how many serious faults to fail driving test

You fail the UK car driving test if you get even one serious fault (or dangerous fault).

Quick scoop

• 1 serious or 1 dangerous fault = automatic fail, even if everything else is perfect.

• You can get up to 15 minor faults and still pass, as long as none are upgraded to serious.

• Repeating the same minor several times (often around 3–4 times in one category) can be marked as a serious fault, which also means a fail.

What counts as a “serious fault”?

A serious fault is something that shows you’re not safe or not in proper control, even if there isn’t an actual near‑crash.

Common examples include:

• Poor observation at junctions or roundabouts.
• Not giving way when you should.
• Mounting the kerb while driving or during a manoeuvre.
• Ignoring traffic lights or road signs.
• Unsafe lane changes or poor steering control.

Any one of those, marked as serious, will fail the test.

How minors can turn into a fail

Minors (driving faults) are smaller mistakes that don’t immediately create danger on their own.

However:

• More than 15 minors overall = fail.
• Several minors in the same category (often 3 or more, like repeated mirror errors) can be upgraded to a serious fault = fail.

So the number of serious faults to fail is:

• Serious faults needed to fail: 1
• Dangerous faults needed to fail: 1

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.