IELTS Reading question type

IELTS Reading Short-Answer Questions: How to Answer Them

IELTS Reading short-answer questions ask about factual details in the passage — who, when, how many, what — and you answer in words or numbers taken from the text, within a word limit. The answers come in the same order as the information in the text, which makes this one of the more predictable question types.

Updated 3 October 2026 · LingoLeap IELTS Content Team

IELTS Reading short-answer questions at a glance

What you do: Answer questions about factual details in the text, in words or numbers. Answers must be taken from words in the text.
Where it appears: IELTS Academic and General Training Reading.
How many questions: IELTS does not fix a number per set. The whole Reading test has 40 questions in 60 minutes.
Word limit: Given in the instructions, for example “NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER”. You lose the mark for writing more than the limit. Hyphenated words such as “check-in” count as one word.
Order of answers: The answers come in the same order as the information in the text.
Marking: Each correct answer receives 1 mark. IELTS says spelling mistakes in Reading are marked as wrong.

IELTS says this type tests your ability to find and understand specific information in the text.
The question word predicts the answer: who → a name; when or which year → a date; how far or how many → a number and unit; what → usually a noun.
You write a short answer, not a sentence. Words from the question are not needed in your answer.

Practice: short-answer questions questions with a short passage

An original passage and questions written by LingoLeap in the IELTS style — shorter than a real section, so you can practise this one question type. Give yourself about 9 minutes.

How honeybees share directions

AWhen a honeybee forager discovers a rich patch of flowers, she returns to the hive and performs a short routine on the surface of the honeycomb. In the 1940s the Austrian zoologist Karl von Frisch showed that this routine, now called the waggle dance, tells other bees where the food is. His work on animal communication was recognised in 1973 with a Nobel Prize, which he shared with two other researchers of animal behaviour.

BThe dance takes place in almost complete darkness, on a vertical sheet of comb. The forager runs forward in a straight line while shaking her abdomen from side to side, then circles back to her starting point, alternately to the right and to the left, and repeats the run many times. Bees that follow closely sense the movements mainly through touch and through the vibrations and air currents the dancer creates.

CThe direction of the straight run carries the direction of the food. Inside the hive, straight up the comb stands for the direction of the sun. If the run points 40 degrees to the right of vertical, the food lies 40 degrees to the right of the sun as seen from the hive entrance. Because the sun moves across the sky during the day, a dancer gradually adjusts the angle of her run, even if she has not been outside for some time.

DDistance is signalled by the duration of the waggle run: the longer the run, the further away the food. The exact relationship differs between colonies, but roughly one second of waggling corresponds to about one kilometre of flight. When the flowers are very close to the hive, bees perform a shorter, less precise version that was once described as a separate “round dance”.

EThe dance is not the whole message. Followers also pick up the scent of the flowers that clings to the dancer's body, and she may share samples of nectar with them. Recruits therefore leave the hive with information about both location and odour, and use the smell to recognise the right flowers when they arrive. Interestingly, experiments suggest that the dance helps a colony most when good food sources are scarce and widely scattered; where flowers are everywhere, bees find them almost as well by searching alone.

Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

1. Who first showed that the waggle dance tells other bees where food is?__________________
2. In which year was this work recognised with a Nobel Prize?__________________
3. In what light conditions is the dance performed?__________________
4. Which feature of the waggle run shows how far away the food is?__________________
5. Roughly what distance does one second of waggling represent?__________________
6. What name was once given to the version of the dance used for food very close to the hive?__________________
7. Apart from the dance, what do recruits use to recognise the right flowers?__________________

Answers explained

Show the answers and why

1. Karl von Frisch — Paragraph A: “the Austrian zoologist Karl von Frisch showed that this routine… tells other bees where the food is”. Three words, so it fits. “Austrian zoologist Karl von Frisch” is five words and loses the mark.
2. 1973 — Paragraph A: “recognised in 1973 with a Nobel Prize”. Don't confuse it with “the 1940s”, when he did the work. Write the number as figures.
3. (almost complete) darkness — Paragraph B: “The dance takes place in almost complete darkness”. “Darkness” alone answers the question; “almost complete darkness” is exactly three words and also fits.
4. (the) duration — Paragraph D: “Distance is signalled by the duration of the waggle run”. The direction of the run (paragraph C) shows where the food is, not how far — the classic trap for this question.
5. (about) one kilometre / 1 km — Paragraph D: “roughly one second of waggling corresponds to about one kilometre of flight”. The answer can be a number with its unit; “one kilometre of flight” is also within three words. Leaving out the unit (“one”) does not answer the question.
6. round dance — Paragraph D: the shorter version “was once described as a separate ‘round dance’”. “A shorter, less precise version” describes it but isn't its name, and is over the limit.
7. (the) smell / (the) scent — Paragraph E: recruits “use the smell to recognise the right flowers”. The question excludes the dance, so “location” is wrong. Note the order: questions 1–7 run from paragraph A to paragraph E.

How to answer IELTS short-answer questions questions, step by step

1
Read the instructions and note the limit
Short-answer limits vary — sometimes ONE WORD ONLY, sometimes THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER. Circle it before you start.
2
Underline the question word and the key idea
Decide what kind of answer you need — a name, a year, a measurement, a thing — and pick one distinctive word or name to scan for (“Nobel Prize”, “one second”).
3
Scan in order
IELTS says the answers come in the same order as the information in the text. Once you find answer 3, answer 4 is after it, which saves scanning time.
4
Read the sentence carefully, not just the keyword
Questions paraphrase the text. “How far away” matches “distance”; “recognised with a Nobel Prize” matches “recognised in 1973 with a Nobel Prize”. Read the whole sentence before you choose.
5
Write the shortest complete answer
Copy the words exactly, with correct spelling, and drop anything not needed: no articles or question words unless they fit within the limit. Numbers can be written as figures.

Common traps

Writing too much

A full sentence, or a name with its title (“the Austrian zoologist Karl von Frisch”), goes over the limit and the whole answer is marked wrong.

Answering a nearby fact

Paragraphs often hold two numbers or two features side by side (1940s and 1973; direction and duration). Check that your answer matches the question word exactly.

Forgetting the unit

For “how far” or “how long”, a bare number does not answer the question. Include the unit if it fits within the limit.

Rewording the text

Answers must be taken from words in the text. “Odour” is in the passage; your own synonym such as “perfume” is not.

More practice

Try this question type on the free official IELTS samples next, then a full timed Reading section. LingoLeap's AI-graded practice covers IELTS Speaking and Writing.

Free official IELTS sample questions

FAQ

What are short-answer questions in IELTS Reading?

Questions about factual details in the passage that you answer in words or numbers taken from the text, within a word limit such as NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER.

Do IELTS Reading short-answer questions follow the order of the text?

Yes. IELTS says the answers come in the same order as the information in the text.

Can I write numbers as figures?

Yes. IELTS says you answer short-answer questions in words or numbers, and limits such as “AND/OR A NUMBER” allow a number in addition to the words.

Do you lose marks for spelling in IELTS Reading?

Yes. IELTS states that spelling mistakes in the Listening and Reading tests are marked as wrong.

What happens if my answer is over the word limit?

You lose the mark, even if the correct words are in your answer. IELTS states this for short-answer questions.

Sources

Format, instructions and marking rules are from IELTS (ielts.org). The passage, questions and advice are LingoLeap's own.