Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles

Free Indiana permit practice tests

Indiana grades its knowledge exam as two separate components and makes you clear 80% on each one on its own, so a near perfect run on traffic law still fails you if the road sign half comes up short.

Questions
50
Correct to pass
40
80% or higher on each of the two components
Questions here
263
all free, all cited

Honest note: BMV does not publish the exam format in a place we could confirm, so the 50 question count and the pass mark of 40 shown here are our best information rather than a verified fact. The practice questions themselves teach Indiana law either way. Confirm the format with Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles before your appointment.

Every Indiana test

Work through them in order.

The essentials

Start here. Five distinct sets drawn from across the whole bank, plus a marathon that keeps going until you have seen everything.

Signs, signals and right of way

The two areas that fail the most people. Work through the sign tests until every shape and color is automatic, then handle the intersection scenarios.

The rules that get you fined

Speed, alcohol, phones, seat belts and the state specific limits that carry real penalties. These questions cite the statute so you learn the rule, not just the answer.

The exam simulator

The real thing: your state's exact question count and pass mark, scored the way the licensing agency scores it.

Your missed questions

Every question you get wrong anywhere on this site saves to a review deck on your own device. It comes back after a day, then three days, then a week, and retires once you have answered it correctly three times running. Open any test above and the review button appears as soon as the deck has something in it.

Getting licensed in Indiana

What the process looks like

  • A learner's permit is available at 15 for teens enrolled in an approved driver's education course, or at 16 for everyone else, after passing the vision screening and knowledge exam.
  • Permit holders must log at least 50 hours of supervised driving, including 10 hours after dark, before moving up.
  • A probationary license follows at 16 (with driver's education) or 16 years and 270 days (without), and only once the permit has been held at least 180 days.
  • That probationary license stays in force until the driver's 21st birthday, when it can finally be renewed into a full, unrestricted license.

Fail the knowledge exam and you must wait until the next business day to retake it. A failed driving skills exam carries a seven day wait, and three skills failures on one learner's permit push the wait out to two months. A passing knowledge result stays good for 180 days.

The knowledge test is written from the Indiana Code Title 9, Motor Vehicles. Our questions teach those same rules and cite the section behind each answer, so what you learn holds up on test day and on the road afterwards.

How the Indiana written test is scored and what happens at the Indiana road test.

Frequently asked

Indiana permit test questions, answered

How many questions are on the Indiana BMV knowledge exam?

The BMV has never put a number on it. Every official Indiana source describes two multiple choice components, one on traffic signs and one on traffic rules and laws, then jumps straight to the pass mark without giving a total. Any specific figure you see quoted elsewhere is unofficial.

What score do you need to pass the Indiana permit test?

80% or higher on each component, scored separately. A strong result on the traffic law half does not rescue a weak result on the signs half, or the other way round.

Why do people say the Indiana exam has 25 questions?

Because that number really does appear in the Indiana Driver's Manual, just not for the car exam. The 25 question figure, with five allowed wrong, belongs to the for-hire endorsement exam and the motor driven cycle endorsement exam in Chapter 9. The car knowledge exam sits in the same chapter with no count attached to it at all.

What is each part of the Indiana knowledge exam drawn from?

The BMV points the signs component at Chapter 6 of the Indiana Driver's Manual and the traffic rules component at Chapters 6, 7 and 8. It also publishes a short practice exam with the same two part structure so you can see the question style before you sit the real thing.

How old do you have to be for an Indiana learner's permit?

15 if you are enrolled in an approved driver's education course, otherwise 16.

When does an Indiana teen get a full, unrestricted license?

At 21. The night-time and passenger limits end at 18, but the license itself stays classed as probationary until the driver turns 21, and it only becomes unrestricted at the renewal after that birthday.