Every multiple-choice question in the theory test traces back to three official sources: The Highway Code, Know Your Traffic Signs and Driving – the essential skills. The first two are free — you don’t need to pay anyone for them, and you can download both below.
The Department for Transport’s full guide to UK road signs and markings — warning, regulatory, direction, motorway and road-works signs, with what each one means. It’s the source of the road-sign questions in the test.
GOV.UK · PDF · 172 pages · about 7 MB · last updated December 2023
The rules of the road for England, Scotland and Wales — every rule, the traffic signs, road markings and all eight annexes — in one printable PDF with a clickable contents page and index. We built it from the official GOV.UK text, unchanged.
PDF · 165 pages · about 10 MB · GOV.UK text last updated 22 October 2025
This is the official Highway Code — every rule, sign and picture exactly as the Department for Transport and DVSA publish it on GOV.UK, word for word. GOV.UK only offers it to read online (the printed book and app are paid), so we’ve put the full official text into one free PDF you can save, print and revise from. The cover shows the date the rules were last updated on GOV.UK, and we update the PDF whenever the rules change. If you’d rather have a bound copy, the official printed Highway Code #ad is cheap and updated each edition.
Reading either book cover to cover in one go rarely sticks. What works better for most learners:
The second part of the test uses video clips, which no book can cover. The DVSA’s publishing partner, Safe Driving for Life, has free official hazard perception practice clips that show exactly how the scoring works. Our hazard perception guide explains the technique.
Yes. The government doesn’t publish an official free PDF of the GB Highway Code, but the text is Crown copyright under the Open Government Licence, so it can be republished. We’ve built a free printable PDF of the full Highway Code from the official GOV.UK text, last updated on GOV.UK on 22 October 2025. It’s 165 pages (about 10 MB) and includes all the rules, signs, road markings and annexes. The online GOV.UK version is always the current one, so check it if the rules have changed since.
Yes. The Department for Transport publishes Know Your Traffic Signs as a free PDF on GOV.UK. It is 172 pages (about 7 MB) and was last updated in December 2023. It is also available to read online as separate web pages.
Yes. The GOV.UK online version is the official Highway Code for England, Scotland and Wales, and it is updated when the rules change, so it is always the most up-to-date version. A Welsh-language version is also available on GOV.UK.
Yes, in practice. The multiple-choice questions are based on the Highway Code, Know Your Traffic Signs and Driving: the essential skills. You can read the first two free, then test yourself with practice questions.
Know Your Traffic Signs and the online Highway Code are published by GOV.UK under the Open Government Licence; those links open GOV.UK in a new tab. Our Highway Code PDF reproduces the GOV.UK text unchanged and contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (© Crown copyright). drivingtheorytestguide.co.uk is independent and not affiliated with the DVSA or DfT.
