What is the SQE?

What SQE stands for, and what it is

SQE stands for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination. It is the single national assessment that everyone qualifying as a solicitor in England and Wales must pass, whatever their background and whatever they studied.

That is the point of it. Before the SQE there were several routes to the same qualification, each with its own assessments, and the standard applied at the end varied with the route you took. The SQE replaces that with one exam sat by everyone, marked the same way, so an employer looking at two newly qualified solicitors knows they cleared the same bar.

The word examination is doing some work there. The SQE is an assessment, not a course. Nobody teaches you on it and nothing about it is a qualification in itself. Preparation is a separate thing you buy, or do yourself, and the exam does not care which you chose.

What it replaced, and who is still on the old route

For new candidates, the SQE replaced the Legal Practice Course route. Under the old system a law degree or a conversion course led to the LPC, then a two year training contract at a firm, then admission. The SQE route keeps the degree requirement, swaps the LPC for two centrally set exams, and replaces the training contract with a looser two years of qualifying work experience that can be built from more than one employer.

The old route did not vanish overnight. Transitional arrangements let people who had already started the previous path finish on it, and those arrangements run for a defined period rather than indefinitely. Whether you are covered depends on exactly what you had started and when, and the rules are precise about it.

If you think you may be in that group, check your own position against the SRA's published transitional guidance rather than against anything you read here or on a forum. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and the answer turns on individual facts. Checked 9 September 2026.

• The SQE route is now the default for anyone starting fresh
• The LPC is still taught, and some employers still fund it for people eligible to use it
• Transitional eligibility depends on what you had already started, not on what you had planned
• The transitional window is time limited, so it is worth checking your date rather than assuming

The two stages: SQE1 and SQE2

The SQE splits into two very different assessments, and most people find the first one harder to prepare for and the second one harder to fake.

SQE1 tests functioning legal knowledge. It is 360 single best answer multiple choice questions across two papers, FLK1 and FLK2, each of 180 questions sat in two sessions on separate days. Every question gives you a client scenario and five options, and asks for the single best answer rather than the only correct one. There is no essay, no oral element and no negative marking. It is a long, dense, endurance-heavy exam, and the breadth is the difficulty: thirteen subject areas from contract and tort through to solicitors accounts and criminal practice.

SQE2 tests practical legal skills. Instead of picking options you draft, write, interview a client, advocate, make a legal analysis and do legal research, assessed across a set of stations covering the main practice areas. It is closer to being watched doing the job than to sitting a paper.

You take them in order. SQE1 must be passed before you can sit SQE2, with a narrow set of exemptions that the SRA governs.

The four things you need to qualify

Passing the SQE is one of four requirements, and candidates routinely underestimate the other three. You cannot be admitted as a solicitor until all four are satisfied, and they do not have to be done in order.

The work experience requirement is the one that has changed most. It no longer has to be a single training contract at one firm. Two years of full time equivalent qualifying work experience can be assembled from up to four placements, including paralegal work, a law clinic, or time in house, provided a solicitor confirms it and it gave you exposure to the competences.

• A degree or equivalent qualification. Any subject. It does not have to be law, and there are equivalent routes including apprenticeships.
• SQE1 passed. Both FLK1 and FLK2.
• SQE2 passed. Sat after SQE1, with limited exemptions.
• Two years of qualifying work experience. Full time equivalent, from up to four organisations, confirmed by a solicitor or the organisation's compliance officer.
• Character and suitability. The SRA assesses this separately when you apply for admission, and it covers things like criminal convictions, financial conduct and honesty in the application itself.

Who sets the SQE and who runs it

Two organisations, doing two different jobs.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the regulator for solicitors in England and Wales. It sets the SQE, decides what is examinable, sets the standard and the pass mark, and handles admission to the roll. It is the authority on every rule described on this page.

Kaplan is the assessment provider appointed to deliver the exam. Booking, test centres, the delivery platform, sittings and results all run through Kaplan. If your question is about how to book or where you sit, that is Kaplan. If it is about whether something counts, that is the SRA.

Neither organisation endorses, approves or is connected to this site or our app. Nor do either of them provide preparation courses. The training providers you see advertising SQE courses are separate commercial companies, and the SRA does not accredit them.

• SRA: sets the exam, sets the standard, admits you to the roll
• Kaplan: delivers the exam, runs booking and test centres, releases results
• Preparation providers: separate companies, not accredited by the SRA
• Check any rule that matters against the SRA's own published guidance

Who the SQE route suits

It suits more people than the old route did, which was the intention. Because the exam is set centrally and the work experience is flexible, you no longer have to win a training contract before you can start proving yourself.

It is a strong fit if you did not study law, since a conversion course is no longer a formal gate. It is a strong fit if you are already working as a paralegal, since that time can count towards the two years. And it is a strong fit if you are self funding, because the exam fees, though not small, sit well below a full LPC.

It is a harder fit if you learn badly on your own. The exam is centrally set and centrally marked, which means nobody is checking on your progress until results day. The candidates who struggle are usually not the ones who lacked ability. They are the ones who had no way of finding out what they did not know until it was too late to fix.

• Non law graduates: no separate conversion qualification required as a gate
• Paralegals and legal apprentices: existing work can count towards the two years
• Career changers: the route flexes around a job in a way a training contract does not
• Self funders: exam fees are the floor, and preparation cost is your choice
• Anyone who needs structure: build your own, because the route will not supply it

Where to go next

This page is the overview. Each of the guides below goes deep on one part of it.

If you are at the very start, read the format guide first so you know what you are aiming at, then the dates guide, because the booking deadline and the examinable law cut-off both land earlier than people expect.

• The SQE1 exam format, FLK1 and FLK2, timings, sessions and how single best answer marking works
• Free SQE1 practice questions, real format questions with full explanations
• SQE exam dates and booking, sitting windows, deadlines and the examinable law cut-off
• What the SQE costs, the exam fees and everything else that comes with them
• SQE preparation courses, what a course buys you and when it is worth it
• SQE prep providers compared, a factual comparison of the main options