Our friends at Intel have provided an excellent public service by providing a password checking site that will grade the quality of your password.

https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/forms/passwordwin.html

It is interesting to try different passwords and see how long each would take to hack. One thing that very quickly becomes obvious is that length is far more important than complexity.

From http://iq.intel.com/change-your-password-day-is-your-password-hackable/

“The password “Br3ak1ead&7” would take a computer three days to crack, at 1,000 guesses per second. Meanwhile, the seemingly simple “thunder showers before sunset” password, would take the same computer, guessing at the same rate, 550 years to crack”
So how do your passwords grade?