There are no NAPLAN past papers after 2016. Here is why.
ACARA released the full NAPLAN tests for 2008 to 2016, with answers, and has released nothing since. Not 2017, not 2022, not last year. If you are searching for a NAPLAN past paper from any of those years, the honest answer is that it does not exist outside ACARA, and anything sold under that name is a reconstruction. What follows is what ACARA says, what is available instead, and how to tell the difference.
What ACARA says
The authority’s own archive pages carry one sentence on the matter, and it is the same sentence on both:
ACARA does not provide access to the NAPLAN tests after 2016. These tests are used for other projects related to the continued improvement of the National Assessment Program. ACARA notes the decision of the Acting Information Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim, in support of its position.ACARA, NAPLAN 2012–2016 test papers; the same sentence appears on the 2008–2011 page. Verified 2026-09-09.
Three things are in that sentence. The papers are withheld deliberately, not by oversight. The stated reason is that the items are reused in the program’s own development work. And the position has been tested against Australia’s freedom of information framework and held, which is what the reference to the Information Commissioner means.
This page does not argue with the policy. It reports it, because most pages answering this search do not.
Check a year
If you are about to pay for a paper from a particular year, check it here first. This says only whether ACARA released that paper — which is a fact on ACARA’s own pages, not a judgement about anyone selling one.
Why 2017 to 2022 in particular
Because those are the years a parent is most likely to want. A child sitting NAPLAN now was too young for the 2016 test and the family has no memory of it. The years since are the ones that feel relevant, and they are also the years across which the test moved from paper to screen. A parent asking for the 2019 paper is asking, reasonably, for the version of the test their child will actually sit.
That version is not available as a paper, and it could not be. A test sat on a screen, with on-screen tools, has no booklet to release. There is a second reason, and it is the more fundamental one. ACARA describes the online test this way:
NAPLAN online tests are tailored or adaptive. Students at each level start with a similar set of questions. Depending on each student's answer, the next set of questions may be easier or more difficult, giving students greater opportunity to demonstrate what they know.ACARA, Understanding online assessment. Verified 2026-09-10.
A tailored test has no single fixed set of questions to print. Two students at the same year level, sitting on the same morning, do not see the same paper after the first section. So a “2021 NAPLAN past paper” could not be a faithful copy of what any particular child sat, even if someone had one. The nearest official thing is the public demonstration site, which shows the current interface and question types for each year level, without an answer key and without being any particular year’s test.
What is sold instead
Search for a NAPLAN past paper from 2018 or 2021 or 2024 and the results are full of them: year-labelled, year-level-labelled, priced. None of them is the paper. They cannot be, because ACARA has not released it. What they are is one of three things.
- A reconstruction, written by the seller to resemble what they believe that year’s test contained. Some are careful and some are not; none is the test, and the year on the cover is a marketing decision.
- A repackaging of the 2008 to 2016 papers, which are free at ACARA, sometimes with the year removed or changed.
- A generic practice test with a year attached to match the search.
No company is named here because the practice is general and the point is not which company but which claim. The claim “NAPLAN past paper” attached to any year after 2016 is not true, and anyone making it either knows that or has not checked.
How to tell a genuine paper from a reconstruction
Five checks, in the order they are quickest to apply.
- The year. A genuine released paper is dated 2008 to 2016. Any other year is not a released paper, whatever it is called.
- The source. Genuine papers are PDFs hosted at acara.edu.au, and every one is linked from the past papers index at that address. A paper hosted anywhere else is a copy at best.
- The answer key.ACARA released an answer document for each year alongside the papers. A “past paper” with no matching official key, or with a key written by the seller, is a reconstruction.
- The wording.“Based on”, “in the style of”, “modelled on”, “NAPLAN-style” and “reflects the format of” are all honest phrases and all mean the same thing: not the test. They are worth looking for, and their absence on a product for a post-2016 year is a worse sign than their presence.
- The price. The genuine papers cost nothing.
What exists instead, and what each is for
- The released papers, 2008 to 2016. Real questions, real prompts, real answers, from the paper era. They show what NAPLAN asks; they do not show the screen. What they ask at each age is set out for Year 3, Year 5 and Year 9.
- The public demonstration tests. Current, official, on screen, by year level. They show the interface; they carry no answers.
- The marking guides for persuasive and narrative writing. These are current, and they are what the writing is actually marked against. For writing, which has no answer key, the marking guide is the answer key. Read alongside the writing test, explained.
- Free writing prompts in the shape the test uses, written for practice on this site, and clearly labelled as such.
Everything on that list is free and official, or plainly marked as practice material. Everything not on it, for any year after 2016, is a reconstruction whether or not it says so.
What to do instead
The honest content of this page is mostly a thing to stop doing, and one thing to do instead.
Stop paying for NAPLAN past papers dated after 2016. They do not exist, and what you receive is a reconstruction dressed as the test. If you have already bought one, it may still be a reasonable practice test; it is not what it was sold as, and it should not be treated as a preview of the real questions.
Do use the real ones. Nine years of genuine papers with answers are free, and one of them, sat once and read back properly, is worth more than a folder of reconstructions.
And if your child’s preparation consists of practice tests, from any source, the tests are not the problem to solve. The NAPLAN hub sets out why this practice argues for teaching over drilling; the past papers are there to show what the task looks like, and nothing more.
The papers show the task. Someone has to read the writing.
A twenty-minute discovery call about your child’s writing and what would move it — free, and without obligation.
Want the genuine papers first? Every released paper, by year →