Type part numbers, order ids, plate-shaped strings and real ZIP codes, and read your KPH and accuracy.
WPMType each word and press space after it. The clock starts on your first key.MA02474NH03878CT06085ME04847NJ08361NH03444CT06447PR00725PR00915NJ07503MA02670RI02872NY06390CT06477VT05059CT06281MA01985PR00949NH03872NJ08065NH03784NJ07720ME04949CT06824ME04929VI00840NJ07926NH03595PR00956VT05681MA02129VI00851MA01376MA02461RI02896NJ07711NJ08060NJ08731MA01745NJ08558ME04544VT05640MA01810CT06353RI02832PR00704RI02891VT05641ME04669
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A word is five keystrokes, so 1 WPM is 300 KPH. Change either number.
This is a self-test. It gives no certificate, and an employer will not accept it.
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1 minute of typing. Words per minute is correct characters divided by five; accuracy is correct keystrokes out of all keystrokes. Keystrokes per hour (KPH) is correct characters per minute times 60, so 1 WPM is 300 KPH.
This alphanumeric typing test times you on fields that mix letters and digits: part numbers, order ids, plate-shaped strings and real ZIP codes. Run the Mixed record test for 1, 3 or 5 minutes, or pick any of 31 drills in the Passage menu. Scores: keystrokes per hour (KPH), WPM and accuracy. A self-test: no certificate.
Read the full guide
Why mixed codes score lower than prose
Every correct character counts, spaces included: 210 a minute is 42 WPM, or 12,600 KPH. A field with one wrong character shows as wrong, though its right characters still score: KT-4471-B with one wrong digit is another part. Each change from letters to digits sends a hand to another row, so prose is faster.
Two drills that make a zip code typing test
State and ZIP code holds 63 real pairs, at least one per state, from US Census Bureau files. The first digit climbs from 0 in New England to 9 on the Pacific coast, so a 9 after OH is a slip you can see. ZIP codes that start with zero covers the region where a system that stores 02139 as a number keeps only 2139.
Read three or four characters, type them, look back. The hyphens in KT-4471-B give your eye a place to land.
Stay on the top number row for mixed codes. The number pad pays only when a whole field is digits.
Check Caps Lock before the case drills: kt4471b and KT4471B are different records.
Questions and answers
What makes a typing test alphanumeric rather than numeric?
Letters and digits in the same field. A numeric test is digits only, typed on the number pad with one hand, as in the number typing test. A data entry field such as ORD-204471 or 4418B Tanner Ave mixes them, so both hands work the letter rows and the top number row.
What speed do I need for a data entry job?
Each employer sets its own. The one figure we could read at its source is the US federal standard for data transcribers: skill on an alphanumeric transcribing machine, or 20 words per minute for GS-2 duties and 25 for GS-3 and GS-4, on a 5 minute sample with three or fewer errors (Office of Personnel Management, checked 19 September 2026, linked under the drill list).
How do I tell O from 0 and I from 1?
In most typefaces zero is narrower than capital O, and the digit 1 carries a flag that capital I lacks. Position helps: in a code of two letters then four digits, a round shape in third place is a zero. A vehicle identification number avoids the doubt by never using I, O or Q.
All 31 drills
Part numbers and stock codes 10
A letter in the middleFour digits with one letter buried among them, as in 44K71. The eye reads a run of digits and the fingers follow, so the letter is either skipped or typed late. Read the whole code, say where the letter sits ("third"), then type.
Bin and shelf locationsA warehouse location reads from large to small: aisle, bay, level, as in A-14-03. The zero in 03 is part of the code, not padding you may leave out: the system sorts and matches on all the characters. Two hyphens per code make this a good drill for the right little finger.
Codes with a slash or a pointThe point and the slash sit side by side at the right-hand end of the bottom letter row, under the ring finger and the little finger, so it is easy to hit one for the other. 4471/B is a different code from 4471.B. Neither key needs Shift.
Show all 31 drills (28 more)
Part numbers and stock codes, continued
Hyphenated part numbersThe hyphen is the key to the right of 0 on the top row, struck by the right little finger with no Shift. Hold Shift by mistake and you get an underscore, which looks much the same on a busy screen and fails every lookup. Read a code such as KT-4471-B as three chunks and type each chunk in one burst.
Letter, digit, letter, digitA change of row on every keystroke: A1B2C3 switches between letters and digits five times in six characters. This is the hardest shape in the set. Expect a far lower speed than on plain words, and judge the run by its accuracy.
Lower-case codesMany systems treat kt4471b and KT4471B as two different records, and this test does too: a letter in the wrong case scores as an error. Check Caps Lock before you start. With no Shift to hold, these are the fastest codes on the page, which makes them a fair warm-up.
Serial numbers in blocks of fourTwelve characters printed as three blocks, as on the label under a device. Use the blocks: read four, type four, find your place by the hyphen, read the next four. This drill leaves out 0, O, 1 and I, so every character is what it looks like; the look-alike drills bring them back.
Size and colour suffixesA clothing-style stock code in four parts: item, style number, size, colour, as in TS-104-XL-BLK. The letter parts are short real abbreviations, so the fingers speed up on them and drop a digit from the style number in between. XL, XXL and XS differ by one keystroke: look twice at the size.
Two letters, four digitsThe plainest code there is: one change from letters to digits, as in KT4471. Keep both hands on the home row and reach up to the top row for the four digits. Moving the right hand to the number pad for so short a run costs more than it saves, because the hand has to find the home row again for the next pair of letters.
Upper and lower case in one codeVoucher and licence-key style codes such as aB3dE7. Hold Shift with the hand that is not typing the letter: right Shift for Q, W, E, R, T, A, S, D, F, G, Z, X, C, V and B, left Shift for the rest. One-handed Shift reaches are where wrong-case errors come from.
Order, invoice and reference ids 8
Batch and lot codesThese lot codes pack a date: two digits of the year, then a week number from 01 to 52, then a line letter and a run number. Knowing the structure lets you check your own typing: a week of 61 cannot be right, so a 61 on your screen is a slip to fix before you move on.
Customer codes from a surnameA common home-made scheme: the first four letters of a surname, then digits, as in HALV2291. The stems were made up for this drill and stand for no customer. Because the letters can be said aloud they go in fast; the digits cannot, so slow down at the change and read them as two pairs.
Hexadecimal stringsHexadecimal counts in sixteens with the digits 0 to 9 and the letters A to F, so any letter after F in one of these is a typing error you can spot at a glance. Colour codes such as 3FA9C2 and hardware addresses written as six pairs use it. The colon in the long form needs Shift.
Invoice numbers with a yearAn invoice id such as INV-2026-00417 carries its leading zeros: 00417 is five characters, and typing 417 gives an id that matches nothing. Count the zeros rather than guessing them. The year is the easy part, so check it last, not first.
Order ids with a prefixFour prefixes turn up in this drill: ORD, PO, SO and RMA. After ten rows the fingers learn ORD- and fire it without asking, which is how a purchase order gets keyed as a sales order. Read the prefix of every row as if it were new.
Six-character booking referencesSix characters with no pattern at all, like the reference on a ticket: nothing to predict and nothing to say aloud. Split each one into two threes. 0, O, 1 and I are left out of this drill, so a round shape is never a trap here.
Tracking-style idsA format made up for this drill: TRK, then digits in groups of four, four, two and one, then a letter, 19 characters in all with the hyphens. Any match with a carrier's own format is chance. Eleven digits is where the place gets lost, so type to each hyphen, glance back at the source, and carry on from the hyphen.
Vehicle ids of 17 charactersA vehicle identification number has 17 characters and never uses I, O or Q, so on a real one every round shape is a zero and every upright stroke is a one. These strings follow that rule but are random: none was copied from a vehicle, and a match with a real one would be chance. Read each as 3, 6 and 8 characters, the three sections of the standard.
Addresses, ZIP codes and plates 6
Apartment, unit and suite numbersThe second line of an address, and an easy one to get wrong: Apt 12C and Apt 12G are two households. Most records are a short label (Apt, Unit or Ste), a space, then digits and one capital. Rm and Bldg records put the capital before the digits, and some Unit records carry a hyphen, as in Unit 48-E. Shift goes down twice in every record: once for the label and once for the letter.
House number and streetNumber first, then a street name and its short type: 4418B Tanner Ave. The switch from digits to words is the easiest on the page, which is why the errors hide in the number. A house number may carry a letter, and 4418B is a different door from 4418. The street names are ordinary words, so streets with these names exist, but no record carries a town, a state or a ZIP, and the house numbers are random.
Plate-shaped stringsSix or seven letters and digits in blocks: 4KTR921 changes kind twice, KT92BXM twice, 4KT-9BX three times. The strings are random, but the four shapes are common ones, so a string here can have the shape of a plate that a real state or country issues. None was copied from a vehicle, and any match with a plate on the road is chance. Plates are capitals only, so this is the one drill where Caps Lock is a fair choice.
Postal codes in the A1A 1A1 patternA Canadian postal code alternates letter, digit, letter, then a space, then digit, letter, digit, and the format never uses D, F, I, O, Q or U. Canada Post asks for capitals, one space and no hyphen. These rows follow the pattern but are random, so some are codes in use and some are not. The space counts as a keystroke.
State and ZIP codeThe last line of a US address: two capitals, a space, five digits. Every pair here is real: a 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area that lies wholly inside that state in the Census Bureau's files, with every state and the District of Columbia present. The first digit rises from 0 in New England to 9 on the Pacific coast, so a 9 typed after OH is a slip you can catch by eye.
ZIP codes that start with zeroIn the Census files every ZIP Code Tabulation Area that begins with 0 lies in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands, with one exception: 06390, in Suffolk County, New York. Stored as a number, 02139 is 2139, so a ZIP belongs in a text field. Type the zero and check that it is still there.
Look-alike characters 2
O or 0, I or 1Every code holds at least one of the four. In most typefaces zero is narrower than capital O, and the digit 1 has a flag at the top where capital I is a plain stroke or has bars at both ends. If you catch yourself guessing, stop and look at the width. On the keyboard they are nowhere near each other: O and I sit side by side on the top letter row, 0 and 1 at opposite ends of the digits.
S or 5, B or 8, Z or 2, G or 6Four pairs that blur at small sizes, on thermal paper and in handwriting. Look at the top of the character: 5 has a flat bar and S a curve, 2 has a curve and Z a flat bar. B has a straight left edge and 8 has none. G is open on the right with a small shelf, 6 closes into a loop.
Timed record tests: 1, 3 or 5 minutes 5
Address record testFive fields: house number, street, street type, unit word and unit number, as in 4418B Tanner Ave Apt 12C. Words and numbers take turns, which is the rhythm of most real address entry. The street names are ordinary words, and no record carries a town, a state or a ZIP, so none of these is a complete address. Runs for 1, 3 or 5 minutes.
Case-sensitive code testEight-character codes in upper case, lower case and digits, one field a record, with Shift going down two or three times in each. No hyphens to rest on. If wrong-case errors pile up, go back to the two case drills in the first group before you run this again.
Mixed record testThe all-round test. Four fields a record, in three shapes that take turns at random: an order line (order id, part, quantity, bin), an account line (invoice id, customer code, state, ZIP) and a delivery line (customer code, house number, street, type). The state and ZIP pairs are the real ones from the ZIP drill. Runs for 1, 3 or 5 minutes.
Order record testOrder id, part number, quantity, and the customer code it belongs to: four fields, all invented. The prefixes ORD, PO and SO repeat, so the autopilot error from the prefix drill is waiting here too. Runs for 1, 3 or 5 minutes.
Stock record testThree fields a record: part number, quantity, bin location. The quantity is digits only, and it is the field where a slip costs most, because KT-4471-B typed wrong finds nothing while 24 typed as 42 is accepted without a murmur. Runs for 1, 3 or 5 minutes.
How this list was compiled: Thirty-one record drills and tests written for this page. The records of every drill were made to a fixed recipe: every record holds at least one letter and one digit, every record of a drill has the same number of fields, and no record repeats the one before it. Part numbers, order and invoice ids, tracking-style ids, lot codes, customer codes, booking references, serial numbers, plate-shaped strings and unit numbers are random strings, and none was copied from a list of real codes; any match with a real code is chance. The plate drill uses four common plate shapes (three letters, a hyphen and four digits; a digit, three letters and three digits; two letters, two digits and three letters; a digit, two letters, a hyphen, a digit and two letters), so a string can have the shape of a plate that a real state or country issues, and the page does not claim otherwise. The street names are ordinary words chosen for this page, and streets with those names exist, so no street is paired with a town, a state or a ZIP code. No record names a person. The ZIP codes are real. Each state and ZIP pair was read from two US Census Bureau files: the 2025 ZCTA gazetteer, https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/gazetteer/2025_Gazetteer/2025_Gaz_zcta_national.zip, and the 2020 ZCTA to county relationship file, https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/rel2020/zcta520/tab20_zcta520_county20_natl.txt, with state codes from https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/reference/state.txt (all downloaded 2026-09-19). Only ZIP Code Tabulation Areas whose every part lies in one state were used. Each of the two ZIP drills prints every pair of its list exactly once, in a shuffled order: 63 different pairs that cover all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and 49 different pairs for the codes that begin with 0. The timed tests draw pairs from the same list and may repeat one. The same files give the list of places whose codes begin with 0 and the single New York exception, 06390 in Suffolk County; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZIP_Code (checked 2026-09-19) gives the same first-digit regions and names that exception as Fishers Island. A ZIP Code Tabulation Area is the Census Bureau's approximation of a ZIP Code's delivery area and is updated less often than the Postal Service's own list. The 17 characters of a vehicle identification number, its three sections of 3, 6 and 8 characters, and the rule that I, O and Q are not used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_identification_number (checked 2026-09-19). The Canadian postal code format A1A 1A1, the letters it leaves out (D, F, I, O, Q, U, and W and Z in first place) and Canada Post's guidance on capitals, one space and no hyphen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_codes_in_Canada (checked 2026-09-19). The postal-code rows are random strings in that format, not a list of codes in use. The rule that a typing word is five keystrokes, so that 1 WPM equals 300 KPH: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_per_minute (checked 2026-09-19). Keystrokes per hour is arithmetic: correct keystrokes per minute times 60. The count of switches is the number of changes between a letter and a digit inside a field. No employer pass mark is given anywhere on the page, because none could be linked to the employer that set it. Typing speeds quoted in the FAQ: the US Office of Personnel Management's group qualification standard for Clerical and Administrative Support Positions, under Proficiency Requirements, asks of a Data Transcriber (GS-2 to GS-4, and any post titled Data Transcription) "skill in operating an alphanumeric data transcribing machine, or 20 words per minute typing speed for GS-2 transcription duties or 25 words per minute typing speed for GS-3 and GS-4 transcription duties". The standard says that words per minute "are based on a 5 minute sample with three or fewer errors", and that applicants may pass a performance test, present a certificate of proficiency or self-certify. Read at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/#url=Group-Standards on 2026-09-19. It covers US federal posts only, and no other employer's figure is quoted on this page. Licence: own work; ZIP codes from US Census Bureau files (public domain)