How the California mock exam is set.

What this mock exam runs

These are the numbers this mock exam is built and graded on.

Where the agency publishes how many choices its own test shows, this mock matches it. Where it does not, this mock shows every choice we wrote. The DMV publishes that its own test shows one correct answer and two wrong choices per question (dmv.ca.gov, checked July 2026), and this mock matches it.

Where these numbers come from

As consistently reported by recent test-takers; the DMV does not publish official counts.

• The 80 percent passing score is official DMV policy, and the sentence that states it names no number of questions (dmv.ca.gov, checked August 2026).
• The DMV does not publish how many questions the test has. The 46-question (pass at 38) and 36-question (pass at 30) formats used here are what recent California test-takers consistently report.
• The two do not give the same pass line, and this is the arithmetic: 80 percent of 46 is 36.8, so an exact 80 percent line would be 37, and 80 percent of 36 is 28.8, so 29. The reported lines of 38 and 30 are one question stricter than each.
• We grade on the stricter line on purpose: if you pass here, you were not graded easier than either figure would grade you.

The California DMV page on the passing score

What we could not establish

These are not on this page, because nothing we hold establishes them.

• Whether California offers an online knowledge test in a different format. We have not established it, so this page does not state it.