The Policía Nacional oposición has three eliminating stages, and the primera prueba, the written knowledge test, is the one every candidate has to clear first. Here is exactly what that test looks like under the current convocatoria.
How many questions are on the Policía Nacional exam?
The primera prueba is 100 questions in 50 minutes, each with three answer alternatives of which only one is true. This comes directly from the current convocatoria, BOE-A-2026-15055, a Resolución de 7 de julio de 2026 of the Dirección General de la Policía, which states the test consists of “un cuestionario de cien preguntas, con un enunciado y tres alternativas de respuestas de las que solo una es verdadera.” Fifty minutes for a hundred questions is half a minute per question, which rewards recognising a provision on sight over reasoning your way to it during the test.
What is the pass mark?
The test is scored from 0 to 10 points, and the stated minimum is 3. On its own that sounds low next to other oposiciones, but 3 is only the floor to stay in the process. The convocatoria goes on to say that only aspirantes who reach that minimum “obtengan las mejores calificaciones” continue, up to 1.75 candidates for each of the 2,163 plazas convocadas. In practice that means the test eliminates on a fixed floor and then ranks everyone who cleared it, cutting off well above 3 once enough candidates have scored higher. Treating 3 as a target rather than a formality is a common and costly misreading of this exam.
Is there negative marking?
Yes. The convocatoria’s own formula is [A-E/(n-1)]x10/P: A is the number of correct answers, E the number of wrong ones, n the number of alternatives per question, and P the total question count. With three alternatives, n-1 equals 2, so the formula subtracts half an error’s worth for each wrong answer, meaning two wrong answers cancel one correct one. Blank answers are not errors and do not enter the E term at all.
With only three options and a penalty that erases half a wrong guess’s worth, a blind guess across the whole test comes out negative on average. Leaving a question blank when you cannot eliminate at least one alternative is the better move; guessing only pays once you can rule one option out.
How many places does the convocatoria offer?
2,163 plazas by oposición libre. A separate route exists for professional military personnel of tropa y marinería with at least five years of service, with its own conditions and its own quota; any of those places left unfilled roll over into the oposición libre pool, so 2,163 is the floor for open candidates rather than a fixed ceiling.
What does the exam actually cover?
Anexo I of the convocatoria lists 45 temas across three blocks:
- Ciencias Jurídicas (temas 1-26): constitutional law and the European Union, how the Administración General del Estado and the Policía Nacional itself are organised, immigration and asylum, private and citizen security, criminal law and criminal procedure, victims’ rights and equality, risk prevention and data protection.
- Ciencias Sociales (temas 27-37): human rights, globalisation and immigration, security and delinquency, drug dependence, sustainable development, and Spanish grammar and orthography.
- Materias Técnico-Científicas (temas 38-45): operating systems and networks, intelligence and cybercrime, firearms and ballistics, and road safety and police driving.
The convocatoria fixes the question count, the three-option format, the time limit and the marking formula, but it does not publish how many of the 100 questions come from each tema. No official per-topic split exists to quote. A mock that invented one would be presenting a guess as fact; a fair mock instead draws each tema’s share by its weight in the 45-tema syllabus, which is why a heavier block like Ciencias Jurídicas draws noticeably more of the 100 questions than a single-tema block like seguridad privada.
Policía Nacional primera prueba at a glance
| Primera prueba (de conocimientos) | |
|---|---|
| Questions | 100 |
| Options per question | 3 |
| Time limit | 50 minutes |
| Scored | 0 to 10 points |
| Stated minimum | 3 of 10 points |
| Actual cutoff | Rank-based, up to 1.75 aspirantes per plaza |
| Wrong-answer penalty | Two wrong answers cancel one correct answer |
| Blank answers | Not penalised |
| Plazas (oposición libre) | 2,163 |
| Convocatoria | BOE-A-2026-15055 |
Knowing the exact format matters here more than on a flat right-or-wrong quiz: a three-option paper with a real penalty punishes careless guessing in a way a four-option quiz does not, and treating 3 points as a finish line rather than a floor is the kind of mistake that only shows up once the rankings are published. This app’s mock reproduces the same question count, three-option format, time limit, 0-to-10 scale and penalty rule as the convocatoria, so the score you see while practising reflects the actual technique the primera prueba rewards.