Pattern

Regex for Medium password

8+ chars, at least one letter and one digit.

The Medium password regex is ^(?=.*[A-Za-z])(?=.*\d).{8,}$ — copy it below, or open it in the explainer for a token-by-token breakdown.

The pattern

^(?=.*[A-Za-z])(?=.*\d).{8,}$

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What it matches

hello123
Test1234
pa55word

What it doesn't match

password
12345678
abc

Notes & gotchas

Looser policy: just letters + digits, no symbol or case requirement. Better for users; weak by modern standards.

Code in your language

Use the explainer's Code tab to generate ready-to-paste snippets in JavaScript, Python, Java, .NET, Go, Ruby, and PHP for this pattern.

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Token-by-token breakdown

Every part of the pattern, left to right:

Token	Meaning
`^`	start of string (or line in multiline mode)
`(?=`	start of a positive lookahead — followed by
`.*`	zero or more of any character
`[A-Za-z]`	any of: uppercase letters, lowercase letters
`)`	end of group
`(?=`	start of a positive lookahead — followed by
`.*`	zero or more of any character
`\d`	any digit (0–9)
`)`	end of group
`.{8,}`	8 or more times of any character
`$`	end of string (or line in multiline mode)

About this pattern

Password and credential validation patterns enforce policy rules. Modern guidance (NIST 800-63B) favors length over complexity.

Quick usage in different languages

This exact pattern — with the correct escaping and idioms for each language:

JavaScript: /^(?=.*[A-Za-z])(?=.*\d).{8,}$/.test(value)
Python: re.match(r"^(?=.*[A-Za-z])(?=.*\d).{8,}$", value)
Java: Pattern.compile("^(?=.*[A-Za-z])(?=.*\\d).{8,}$").matcher(value).matches()
C# / .NET: Regex.IsMatch(value, @"^(?=.*[A-Za-z])(?=.*\d).{8,}$")
Go: regexp.MustCompile(`^(?=.*[A-Za-z])(?=.*\d).{8,}$`).MatchString(value)
Ruby: /^(?=.*[A-Za-z])(?=.*\d).{8,}$/.match?(value)
PHP: preg_match('~^(?=.*[A-Za-z])(?=.*\d).{8,}$~', $value)

The explainer’s Code tab regenerates these for any pattern you paste, and the downloadable cheat sheet bundles the breakdown, all seven snippets, and the pitfalls below onto one printable page.

Common pitfalls

Anchored to the whole string. This pattern uses ^ and $, so it requires the entire input to match. To find it inside a longer text, drop the anchors and use the global (g) flag.
ASCII letters only. [a-zA-Z] excludes accented and non-Latin letters (é, ü, ß, ñ, and non-Latin scripts). For international input use Unicode properties like \p{L} with the u flag.
Greedy “.*”. A greedy .* / .+ can match more than intended. Use a lazy version (.*?) or a negated class ([^…]) to stop at the right place.
Escape it correctly per language. In Java and JavaScript strings each backslash must be doubled (\\d); in Python, Go, and C# use raw/verbatim strings so the backslashes survive.
Validate beyond format. Matching the format doesn't guarantee the value is real. Confirm the medium password against a source of truth (database, API, or checksum) where it matters.

Related patterns

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