Skip to content
Quick IQ Test

Quick IQ Test

Intelligence 20 questions · 5 min · Free
Read the full guide →

This is not a validated IQ test. No 20-question quiz on the internet is. Real clinical IQ tests — the WAIS, the Stanford-Binet — take around 90 minutes, are administered by a trained examiner, and cost a few hundred dollars. What you get here is a short puzzle set that samples a few of the reasoning tasks those tests also sample, without any of the norming or precision that makes the full tests useful.

With that caveat: this quiz has 20 questions across four skills — pattern recognition, logical reasoning, spatial thinking, and verbal reasoning. It takes about five minutes. Your score places you in a rough range calibrated against typical performance, not against a standard population sample.

Take it as a puzzle set. If you enjoy the questions, that tells you something about what kinds of thinking your brain finds fun. If you score high, that tells you you did well on this specific set of puzzles on this specific day. Nothing more and nothing less.

What this quiz measures

Four reasoning skills: pattern recognition (continuing visual or numerical sequences), logical reasoning (if-then deductions and puzzles), spatial thinking (rotating and visualising shapes), and verbal reasoning (word analogies, language-based puzzles). Real IQ tests also cover processing speed and working memory, which we do not test here.

The "IQ range" we report is the result of your performance mapped onto typical score bands. It is not a normed IQ score. Treat the number like you would treat a Buzzfeed quiz result — interesting, not diagnostic. If you want a real measurement, a clinical psychologist can administer one. Otherwise, enjoy the puzzles.

Sample questions

  1. What comes next in the sequence: 2, 6, 18, 54, ...?
    • 108
    • 162
    • 148
    • 216
  2. What is half of two plus two?
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
  3. If the day before yesterday was Thursday, what day is tomorrow?
    • Saturday
    • Sunday
    • Monday
    • Friday

Frequently Asked Questions

No. A real IQ test — the WAIS or Stanford-Binet — takes about 90 minutes, is administered by a trained psychologist, and is normed against a large population sample. This is a 20-question puzzle set that samples a few reasoning tasks those tests also use. Useful as a puzzle set, not as a measurement.
The score is calibrated against performance on this quiz, not against a standard population sample. Several things can move it around — how long you took, whether you second-guessed answers, how well-rested you are. The number is rough, not precise.
Pattern recognition asks you to continue sequences. Logical reasoning tests deduction and puzzle-solving. Spatial thinking involves rotating or visualising shapes. Verbal reasoning uses word analogies and language puzzles. A full IQ test also covers working memory and processing speed, which we do not test here.
Cognitive ability correlates modestly with academic and job performance in some types of work, particularly cognitively demanding ones. It does not predict happiness, relationship quality, creativity beyond a certain point, or most of what people call wisdom. It is one input into a complicated equation.
Some things shift modestly — practice with specific puzzle types improves performance on those specific puzzles. Broad cognitive ability is more stable. Education, nutrition in childhood, and sleep all have measurable effects. Brain-training apps mostly do not work the way they advertise.
Over the 20th century, average raw IQ scores rose by about 3 points per decade — the Flynn effect, named after James Flynn who documented it. The reasons are debated (better schooling, abstract-thinking cultural shifts, nutrition). Tests are periodically re-normed to keep the average at 100.

References

  • Flynn, J. R. (2007). What Is Intelligence? Beyond the Flynn Effect. Cambridge University Press. Explains why average IQ scores have risen about 3 points per decade over the past century.
  • Raven, J. C. (1938). Progressive Matrices. The pattern-recognition task that inspires many online "IQ" questions today.
  • Deary, I. J. (2020). Intelligence: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. A good non-jargon overview of what IQ does and does not measure.

Related quizzes