Every SQE1 & SQE2 date for 2026 to 27

If you've ever tried to plan backwards from an SQE sitting, you'll know the dates are scattered across several pages and half of them are still marked "TBC." Here is everything the SRA has confirmed for 2026 and 2027, in one place, with a note on what to do about the gaps.

Everything below is taken directly from the SRA's official assessment dates and booking windows page, current as of 9 July 2026. That page is the only source that matters here, and dates can and do move, so check it yourself before you commit to anything, especially for sittings still marked TBC.

How the SQE calendar works, in general

SQE1 runs on a regular pattern of two sittings a year: January and July. SQE2 runs four times a year: January, April, July and October. Each SQE1 sitting is really two assessment days a week apart (FLK1, then FLK2 the following week); each SQE2 sitting spans a written assessment and several oral assessment sittings spread across two to four weeks, with candidates attending only one oral sitting within that window.

Booking for both SQE1 and SQE2 typically closes around five weeks before the assessment window opens. SQE1 results are published five to six weeks after the assessment. SQE2 results take considerably longer, fourteen to eighteen weeks after the assessment, which is the single most important planning fact on this page if you're hoping to move straight from SQE1 into SQE2 or from one SQE2 attempt into a resit.

The SRA publishes exact dates roughly twelve months ahead. Until a sitting has confirmed dates, treat any date you see for it (including estimates on other sites) as provisional.

SQE1 July 2026

• Assessment dates: FLK1 13 to 17 July 2026, FLK2 20 to 24 July 2026
• Booking: closed (closed 28 May 2026)
• Examinable law cut-off: up to and including 13 March 2026
• Results date: 8 September 2026

This sitting is running as this article is published. If you sat it, results land in early September.

SQE1 January 2027

• Assessment dates: FLK1 11 to 15 January 2027, FLK2 18 to 22 January 2027
• Seat reservation form sent to candidates: 21 September 2026
• Deadline to submit seat reservation form / accept a reasonable adjustment proposal: 24 September 2026
• Booking closes: not yet confirmed
• Examinable law cut-off: up to and including 11 September 2026
• Results date: not yet confirmed

If you're aiming for this sitting, the seat reservation form in late September is your first real deadline, well before the booking window itself closes.

SQE1 July 2027

• Assessment dates: FLK1 12 to 16 July 2027, FLK2 19 to 23 July 2027
• Booking: not yet confirmed
• Examinable law cut-off: up to and including 12 March 2027
• Results date: not yet confirmed

SQE2 January 2026

• Assessment dates: 27 January to 6 February 2026 (complete)
• Results date: 21 May 2026

Included here for reference, since its results date affects anyone who used that sitting as a stepping stone into a 2026 SQE2 resit or a later window.

SQE2 April 2026

• Written assessment: 28 to 30 April 2026
• Oral sittings: 5 to 6 May, 7 to 8 May, 12 to 13 May, 14 to 15 May 2026
• Booking: closed
• Examinable law cut-off: up to and including 28 December 2025
• Results date: 27 August 2026

SQE2 July 2026

• Written assessment: 28 to 30 July 2026
• Oral sittings: 4 to 5 August, 6 to 7 August 2026
• Booking: closed
• Examinable law cut-off: up to and including 28 March 2026
• Results date: 17 November 2026

SQE2 October 2026

• Written assessment: 27 to 29 October 2026
• Oral sittings: 3 to 4 November, 5 to 6 November, 10 to 11 November 2026
• Seat reservation form sent to candidates: 6 July 2026
• Deadline to submit seat reservation form / accept reasonable adjustments proposal: 9 July 2026
• Booking closes: 18 September 2026
• Examinable law cut-off: up to and including 27 June 2026
• Results date: 23 February 2027

Note the long gap to results here: nearly four months after the written assessment. If you're weighing October 2026 against waiting for January 2027, that gap is worth sitting with before you decide.

SQE2 January 2027

• Oral sittings: 26 to 27 January, 28 to 29 January 2027
• Written assessment: 2 to 4 February 2027
• Seat reservation form sent to candidates: 13 October 2026
• Deadline to submit seat reservation form / accept reasonable adjustment proposal: 16 October 2026
• Booking closes: not yet confirmed
• Examinable law cut-off: up to and including 26 September 2026
• Results date: not yet confirmed

SQE2 April, July and October 2027

Dates for these three sittings are published on the SRA's page (written and oral windows across April, July and October 2027), but booking windows and results dates are not yet confirmed for any of them. Worth flagging: from the April 2027 sitting onward, the SRA is shifting the April SQE2 window to start a week earlier (third week of the month rather than the last) and extending it to around four weeks, to accommodate rising candidate numbers. That change does not affect the April 2026 window.

Choosing a sitting: readiness, not urgency

It's tempting to pick the nearest available sitting and work backwards from it, but the honest planning question is the reverse one: given how many weeks of solid preparation you realistically have between now and a given sitting, which date gives you enough runway without leaving so much slack that you lose momentum?

A few things worth weighing rather than defaulting to "as soon as possible":

• Results timing compounds. Because SQE2 results take fourteen to eighteen weeks, a rushed attempt that ends in a resit can cost you close to a year once you add the wait for results and the next available sitting. A sitting eight or twelve weeks further out that you're genuinely ready for is often faster overall than an earlier one you're not.
• The cut-off date matters for your syllabus, not just your calendar. Each sitting has an "examinable law and practice cut-off" date, meaning the point up to which the law you're tested on is fixed. Sitting later can mean a longer runway, but it can also mean a later cut-off, so check what's current for your target sitting rather than assuming it's identical to an earlier one.
• Work backwards from the seat reservation form, not just the sitting date. For several 2026 to 27 sittings, the seat reservation form and its deadline land weeks before the booking window even closes. Missing that quiet, early deadline is a more common way to lose a sitting than missing the headline exam date.

If you want to map your own study weeks against a target sitting rather than eyeballing it, PasSQE's free planner builds a week-by-week plan backwards from whichever date you pick, so you can see whether the runway you have actually fits the sitting you're eyeing.

The takeaway

SQE1 sits in January and July, SQE2 sits in January, April, July and October, and booking for both closes roughly five weeks out, but the further ahead you look, the more of this calendar is still marked TBC. Confirmed dates run through SQE1 July 2027 and SQE2 October 2027; the booking windows and results dates behind several of those are still to come. Bookmark the official SRA dates page, check it again nearer your target sitting, and choose your date based on how much genuine preparation time it gives you rather than which one happens to be soonest.