Password Strength: Why "P@ssw0rd!" is Weak Despite Looking Strong

Traditional password rules check character classes: uppercase, lowercase, number, symbol. "P@ssw0rd!" ticks every box but is in every password-cracking dictionary — broken in seconds. Modern strength checkers measure entropy: how many guesses an attacker needs on average. A truly random 16-character password has ~104 bits of entropy (centuries to crack). A common phrase has under 30 bits (seconds). Best practice: use a password manager (1Password, Bitwarden) that generates 16+ random characters per site. Use our Password Generator for cryptographic random output and our Password Strength meter for honest scoring.