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SQE1 past papers

The SRA does not publish SQE1 past papers. It publishes 220 sample questions, 130 of which were used in live assessments. Download our free PDF practice paper of 24 original questions to practise at the real pace.

Updated 26 October 2026 · Checked against the sources listed below

Mixed practice set

1 of 10

  1. Question 1 · Solicitors Accounts

    A firm is administering an estate. The client ledger for the estate holds £6,000 in the client account, all belonging to the estate. The personal representatives have instructed the firm to pay a £3,000 legacy to a beneficiary once the administration allows.

    The firm delivered a bill for £2,400 of costs for work completed so far. It has told the PRs it expects to charge a further £700 for the final stage of the administration, but that stage has not started and no bill has been raised for it.

    What is the maximum sum the firm may transfer from the client account to its business account for costs at this stage?

What is published and what is not

The SRA does not publish SQE1 past papers. Live questions are confidential to the SRA and its assessment provider. The nearest official material is listed below.

MaterialPublished byWhat it contains
Past papersNot publishedNo full SQE1 paper from an earlier sitting is released
Sample questionsSRA220 questions, 110 for each FLK, with the correct answers marked
Pre-tested samplesSRA130 of the 220, all used in live assessments, each with the percentage of candidates who answered correctly
Statistics for each sittingSRAPass rates and candidate numbers, with no questions

The SRA states that the sample questions are not a full mock exam and do not cover all assessment material. The SQE1 sample questions page explains how to use the performance data.

Why past paper products are not past papers

Files and courses described as SQE1 past papers, previous papers or recalled questions are not official. They are usually one of three things.

  • Recalls. Questions that candidates have reconstructed from memory after a sitting. Their wording is unreliable and their answers are unchecked.
  • The SRA samples repackaged. The same 220 questions, sometimes with answers added. They are free from the SRA.
  • Provider questions with a misleading label. Original questions written by a company, in the SQE1 format, under a name that suggests an earlier paper.

A recalled question carries a further risk. The law it tests may have changed since the sitting, so the answer a candidate remembers can now be wrong.

The 2027 format

The format changes from January 2027. Each of FLK1 and FLK2 has 170 single best answer questions in two sessions of 85, each lasting 2 hours 33 minutes. That is about 1.8 minutes a question. Before 2027 each FLK had 180 questions in two sessions of 90.

A paper from before January 2027 is built for a different length and pace. The SRA samples have been updated for the new format, and the FLK1 set is version 13, dated 25 August 2026.

Practising with original questions

The questions on this site are original, written for this site and not reconstructed from any exam. The bank has 1,389 examined single best answer questions in the 2027 format across all 13 subjects. Each has a rationale for every option and states the law as at its date.

The free practice paper puts 24 of them in a PDF to print. It takes 43 minutes at the real pace, and the answer key and explanations follow the questions.

A paper this short covers a sample of the syllabus, so read the result as a list of subjects to revise. It cannot be converted into a result, because the raw score behind the pass mark of 300 is not published.

For ten questions at a time by subject, use the SQE1 practice questions. For a timed paper with a result by subject, use the free SQE1 mock exam.

Using the SRA samples as the closest substitute

Because no past paper exists, the SRA samples are the best official guide to style and difficulty. Each question has a scenario of a few lines, a single question and five options. The 130 pre-tested questions also show how candidates performed, with an average of 53.1% correct across them.

Work through them under time once your subject learning is done, in blocks of 85 questions, and keep original questions for the weeks before. The SRA samples can be completed once, so a second source of questions in the same format is needed for repeated practice.

Questions candidates ask

No. The SRA does not publish past SQE1 papers. It publishes 220 sample questions, of which 130 were used in live assessments, and these are the nearest official material.

There is no official PDF of a past paper to download. The SRA sample questions are PDFs, and any file sold or shared as a past paper is unofficial. The free practice paper on this page is a PDF of 24 original questions, with an answer key and every option explained.

In part. The 130 pre-tested samples were used in live SQE1 assessments, and the 90 original samples were released before the first sitting. They are published as individual questions and do not make up a complete past paper.

Live SQE1 questions are confidential to the SRA and its assessment provider, so recalls are reconstructed from memory and are not official. A remembered question may also state law that has since changed.

Yes. The free practice paper on this page has 24 original single best answer questions, two from most FLK1 and FLK2 subjects. At the real pace of about 1.8 minutes a question, it takes 43 minutes.

Yes. Each of FLK1 and FLK2 has 170 questions in two sessions of 85, each lasting 2 hours 33 minutes. Before that each FLK had 180 questions in two sessions of 90, so material built on the older format has a different length and pace.

Sources

SQE Practice is independent of the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Rules, dates and fees can change: the SRA is the authority, and this page is checked against it.

Get a first read on every subject

No past paper exists to show where you stand. The free diagnostic asks 13 questions across FLK1 and FLK2 in about 15 minutes and gives a first read on every subject, which is where the study plan in the platform starts.

Take the free diagnostic

13 questions · about 15 minutes · free, no card details