Career
Do You Have Impostor Syndrome?
Feeling like a fraud while the evidence disagrees.
How this is scored
16 items across four impostor-phenomenon components on an agreement scale. Original educational wording: impostor feelings are not a clinical diagnosis.
Academic References & Background
- Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15(3), 281-287.
Your result
Find out who actually knows you
Send someone a link that asks them to answer this test as you. They find out how close they got.
Before you start
The 4 possible results
Every answer nudges you toward one of these. Here is what each one means.
Strong impostor feelings
You are carrying a persistent sense of being about to be found out, and it is not tracking your actual record. The mechanism is self-sealing: success gets attributed to luck, so it never becomes evidence, which means no amount of achievement will resolve it.
Moderate impostor feelings
The feeling shows up in specific situations: new rooms, senior people, anything where being wrong would be visible. It is common enough to be almost universal among people doing work slightly beyond their comfort, which is the population it selects for.
Occasional impostor feelings
You get flashes of it without living in it. You can generally accept that you earned what you have, with the odd wobble when the stakes are unfamiliar.
No real impostor feelings
You attribute your results to your own work, take praise without discomfort, and do not feel like a fraud in demanding company. That is a genuinely comfortable place to operate from and rarer than the internet suggests.
About this assessment
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Do You Have Impostor Syndrome? measure?
Feeling like a fraud while the evidence disagrees. 16 items across four impostor-phenomenon components on an agreement scale. Original educational wording: impostor feelings are not a clinical diagnosis.
How is this test scored and how long does it take?
This test contains 16 questions and takes about 3 minutes to complete. All scoring runs instantly in your browser with zero sign-up.
Are my responses and results kept private?
Yes, 100% private. All calculations happen entirely inside your web browser. Your answers never leave your device and are never stored on any server.
Is this a clinical or medical diagnosis?
No. MindType tests are created for self-reflection, personal insight, and education. They do not constitute clinical, psychiatric, or psychological diagnosis.
Keep going
Related tests
Written for self-reflection, not clinical diagnosis.
Scored in your browser. Your answers are never sent or stored.