Free NCLEX® Practice Questions: Every Source Worth Your Time in 2026
Where to get free NCLEX® practice questions in 2026: NCSBN's sample pack, Nurseslabs, provider trials, and Study With Lily's free plan, with what each one actually gives you.
Quick answer: You can practice real NCLEX®-style questions for $0 from four places that never expire: NCSBN's own sample pack (the exam maker), Nurseslabs (1,000+ questions, no account), Study With Lily's free plan (50 questions a month, no card, plus a daily question with no account), and the free tiers or short trials from UWorld, Kaplan, Archer, SimpleNursing, NCLEX® Bootcamp, and NURSING.com. Here is what each one actually gives you, checked on October 3, 2026 unless a row says "as of September 12, 2026."
Study With Lily publishes this guide and sells one of the products below. Every claim links to the provider's own page. Offers change, so confirm before you count on one.
Compare the free sources
| Source | What is free | Account needed | Rationales | Next Gen formats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NCSBN sample pack | 3 RN case studies, 2 PN case studies, additional item examples, an exam preview, and the candidate tutorial | No | Yes, in the pack | Yes, written by the exam maker |
| Nurseslabs | 1,000+ questions in 15 exams of 30, practice and challenge modes | No | Yes | Guides cover the formats; most items are classic multiple choice |
| Study With Lily | 50 practice questions a month, including up to 15 Coursework questions, and it does not expire; a daily NCLEX® question and NCLEX-PN® question with no account; free med math problems with worked answers | Free account for the monthly set; none for the daily questions | Yes, for every option | SBA, SATA, Matrix, and Drop-Down Cloze on the free plan |
| UWorld | Seven-day trial of the RN Review | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Kaplan | Seven-day Qbank trial (as of September 12, 2026; check current terms) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SimpleNursing | Five-day limited-access pass | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| NURSING.com | Three-day trial with the monthly plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Archer Review | Demo access to the Q-Bank | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| NCLEX® Bootcamp | Free tier with the study guide, study schedule, and cheat sheets (as of September 12, 2026; the pricing page now mentions a free trial, so check current terms) | Yes | Not in the free tier | Not in the free tier |
Start with the exam maker
NCSBN's preparation page is the only free source written by the people who write the exam. The sample pack has three RN case studies and two PN case studies plus additional item examples. The exam preview shows how the screens look, and the candidate tutorial walks you through the software. It is small and will not carry your prep. But it makes a good first hour, because you learn the item formats from the source instead of from someone's imitation.
Nurseslabs for volume
Nurseslabs has more than 1,000 free questions across 15 exams of 30 items. Practice mode shows the rationale after each question. Challenge mode gives you a score at the end. No sign-up. Most items are classic single-answer or select-all, and the site's guides explain the Next Gen types rather than serving many of them. Use it as free volume for content review, and read every rationale, not just the ones you missed.
Study With Lily's free plan
Our free plan gives you 50 practice questions a month. Up to 15 of those can be Coursework questions built from your own class notes. Every answer option gets a rationale, and topic results show where you are weak. No credit card, and the plan does not turn into a charge later. Difficulty adapts as you answer, so questions get harder as you improve. The daily NCLEX® question and daily NCLEX-PN® question need no account, and neither do the med math problems with worked answers or the lab values reference. Paid Full Access is $15 a month, $50 once for four months, or $120 once for Lifetime access. The price comparison puts that next to the other providers.
Provider trials: useful, but they end
Every major paid provider lets you in briefly:
- UWorld: a seven-day trial of the RN Review, per its course page.
- Kaplan: a seven-day Qbank trial, as of September 12, 2026. The page was blocked on October 3, so check current terms.
- SimpleNursing: a five-day limited-access pass, per its pricing page.
- NURSING.com: a three-day trial included with the monthly plan, per its pricing page.
- Archer Review: demo access to the Q-Bank from its RN page.
- NCLEX® Bootcamp: a free tier with the study guide, schedule, and cheat sheets, per its pricing page, as of September 12, 2026. The question bank is paid.
Use a trial to test the product, not to study. Pick a topic you know well and one you don't, do twenty questions in each, and judge the rationales. Some trials ask for a card up front, and some roll into a paid plan if you forget to cancel. Read the terms before you enter payment details.
How to get the most from free questions
- Read every rationale, including the ones you got right. A right answer for the wrong reason is a miss you haven't found yet.
- Log every miss by category. Write the test plan category and why you missed it: didn't know the content, misread the stem, or picked the second-best action. After 100 questions the pattern is obvious.
- Mix formats on purpose. If a free source only has single-answer items, add the NCSBN case studies so you see how one patient unfolds across six questions.
- Don't repeat the same free set. The second pass tests your memory of the answers, not your judgment. Finished a bank? Move to a new one.
- Set a weekly count. Fifty to seventy-five questions a week in the last two months is a realistic floor while you are still in school.
What free questions cannot do
Free banks are fixed sets. None of them adapt difficulty across thousands of items, run a timed session that behaves like the real exam, or track your results by test plan category over months. Those three things are what a paid plan buys. They start to be worth it in the last eight to twelve weeks. Before you pay anyone, check the current prices for seven providers side by side.
Study With Lily is an independent study tool. NCLEX® is a registered trademark of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, which is not affiliated with and does not endorse this site.