- SQE1 is 360 questions in total: 180 on FLK1 and 180 on FLK2.
- Each paper is sat as two sessions of 90 questions rather than one block of 180.
- Every question is single best answer with five options and is worth one mark.
- There is no negative marking and no partial credit, so a blank scores exactly what a wrong answer scores.
- The questions on a paper are spread across that paper's subjects, and the SRA publishes no per subject percentage weighting.
- Figures move. Confirm the question count and session structure for your own sitting on the SRA's own published pages. Checked 9 September 2026.
How many questions are in SQE1
SQE1 is 360 questions in total. FLK1 is 180 questions and FLK2 is 180 questions, and each of those papers is sat as two sessions of 90 questions rather than one continuous block, so across the whole assessment you sit four sessions of 90.
That structure matters more than the headline number. You are never facing 180 questions in one go, and you are never facing 360. You are facing 90, four times, with a break between the two sessions of a paper and normally a separate day for each paper. Candidates who picture SQE1 as one enormous paper tend to plan their stamina for the wrong exam.
FLK1 and FLK2 are marked separately, each against its own pass mark for that sitting, so the two blocks of 180 are not pooled into a single score out of 360. Reaching the standard on one paper does not carry you on the other.
All figures here were checked on 9 September 2026. Question counts and session structure are set by the assessment specification and can be revised, so confirm the arrangements for your own sitting on the SRA's own published pages before you plan around them.
What the question count means in practice
Knowing that SQE1 is 360 questions is only useful once you know what each of those questions is worth and how it behaves.
- Five options, one mark. Every question is single best answer. You get a client scenario and five options, and you choose the one best answer rather than the only correct one. Several options will be defensible.
- No negative marking. Nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, which means an unanswered question scores exactly the same as an incorrect one. Leaving a question blank is a pure loss, so record something on every one.
- No partial credit. A question is right or it is not. There are no marks for being close, for eliminating three options, or for picking the second best answer.
- Every question weighs the same. A short question on a familiar point is worth exactly what a long, dense one is worth, which is why the long ones are rarely the best use of your last five minutes.
- The questions are spread across that paper's subjects. FLK1 carries six subjects and FLK2 carries seven, and the 180 questions on each paper are distributed across them.
- Ethics is not a separate block of questions. Professional conduct is examined pervasively, so a conduct point can be embedded in a question on any subject on either paper.
How 360 questions spread across thirteen subjects
SQE1 covers thirteen subject areas with no optionality. Divide 360 across thirteen and the arithmetic makes the difficulty obvious: no subject can carry a huge number of questions, and no subject can safely be skipped either.
This is where a lot of revision planning goes wrong. Because the SRA does not publish a per subject percentage weighting, nobody can honestly tell you that a given subject is worth a fixed share of the marks on a paper. Any weighting table circulating in a study group is an estimate, and building a plan around one means gambling on somebody else's guess.
The safer reading of the question count is that coverage beats depth. A candidate who knows eleven subjects extremely well and two barely at all is carrying a risk that a candidate with even competence across all thirteen is not. The format rewards being reliably decent everywhere rather than exceptional in a few places.
For the full subject list, what each subject actually covers and which paper it sits on, read the SQE1 specification and syllabus.
What 90 questions per session does to your pacing
Each session gives you a fixed time for 90 questions, which works out at a little over a minute and a half per question. That average is the number to train against, because it is the constraint that turns a knowledge problem into an exam problem.
Most candidates do not fail on the questions they cannot answer. They fail on the questions they could have answered if they had reached them with time and attention left. Spending four minutes agonising over a hard question costs you the two easy ones at the end of the paper, and all three are worth exactly one mark.
The practical discipline is simple and unpopular: answer, flag, move. Since there is no negative marking, your best guess goes down immediately and you come back only if time allows. A flagged question with an answer already recorded is a chance to gain a mark. A flagged question left blank is a guaranteed zero if you run out of time.
The questions people ask next
The question count leads straight into two others, and both are worth knowing before you book.
The first is how the marking works, since a score out of 180 per paper is not measured against a fixed percentage. See what is the SQE1 pass mark? for how the mark is set for each sitting and what that means for the target you should aim at.
The second is what happens if a paper goes badly. See how many attempts do you get at SQE1? for the attempt limit, the time window it sits inside and which of the two usually bites first.
