Free national investigators' exam practice questions
A plain list of what genuinely free national investigators' exam practice exists — nothing here needs a card, and nothing here pretends a sign-up form is "free".
The straight answer
There's no publicly available official practice bank. The College of Policing runs a gated Knowledge Hub with practice questions and revision guidance, but it's only for registered candidates, accessed through your force's liaison contact — nothing from the College itself is open to the public.
What is genuinely free and public comes from providers offering samples of their paid products, including this site: Police Law Prep's free NIE workspace has four full topics of the real app, no sign-up, nothing to install.
Source: College of Policing NIE candidate handbook 2026.
What's actually free
- Police Law Prep — four NIE topics free. Four full topics of the real app, spanning different syllabus areas: detention and treatment, theft, non-fatal offences, and sexual assault. The mixed-length multiple-choice practice questions explain why each wrong answer is wrong, not only what the right answer is. No sign-up, and no time limit on access.
- Police Inspire — free sample questions. A free sample from their paid question bank.
- Police Pass — free study pack. A free download alongside their paid revision products.
- The College of Policing's candidate handbook. Free, and the authoritative source on the exam's format, pass mark and syllabus — not practice questions, but worth reading before anything else.
What to look for in free questions
Not all "practice questions" test the same thing, free or paid. A few things worth checking before you rely on any set:
- Scenario format, not bare recall. The real exam asks you to apply the law to a situation, not just recognise a fact — questions phrased as short scenarios are closer to that than a plain definition-matching quiz.
- Explanations, not just answers. Whether the material tells you why the wrong options are wrong, not only which option is right — that's what actually builds understanding rather than pattern-matching one set of questions.
- Whether the mix follows the real weighting. The exam draws roughly 31/23/13/13 of its 80 questions from four syllabus areas. A free sample that's all from one area won't tell you much about your overall readiness.
An honest limit, worth saying plainly
Free samples exist to sell paid products — that's true of every provider on this page, including Police Law Prep. That's not a reason to dismiss them; it's just the incentive worth keeping in mind. The useful test isn't whether something is free, it's whether the free material actually teaches you something before you've paid anything at all.
Frequently asked
Are there official free national investigators' exam practice questions?
Not publicly. The College of Policing's gated Knowledge Hub has practice questions for registered candidates, accessed via your force's liaison contact, but nothing is publicly available from the College itself. Free practice questions come from commercial providers instead, offered as samples of paid products.
How many free questions does Police Law Prep include?
Four full topics of the real app, covering detention and treatment, theft, non-fatal offences, and sexual assault — complete with cards and mixed-length multiple-choice practice questions. That's a genuine subset of the app, not a cut-down demo, but it is a subset: the full product covers 43 topics.
Do the free Police Law Prep NIE questions expire?
No. There's no sign-up and no time limit — the four free topics stay available, and your progress is saved in your browser rather than an account, so it persists on that device without needing to create anything.
Are free national investigators' exam questions enough to prepare?
It depends how far the syllabus coverage goes. Free samples, from any provider, tend to cover a handful of topics rather than the full syllabus. The College of Policing's own candidate handbook recommends a minimum of 14 weeks of independent study across the whole syllabus, so free material is a reasonable way to start or to test a provider, but on its own it won't cover everything the exam draws from.
Test yourself across the full syllabus
The Police Law Prep NIE workspace has 518 revision cards and 774 mixed-length multiple-choice practice questions, plus mock exams and a readiness estimate. The £15 monthly subscription unlocks NIE, NPPF Sergeants and NPPF Inspectors.