All 718 of the SOA's published Exam P sample questions are free on FreeFellow, reproduced verbatim with the worked solution next to each one. Exam P was my first actuarial exam, and this sample set was the practice that mattered most in my last two weeks. The PDF on soa.org is 30+ pages, though, so you end up printing it or splitting your screen, working on scratch paper and flipping to the back to grade yourself.
On FreeFellow each question is labeled with the SOA publication and question number it came from, the solution shows up after you submit, and the ones you miss come back around. Fellow adds focus practice on your weakest topics. Previews are open to anyone. For the full Exam P set you'll need a free account, but no credit card.
What's in the 718
The set spans every section of the Exam P syllabus, weighted toward where the exam concentrates:
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| Topic area | Approx. sample count | What you'll see |
|---|---|---|
| General probability and Bayes | ~150 | Set operations, independence, Bayes problems with two and three events, combinatorics |
| Univariate distributions | ~250 | Binomial, Poisson, normal, exponential, gamma, beta, uniform; PDFs/CDFs, expectation, variance, MGFs |
| Multivariate distributions | ~150 | Joint PDFs over rectangular and non-rectangular regions, marginals, conditional distributions, covariance, transformations |
| Risk management concepts | ~100 | Deductibles, policy limits, loss elimination ratio, expected claim cost under coverage modifications |
The same traps keep coming up. Bayes problems with three or more events appear repeatedly, joint-distribution problems over non-rectangular regions make you draw the support before you integrate, and MGF manipulation under linear combinations of independent variables shows up more than other topics, which mirrors how the exam uses the moment-generating function to tie ideas together.
The probability syllabus is compact (you could teach it in 40 hours), but it's full of traps, and the samples train you to spot them before you start computing. Coaching Actuaries Adapt and ACTEX manuals imitate the SOA's Bayes style, and the samples are what they're calibrated against. Each item is labeled by source publication, and difficulty has trended up since 2020. The 2020+ batches reflect the newer emphasis on multi-step conditional problems, and older items can feel easy next to your sitting, so weight your final stretch toward the newer ones.
How I'd work through them
The SOA expects you to come in knowing calculus, so if yours is rusty, fix that first. After that you don't need to finish the FreeFellow Exam P original bank before you try the samples. Learn a topic with the lesson and the original questions, then work that topic's samples untimed, read the solution for every one you miss and rework those a few days later.
Drill conditional probability and Bayes as a block. Roughly 80 of the 718 items hinge on conditional structure. Filter them, work them together, then work them again at the one-month mark. My rough rule of thumb, not an SOA figure: if you're still missing about a third of them on the second pass, go back to how you set up conditional problems before you do more of them.
Keep a batch you haven't seen for timed practice near the end. Topic order is fine while you're learning, but working them mixed at exam pace, 30 at a time in three hours, is what builds the stamina the exam needs. That's six minutes a question on average for the attempt alone, so how many you save depends on your hours: each timed set needs its own time afterward to read the solutions and rework what you missed.
The set has three gaps. Three-or-more-variable joint distributions, which the SOA has been emphasizing, are sparse in the older batches; the FreeFellow original bank covers them and is calibrated against post-2020 sittings. Order statistics for continuous distributions get light coverage, so use a textbook (Hogg and Tanis, or any standard probability text) if you want more. Survival and hazard functions are out of scope for P; they live in FAM, where you'll need the same setup habits.
Other places to get them
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| Source | Exam P Sample Questions | Format | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| FreeFellow | All 718, interactive | Same surface as topic practice | Free |
| ASM Probability Manual | All 718 in study manual | PDF in printed manual | Check current package price |
| ACTEX Exam P Manual | Selected items + commentary | PDF in manual | Check current package price |
| Coaching Actuaries Adapt P | All 718 + originals | Interactive within Adapt | Check current package price |
| SOA only | All 718 | Static PDF on soa.org | Free |
FreeFellow is the only free interactive version. The paid platforms put the same SOA items inside their own products and charge for the package.
For theory, Marcel Finan (Arkansas Tech University) keeps a free manual, "A Probability Course for the Actuaries: A Preparation for Exam P/1." It's been the standard free P text for over a decade, with full syllabus coverage, worked theory and practice problems, but no interactive practice. I'd use Finan for the theory and then the SOA samples and the FreeFellow bank for drilling, with step-by-step solutions and a readiness score. The samples and the original bank are both free, and How to Pass Exam P (2026 Study Guide) covers the broader strategy. If FM is next for you, the Free Exam FM Sample Questions post covers that set.