How we write questions and check facts

What the site holds

These counts are taken from the question bank, the figure records and the sign list whenever the site is updated. A question can count towards more than one test.

How a question is written

1. Each group of questions starts from a written brief. It lists every rule the group may test, with its figure, the instrument, the exact provision and a link, and it lists the rules that must not be asked and the wrong ideas learners tend to bring to them.
2. We confirm each rule against Irish legislation on the Irish Statute Book, against EU law on EUR-Lex, or against the page of the agency responsible for it.
3. We close the source and write the question, the answer options and the explanation in our own words. If a question cannot be written without the source open in front of us, we start again.
4. The explanation gives the reason for the answer, not only the answer.
5. Every question keeps a record of the instrument and provision it rests on, a link to that provision, the date the source was reviewed and the licence its wording falls under, so you can check it yourself.
6. A review then reads the question against the provision it cites, and the review is recorded on the question. Many questions carry a second review as well.

Checks every question has to pass

• No two answer options may read the same once case and punctuation are set aside, and the marked answer has to be one of the options.
• The link has to be one we already traced to that rule, in our research on the law or in the brief, so a question cannot cite a page nobody has read.
• The licence has to be the Oireachtas licence for legislation, or a note that a fact is restated in our own words.
• The wording is checked against our lists of banned claims and phrases and against Irish English, so you read tyre, kerb and learner permit rather than the American terms.
• Across each test the position of the right answer is kept balanced, so always picking the same position does not pay.
• On a road sign question, the text describing a picture may not give the answer away.

What we never copy

We never copy, adapt or reword questions or text from:

• the question bank used in the real theory test, or its book, app or online practice service
• the Rules of the Road
• text on rsa.ie
• any other practice site, app or question deck

That material belongs to others. A question learned by its wording is also less use in the test centre than a rule you understand.

The sources we use

• Irish legislation from the Irish Statute Book. Contains Oireachtas material, © Houses of the Oireachtas, reused under the Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence (CC BY 4.0). Read the licence.
• EU law from EUR-Lex, for the rules on drivers' hours, tachographs and professional driver training that the truck and bus tests draw on. Its legal notice says legal documents may be reused commercially unless otherwise specified; editorial content, summaries and consolidated texts are CC BY 4.0.
• Road Safety Authority statistics hosted by the Central Statistics Office, reused under CC BY 4.0 as the CSO copyright policy allows.
• Road sign files from Wikimedia Commons, each recorded with its own file page and licence tag.
• Pages of the public bodies that run driver licensing and testing, for facts such as fees and booking rules. We restate those facts in our own words and link the page.

The sources and licences page gives the full attribution for each.

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas, Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence, clause 3.1, dated 2017-08-16, checked on 2026-09-15

Source: Irish Statute Book, Irish Statute Book open data page, undated, checked on 2026-09-15

Source: European Union, via EUR-Lex, EUR-Lex legal notice, undated, checked on 2026-09-15

Source: data.gov.ie, CKAN package_search metadata for the ROA datasets, dated 2026-09-15, checked on 2026-09-15

Source: Central Statistics Office, PxStat table ROA30, JSON-stat metadata, dated 2026-09-08, checked on 2026-09-15

How facts are checked and dated

A figure only appears on this site with a source line beside it. That line names who published the figure, the document it comes from, the date of the data or page, the date we last checked it, and a link to the source.

Behind each figure sits one record: the value exactly as published, never rounded or approximated, what it describes, a status and at least one source. Each source keeps a short quote from the page, so the figure can be found again.

The status says whether the figure was confirmed on an agency or legal page, is not published anywhere we looked, is given differently by two public sources, or appears only on a third-party site. A figure given differently needs both sources on record, and a figure that is not published says where we looked.

If we cannot find a source for a figure, we do not show the figure. When we check a figure again, its checked date changes, and if the value has changed we correct it and say so on the page, as the corrections page describes.

Driving test figures from the CSO

Pass rates, waiting times, test applications, test capacity and tester numbers come from Road Safety Authority tables published by the Central Statistics Office. We download each table in full and keep a checksum of the file, so a figure can be traced to the exact download it came from.

Where a page gives a pass rate across several months or centres, we weight each month by the tests delivered in it rather than averaging the monthly rates, and the page says the figure is our own calculation.

The tables are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), so the Road Safety Authority and the Central Statistics Office are credited beside every figure. A test centre with too few car tests in the period is not offered to search engines, because a handful of results would swing its rate.

Source: data.gov.ie, CKAN package_search metadata for the ROA datasets, dated 2026-09-15, checked on 2026-09-15

Source: Central Statistics Office, PxStat table ROA30, JSON-stat metadata, dated 2026-09-08, checked on 2026-09-15

How road sign pictures are chosen

A sign picture comes from Wikimedia Commons only when the file carries a public domain or free licence tag, its code matches the code in the regulations exactly, letter suffix included, and it shows the current design rather than a historic one. Files tagged as insignia, and files whose stated source is the Rules of the Road or rsa.ie, are refused.

Where no Commons file passes, we use the diagram printed in the Road Traffic (Traffic Signs) Regulations 2025, S.I. No. 433 of 2025, on the Irish Statute Book, reused under the Oireachtas licence. Where neither exists, the sign is described in words and not drawn.

Left and right versions of a sign are separate signs with their own codes, so a picture is never mirrored to stand in for the other one.

We do not copy drawings from the Traffic Signs Manual either. Its reuse terms are not published, so we cite the manual and link to it instead.

Source: Irish Statute Book, Road Traffic (Traffic Signs) Regulations 2025, S.I. No. 433 of 2025, Reg. 1, dated 2025-09-22, checked on 2026-09-15

Source: Department of Transport, Traffic Signs Manual, chapter list on roadguidelines.ie, undated, checked on 2026-09-15

Source: Department of Transport, Traffic Signs Manual publication page on gov.ie, dated 2025-02-12, checked on 2026-09-15

What is not published, and what we never estimate

Some numbers learners ask about are not published, so you will not find them here:

• the size of the question bank used in the real theory test
• theory test pass rates for each theory test centre
• pass rates for individual driving schools or instructors

Where a page touches on one of these, it says the figure is not published and names where we looked. We do not estimate them or work backwards to a guess.

When two public sources disagree

Sometimes two public sources give different answers to the same question, such as an agency page and the legislation behind it. When that happens we show every source side by side and say that they disagree. We do not pick one for you.

Take the list of theory tests. Five test categories are listed on theorytest.ie: AM, BW, C, D and CD. rsa.ie lists four, A, BW, C and D, leaving out the combined test. Neither list counts the truck or bus module tests.

If you think we have missed a disagreement, tell us.

Source: Prometric Ireland Ltd (Driver Theory Test Service), Driver Theory Test FAQs, dated 2026-08-14, checked on 2026-09-15

Source: Road Safety Authority, Theory test: what it is, undated, checked on 2026-09-15

Pages held back from search results

A page that offers a mock test or practice questions is offered to search engines only once its own HTML shows a full set of sample questions, each with its answer options, the answer and the explanation, readable with JavaScript switched off.

A lesson also needs its rules linked to the Irish law behind them and enough questions tagged to that lesson. A written page is held back when it repeats too much of the pages around it, or holds too few words of its own once the shared headings and links are set aside.

A page held back still works and stays linked from the rest of the site. It asks search engines not to list it and is left out of the sitemap, and we add to it only when there is a real fact to add.