NIIED releases exactly one official TOPIK paper per year, free, on topik.go.kr — and as of October 2026 there are twelve of them in total, running from the 35th test to the 102nd. Everything else sold or shared online as a "TOPIK past paper" is either one of those twelve, a reconstruction, or a textbook mock test. Knowing which twelve exist, and how to mark them yourself, is most of the preparation problem solved.
The complete list of released papers
| Year released for | Test number |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 102nd |
| 2024 | 96th |
| 2023 | 91st |
| 2022 | 83rd |
| 2019 | 64th |
| 2018 | 60th |
| 2017 | 52nd |
| 2016 | 47th |
| 2015 | 41st |
| 2014 | 35th, 36th, 37th |
Nothing was released for 2020 or 2021. Every released paper is the paper-based test (PBT); no internet-based TOPIK (IBT) paper has ever been published, so if you are sitting the IBT you are practising the content on paper and the interface somewhere else.
NIIED does not announce in advance which sitting will be released, so there is no point waiting for a specific one.
Where they actually are on topik.go.kr
The official site keeps them in two different places, and the one most people find is not the one most people want.
학습하기 → 토픽 기출문제 풀어보기 lets you sit a paper on screen with the listening audio built in. Convenient, but the writing section is not included.
학습하기 → 학습 자료실 is the download area, and this is the one to use. A release there typically contains the question booklets as PDFs — two separate files for TOPIK II, one per session — the answer key and score sheet as a PDF, and the listening audio as a zip.
What you will not find in any official release is an explanation. There are no worked answers and no commentary, for any paper, in any year. The answer key tells you what was correct and nothing about why.
Exam structure, so you can time yourself properly
A past paper is only useful under real conditions, and the real conditions are tight.
| Test | Section | Time | Questions | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOPIK I | Listening | 40 min | 30 | 100 |
| TOPIK I | Reading | 60 min | 40 | 100 |
| TOPIK I | Total | 100 min | 70 | 200 |
| TOPIK II | Listening (session 1) | 60 min | 50 | 100 |
| TOPIK II | Writing (session 1) | 50 min | 4 | 100 |
| TOPIK II | Reading (session 2) | 70 min | 50 | 100 |
| TOPIK II | Total | 180 min | 104 | 300 |
TOPIK II runs in two sittings with a break between them. Listening and writing are taken back to back in one block of 110 minutes, which is the part candidates consistently underestimate — you begin the writing section already tired.
How to turn a raw score into a level
There is no pass mark and no per-section minimum. Your level is decided purely by the total, and one strong section can carry a weak one.
| Test | Level | Total score needed |
|---|---|---|
| TOPIK I | Level 1 | 80 |
| TOPIK I | Level 2 | 140 |
| TOPIK II | Level 3 | 120 |
| TOPIK II | Level 4 | 150 |
| TOPIK II | Level 5 | 190 |
| TOPIK II | Level 6 | 230 |
Two consequences follow, and both change how you should practise.
Level 4 is cheap and Level 5 is expensive. The jump from 3 to 4 is thirty points. The jump from 4 to 5 is forty, and from 5 to 6 another forty — on a scale where the easy marks have already been taken. If you need Level 4 for a university application, you are closer than you think. If you need Level 6, budget differently.
Writing is 100 of the 300 points on TOPIK II, and you cannot reach Level 5 while abandoning it. Candidates who ignore writing cap out somewhere around 170.
Marking yourself honestly
Listening and reading mark themselves — the answer key is unambiguous and you should score those sections exactly as given, with no part marks and no "I would have got that with more time".
Writing is the real difficulty, because 100 points are distributed across four tasks that no answer key can grade:
| Task | What it is | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 51 | Fill two gaps in a short practical text | 10 |
| 52 | Fill two gaps in an expository paragraph | 10 |
| 53 | Describe data in roughly 200–300 characters | 30 |
| 54 | Argumentative essay, roughly 600–700 characters | 50 |
Tasks 51 and 52 you can mark yourself with reasonable confidence; there is a narrow range of acceptable answers and your sentence either fits the register and grammar of the surrounding text or it does not.
Tasks 53 and 54 need another pair of eyes. The honest approach is to score them zero when estimating your own level, treat the resulting number as your floor, and get the essays read by a teacher or an exchange partner separately. A floor of 150 with writing scored as zero is a far more useful signal than an optimistic 210.
A sequence that works
Sit the 102nd first, cold, fully timed, before any targeted study. It is the most recent paper and therefore the closest to what you will face, and the discomfort is the point: you need the baseline more than you need the encouragement.
Then study for six to eight weeks and sit the 96th under the same conditions. Two data points separated by real work will tell you whether your method is moving the number, which no amount of app streaks can.
Keep the 91st and 83rd in reserve for the month before your actual sitting. Older papers from 2014 to 2019 are still good for vocabulary and reading speed, but the test's style has drifted enough that they are worse as rehearsals.
Do not re-sit a paper you have already marked. Once you have seen the answer key, you are testing recall rather than comprehension, and the score it gives you is a lie.
Where past papers stop being enough
Twelve papers sounds like a lot until you have sat four of them. Past papers measure; they do not teach. The gap between where a paper says you are and where you need to be gets closed by daily contact with the language — our guides to essential Korean grammar patterns and Korean particles cover the structures that TOPIK II reading leans on most heavily, and the TOPIK levels guide explains what each level is actually meant to represent in the real world.
For the practical side — registration windows, fees and test centres — see our TOPIK registration guide for 2026. And if you are deciding how much time Korean will take you in total, the FSI language difficulty ranking places Korean in Category IV, the hardest tier for English speakers, at roughly 2,200 class hours. A past paper that goes badly in month three is not evidence of failure. It is evidence of month three.
Frequently asked questions
Are TOPIK past papers free?
Yes. All twelve released papers, their answer keys and their listening audio are free downloads from topik.go.kr. Any site charging for them is reselling public files.
Why are there only twelve?
NIIED publishes one sitting per year and has never explained the policy beyond that. Tests are reused and adapted across sittings, which is the usual reason an exam board limits releases.
Can I get past papers for the IBT?
No. Every released paper is the paper-based test. The question types overlap heavily, but the interface, the timing controls and the typed writing section do not, so sit the official IBT demo separately.
Do the answer keys explain the answers?
No. Official releases contain the key and the score sheet only — no rationales and no model essays. Explanations only come from textbooks, teachers or study groups.
How many points do I need for Level 4?
150 out of 300 on TOPIK II. That is 50% of the total, with no minimum required in any individual section.
Should I practise with papers from 2014?
For vocabulary and reading speed, yes. As a rehearsal for the real thing, no — use the 102nd, 96th, 91st and 83rd for that, and keep the older ones as drills.