OCD test: a 10-question self-check (not a diagnosis)

By Sakshi Shah, Co-founder, GoodLives. Updated October 23, 2026.

It is 2 am and you have Googled “do I have OCD” twice. You have checked the gas stove once, then once more. You are not being dramatic. You are not broken. Many of us have been here, and what you are feeling has a name.

This OCD test is a quick, honest self-check. It will not diagnose you. Nothing on the internet can. What it can do is help you see whether a pattern that feels private is more common than you think.

GoodLives is India’s online therapy platform, trusted by 500K+ people. We built this page the way we wish someone had written one for us at 2 am.

What an OCD test actually measures (and what it does not)

An OCD test online is a short set of self-report questions. Most are built on the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, or Y-BOCS. It measures two things: how much time your obsessions and compulsions take, and how much they get in the way of your week. It does not diagnose OCD.

The Y-BOCS was designed to be scored by a clinician in an interview. It was not meant to be filled in alone at midnight. Over the years, a self-report version has become a common screener online. What follows uses the same two-part structure, written in plain English for an Indian reader.

Why does this matter? The number at the end of a free OCD test is a signal, not an answer. A real OCD diagnosis is a conversation with a clinical psychologist. Your history and your week sit in the room with the two of you.

In short: Treat the result as a reason to talk to someone, not a label to carry.

The 10-question OCD self-check

This OCD questionnaire asks five questions about obsessions and five about compulsions. Obsessions are unwanted thoughts; compulsions are repeated behaviours. Pick the number that fits your last two weeks best. Keep a running total on paper or a notes app. You will add them at the end.

The scale, for every question:

• 0 = none
• 1 = mild, under 1 hour a day, or occasional interference
• 2 = moderate, 1 to 3 hours a day, or clear interference
• 3 = severe, 3 to 8 hours a day, or significant interference
• 4 = extreme, more than 8 hours a day, or disabling

Part A: obsessions, which are the thoughts.

• In the last two weeks, how much time have unwanted, intrusive thoughts taken up?
• How much have these thoughts got in the way of work, study or home?
• How much distress have they caused you?
• How hard have you tried to resist them?
• How much control have you had over them?

Part B: compulsions, which are what you do about the thoughts.

• How much time have you spent on repeated behaviours, like checking, washing, counting or asking for reassurance?
• How much have these behaviours got in the way of your day?
• How much distress would you feel if you tried to stop?
• How hard have you tried to resist doing them?
• How much control have you had over doing them?

In short: Add the ten numbers now. Keep them. We will look at the band in the next section.

What your score means, and what it probably does not

Add your 10 answers together. The total ranges from 0 to 40. The Y-BOCS research literature groups the result into five severity bands. These bands describe how much OCD may be in the way of your week. They do not say whether you have OCD. Only a clinical psychologist decides that.

Bands follow the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, published by Goodman and colleagues in 1989. It is still used in OCD assessment today. We have adapted the language for a self-report reader. The clinical bands remain the standard reference.

In short: Any band from mild upward is a reason to make an appointment, not a reason to self-label.

Why this is a self-check, not a diagnosis

A real OCD diagnosis takes more than 10 questions. A clinical psychologist spends 50 to 90 minutes with you. She asks about your history. She rules out other things that look like OCD. A test on your phone cannot do that work.

The honest answer is that a 10-question test cannot tell OCD apart from several things that look like it on paper. Three everyday patterns can score high on a Y-BOCS checklist and still not be OCD:

• Health anxiety that peaks during exam or wedding seasons
• Generalised anxiety where the thoughts loop but no ritual follows
• Autistic traits that look like compulsions but are a form of self-regulation, not relief

A clinician tells these apart. A free OCD test cannot. If this part of the post is important to you, our longer piece on OCD symptoms, types and treatment breaks each subtype down with examples.

In short: The number says there is enough here for a conversation. The conversation itself is the diagnosis.

If this looks like you, what to do next

A high score on an OCD symptoms test is a reason to talk to a professional. It is not a reason to panic. OCD responds well to a therapy called Exposure and Response Prevention, or ERP. ERP needs a trained clinician. It is not something you can safely do alone from a blog.

Here is what the next step looks like, for most Indian readers this week.

First, book an assessment with a clinical psychologist. In India, that means a Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) registered practitioner. These are the people trained to assess and treat OCD. On GoodLives, share one line about what you want help with. We will suggest therapists for you.

Second, a psychiatrist is part of the picture if the thoughts include wanting to hurt yourself or someone else. The same is true if sleep is almost gone. Medication is a conversation for a doctor, not a blog.

Third, in the gap between booking and your first session, two things help more than online lists:

• Stop the reassurance loop. Googling symptoms, asking family “am I okay?”, checking the gas stove a fifth time: these feel like relief and feed the loop.
• Do not try ERP alone. Rushing into exposures without a therapist can make things worse.

A self-check tells you if there is enough here to talk about. A therapist tells you what to do about it, week after week. Our page on online therapy for anxiety walks through what a first session is like, if that part is new to you.

In short: An assessment is the real next step. Book one; the blog can wait.

Why self-checks can feel scary with OCD

OCD has a trick. It latches on to the thing you most do not want. For some people that is harm. For others it is being “wrong” in a moral or relationship sense. Taking a test can set off that same loop. You might be worried the questions themselves are proof. They are not.

Here is what often happens next, if the loop is loud today:

• You take the test, score high, and feel certain you have OCD
• You take it again, score lower, and feel certain you were “faking”
• You take it a third time, average the scores, and feel worse

The number is not the point. The pattern of needing the number again is the point.

For a less OCD-specific version, our anxiety self-check uses the same honest shape.

In short: Taking a test over and over is the thing a self-check cannot fix. A conversation can.

When to see a professional today, not later

Most readers of this page can book an appointment this week and sleep tonight. For a smaller group, “this week” is too far away. If one of the lines below is true for you, please treat today as the right day, not a day on a diary page.

• You have a thought about harming yourself or someone else that feels like a plan
• You have not slept for three nights, and the loop is louder each day
• You have stopped eating or drinking due to a contamination fear
• Family cannot tell what is you and what is OCD any more
• You are a parent and the thoughts are about your child

These are the people trained for this exact call.

If what you need right now is to sleep tonight, a therapy appointment on Friday is not the fastest tool. The appointment will still be there.

Your rights to free care sit under the Mental Healthcare Act 2017. Nobody can bill you for a helpline call. No family member needs to approve the visit.

In short: This test is for most of us, most of the time. It is not for a crisis right now. For the anxious cousin of this check, see our anxiety guide for India.

Note: This post is for information only and is not a substitute for professional care.