Practice tests for plumbing license exams
Plumbing exams rest on whichever plumbing code your jurisdiction adopts, most often the International Plumbing Code or the Uniform Plumbing Code, plus the state amendments layered on top. Licensing tiers run from apprentice through journeyman to master, and several states license water well and pump work as a separate credential entirely.
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.
Plumbing tests available now
Some plumbing and water-system tests we publish are listed below, so you can find your exam in one look. These are the current plumbing and water-system titles; contact us or browse your state to see others.
- Alabama Journeyman Plumber License – Practice Test
- Alabama Master Plumber License – Practice Test
- Colorado Journeyworker Plumber (6 plus Year Apprentice) – Practice Test
- Colorado Journeyworker Plumber License – Practice Test
- Colorado Master Plumber License – Practice Test
- Colorado Residential Plumber License – Practice Test
- Florida (South Florida) Water Well Contractor License Practice Test
- Florida Water Well Contractor License – SJR – Practice Test
- International Plumbing Code (IPC) 2015 Practice Test (By Individual Chapter)
- International Plumbing Code (IPC) 2018 Practice Test
- International Plumbing Code (IPC) 2018 Practice Test (By Individual Chapter)
- Mathematics for Plumbers and Pipefitters – Practice Test
Code-level tests for the International Plumbing Code sit with the other code book practice tests, and they suit anyone whose exam is built on the code itself.
Apprentice, journeyman, master
The tier you test for changes the exam, not just the application fee. Journeyman exams concentrate on installed work: fixture and drain sizing, venting, water supply, and the code sections that govern each. Master exams reach further into design and calculation. They also cover the responsibility a master carries for permits and inspections.
Many jurisdictions also require a separate business and law exam before issuing a contractor license, covering contracts, liens, insurance, payroll obligations, and project management. Candidates routinely underestimate that half. It has nothing to do with the trade they already know.
What the trade exam asks about
Your candidate bulletin publishes the exact content areas and the weight given to each, and that document is the one to trust over any general description of the exam. Across jurisdictions the recurring areas are drainage, waste, and vent systems, water supply and distribution sizing, fixtures and their required clearances, water heaters and thermal expansion, backflow prevention and cross-connection control, and the isolation and testing procedures the code requires before a system is approved. Gas piping appears where the jurisdiction includes fuel gas in the plumbing scope.
Practical arithmetic runs through all of it. Sizing a drain, calculating developed length, or working out fixture unit loads are the questions candidates most often lose time on, which is why a dedicated math title sits in the catalogue alongside the code tests.
How to use the test
Take a full pass under the real time limit before studying. The score on that pass does not matter. What matters is which code chapters produce your misses, because those are the chapters to read first. The reference locator on each question points to the section it came from. A wrong answer becomes a specific page to study.
Plumbing exams are usually open book. Practicing the lookup in your own tabbed code book is part of the preparation, since the exam clock rewards knowing where an answer lives as much as knowing the answer.
See the format first
The free sample test shows ten questions with answer keys and reference locators in the same format every test here uses. The questions come from our business and law test, so read it as a format preview.
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.