Free ISTQB Mock Exams Online: Where to Practice in 2026

"Free ISTQB mock exam" covers three very different things. There are the official sample exams that ISTQB and its member boards publish as PDFs. There are interactive sites that let you take a timed test in the browser at no cost. And there are "free samples" whose real job is to sell you a PDF of leaked questions. This guide sorts the platforms you will actually find in a 2026 search into those three groups, checks what each one offers on its own pages, and ends with a practice sequence that uses the free resources in the order that helps most.

Every fact below was checked on the platform's own site in September 2026. Where a site does not state something (how many questions a quiz has, whether wrong options are explained), the comparison says so rather than guessing.

How the platforms were compared

Six criteria, all of them checkable in a few minutes on any site:

• Free without sign-up. You can start a full test without creating an account or entering a card.

• Rationale on every option. The explanation tells you why each wrong answer is wrong, not only why the right one is right. This is the single biggest learning multiplier in a mock, because the exam's difficulty lives in the distractors.

• Syllabus version stated. CTFL is on v4.0 (syllabus v4.0.1); CT-AI is on v2.0; CTAL-TA on v4.0. A mock that does not say which version it follows may still be testing 2018 wording.

• Full-length timed mocks. For CTFL that means 40 questions in 60 minutes with the 26-point pass mark, as set out on the official ISTQB CTFL page.

• Chapter-by-chapter drills. Practice on one chapter at a time, weighted the way the ISTQB Exam Structures and Rules Tables weight the real exam.

• Not marketed as dumps. Sites that sell "actual exam questions" are excluded from the recommendations, whatever else they offer.

1. ExamCaliber

ExamCaliber is the only platform on this list that ticks all six boxes, which is why it leads it. At the time of writing the catalogue holds 35 full-length mock exams and 1,458 questions across six certifications: 15 CTFL v4.0 mocks (600 questions), 5 CT-AI v2.0 mocks, 6 A4Q Selenium Tester mocks, and 3 mocks each for CTAL-AT v2.0, CT-PT and CT-STE v1.0.1. Everything is free and there is no account to create; you open a mock and the timer starts.

Three things set it apart. First, every answer option carries a written rationale, including the wrong ones, in the same style as the official ISTQB sample exam answer sheets. Second, each mock follows the chapter distribution of the official Exam Structures and Rules Tables, so a CTFL mock gives you 8, 6, 4, 11, 9 and 2 questions from chapters 1 to 6 and the K3 share the real exam has, rather than 40 definition questions. Third, there are chapter pages for drilling one chapter at a time, for example the CTFL chapter 4 practice page, the chapter that supplies 11 of the 40 questions.

The CTFL, CT-AI and Selenium content is available in English, German and Spanish, so if your search was "istqb ctfl v4 free mock test spanish", the CTFL certification page switches locale in the header. Start with CTFL Mock Exam 1, or, for the AI specialist track, the CT-AI v2.0 mocks.

Limits worth knowing: six certifications is far fewer than the 26-plus that some aggregators list, so for a niche specialist module you may still need the official PDF sets below.

2. Official ISTQB sample exams (istqb.org)

The ISTQB CTFL page publishes four complete CTFL v4.0 sample exams, sets A to D, each as a Questions PDF and an Answers PDF (set A and B at v1.7, C at v1.6, D at v1.5), alongside syllabus v4.0.1 and the Exam Structures and Rules Tables v1.19. Set A alone contains 40 exam questions plus 26 additional questions in an appendix.

These are the calibration standard for everything else. The answer sheets justify every option, in the form "a) Is not correct. It is impossible to prove that there are no defects... c) Is correct...", with a pointer to the syllabus section. If a third-party mock feels much easier or much harder than set A, trust set A.

What they are not: interactive or timed. You time yourself, mark yourself, and there is no chapter filter. Four sets is also a small pool once you have seen them, and each additional read-through teaches you the sets rather than the syllabus.

3. ASTQB sample exams

The American board's sample exam library is the widest official collection: PDF sample exams with separate answer PDFs for 26 ISTQB certifications, including several Foundation sets, four AI Testing sets (v1.0 and v2.0), two Performance Testing sets, two Testing with Generative AI sets and one Security Test Engineer set. If you are preparing for a specialist or Advanced module where free online mocks barely exist, this is usually the only free source of exam-style questions.

Same caveats as istqb.org: PDF, untimed, no chapter drills, and the listing page does not say whether every answer sheet explains the wrong options, so check the individual PDF for your module.

4. istqb.expandtesting.com

A free, no-registration quiz site that currently lists four Foundation quizzes, two CTFL-AT quizzes, one CTAL-TA v4.0 quiz and one CT-AI v2.0 sample exam, each in three modes: practice with instant feedback, timed exam simulation, and a questions-and-answers review mode. Content is offered in English, French and Spanish, which makes it one of the few free options for francophone candidates.

What the site does not state on its listing pages: how many questions each Foundation quiz has, which Foundation syllabus version it follows, or whether explanations cover the incorrect options. Treat it as a good extra pool of timed practice once you have calibrated on an official set.

5. istqb.patshala.com

Patshala labels its content syllabus v4.0.1, states that all ISTQB material is free, and lists eight Foundation mock tests plus Advanced and Agile modules. Each test offers a practice mode (instant evaluation after each question, no time limit) and a test mode (timed, evaluated on submit). There is a sign-in link, but the mode-selection pages open without logging in.

Question counts per test and the presence of explanations are not stated on the listing, so the first test you take will tell you more than the homepage does.

6. Mock Exam Network

The largest aggregator in the space: the homepage claims 42,260+ questions across 27 certifications (the page title says 18,000+), with chapter practice and full-length mocks for every exam, in four languages. There is a free plan "included forever, no card required" with ads and seven days of basic analytics, and a Premium tier at $5 a month for detailed analytics, a smart learning mode, spaced-repetition flashcards and no adverts.

Volume is the strength and also the weakness. In the two CTFL chapter mocks we worked through in July 2026, explanations were a single line restating the correct option, wrong options were not discussed, and several questions in the same 20-question mock asked the same fact in different words. It is a fine place for repetition once the concepts are solid; it is a poor place to learn why a distractor is wrong.

7. Guru99 quiz

Guru99 offers three free Foundation mock tests of 40 questions each, one mark per question, with a self-set pass line of 20 out of 40. The page was last updated in June 2024 and does not name a syllabus version, and the tests are embedded forms without per-option explanations. Useful for a quick warm-up, not as a primary source, and note that the real exam requires 26 of 40, not 20.

8. istqb.guru (read this before you pay)

istqb.guru gives away 20 sample questions with answers, another 20 with explanations, and "28 sample papers" that the site itself describes as very old. Its paid product is marketed openly as "ISTQB Dumps" with a "100% sure pass" promise, sold as printable PDFs through a contact form.

Two reasons to skip the paid part. Using leaked exam content runs against the ISTQB Code of Ethics and the exam regulations candidates accept when they register, and can void the certificate. And it does not work as preparation: the live question pool rotates and is written against the syllabus, so memorising 490 old questions trains recall of a set, not the K2 and K3 skills the exam actually samples. If you want 500 questions with explanations, the free platforms above already give you more than that.

A free practice sequence that uses all of them

Stage 1, calibrate. Sit official Sample Exam A under exam conditions: 40 questions, 60 minutes, no notes. Then read every justification, including the ones for options you did not pick. If you scored below 26, the gap is in the syllabus, not in exam technique; go back to the chapters you lost points in before doing any more mocks.

Stage 2, drill by chapter. Use chapter-level practice, and weight your time the way the exam does. Chapters 4 and 5 together supply 20 of the 40 questions and all eight K3 questions, so they deserve half your drilling time. Chapter 6 supplies two questions; do not spend an evening on it. ExamCaliber's how-to-pass guide lays out the same weighting as a study plan.

Stage 3, simulate. Alternate full timed 40-question mocks from the interactive sites, aiming for a steady 30-plus out of 40 (the real pass mark is 26, and you want a margin for exam-day nerves). Keep official sets B, C and D unseen until the last week and use them as the final check. If you are a non-native English speaker, remember you can request the 25 percent time extension, 75 minutes instead of 60, so practise at that pace if you plan to use it.

For terminology questions, the ISTQB glossary is the reference the exam writers use; if a mock's wording of a term differs from the glossary, the glossary wins.

What this list is not

It is not a ranking by question count, and it deliberately leaves out sites whose main product is leaked exam content. The order reflects the six criteria above, checked on each site in September 2026. Platforms change their offers, so the matrix will be refreshed quarterly; if a site has added per-option explanations or a stated syllabus version since then, its row will move.