Every week, learners about to sit their HPT ask the same two questions: “which one is the official practice test for NSW?” and “are the practice videos the same as the ones in the actual test?” Both deserve straight answers, because the confusion costs people money and test attempts.
The short answer
There is no official NSW HPT practice website. Transport for NSW and Service NSW do not publish an online practice test. The only official preparation materials are the free Hazard Perception Handbook (a PDF) and the 2 practice clips you see at the terminal right before your real test starts. Every practice website and app you can find, including this one, is an independent third party.
That surprises a lot of people. The handbook explains what the test measures and how responses are scored, but it can’t train the one skill the test actually checks: touching the screen at the right moment. That’s why practice sites exist.
What happened to the “official” practice test everyone recommends?
For over a decade, the most common advice on forums was to use the South Australian government’s online practice test, because it used the same style of clips as the NSW test. If you’ve seen old Reddit threads recommending mylicence.sa.gov.au, here’s the update: that site is no longer publicly available. The practice test was taken offline, and the old links now fail. Advice pointing there is out of date.
The popular Android practice app that many learners used has also been discontinued. So the two most-recommended free resources of the past ten years are both gone, and a lot of the advice you’ll read in old threads no longer works.
Are practice videos the same as the real test?
The real NSW HPT shows you 15 video clips drawn from a pool of scenarios that has stayed remarkably stable for years. The scenarios are filmed dashcam-style footage: right turns at intersections with oncoming trucks, pedestrians near crossings, cyclists at night, cars braking ahead of you in wet weather.
Good practice resources replicate those same scenario types and the same response format, which is why learners so often come back from the test saying the practice felt identical. Our own practice library uses the real test’s format: the same instruction styles (“touch the screen when you would slow down”, “touch the screen when it would be safe to turn”), the same response-timing scoring, and the same mix of clips where the correct answer is to do nothing at all.
One honest caveat that applies to every third-party resource: Transport for NSW notes that practice tests are not the actual test, and no website can promise you’ll see identical footage on the day. What realistic practice gives you is the thing that actually fails people: response timing. More on that in why people fail the HPT despite passing every practice test.
How to check any practice resource is realistic
Before you spend time or money on any HPT practice site or app, check that:
- It’s NSW-specific. Victoria’s test uses a different format, and UK-style “developing hazards” tests score completely differently. If a practice test asks you to click multiple times per clip or grades you out of 5 per hazard, it’s not preparing you for the NSW format.
- It scores your timing, not just your click. The real test cares about when you respond. Practice that only checks whether you clicked teaches the wrong habit.
- It includes no-response clips. In the real test, some clips have no safe moment to act, and touching the screen anyway counts against you. Practice without these clips builds a click-on-everything habit that fails people.
Where that leaves you
Read the official handbook first: it’s free and it’s the source of truth for how the test works. Then build your timing with realistic practice. The first 5 scenarios here are free with no signup, and the full library of 32 is a one-time $5, about a tenth of one $58 test attempt.
For everything else about the test itself, our NSW HPT FAQ covers the fee, booking, eligibility, and retakes.