The real test
How many questions is the California permit test?
The answer
Under 18
Questions46
To pass38
18 or older
Questions36
To pass30
As consistently reported by recent test-takers; the DMV does not publish official counts.
What happens if you fail
- You get three attempts per application before you must reapply, and if you are under 18 you wait seven days before trying again, not counting the day you failed (handbook PDF page 11).
- The handbook states a wait for minors on PDF page 11 and states none for anybody 18 or older, so this page states none.
- You are not allowed any testing aid at a DMV knowledge test, and the handbook names the handbook itself and a phone (PDF page 11).
Does this practice test match the real one
No practice test is the real test. The agency writes the real test's questions and does not publish them, so nobody can show you the ones you will actually be asked, and that includes us.
What can be shown is where our mock follows a rule the agency published, where nothing is published so the number is a fact about us rather than about the real test, and where the two genuinely differ. Each row below says which.
How many questions, and how many you must get rightNot published
The DMV publishes an 80 percent passing score and no question count. This mock runs the two formats test-takers report and grades on the reported lines, which are one question stricter than an exact 80 percent of the same count.
How many answer choices you seeSame
Three. The DMV publishes that its own test shows one correct answer and two wrong choices, and this mock matches it. California is the only one of the five states where that is a published fact rather than a fact about us.
Where you sit it, and what you may have openDiffers
The handbook says no testing aids are allowed at a DMV knowledge test, and it names the handbook itself and a phone (PDF page 11). Here you may have anything open, including the handbook, and nobody is watching.
How long you getNot published
Neither the handbook nor dmv.ca.gov publishes a time limit for the knowledge test, and this mock does not impose one.
More
Every practice question here carries the page of the official handbook it came from.