BDSM test: Which BDSM type are you?

Dominant, submissive, switch, rope bunny, or medical? Our free BDSM test reveals your personal BDSM personality in about three minutes and shows you which BDSM personas lie within you.

• ✓ 28 questions
• ✓ approx. 3 minutes
• ✓ anonymous
• 18+

Go directly to the BDSM test

This is how our BDSM test works

The test reveals how strongly different aspects of BDSM appeal to you. You rate 28 statements on a scale from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree." This creates your BDSM personality: a profile of ten characteristics such as leading, submission, bondage, being bound, or examination. In the second step, you'll learn which three BDSM personas best match your profile, each with a percentage score.

The traits are paired: leading and submitting, binding and being bound, giving and receiving pain, nurturing and being nurtured, examining and being examined. They are independent of each other. You can enjoy leading and still enjoy pain, or submit without liking pain. Only the combination creates your personas.

Perhaps you are familiar with the English-language test from bdsmtest.org. Our BDSM test works on a similar principle, but is in German, significantly shorter, and covers something you'll hardly find elsewhere: bondage with restraints and medical play.

An overview of BDSM roles

BDSM stands for Bondage & Discipline, Dominance & Submission and Sadism & Masochism. Within these areas, roles have developed that people use to describe what excites them. Hardly anyone fits completely into one category, which is why the test shows you three personas instead of just one.

Dominant (Dom, Domme)

Dominant people negotiate control and use it for mutual pleasure. Dominance arises from presence and attention. Loudness or equipment is not necessary. Learn more in our article about... the world of BDSM Dom and about the Gentle Dom.

Submissive (Sub)

Subs consciously relinquish control to someone they trust. The submissive person sets the boundaries and can end the scene at any time with the safeword. Read on: BDSM Sub: Pleasure & devotion.

Switch

A switch enjoys both sides, sometimes with the same person, sometimes depending on the partner. Switching is a distinct identity within the scene. Those who understand both perspectives are often particularly good at assessing what the other person needs.

Rigger and Rope Bunny

The rigger ties, the rope bunny is tied. The terms originate from rope bondage and are now used for all forms of restraint, from shibari to bed restraint. Riggers enjoy the craft and the responsibility, rope bunnies the feeling of being held.More on this topic: Rigger in BDSM and What is a Rope Bunny?

Sadist and masochist

Sadists are aroused by the consensual giving of pain or intense stimulation. Masochists experience such stimuli as pleasurable. Both depend on clear agreements. Not every masochistic person is submissive. Introduction to the topic: Impact Play.

Brat and Brat Tamer

A brat is submissive but playfully provokes, tests rules, and wants to be "tamed." The brat tamer accepts the challenge. For this to work, the safeword must be clearly distinguishable from a playful "no." More: What is a brat?

Caregiver and Little

In this dynamic between adults, one person takes on the nurturing role, such as Daddy, Mommy, or Mentor, while the other enjoys being cared for and playful. Often, it's more about security and trust than sex. Some associate this role with ABDL. Read on: DDLG explained simply and Ageplay among adults.

Medical Top and Medical Bottom

Medical play is a role-playing game set in a hospital or clinic: examination, documentation, restraint in bed, straitjacket. The medical top plays the doctor, nurse, or other healthcare worker, while the medical bottom plays the patient. The appeal lies in the clinical, controlled atmosphere and the complete vulnerability. The term "clinic bondage" has been used to describe this type of play since 2020. Learn more: What makes a good straitjacket?

Explorer

If your results are wide-ranging, you're an explorer: open, curious, and not yet committed. Many people only discover their preferences through experimentation.

Take the BDSM test now

Read your result correctly: A kink is not a diagnosis

The idea circulating online is that your BDSM role reveals your "true" relationship needs. That sounds profound, but it doesn't hold water. Your personas describe how you like to play. Who you are as a person is a completely different matter.

• Snapshot: Preferences change with experience, partners, and life stages. Feel free to take the test again in a few months.
• Dom/Sub is not Top/Bottom: Dom and Sub describe who is in control. Top and Bottom describe who performs or receives an action. A dominant person can be the Bottom in a given practice.
• Roles have been chosen: They don't depend on gender. Women are not automatically submissive, men are not automatically dominant.
• A high value is not mandatory: It presents an appeal. It's up to you to decide what you want to try.

BDSM test with partner: How to use your results

1. Take the test separately, so that you don't influence each other.
2. Place your BDSM personalities side by side. Where do your profiles point in opposite directions, for example, leadership in you and submission in your counterpart? That is where your common playing field lies.
3. Write a yes-no-maybe list. Each person makes a note of what they would like to try, what they might like to try, and what they definitely do not want to try.
4. It starts with the biggest common "yes", even if something else sounds more exciting.

Getting on board safely: Consent, safeword and aftercare

Good BDSM is negotiated, observed, and followed up.This applies to the first blindfold as well as to the 20-point fixation.

• Consent: Consent is given in an informed, specific, and revocable manner, and while sober. Saying yes to restraints is not yes to spanking. Within the scene, guidelines such as SSC (Safe, Sane, Consensual) and RACK (Risk-Aware Consensual Kink) have become established for this purpose.
• Safeword: Agree on a word that immediately ends the scene and a hand signal for when speaking isn't possible. You can find ideas in our 50 best safewords.
• Bondage safety: Never leave a restrained or bound person alone. Regularly check circulation, paying attention to tingling, numbness, and coldness. Keep safety scissors and keys for magnetic locks within easy reach at all times.
• Aftercare: After the scene, you need time for each other: a blanket, water, closeness, talking. What you should avoid is explained in our [link to relevant article/guideline]. Aftercare Guide.

Suitable products for your BDSM persona

Your main persona gives you direction. These categories offer a good starting point:

Frequently Asked Questions about the BDSM Test

Back to the BDSM test