Free IQ test
Take the free IQ test
Ten reasoning questions, no timer, no sign-up and no payment step. You get a band, a percentile range, a breakdown by question type and a written explanation of every answer.
Before you start
Answer in one sitting, somewhere quiet, without looking anything up. You can go back and change an answer. There is no clock, so working carefully costs you nothing.
On a keyboard you can press 1 to 4 to pick an option. Nothing is sent anywhere — the scoring happens in this page.
Abstract reasoning
Each cell follows one rule that depends on its row and its column. Which number of dots belongs in the empty cell?
Numerical reasoning
What number continues the sequence? 3, 6, 11, 18, 27, …
Verbal reasoning
Sculptor is to clay as poet is to …
Abstract reasoning
In three of these four figures the number of dots matches the number of sides. Which figure breaks the rule?
Numerical reasoning
What number continues the sequence? 2, 6, 12, 20, 30, …
Spatial reasoning
The arrow turns by the same amount from one cell to the next, reading left to right and top to bottom. Which arrow belongs in the empty cell?
Verbal reasoning
Thermometer is to temperature as odometer is to …
Logical reasoning
Every zelk is a norbit. No norbit is a drune. Which statement must be true?
Spatial reasoning
Three of these four figures are rotations of the shape on the left. Which one is not — it is a mirror image?
Logical reasoning
In one office, everyone who has a parking permit also has a security badge. Marco has a security badge. Which statement must be true?
Your result
0 / 10
Estimated band: —
That places you — against an adult comparison group.
How you did by question type
Ten items is enough to place you in a quarter of the distribution and nowhere near enough to give you a figure like 117. Anything finer than the band above would be a claim this test cannot support. For a tighter estimate, take a longer one.
Scroll down for the explanation of every question.
Every answer, explained
These are the rules the items were built from. Open them after you finish — reading them first turns the test into a memory exercise.
Question 1 — Abstract reasoning
Each cell follows one rule that depends on its row and its column. Which number of dots belongs in the empty cell?
Read the grid as a multiplication table: a cell holds (row number) × (column number) dots. The bottom-right cell is the third row and the third column, so 3 × 3 = 9.
Question 2 — Numerical reasoning
What number continues the sequence? 3, 6, 11, 18, 27, …
The gaps between the terms are 3, 5, 7, 9 — consecutive odd numbers. The next gap is 11, so 27 + 11 = 38.
Question 3 — Verbal reasoning
Sculptor is to clay as poet is to …
The relationship is worker to raw material. Clay is the material a sculptor shapes; language is the material a poet shapes. Rhyme is one technique, emotion is a subject, and a notebook is a container.
Question 4 — Abstract reasoning
In three of these four figures the number of dots matches the number of sides. Which figure breaks the rule?
A triangle has three sides and three dots, the square four and four, the pentagon five and five. The hexagon has six sides but seven dots, so D is the odd one out.
Question 5 — Numerical reasoning
What number continues the sequence? 2, 6, 12, 20, 30, …
Each term is n × (n + 1): 1×2, 2×3, 3×4, 4×5, 5×6. The sixth term is 6 × 7 = 42. Equivalently, the gaps grow by two each time: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12.
Question 6 — Spatial reasoning
The arrow turns by the same amount from one cell to the next, reading left to right and top to bottom. Which arrow belongs in the empty cell?
Each step turns the arrow 45° clockwise. The eighth cell points up-left, so the ninth completes the full circle and points straight up again.
Question 7 — Verbal reasoning
Thermometer is to temperature as odometer is to …
The relationship is instrument to the quantity it measures. An odometer measures distance travelled; the instrument for speed is a speedometer.
Question 8 — Logical reasoning
Every zelk is a norbit. No norbit is a drune. Which statement must be true?
If all zelks sit inside the set of norbits, and the set of norbits never overlaps the set of drunes, then no zelk can be a drune. The other three add information the two premises do not give you.
Question 9 — Spatial reasoning
Three of these four figures are rotations of the shape on the left. Which one is not — it is a mirror image?
Turning the shape on the spot never changes which way the foot points relative to the tall bar. The third figure has the foot on the opposite side, so it can only be produced by flipping the shape over — a reflection, not a rotation.
Question 10 — Logical reasoning
In one office, everyone who has a parking permit also has a security badge. Marco has a security badge. Which statement must be true?
The rule runs one way: a permit guarantees a badge, not the other way round. Badges may also be issued to people with no permit, so Marco's badge tells you nothing about his permit either way. Concluding that he has one is the classic error of affirming the consequent.
How this test is scored
There is no clever secret here, and that is deliberate. Ten items, one point each, no weighting by difficulty and no partial credit. The raw score maps onto a band as follows.
| Raw score | Estimated band | Percentile range | Rarity at the band floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9–10 | 120 and above | 90th percentile and up | about 1 in 11 |
| 7–8 | 110–120 | 75th–90th percentile | about 1 in 4 |
| 5–6 | 100–110 | 50th–75th percentile | the middle quarter |
| 3–4 | 90–100 | 25th–50th percentile | the middle quarter |
| 0–2 | Below 90 | Below the 25th percentile | — |
The mapping comes from the normal distribution rather than from a sample of our own visitors. That is the honest position for a test this short: we know what the scale looks like, we do not have a representative norm group, and inventing percentiles from self-selected web traffic would be worse than using the curve.
A band is a statement about which part of the distribution you are probably in, with the emphasis on probably. If you scored seven and your neighbour scored eight, you did not perform differently in any meaningful sense. If you scored three and they scored nine, you did.
What the ten items cover
| Question type | What it asks of you |
|---|---|
| Abstract reasoning | Matrix items where the rule lives in the relationship between rows and columns. Closest to a measure of reasoning independent of prior knowledge. |
| Numerical reasoning | Number series where the pattern is in the differences, the ratios or a generating formula. The arithmetic is deliberately trivial. |
| Verbal reasoning | Analogies testing whether you can name a relationship and carry it across, not whether you know an unusual word. |
| Spatial reasoning | Rotation and reflection. Distinguishing a turn from a flip is one of the cleanest indicators in the reasoning literature. |
| Logical reasoning | Short formal arguments where the task is to say what follows — and, more often, what merely sounds like it does. |
Two items per type is a small sample of each, which is why the breakdown on your result screen should be read as a rough shape rather than a profile. A one-out-of-two on spatial reasoning tells you very little on its own.
What is deliberately absent is as important as what is present: no general knowledge, no vocabulary obscurity, no mental arithmetic against a clock and no cultural trivia. Those inflate a score for people who happen to have read more, without telling you much about reasoning.
What this test cannot do
It cannot give you an official IQ. Nothing unsupervised can, including every other free test on the web and the paid ones too. Official results come from an individually administered instrument such as the WAIS, given by a licensed psychologist over one to two hours.
It cannot qualify you for Mensa. Mensa admits members through its own supervised test or a prior result from a short list of approved instruments. See how Mensa entry actually works.
It cannot tell you anything reliable about a child. The items and the bands assume an adult comparison group.
And it cannot tell you much on a second attempt. Once you have seen the items, you are testing your memory of them. If you want a fresh read, take a different test rather than this one again.
Questions
Questions about this test
How many questions are on this IQ test?
Ten. Two abstract matrix items, two number series, two verbal analogies, two spatial rotation items and two logic problems, in a fixed order that is the same for everyone.
Is there a time limit?
No. Nothing is scored on speed and you can go back and change an answer before you finish. Timed tests measure a blend of reasoning and processing speed; this one is trying to measure only the first.
Do I need to give an email address?
No. There is no form, no account and no server call. The scoring runs in your browser and nothing leaves the page.
What will the result look like?
A raw score out of ten, a band, a percentile range and a breakdown showing how you did on each of the five question types. Every item is then explained.
Why do you not give an exact IQ number?
Because ten items cannot support one. The measurement error on a test this short is wider than the bands people care about, so a single number would be a claim we could not defend. A thirty-plus item test narrows it usefully — that is what the 33-question test at iq-test.io is for.
Can I see the answers?
Yes. After you finish, every item is shown with the rule that generates it. If the explanation does not convince you, the item has a problem and we would like to hear about it.
Is the test the same for everyone?
Yes. The bank is fixed and deterministic — no randomisation, no adaptive routing. Everyone sees the same ten items in the same order, which makes results comparable and lets anyone check our working.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. Every figure is vector graphics rather than a bitmap, so it stays sharp at any size, and the answer targets are sized for thumbs. You can also answer with the number keys 1 to 4 on a keyboard.
Can children take it?
The items are written for adults and older teenagers and the bands assume an adult comparison group, so a child's result would not mean much. Children are assessed against their own age group on instruments built for that — see the WISC.
What if I want a longer test?
Take the 33-question test at iq-test.io. It is free, has no timer and no email gate, and the extra length genuinely narrows the band around your result.
Now work out what the number means
IQ percentile chart
Convert any score to a percentile and a rarity figure, with a calculator for values in between.
Read more →What is a good IQ score?
Six versions of “good”, each with a different threshold, and why the question needs narrowing before it can be answered.
Read more →Are online IQ tests accurate?
The four things that separate a web test from a clinical one, none of which are fixable by writing better questions.
Read more →Want a tighter estimate?
Thirty-three questions instead of ten, still free, still no email gate — and the extra length genuinely narrows the band around your result.