This quiz asks 15 short questions about how the last few weeks have been, such as your sleep, energy, mood, warmth, routine and food, and shows whether vata-like, pitta-like or kapha-like qualities have been standing out. It then gives a short description of that pattern as the tradition describes it and a few gentle daily habits.
It is an educational quiz and not medical advice. It does not name any condition, does not look for illness and does not suggest any treatment. Please read the medical disclaimer before you use it.
What vikriti means
In Ayurveda, prakriti is the constitution the texts say you are born with, and vikriti is the way the doshas stand now. A person with a pitta-led nature may, after weeks of cold weather, irregular meals and little sleep, show the dry, restless qualities the texts connect with vata. That present picture is vikriti. The classical texts treat the difference between the two as the key to advice, because food and habits are said to be chosen for the present state as much as for the lifelong one.
This quiz looks only at the present. It asks you to compare the last few weeks with how you usually are, so each question has an answer for “about my usual”. If you do not know your usual constitution, you can still use the quiz, and if you do, you can tell it, and the result will compare the two.
How the result is worked out
Every question describes three ways the last few weeks might have felt, one for each dosha, with a fourth answer for “about my usual”. The descriptions follow the qualities the texts attach to each dosha: light, dry, cold and changeable for vata, hot, sharp and intense for pitta, heavy, slow, cool and damp for kapha. They describe everyday feelings. None of them describes a symptom of any illness, and the quiz does not ask about illness at all.
You need to answer at least 10 of the 15 questions. The quiz counts the answers that lean towards each dosha and shows each as a share of the leaning answers. One set of qualities is said to stand out when it leads the next by 15 points or more. Two are shown when they are close, and none when all three are within 12 points. If 60 per cent or more of your answers say “about my usual”, the result is “close to your usual”, which is a perfectly good place to be.
The table at the bottom of the result shows every count, so you can see exactly how the answer was reached and decide how far to trust it.
How to read it
Treat the result as a mirror for a few weeks and not as a label for you. Vata-like qualities after a month of travel, pitta-like qualities in a hot summer of deadlines and kapha-like qualities after a damp winter spent indoors are all ordinary, and the tradition expects them to come and go with the season, the routine and the stress. They are not in themselves a sign that anything is wrong. The seasons guides and the daily routine guides explain how teachers fit habits to the time of year.
The habits at the end of the result are general wellbeing habits drawn from the descriptions on this site, such as regular meal times, warm cooked food, brisk movement or real breaks. They are what the tradition says about likeness and opposites: qualities that match tend to increase each other, and opposite qualities tend to reduce them. They are not treatment, and nobody needs to follow them.
What a quiz cannot do
A practitioner reads vikriti from a detailed examination: your history, your appetite and digestion, your sleep, your pulse, tongue and more. A quiz of 15 answers cannot do that, and many answers depend on how you see yourself this week. No test measures vikriti, and the idea has not been validated in clinical studies as a diagnostic method. Modern medicine would explain a restless, hot or heavy few weeks in other ways, and those ways are not covered here.
The guides to the signs of vata, pitta and kapha imbalance describe the patterns the texts list, and they are not tests either. The same signs can have many ordinary and medical causes.
Safety and good sense
Reflecting on how your habits affect you is safe. Acting on a perceived dosha excess by fasting, cleansing, taking herbs or changing medication is not, and this quiz never suggests any of those. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, a child, an older adult, living with a long-term condition or taking medicines, please speak to a doctor before changing your diet or starting anything new.
If any change in sleep, appetite, weight, mood or energy is sudden, severe, worsening or lasting, see a doctor and do not rely on a quiz. A low mood that does not lift, or any thought of harming yourself, is a reason to speak to a doctor or a helpline today. Please do not type details of your health, medicines or symptoms into any box on this site.
This page describes a traditional system and is education, not advice. See the method and sources page for how we use the texts, and the medical disclaimer. For any health concern see a doctor, and for Ayurvedic treatment see a registered Ayurvedic practitioner (BAMS in India). The prakriti quiz is the companion to this one: it asks about lifelong traits.
Frequently asked questions
↳ What is the difference between prakriti and vikriti?
Prakriti is the constitution the texts say you were born with, and vikriti is the way the doshas stand now, after recent food, weather, sleep and stress. The first stays much the same and the second changes.
↳ Can this quiz tell me if I have a dosha imbalance?
No. It describes the general colour of the last few weeks in the tradition's vocabulary. It cannot diagnose anything or tell you what is happening in your body, and a practitioner reads vikriti from an examination.
↳ Why does my result differ from my prakriti quiz result?
That is what vikriti means. A recent pattern that differs from your lifelong one is expected to vary with season, routine and stress, and the tradition does not treat the difference as a problem in itself.
↳ Should I follow the habits the result suggests?
They are general wellbeing habits, such as regular meals and sleep, and you can take whichever feel sensible. If you have a health condition, take medicines or are pregnant, keep the advice of your doctor first.
↳ How often should I take it?
There is no need to take it often. Because it asks about the last few weeks, a repeat at a change of season shows how the pattern moves. It is a prompt for reflection, not a measurement to track.