Free CDL practice tests, every endorsement

Required of every applicant: inspection, control, space and speed management, hazard perception, emergencies and hours of service.

Air brake knowledge and vehicle checks for applicants who may drive vehicles with air brakes.

Coupling, the fifth wheel, off tracking and trailer swing. Needed for Class A.

Placards, shipping papers, segregation and the security threat assessment.

Liquid surge, baffles, outage and why a tanker rolls over so readily.

Rearward amplification, converter dollies and coupling a second or third trailer.

Bus inspection, standee lines, passenger supervision and railroad crossings.

Danger zones, loading and unloading, student crossing and evacuation.

The written exams are not the last step. They are the first. General knowledge, plus whichever endorsement exams you want written onto the permit, is what earns you a commercial learner permit.

The permit is what makes it legal to drive the vehicle on a public road with a qualified CDL holder beside you.

Then you wait. Under 49 CFR 383.25 the permit has to be held for fourteen days before you are allowed to attempt the skills test.

How long it runs is set by the state that issued it, which is why each state page quotes its agency in its own words and carry the date that wording was checked.

Some hazard classes need a placard at any quantity, others only once the shipment passes 1,001 pounds. The exam keeps coming back to that split.

Where it sits while you are driving, and where it has to be left when you step out of the cab.

What has to travel with the load so responders know what they are looking at.

Materials that must not be loaded next to each other.

Attendance rules for explosives while the vehicle is on the road or stopped.

The 300 foot separation a parked Division 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3 load has to keep.

The 25 foot rule on smoking near the vehicle.

The regulations are 49 CFR Parts 172, 173, 177 and 397.

Under 49 CFR Part 1572 a state cannot issue or renew an H endorsement until the Transportation Security Administration has cleared you through a security threat assessment. That means fingerprints and a separate application to a federal agency rather than something the counter staff handle. Start it before you start studying.

No. State CDL manuals derive from the AAMVA model manual and are copyrighted, so every question here is written from the federal regulation instead and names the provision it tests. The coverage still lines up, because the manuals are built on that same regulation.

No. The knowledge standards in 49 CFR Part 383 are federal, which is why one set of practice tests works wherever you apply. What changes by state is the permit, the fees and who administers the skills test, and that is what the state pages carry.

Eighty percent of the questions in the area you are sitting, rounded up, have to be right. Each area has its own question count, so the number of misses you can afford follows from that count rather than from where you live.

Usually yes, and it saves a second trip to the office. Scheduling is a state decision, so check the agency on your state page before you plan the day around it.

That is decided by the definitions in 49 CFR 383.5, which turn on the weight of the vehicle or combination, on whether it carries passengers, and on whether the load has to be placarded. The weight figure the general knowledge questions test is 26,001 pounds.