JLPT test format: question types by level
Last checked: 2026-11-06
The JLPT has 14 question types at N5, 15 at N4, 17 at N3, 19 at N2 and 18 at N1. Each type holds several questions. The official pages we read list the types, but they give no fixed number of questions for a test.
Question types and test time by level
We counted the question types in the official table below. The times are added up from the official section times.
| Level | Language knowledge and reading types | Listening types | Total types | Total test time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N5 | 10 | 4 | 14 | 90 min |
| N4 | 11 | 4 | 15 | 115 min |
| N3 | 12 | 5 | 17 | 140 min |
| N2 | 14 | 5 | 19 | 155 min |
| N1 | 13 | 5 | 18 | 165 min |
The JLPT site says times may change, and listening time may vary slightly with the length of the recordings.
How many questions are on the JLPT?
We found no official total. The JLPT page says each question type includes several questions, and it stops there. So any total you see for a level comes from a third party, such as a mock test.
The closest official guide is the official practice workbook. The JLPT says each workbook has almost the same number of questions as a real test. The FAQ also says question numbers fell when it shortened N4 and N5 reading and vocabulary sections and N1 listening, so an old mock test may be longer than the real one.
Which question types appear at each level
| Question type | N1 | N2 | N3 | N4 | N5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kanji reading | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Orthography (writing a word in kanji) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Word formation | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Contextually-defined expressions | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Paraphrases | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Usage | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Sentential grammar 1 (grammar form) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sentential grammar 2 (sentence composition) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Text grammar | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reading: short passages | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reading: mid-size passages | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reading: long passages | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Reading: integrated comprehension | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Reading: thematic comprehension (long passages) | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Information retrieval | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Listening: task-based comprehension | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Listening: key points | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Listening: general outline | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Listening: verbal expressions | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Listening: quick response | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Listening: integrated comprehension | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
From the JLPT's Japanese page, which has the full table. English names are from the JLPT's English PDFs for N2 and N3. The short notes in brackets are ours.
How long are the reading texts?
The JLPT gives rough lengths in Japanese characters. Here are the two levels we read.
| Question type | N3 | N2 |
|---|---|---|
| Short passages | About 150 to 200 | About 200 |
| Mid-size passages | About 350 | About 500 |
| Long passages | About 550 | Not used |
| Integrated comprehension | Not used | About 600 in total |
| Thematic comprehension | Not used | About 900 |
| Information retrieval | About 600 | About 700 |
What the table means for your study
These points are our own reading of the official table.
- N3 is the first level with a long passage, and listening adds a general outline task.
- N2 has the most types. It is the only level with word formation.
- N1 drops orthography, but kanji reading stays at every level.
- Moving from N4 to N3 changes the format as well as the difficulty. See what each level means.
Next, see how the test is scored and the pass marks for each section. Try the official workbook to feel the length of a full test.