not look at the answers first. The goal is to confirm that your flashcards have actually transferred the knowledge into recall.
After day 5, you have wrung the SRA bank for everything it can give you. The flashcards stay in your daily review queue. The next step is volume — and that is where third-party banks come in.
When You Have Exhausted the SRA Bank
220 questions is about two-thirds of one SQE1 sitting, which from January 2027 is 340 questions across FLK1 and FLK2. As a sole revision tool, it is far too small, and the SRA says so: the sample questions "illustrate the type of questions you can expect" and "are not designed to be a full mock exam".
After the SRA bank, you have three realistic options for additional volume.
Provider courses (BPP, ULaw and BARBRI, for example) come with their own question banks, priced as part of the course. Our provider comparison post breaks the courses down, and our question bank and mock comparison covers the banks and mocks you can buy without a course.
Standalone third-party banks are the middle ground. Our free SQE1 resources guide covers the free options. Quality varies; check that the bank in question writes to the current SRA specification, which the SRA updates every year.
Our own bank has 4,400+ practice questions across all 13 subjects and 144 topics, each with a worked explanation, plus full FLK1 and FLK2 mock exams in the January 2027 format of two timed sessions of 85 questions. The questions are written to the current SRA specification and mapped to topic and subject for performance tracking. It costs £69.99 once for lifetime access, or £19.99 for a one-off 1-month pass. See pricing for what is included.
The right combination for most candidates is: work the SRA bank first for calibration, then spend the bulk of your hours in a high-volume third-party bank for genuine exam-fit practice. The two are complementary, not interchangeable.
A Note on Specimen Questions vs Real Questions
The SRA bank mixes the original set (90 questions released before the first sitting) with the pre-tested set: 130 questions that have been used in real assessments, released in November 2023, November 2024 and November 2025.
The SRA says the original questions were taken from the SQE1 question bank and written by the same process as live questions, but they have no performance data, so you cannot see how real candidates found them. The pre-tested questions were selected to be representative of the real assessments in difficulty and length, which makes them the better calibration tool.
If you have to choose, prioritise the pre-tested set. The November 2025 release in particular is the freshest available signal of current SQE1 style.
Common Mistakes With the SRA Bank
A short catalogue of common failure modes.
Speed-running the bank in one sitting. You finish 220 questions in seven hours, exhausted, and remember almost nothing of the review. The bank's value is in the reflection, not the throughput.
Treating one score as a verdict. The pre-tested set matches real difficulty closely, but 65 questions per paper is a small sample and the pass mark is set for each paper in each sitting. We covered why above.
Ignoring the performance data. The published percentages tell you which questions are hard for the median candidate. Use them.
Re-doing the same questions weekly. Once you have seen a sample question, the value of a re-do drops sharply. The bank is finite. Use each question once for a clean diagnostic, once for a wrong-answer re-run, and then leave it.
Using the bank as a substitute for full mocks. 85 questions in one session with no break is materially harder than 45 questions, and SQE1 is graded on 170-question papers. You cannot train exam stamina with a 45-question sample.
Where to Go From Here
The SRA's free sample question bank is the single most authoritative free resource for SQE1 preparation. It is also small and easy to misuse. Treat it as your calibration set, mine the performance data, then move to a high-volume bank for the rest of your preparation.
- Browse the official bank: SRA SQE1 sample questions
- Take a free 20-question quiz: SQE1 quick quiz
- Full 4,400+ question bank with performance tracking: pricing plans
- Other free SQE1 resources: free SQE1 resources guide
- Build the flashcard layer: SQE1 flashcard strategy
- The MCQ technique itself: SQE1 MCQ technique guide
- Strategic prioritisation: SQE1 hardest subjects ranked
- Where the difficulty actually lives: SQE1 high-yield topics
The candidates who use the SRA bank well treat it as a 220-question calibration tool, not a 220-question test. Walk slowly through it, mine the data, and move on with sharper eyes.
