Which test do you actually need

Most people arrive here needing one specific paper and finding a list of 9. This page fixes that in two steps. First it works through the situations people actually turn up with, and says which paper answers each one and why. Then it puts every paper we publish, for every state we cover, into one table with its real question count, its real pass mark and its time allowance, so you can see how the formats differ before you sit one. Nothing here calculates anything for you: it is a decision, and then the numbers behind it.

Start from the situation you are in

I am fifteen and I want a learner permit

Age is the first gate, and it is not one number nationally. It is set by each state, sometimes in the statute and sometimes conditioned on having done a course first, which is why an answer copied from a friend in another state is often wrong by six months or by a whole prerequisite. Here is what each state we cover requires, with the source under it:

• Florida. 15 for a Class E learner license; 16 for a full Class E license. Florida Statutes s. 322.1615(1) and s. 322.05(1), checked September 9, 2026
• Texas. 15, after the first 6 classroom hours of driver education (concurrent method) or all 24 (block method). Transportation Code s. 521.222(a); TxDPS, Texas Learners License as a Teen and Choosing a Driver Education Course, checked September 25, 2026
• California. 15 years and 6 months with driver education, or over 17 years and 6 months without it (no drive test until 18). Vehicle Code s. 12509(a); California DMV, Learner's Permits, checked September 25, 2026
• New York. 16, with a parent or guardian consenting at 16 and 17 unless a 17-year-old holds a driver education certificate (MV-285). Vehicle and Traffic Law s. 502(2); New York State DMV, Learner Permit page and form ID-44 (2/26), checked September 25, 2026

Once you clear the age rule, the paper you want is your state’s exam simulator for the car permit, because that one runs at the format the agency publishes for your state rather than at a generic length. The permit is also not the end of it: supervised driving hours have to be logged before the road test, and those differ too.

• Florida. 50 hours, of which at least 10 must be at night. A parent, legal guardian or other responsible adult 21 or older signs form HSMV 71143 for the hours. That adult need not hold a license, but whoever rode along must have been a licensed driver 21 or older. FLHSMV graduated licensing requirements; Florida Statutes s. 322.05(3); form HSMV 71143, checked September 25, 2026
• Texas. 30 hours, of which at least 10 must be at night. On top of 7 hours of in-car instruction and 7 hours of in-car observation within the driver education course (16 TAC s. 84.500). The DPS page labels both blocks in-car observation, describing 7 hours driving for the instructor and 7 hours watching the instructor. TxDPS, Texas Provisional License as a Teen; 16 TAC s. 84.500, checked September 25, 2026
• California. 50 hours, of which at least 10 must be at night. Under-18 applicants only. The supervisor is a California-licensed driver 25 or over, except that a parent, spouse, guardian or licensed or certified driving instructor can be any age. Plus 6 hours of professional training and a 6 month permit hold. Adults have no supervised hours requirement. California Driver's Handbook (DL 600); Vehicle Code s. 12814.6, checked September 25, 2026
• New York. 50 hours, of which at least 15 must be after sunset. Required of junior (DJ and MJ) permit holders and of 17-year-olds using driver education to get Class D. A parent or guardian certifies them on form MV-262, which goes to the examiner at every road test, and hours with a driving school instructor or driver education teacher count toward the 50. DMV publishes no hour requirement for applicants 18 and over. Vehicle and Traffic Law s. 502(2); New York State DMV, Complete Pre-Licensing Requirements and form MV-262 (3/25), checked September 25, 2026

Go straight to a car paper: Florida, Texas, California, New York.

I already drive, and I am moving to a new state

Your driving is not what is being tested. Lane discipline, following distance and how to read a four way stop do not change when you cross a state line. What changes is the law: alcohol thresholds, helmet rules, minimum insurance, phone rules, what a dark signal means, how repeat offenses are counted. That is exactly the slice the state statute questions paper drills, and for an experienced driver it is a far better use of an evening than a broad paper full of material you already know.

The size of that gap is measurable. Each of our car papers is built from a shared layer covering the parts that do not vary between states and a second layer written from that state’s own statutes, and the split goes like this:

• Florida. 30 questions written from Florida law, on top of 98 that hold anywhere, across 8 topic areas taken from the Official Florida Driver License Handbook, revision 08/2023.
• Texas. 24 questions written from Texas law, on top of 98 that hold anywhere, across 8 topic areas taken from the Texas Driver Handbook, form DL-7, revised January 2026.
• California. 27 questions written from California law, on top of 98 that hold anywhere, across 7 topic areas taken from the California Driver's Handbook (DL 600), 2025 edition.
• New York. 36 questions written from New York law, on top of 98 that hold anywhere, across 7 topic areas taken from the New York State Driver's Manual, form MV-21 (5/23).

Two traps are worth naming before you book anything, because both catch adults specifically. Texas requires driver education of every first-time applicant under 25, not just teenagers, so an adult arriving with years of experience can still have a course to complete first. California, at the other end, imposes no supervised hours requirement on adults at all, which means the only thing between an adult applicant and a road test is the knowledge test itself. In both cases the licensing rules sit in the state layer of the paper, so the drill and the paperwork line up.

I need to drive a truck for work

Commercial licensing is the one part of this that is not a state question. It is federal, under 49 CFR Part 383, which fixes the pass mark at 80 percent and leaves the syllabus to a single national handbook that agencies reprint rather than rewrite. The practical consequence for you is that the state on the URL changes nothing about the content: the CDL general knowledge paper is the same paper everywhere, 30 questions with 24 needed to pass.

What does vary is which endorsements and restrictions you end up with, and that is decided by which papers you sit rather than by where you live. We publish cdl air brakes and cdl combination vehicles alongside the general knowledge paper for that reason. Air brakes is the one people underestimate: a fail there does not cost you the license, it prints a restriction on it that forbids any vehicle braking on air, which is a strange way to find out that the job you applied for is off the table.

I want to ride

Riding sits in between. The technique is shared, because the state handbooks are built on substantially the same rider curriculum and countersteering does not stop working at a border, so our motorcycle practice test pairs that shared material with the licensing rules of the state you pick. The rules around the riding are where states diverge hard, and helmet law is the clearest case:

• Florida. Optional over 21 with at least $10,000 in medical benefits; eye protection still required.
• California. Universal, every rider and passenger, every age.
• New York. Required for every rider and passenger, no age or insurance exception.

Texas adds a requirement that has nothing to do with either the test or your age: every first-time Class M applicant has to furnish evidence of completing an approved rider training course, whatever age they are (Transportation Code s. 521.148(a)). One honest note on the marking of our motorcycle paper, since this page is about numbers you can trust: it is scored at the same percentage the state publishes for its car knowledge exam, because that is the published figure available. Where a state publishes a separate motorcycle format, the paper uses that instead, as New York does: 20 questions and 14 to pass for its motorcycle class (New York State DMV, Get a Motorcycle Learner Permit and License, checked September 25, 2026).

I keep missing the sign questions

A weakness in signs is quick to spot and slow to fix, because a broad paper only ever mixes a handful of them in among everything else, which is nowhere near the repetition it takes. The signs and lane markings paper puts every question that state’s bank holds on sign faces, signals and pavement markings into a single run.

The count is not identical from state to state, and the reason is editorial rather than legal. Federal sign design is national, so most of the material is shared, but whether a state adds sign questions of its own depends on whether its handbook gives signs a section at all. Florida files them under traffic controls, giving 61 questions. Texas files them under signs, signals and markers, giving 61 questions. California files them under no section of its own, so only the shared material applies there, giving 59 questions. New York files them under signs, signals and markings, giving 63 questions. Reporting the shorter number rather than padding it out is the whole point: a drill that claims more questions than it has is a drill that repeats itself.

I failed, and I need to know when I can try again

Retake rules are the part people guess at, and guessing is expensive because the constraint is sometimes a clock, sometimes a count of attempts and sometimes a fee. What each state actually publishes:

• Florida. No published waiting period and no statewide cap on knowledge exam attempts, but failing the driving skills test five times within a year brings a one-year suspension. Rule 15A-1.015(3) suspends the driving privilege for one year when an applicant fails to pass the driving test within five attempts in a one-year period. For the knowledge exam, third-party administrators may give an applicant three tests in total (agreement section IV.D.4), after which the next one is at a driver license service center or tax collector office. Otherwise a fail costs money rather than time: s. 322.12(1) charges $10 for each later knowledge test and $20 for each later skills test. Florida Statutes s. 322.12(1); Florida Administrative Code rule 15A-1.015(3); FLHSMV Class E Knowledge Exam page; FLHSMV Third-Party Administrator Knowledge Agreement, section IV.D.4, checked September 25, 2026
• Texas. Three examinations of each element per application, then a new application and fee. DL-7 also keeps the application open for 90 days after a failed first attempt; when those 90 days are up, or a third exam is failed, you reapply and pay again. Transportation Code s. 521.161(d); Texas Driver Handbook DL-7 (rev. January 2026), checked September 25, 2026
• California. Three attempts per application, then you must reapply. Applicants under 18 must also wait seven days before retaking a failed knowledge test, not counting the day of the failure. DMV's Provisional Licensing fact sheet (FFDL 19, revised July 2019) gives the same wait and lets a provisional applicant miss no more than 8 questions. California Driver's Handbook (DL 600), the testing process, checked September 25, 2026
• New York. Two knowledge test attempts per $10 application fee, then a new fee. DMV publishes no waiting period between written test attempts at an office. An applicant under 18 who passes the online permit test and goes to an office within 3 business days has to take it again there. Vehicle and Traffic Law s. 503(2)(a); New York State DMV, Prepare For and Take Your Permit Test, checked September 25, 2026

If you failed once, the useful sequence is the laws paper first, because that is where an experienced driver’s gaps usually are, then the full simulator to check you can hold the standard for a whole sitting. Each state hub also carries a shorter first-pass paper, drawn from the same bank, for days when you do not have a full sitting in you.

Every paper, side by side

This is every paper we publish for every state we cover, with the numbers the paper actually runs at rather than a rounded description of them. Two columns are marked, and the marks are the reason the table is here. “Our count” means the agency does not publish a question count for that exam, or the paper is a drill of our own design, so the length is our choice. “Ours” in the clock column means the time allowance is ours and not a published rule.

Read the clock column before you take the timer seriously. Every allowance in it is ours, worked out from the length of the paper, because US knowledge tests are mostly not run against a published limit. FLHSMV is the only agency here that publishes a limit at all, and even that one covers a narrower case than the exam most people sit, so it is not treated as a general rule here. The timer on any paper here is a training constraint we chose, and saying so is more useful to you than a confident number that turns out to be nobody’s rule.

The question column has the same honesty problem in reverse. TxDPS does not publish how many questions its car knowledge exam contains, so the length of that paper is ours and it is marked as such. What is published in that case is the pass mark, which is the figure to revise to. Any site quoting an exact count there is not quoting the agency.

California DMV sits between the two. A count exists and the full sitting runs at it, so that row is not marked as ours, but no current agency page carries the figure: it survives in an older agency document, named in the sourcing table further down. Treat it as the best available number rather than as a published format, and treat the pass mark as the part that is actually current.

How each state marks the real exam

A US knowledge test is not one national format with the questions swapped. States differ on whether there is a clock, on whether the exam can end before the last question, and on whether the pass mark they publish reconciles with the error allowance they document. These are the marking rules as each agency states them, so you can see what your own sitting will and will not do to you.

One rule people expect and do not get here is early termination. Several states genuinely do end the exam the moment a pass becomes impossible, and a simulator that copies that teaches a useful kind of pressure. None of the states on this page publishes such a rule, so none of our papers stops early. Checked 2026-09-09 against each agency, its handbook, and for Florida the third party administrator agreement. None of Florida, Texas or California publishes a rule ending the knowledge exam early, and New York DMV, checked 2026-09-25, states none either. Setting a number anyway would have made the simulator feel authentic while teaching you something false about your own exam, which is a bad trade.

Where the format figures come from

Every number in the table above traces to one of these, and where an agency publishes nothing, the gap stays visible rather than getting papered over with a figure from somewhere else.

The commercial papers are not in that table because they are not state figures at all. The 80 percent pass mark on every commercial paper here comes from 49 CFR Part 383, and their lengths are ours, which is why every commercial row above carries the same mark as a state that publishes no count.

Straight to a state: Florida, Texas, California, New York, or see every practice test we publish. If a figure here no longer matches what the agency publishes, the contact page is the fastest way to get it fixed.

Sources: Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles; Texas Department of Public Safety, Driver License Division; California Department of Motor Vehicles; New York State Department of Motor Vehicles; 49 CFR Part 383. Checked September 25, 2026. Original practice questions, not the official examination questions, and not affiliated with or endorsed by any state licensing agency or the FMCSA.