Find the practice test for your contractor license exam
Contractor licensing is local. In some places the licensing authority is a state board, in others it is a county or city office, and the license classifications and exam requirements follow the locale. The exam administrator publishes a candidate information bulletin naming the reference books and content areas for each exam, and some jurisdictions also post exam and license requirements on their own websites. That published outline is where every practice test on this site starts. Our questions are built from the reference books the exams draw from, so the time you spend here maps onto the test you will actually sit.
The tests are PDFs. You download the file after checkout, keep it, and study on your own schedule with no subscription and no usage limits. Every test includes the answer keys. Each question includes a reference locator, so the source is always one lookup away.
Pick your state
Each state page lists the practice tests for exams used in that state, from general building licenses to trade specialties. Licenses issued by a city or county appear under their state. Product pages carry the exam details we can verify from the official candidate bulletin, including question counts, time limits, and the reference books tested.
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State exam or NASCLA
Several states accept the NASCLA Accredited Examination for commercial general contractors in place of their own trade exam. Passing it once can carry across every state that accepts it, which makes it the efficient route if you plan to work in more than one NASCLA state. The licensing authority in your jurisdiction publishes whether it accepts NASCLA and for which license classifications.
Our NASCLA practice test covers all fourteen chapters of the official Guide to Business, Law and Project Management plus the glossary. Content-area summaries and concept highlight sheets come before the questions, so you review the key ideas first and then test yourself against them.
How to use a practice test
Take a full pass under the real exam’s time limit before you study. The score does not matter on the first pass. The point is finding the content areas where you miss questions, because those are the chapters to study first. The reference locator on each question points to the section of the book the question came from, so a miss turns into a reading assignment.
Most contractor licensing exams are open book. Practicing how to find answers in the reference books is a skill of its own, and tabbing your books as you work through the practice test builds it. Check your bulletin for which editions your exam uses and what markings the test center allows.
Try it before you buy
The free NASCLA sample shows ten real questions with the answer key and reference locators. It is the exact format every test on this site uses, so you can judge the material before spending anything.
Common questions
Are these the actual exam questions?
No. The questions are original work built from the same reference books and content areas your exam uses. Nobody sells the actual exam questions, and anyone claiming to is someone to avoid.
Do the tests include explanations?
Each question has an answer key entry and a reference locator. The locator points to the section of the reference book where the concept is covered, so the explanation you study from is the source itself.
My exam uses a different book edition. Does that matter?
Sometimes. Code-based exams name a specific edition in the bulletin, and our product pages say which edition each test is built on. If your bulletin names a different edition, contact us before buying and we will point you to the right test.
Need a test that is not here?
Tell us which exam you are sitting and we will point you to the right test, or look at building it. Questions about editions, classifications, or which tier you need are welcome too. Contact us and a person will answer.