Driver's License Test Prep
California Practice Licensing Process

Before taking the behind-the-wheel drive test, a California applicant under 18 must complete how many hours of supervised practice?

  1. A.
    Thirty hours, including five nighttime hours
  2. B.
    Fifty daytime hours plus ten additional nighttime hours
  3. C.
    Fifty hours, including ten at night Correct
The Why

The answer is "Fifty hours, including ten at night"

California requires at least 50 hours of supervised practice with a California-licensed driver who is 25 or older, and 10 of those hours must be at night. Answer B is the trap for a reader who sees the "Ten hours must be at night" line printed under the 50-hour bullet as a separate block on top of it, when those 10 hours already count toward the 50-hour total.

Why the others miss

The traps in the wrong answers

A. Thirty hours, including five nighttime hours

California requires 50 hours of supervised practice with 10 at night; a 30-hour total with 5 at night falls short of both California figures. This answer carries the thirty-hour, five-nighttime-hour supervised-practice minimum from another state's teen driver program into California without checking California's own figure.

B. Fifty daytime hours plus ten additional nighttime hours

The 50-hour total is right, but the manual counts the 10 night hours toward the 50, not as an extra block layered on top of it. This answer reads the separate 'Ten hours must be at night' line as an additional requirement stacked above the fifty, rather than as ten of the fifty hours already required.

The Rule

This question tests your knowledge of Licensing Process in California. Source: California Driver Manual, "Applying For A Driver's License" (Section 2, Getting an Instruction Permit and Driver's License), p.3..

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