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Speed distance and time questions with answers

Speed distance and time questions are three-quarters unit discipline. Most wrong answers on this family are correct arithmetic on a kilometre-per-hour figure that should have been metres per second. Each walkthrough below converts first and computes second, and states the conversion it used rather than assuming it.

Download the PDF — 15 questions with answers

Free, ungated, no email. This is the speed distance time questions with answers PDF — the same 15 questions as below, with every worked solution at the back, ready to print.

How to use this set

The 15 questions below are ordered the way an exam block is rather than easiest-first: two gentle openers, then a run of medium, and a hard one every sixth question — 2 of the 15 sit in the hard band. Every question is a time, speed & distance.

Work each question on paper before you open its solution. The walkthrough is the method itself, step for step, so reading it first turns a practice set into a reading exercise and teaches nothing. If you are stuck on the method rather than on one question, the method guide is a better place to start than the next question: Speed, distance and time: units first.

15 speed distance and time questions with answers

Every question below was generated by the same engine that mints the ComputePrep daily timed drill, and machine-checked before it reached this page — a multiple-choice question validates its own answer against its own options at generation, and ships only with a walkthrough attached. The walkthrough is the engine's own.

Question 1

How far does it travel?

A train runs at a steady 72 km/h for 4 hours.

  1. 278
  2. 282
  3. 288
  4. 360
  5. 216
Show the worked solution
  1. Distance = speed × time = 72 × 4 = 288 km.
  2. Answer: 288 km.

Question 2

How long does the journey take?

A train covers 200 km at a steady 40 km/h.

  1. 2
  2. 3
  3. 4
  4. 10
  5. 5
Show the worked solution
  1. Time = distance ÷ speed = 200 ÷ 40 = 5 hours.
  2. Answer: 5 hours.

Question 3

How long does the journey take?

A train covers 210 km at a steady 30 km/h.

  1. 6
  2. 7
  3. 4
  4. 14
  5. 3
Show the worked solution
  1. Time = distance ÷ speed = 210 ÷ 30 = 7 hours.
  2. Answer: 7 hours.

Question 4

How long does the journey take?

A train covers 216 km at a steady 72 km/h.

  1. 6
  2. 4
  3. 8
  4. 5
  5. 3
Show the worked solution
  1. Time = distance ÷ speed = 216 ÷ 72 = 3 hours.
  2. Answer: 3 hours.

Question 5

What is its average speed for the whole journey?

A car covers a certain distance at 20 km/h and returns along the same route at 60 km/h.

  1. 25
  2. 40
  3. 23
  4. 30
  5. 27
Show the worked solution
  1. Equal distances, different speeds — the average is HARMONIC, not the plain mean.
  2. Average = 2 × 20 × 60 ÷ (20 + 60) = 2400 ÷ 80 = 30 km/h.
  3. The tempting 40 km/h is wrong: more time is spent on the slower leg.
  4. Answer: 30 km/h.

Question 6

How long does the journey take?

A train covers 320 km at a steady 80 km/h.

  1. 5
  2. 6
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 8
Show the worked solution
  1. Time = distance ÷ speed = 320 ÷ 80 = 4 hours.
  2. Answer: 4 hours.

Question 7

How far does it travel?

A train runs at a steady 30 km/h for 2 hours.

  1. 65
  2. 60
  3. 68
  4. 75
  5. 90
Show the worked solution
  1. Distance = speed × time = 30 × 2 = 60 km.
  2. Answer: 60 km.

Question 8

How long does the journey take?

A train covers 315 km at a steady 45 km/h.

  1. 6
  2. 7
  3. 8
  4. 9
  5. 14
Show the worked solution
  1. Time = distance ÷ speed = 315 ÷ 45 = 7 hours.
  2. Answer: 7 hours.

Question 9

What is its average speed for the whole journey?

A car covers a certain distance at 12 km/h and returns along the same route at 36 km/h.

  1. 18
  2. 10
  3. 28
  4. 24
  5. 17
Show the worked solution
  1. Equal distances, different speeds — the average is HARMONIC, not the plain mean.
  2. Average = 2 × 12 × 36 ÷ (12 + 36) = 864 ÷ 48 = 18 km/h.
  3. The tempting 24 km/h is wrong: more time is spent on the slower leg.
  4. Answer: 18 km/h.

Question 10

What is its average speed for the whole journey?

A car covers a certain distance at 30 km/h and returns along the same route at 70 km/h.

  1. 42
  2. 12
  3. 100
  4. 51
  5. 50
Show the worked solution
  1. Equal distances, different speeds — the average is HARMONIC, not the plain mean.
  2. Average = 2 × 30 × 70 ÷ (30 + 70) = 4200 ÷ 100 = 42 km/h.
  3. The tempting 50 km/h is wrong: more time is spent on the slower leg.
  4. Answer: 42 km/h.

Question 11

What is its average speed for the whole journey?

A car covers a certain distance at 20 km/h and returns along the same route at 30 km/h.

  1. 10
  2. 26
  3. 25
  4. 50
  5. 24
Show the worked solution
  1. Equal distances, different speeds — the average is HARMONIC, not the plain mean.
  2. Average = 2 × 20 × 30 ÷ (20 + 30) = 1200 ÷ 50 = 24 km/h.
  3. The tempting 25 km/h is wrong: more time is spent on the slower leg.
  4. Answer: 24 km/h.

Question 12

How long does the journey take?

A train covers 150 km at a steady 30 km/h.

  1. 5
  2. 7
  3. 10
  4. 4
  5. 6
Show the worked solution
  1. Time = distance ÷ speed = 150 ÷ 30 = 5 hours.
  2. Answer: 5 hours.

Question 13

How far does it travel?

A train runs at a steady 72 km/h for 2 hours.

  1. 104
  2. 216
  3. 108
  4. 72
  5. 144
Show the worked solution
  1. Distance = speed × time = 72 × 2 = 144 km.
  2. Answer: 144 km.

Question 14

How far does it travel?

A train runs at a steady 30 km/h for 8 hours.

  1. 240
  2. 270
  3. 180
  4. 225
  5. 210
Show the worked solution
  1. Distance = speed × time = 30 × 8 = 240 km.
  2. Answer: 240 km.

Question 15

What is its average speed for the whole journey?

A car covers a certain distance at 20 km/h and returns along the same route at 60 km/h.

  1. 28
  2. 26
  3. 30
  4. 18
  5. 40
Show the worked solution
  1. Equal distances, different speeds — the average is HARMONIC, not the plain mean.
  2. Average = 2 × 20 × 60 ÷ (20 + 60) = 2400 ÷ 80 = 30 km/h.
  3. The tempting 40 km/h is wrong: more time is spent on the slower leg.
  4. Answer: 30 km/h.
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Where these questions come from

Most free practice for this topic is a scanned upload or a blog quiz, and neither can tell you a question has exactly one answer. That is the one thing this set can promise: it is minted, not typed. The engine behind it serves ComputePrep's daily timed drill, so the questions here are the same shape as the ones a live round would give you — and there is an unlimited supply of them, which is why this page can be regenerated rather than padded.

If you want the method rather than more questions, Speed, distance and time: units first covers the approach, the traps and a worked table. This page and that one deliberately answer different questions: that one is how do I solve these, this one is give me speed distance and time questions with the answers.

FAQ

What is the conversion between km/h and m/s?

Multiply by 5/18 to go from km/h to m/s, and by 18/5 to go back. Any question involving a train passing a pole, a platform or another train needs metres per second, and doing that conversion before anything else removes the most common error in the family.

How does relative speed work for two trains?

Add the speeds when they move towards each other or in opposite directions; subtract when they move the same way. The distance covered is the sum of both lengths when one train passes another, and just the train's own length when it passes a pole.

What is the average speed for a round trip?

Not the average of the two speeds — it is the harmonic mean, 2ab/(a + b), because equal distances take unequal times. At 40 and 60 km/h the average is 48, not 50. The arithmetic mean is always among the options, so the distinction is worth holding firmly.

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