Short answer: IQ test questions sample several kinds of reasoning: verbal (analogies, vocabulary, odd word out), numerical (series and word problems), logical (deduction and ordering) and spatial (rotation, direction, counting shapes). Below are 29 original items with worked answers. Answering them shows the formats; it cannot produce an IQ, which requires a standardized test scored against a large norm group.
At a glance
| Items on this page | 29 original questions, all with answers |
|---|---|
| Categories | Verbal, numerical, logical, spatial |
| Real-test benchmark | WAIS-5: five primary indexes, ages 16 to 90 |
| WAIS-5 full-scale IQ | 7 subtests, about 45 minutes |
| Retest effect | Scores rise with repeat testing, leveling off after the third try |
| Can this page give you an IQ? | No: it has no norms |
What real IQ tests ask
The benchmark adult test, Pearson's WAIS-5, reports five primary indexes: Verbal Comprehension, Visual Spatial, Fluid Reasoning, Working Memory and Processing Speed. Pearson puts the seven-subtest full-scale IQ at about 45 minutes. The subtests include word meanings, similarities between concepts, matrix puzzles, block designs, digit sequences and timed symbol tasks. A psychologist administers them one to one.
Published items are copyrighted and confidential, so no honest page can show them. The questions below are original and imitate the categories, not the items. For how the indexes combine into one number, read how IQ tests work and our WAIS-IV guide.
Verbal questions
- Author is to novel as composer is to: (a) orchestra (b) symphony (c) piano (d) audience.
Answer: (b). An author creates a novel; a composer creates a symphony. - Which word does not belong: oak, birch, tulip, maple, cedar?
Answer: tulip. It is a flower; the others are trees. - Which word is closest in meaning to terse: (a) rude (b) concise (c) tired (d) vague?
Answer: (b). Terse means brief and to the point. - Which word is the opposite of scarce: (a) rare (b) costly (c) abundant (d) hidden?
Answer: (c). - Find one word that completes both: light___ and ___boat.
Answer: house, giving lighthouse and houseboat. - Rearrange the letters of LISTEN to form a word meaning quiet.
Answer: SILENT. - Bird is to flock as fish is to: (a) river (b) school (c) fin (d) net.
Answer: (b). A group of birds is a flock; a group of fish is a school.
Numerical questions
- 3, 7, 15, 31, ?
Answer: 63. Double and add one each time. - 2, 6, 12, 20, 30, ?
Answer: 42. The terms are 1×2, 2×3, 3×4, 4×5, 5×6, so next is 6×7. - 81, 27, 9, 3, ?
Answer: 1. Divide by three. - 10, 13, 11, 14, 12, ?
Answer: 15. The steps alternate: add 3, subtract 2. - A shirt costs $40 after a 20 percent discount. What was the original price?
Answer: $50. The sale price is 80 percent of the original, and 40 divided by 0.8 is 50. - A train covers 180 miles in 3 hours. At the same speed, how far does it travel in 5 hours?
Answer: 300 miles, at 60 miles per hour. - A tank fills at 12 liters a minute and drains at 4 liters a minute at the same time. Starting empty, how long until it holds 200 liters?
Answer: 25 minutes. It gains a net 8 liters a minute. - Ana is twice Ben's age. In ten years she will be one and a half times his age. How old is Ben now?
Answer: 10. If Ben is b, then 2b + 10 = 1.5(b + 10), so 0.5b = 5. Ana is 20. - Which is larger, 3/8 or 0.4?
Answer: 0.4. Three eighths is 0.375.
Logic questions
- All glimps are morts. No morts are tavs. Can a glimp be a tav?
Answer: No. Every glimp is a mort, and no mort is a tav. - Some doctors are runners. All runners own running shoes. Must some doctors own running shoes?
Answer: Yes. The doctors who run are runners, and every runner owns them. - Kim is taller than Lee. Lee is taller than Max. Max is taller than Ned. Who is second shortest?
Answer: Max. The order from tallest is Kim, Lee, Max, Ned. - A key is in one of three boxes: red, blue or green. Exactly one statement is true: (1) the key is in the red box; (2) the key is not in the blue box; (3) the key is not in the red box. Where is the key?
Answer: blue. Statements 1 and 3 contradict, so one of them is the true one. Statement 2 must then be false, which puts the key in the blue box. - If the day after tomorrow is Saturday, what day was yesterday?
Answer: Wednesday. Today is Thursday. - In a code, CAT is written DBU. How is DOG written?
Answer: EPH. Each letter shifts one place forward. - Four runners finish a race. Ada finishes ahead of Bo but behind Cy. Di finishes last. Who wins?
Answer: Cy. The order is Cy, Ada, Bo, Di.
Spatial questions, in words
- Which capital letter looks identical after a 180-degree rotation: R, S, E or K?
Answer: S. It has point symmetry; the others do not. - You face east. You turn 90 degrees left, then turn 180 degrees. Which way do you face?
Answer: south. The left turn points you north; the half turn reverses it. - A 4 by 4 by 4 cube is built from 64 small cubes. How many small cubes cannot be seen from any outside face?
Answer: 8. The hidden core is a 2 by 2 by 2 block. - Town B is 6 km due north of town A. Town C is 8 km due east of B. How far is C from A in a straight line?
Answer: 10 km, by Pythagoras: 36 + 64 = 100. - What is the smaller angle between a clock's hands at 3:30?
Answer: 75 degrees. The minute hand is at 180 degrees. The hour hand has moved halfway from 90 to 120, to 105 degrees. - Draw a square and both of its diagonals. How many triangles appear?
Answer: 8. There are four small triangles, plus four larger ones, each made of two small triangles on one side of a diagonal.
How to read your results
A raw count on this page cannot be converted into an IQ. A real score compares a performance with a large, representative norm group of the same age, and this page has none. Treat the questions you missed as a map of unfamiliar formats, nothing more.
Repetition also inflates results. A 2018 meta-analysis by Scharfen, Peters and Holling, covering 153,185 people, found that scores on cognitive ability tests climb with repeated testing and stop climbing after the third session. Our free IQ test is a practice screener in the same spirit. For a sense of scale, an IQ of 100 is exactly average; the bands are set out in our IQ classification guide, and the full library is in the IQ guides hub.
What a valid score predicts is modest but real. An American Psychological Association task force chaired by Ulric Neisser, whose report appeared in American Psychologist in 1996, found that IQ correlates about 0.5 with school grades. Format-specific practice continues in our guides to Raven's Progressive Matrices, abstract reasoning and spatial reasoning.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of questions are on an IQ test?
Most full IQ tests mix verbal items (vocabulary, similarities), fluid reasoning puzzles (matrices, series), working memory tasks (repeating or reordering digits), spatial tasks (assembling designs) and timed processing speed tasks. The WAIS-5 groups its subtests into five such indexes.
Can I calculate my IQ from these questions?
No. An IQ is a comparison with a norm group, and these items have never been normed. Getting all 29 right shows comfort with the formats. A licensed psychologist using a standardized test such as the WAIS-5 is the reliable route to a score with a known margin of error.
Do practice questions raise your IQ?
They raise test scores, not intelligence. Research on retest effects shows scores climb when people meet the same kinds of items again, then level off after about the third attempt. The gain reflects familiarity with the format, so a practiced score overstates the ability behind it.
Which type of IQ question is hardest?
It varies by person. In a 1990 study of matrix puzzles, Carpenter, Just and Shell found that items grew harder as they stacked more rules, such as shape, count and shading changing at once. Strong solvers could keep more partial rules in working memory while testing them.
Sources
- WAIS-5 overview brochure (Pearson) — Five primary indexes, subtests, ages 16-90:11, 45-minute seven-subtest FSIQ
- Scharfen, Peters and Holling, Retest effects in cognitive ability tests (Intelligence, 2018) — 153,185 participants; gains level off after the third administration
- Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns (Wikipedia summary of the 1996 APA task force report) — Neisser-chaired task force, report 1995, American Psychologist 1996; IQ correlates about 0.5 with grades
- Carpenter, Just and Shell, What one intelligence test measures (1990) — Multi-rule items and working-memory goal management
Editorial standard: IQ figures for historical figures are retrospective estimates and are labeled as such; scores for living people appear only when the person disclosed them or a reputable outlet reported them. Corrections: contact the editors.
