TfL Topographical Test Questions

These are the TfL Topographical test questions you can expect, section by section, with a worked example for each one. The Topographical skills assessment is the map test in the London private hire (PCO) licence. It is taken on a computer at TfL's Driver Assessment Centre in North Greenwich, and only about half of candidates pass it. Most of those who fail know London reasonably well; they lose marks because they misread what a question type is asking.

Facts on this page come from TfL's Topographical assessment guidelines and its Topographical assessment page, checked in October 2026. UK Driver Licence Prep is an independent study aid. We are not part of TfL, and we never claim to show TfL's own questions: the examples below are written by us to teach the method.

How the Topographical test questions are scored

Part	What you do	Marks
Route planning questions (3)	Plot a short route, a short route with a road closure, and a long route on a digital map	66
Multiple-choice questions	Answer about symbols, places, streets, road numbers, compass points and route rules	34
Total		100
Pass mark		60%

The session lasts 90 minutes, according to TfL's On Route magazine, and starts with a short instruction video. The multiple-choice part is marked by the software. The routes are marked by a Topographical Assessor, and a second assessor checks the marking.

How many questions are there?

TfL publishes the three routes and the 66/34 split, but it does not publish the number of multiple-choice questions. Some training sites say 24 and others say 25. Neither figure comes from TfL, so we don't treat it as fact. Our Topographical mock tests use 30 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes with 18 to pass. That is our own practice format, chosen to give you more questions than the real paper, not TfL's rule.

Key fact: Two-thirds of the marks sit in just three route questions. A candidate who answers every multiple-choice question correctly but gets the routes badly wrong can still fail.

Section 1: route planning essentials

What it asks

This section gives you a short route-planning scenario and a set of true or false statements about it. It tests whether you know the rules of a good route before you draw one. Typical statements are about where a route must start and end, whether you can drive against a one-way arrow, and what to do when a road is closed.

Worked example

Scenario (invented): you are asked to plan the most direct route from a hotel to a hospital, and the main road between them is closed. Statements you might judge:

1. "You may start the route at the hospital and work backwards." False. A route drawn in reverse loses marks.
2. "If the closed road is the shortest way, you may still use it because it is quicker." False. A closed road cannot be part of any route.
3. "A route that takes a longer main road instead of the closed one can still be the most direct route." True. The most direct route is the shortest legal one, given the closure.

The trick in true or false questions is absolute words. A statement with "always" or "never" is usually testing whether you know the exception.

Section 2: planning a route between two locations

What it asks

This is the big one: three questions, 66 marks. You see a digital map with a green marker (start) and a red marker (end), and you click to build a route along the streets. TfL's guidelines list four ways to lose marks:

Mistake	What it looks like
Wrong start or end	The route starts one street away from the green marker, or stops short of the red marker
Route in reverse	The route is drawn from red to green
Not the most direct route	A longer way is used when a shorter legal one exists
Prohibited turn or route	The route breaks a one-way street, banned turn, no-entry point or closure shown on the map

Worked example: a closure

Invented map: Queen's Road runs north to south. Albert Road runs east to west and meets Station Road, a one-way street heading north to the station. Bridge Road runs parallel to Albert Road further south, and River Street joins Bridge Road to Albert Road at its east end.

The question says Albert Road is closed between Queen's Road and River Street. The marks go to: Queen's Road south, Bridge Road east, River Street north, Albert Road east (the open section), Station Road north. Using the closed section loses marks. So does entering Station Road from the station end, against the one-way arrow.

Practise exactly this skill, re-planning around a closure, in our free route planning practice. Our route planning note walks through more examples. Strategy for the routes, including how to spend your 90 minutes, is in how to pass the Topographical test.

Exam tip: Before you click the first street, find both markers and say the route to yourself in road names. If you can't say it, you haven't planned it yet.

Section 3: understanding map symbols

What it asks

Symbol questions ask what a mark on the map means. You may be given a printed map reference page that explains the symbols, so you are not expected to memorise every icon. You are expected to recognise the ones that change a route.

Symbol	Meaning	Why it matters
Arrow along a street	One-way street	You may only drive in the arrow's direction
Bar across the end of a street	No entry from that end	Often the "back door" of a one-way street
Crossed or barred turn arrow	Banned turn (no right turn, no left turn)	A route that makes this turn loses marks
Bus lane or bus gate marking	Buses (and sometimes cycles) only	Not a short cut for a private hire car
Shaded pedestrian area	No vehicles	You cannot route through it
Closure marking	Road closed	Covered in the question text too

Worked example

You see a red circle with a white horizontal bar at the end of a street. On a road sign that means no entry for vehicular traffic. On the map, a matching bar means the same thing. The Highway Code's traffic signs page is the best free reference: red circles mostly prohibit, blue circles mostly instruct, and triangles warn. Our map reading note links each map symbol to its road sign.

Section 4: finding places of interest

What it asks

These questions name a well-known place and ask you to find it on the map or say what area it is in. Think hospitals, main-line stations, major museums, stadiums, airports and government buildings, because these are where passengers ask to go.

Worked example

"Which of these is nearest to the Tower of London?" with four options such as London Bridge station, Paddington, Wembley and Heathrow. You don't need to measure: you need to know the Tower is on the north bank of the Thames at the eastern edge of the City, so London Bridge, just across the river, is closest. Learning places in clusters by area is faster than learning a list. Our London areas and places note groups them for you, and London knowledge practice drills them.

Section 5: finding specific streets

What it asks

You are given a street name and must locate it on the on-screen map. The skill is scanning a map quickly without a search box.

Worked example: a grid square

Paper atlases use a page and grid square, such as "53 C5": page 53, column C, row 5. Always read the column letter first, then the row number. If the index says a street is in C5, move along the top edge to column C, down the side to row 5, and look inside that square. On screen, the same habit applies: narrow down to an area first, then scan street by street.

Practise this in grid references practice.

Section 6: identifying road numbers

What it asks

These questions ask you to find a numbered road, or say which number a road carries. You need to know how British road numbering works, and the main numbered roads in London.

How road numbers work

• M roads are motorways, signed in blue.
• A roads are major roads. Primary A roads are signed in green with yellow numbers; other A roads and all B roads are signed in white.
• B roads are smaller local routes.
• Great Britain's A roads are numbered in zones. Zones 1 to 6 fan out from London between the A1 to A6 (A1 north, A2 south-east, A3 south-west, A4 west, A5 north-west), and zones 7 to 9 from Edinburgh. A road's first digit usually matches the zone it starts in.

In London the numbers that matter most are the radials (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A10, A11, A12, A13, A23, A40, A41), the inner ring formed by roads such as the A501, the North and South Circular roads (A406 and A205), and the M25 orbital. DfT's Know Your Traffic Signs explains the sign colours.

Worked example

"Which road is the North Circular?" Options might be A406, A205, A501 and A13. The answer is A406. The A205 is the South Circular, the A501 runs along Euston Road and Marylebone Road on the inner ring, and the A13 runs east towards Essex.

Section 7: compass points and directions

What it asks

Compass questions check the eight-point compass and direction words such as northbound or westbound. With north at the top of the map, east is to the right, south is down and west is to the left. North-east sits halfway between north and east, and so on.

Worked example

On a map with north at the top, Place A is in grid square B4 and Place B is in square D2. Columns run A to E from left to right, rows 1 to 5 from top to bottom.

• B to D is two columns to the right: east.
• Row 4 to row 2 is two rows up: north.
• Equal moves east and north, so Place B is north-east of Place A.
• A driver going from A to B is travelling north-east; the return journey is south-west.

"Northbound" describes travel, not position: a northbound lane carries traffic heading north. Read whether the question asks where something is or which way someone is going.

Exam tip: Check the map for a north arrow before any direction question. Never assume, and never turn the map in your head.

Grid references and scale: two worked sums

Our practice covers two skills that sit behind several sections: reading a precise grid reference and using a scale.

A six-figure grid reference

Ordnance Survey maps use numbered grid lines. Their guide to the National Grid explains the rule: eastings (the numbers along the bottom) first, then northings (the numbers up the side). "Along the corridor, then up the stairs."

Take the reference 576151:

1. Split it in half: 576 and 151.
2. The first half is the easting. 57 is the grid line, and 6 means six-tenths of the way across the square towards line 58.
3. The second half is the northing. 15 is the grid line, and 1 means one-tenth of the way up the square towards line 16.
4. So the point is just above the bottom edge of square 5715, a little past the middle of it.

A six-figure reference pins a point to within about 100 metres.

A scale sum

A map at 1:20,000 means 1 cm on the map is 20,000 cm on the ground, which is 200 m. Two routes measure 7 cm and 8.5 cm. The difference is 1.5 cm × 200 m = 300 m. When two route options look similar, a quick sum like this tells you which one is the most direct.

Questions people ask about the PDF

Searches for "TfL topographical test questions PDF free download" lead to a lot of copied files claiming to be the real paper. TfL does not publish its question bank, so those files are either old third-party practice sets or invented. We don't claim to have TfL's questions either.

What we offer instead is honest: our free printable Topographical sheet has a page of practice questions and an answer key. Print it, or use your browser's "Save as PDF". The questions printed under this page are real items from our bank, with the correct answers, so you can see the style before you practise.

How our Topographical practice works, and what it can't do

Our Topographical bank has 623 multiple-choice questions on map scales, symbols, grid references, compass directions, route rules and London places. You can start with the free quick practice, sit the free diagnostic, and take mock 1 free. Pro unlocks mocks 2 to 10 and practice by section; see pricing.

What it can't do: the three route-drawing tasks (66 of the 100 marks) are not simulated on the web. To practise them, use a London street map. Pick two points, mark a start and end, add an imaginary closure, and plot the shortest legal route road by road. Then check it against the four mark-losing mistakes above. The app has a map trainer on a made-up practice town for the same skill.

For the bigger picture of the assessment, including who is exempt, see our Topographical test guide.

Your study plan

1. Today: take the free Topographical diagnostic, 10 questions across every multiple-choice area.
2. This week: work through the seven worked examples on this page, then drill your weakest area in map reading or grid references.
3. Every day: plot two practice routes on a paper map, one of them with a closure.
4. Before booking: sit the free mock 1 under the timer and aim for 85% or more on three mocks in a row.
5. Then: read how to pass the Topographical test for a full revision plan built around the routes.