Practice tests for electrician license exams
Electrical licensing is the most standardized of the building trades, because nearly every jurisdiction builds its exam on the National Electrical Code. The state layer sits on top of that: your own administrative code, state law, and in many places a separate business and law section. Our electrician tests follow both layers, with questions built from the NEC edition your exam uses and from the state rules your bulletin lists.
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.
Journeyman, master, and administrator
Most states license electricians in tiers, and each tier sits a different exam. A journeyman exam concentrates on installation practice and code lookup. A master exam adds calculations, load analysis, and deeper code application. An administrator or electrical contractor credential adds business law on top of the trade material, along with responsibility for supervising other electricians.
Our product pages state the tier each test is built for, with the question count, the time limit, and the reference books involved wherever the bulletin publishes them. Buying the test that matches your tier matters more than buying the biggest one.
By state
Electrical exams differ by state more in their state-code section than in their NEC section. These states have the most electrician titles available:
- Washington electrician and electrical tests
- Colorado electrician and electrical tests
- Kansas electrician and electrical tests
- Wyoming electrician and electrical tests
- Illinois electrician and electrical tests
- Oklahoma electrician and electrical tests
- Arkansas electrician and electrical tests
Other states are listed on the main practice test page. Washington has the most detailed coverage, with a separate test for every specialty and certificate combination the state licenses.
The code edition question
Every electrical exam is written against one specific NEC edition, and states adopt new editions years apart. Code requirements change between editions, so the correct answer in the 2020 NEC is sometimes a different answer in the 2023 NEC. Study the edition your exam uses for the best results.
Confirm the edition in your candidate bulletin before you buy anything, including the code book itself. Every product page states which edition its test is built on, and standalone code book practice tests cover the NEC and the international codes.
How to use the test
Take a full pass under the real time limit before you study anything. The score does not matter on that first pass. The point is finding the code articles where you miss questions, because those are the articles to read first. The reference locator on each question points to the section it came from, so a miss turns into a reading assignment.
Electrical exams are open book in most jurisdictions, and finding an answer in the NEC quickly is a skill of its own. Tab your code book as you work through the practice test and you build the lookup habit at the same time as the knowledge. Check your bulletin for which markings and tabs the test center allows.
See the format first
The free sample test shows ten questions with answer keys and reference locators. The questions come from our NASCLA business and law test, so read it as a format preview. The electrical tests look the same on the page.
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.