Would you pass Cyber Essentials? Check in five minutes
24 questions, one screen at a time. Your score, the controls at risk and every question you would fail, linked to the fix.
- Questions
- 24, mapped to 44 Danzell questions
- Auto-fail items
- A6.4AUTO-FAILA6.5AUTO-FAILA7.16AUTO-FAILA7.17AUTO-FAIL
- Time
- About five minutes. Progress is saved in your browser.
- Result
- Score out of 100, pass / at-risk / fail per control, failed items with links, next step sized to your result
- Question set
- IASME Danzell v16.3, Requirements v3.3
This free checker turns the 2026 Danzell self-assessment into 24 yes or no questions across scope and the five controls. It weights the auto-fail and licensed-software questions most heavily, gives a readiness score out of 100 and links every gap to the exact question page, so you know what to fix before you pay the IASME fee.
Free · about five minutes
24 yes or no questions, one at a time
Each question is a plain-English version of a 2026 Danzell question. Pick an answer and the next question follows; use Back to change anything. Answer honestly for everything in scope, including home workers and cloud services. The four auto-fail items, and the two licensed-software items that must be met to pass, are flagged as you go. Your progress is saved in this browser.
- A2Scope3 questions
- A4Firewalls4 questions
- A5Secure configuration4 questions
- A6Security update management5 questions
- A7User access control5 questions
- A8Malware protection3 questions
How does the readiness checker work?
The official self-assessment has 106 questions, many of them free-text. This checker keeps the ones an assessor actually marks you on and rewrites each as a plain-English yes or no. Under every question is one line on why it matters. You answer for everything in scope: office devices, home workers, phones and every cloud service.
Scoring is weighted. Ordinary questions carry one to three points. The four auto-fail questions (A6.4, A6.5, A7.16, A7.17) carry five, and so do the two items on licensed and supported software (A6.3, A6.6), which are not labelled automatic fails but cannot be left unmet. A no on any of them puts you in the red band whatever else you answer. Not sure earns half marks on ordinary questions and nothing on weight-5 items.
What do the results show?
- A readiness score out of 100.
- A pass, at-risk or fail flag for scope and each of the five controls.
- Every item you answered no or not sure, auto-fail items first, each linked to the Danzell question page with the compliant answer and evidence to gather.
- A next step sized to the result: a fixed-price quote if you are ready, a gap analysis if you are close, a scoping call if an auto-fail or licensed-software item is open.
- Security update management
- 5 questions · A6.1A6.3A6.2A6.4AUTO-FAILA6.4.1A6.5AUTO-FAILA6.5.1A6.6A6.7
- User access control
- 5 questions · A7.1A7.2A7.3A7.6A7.7A7.10A7.11A7.16AUTO-FAILA7.14A7.17AUTO-FAIL
Frequently asked questions
No. The official self-assessment is the IASME Danzell question set (v16.3), submitted through a certification body. This checker is a free readiness test written by Precursor's assessors. It uses 24 plain-English questions that map to the questions an assessor marks, so you can see where you would fail before you pay the fee.
Every question has a weight from 1 to 3. The four auto-fail items, and the two items on licensed and supported software, carry a weight of 5. A yes earns the full weight, not sure earns half (nothing on a weight-5 item) and no earns nothing. The score is your points as a percentage of the maximum. Any no on a weight-5 item puts the overall result in the red band regardless of the score, because that answer alone stops the real assessment passing.
Four questions fail automatically on a No answer: A6.4 and A6.5 (high-risk or critical security updates installed within 14 days, for operating systems and for software), A7.16 (MFA on all cloud service administrators) and A7.17 (MFA on all cloud service users). A7.15 fails automatically if a cloud service you list there as having no MFA option does offer MFA. A6.3 and A6.6 (unsupported software) carry no fail wording, but a non-compliant answer means the licensed-and-supported requirement is not met, so the checker weights them the same way.
The score, the control flags and the links to every failed question show on screen as soon as you submit the form. We also email a copy so you can forward it to your IT provider. Precursor built the tool and may follow up once. There is no obligation and you can unsubscribe at any time.
The questions cover the self-assessment, which is the first half of Cyber Essentials Plus too. If you would pass the self-assessment, the Plus audit then tests the same controls on a sample of your devices. The results page points you to the Plus preparation pages where a control is at risk.
Your answers are saved in your own browser so you can come back and finish. They are only sent to us when you submit the results form, at which point they are attached to your enquiry in our CRM so an assessor can give useful advice.
Related pages
Get certified at a fixed price
Precursor is an IASME Certification Body: Cyber Essentials from £1,500 and Cyber Essentials Plus from £3,000, with the IASME fee included, a free re-test if gaps are found and a written fixed price after a 20-minute scoping call.
- IASME Certification Body
- CREST accredited
- UK offices in Leeds, Newcastle, London and Edinburgh