Quick answers about the New York knowledge test.

Twenty. Four of them are about road signs, and that group is scored separately from the rest.

The questions are drawn from four subject areas: the rules of the road, safe driving techniques, road signs, and the laws on alcohol and drug use while driving. You pick the format when you sit down. New York offers the Class D test at a touch-screen station or on paper, and both come in 20 languages: English, Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Chinese, French, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Nepali, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu and Yiddish.

There is no time limit. Neither the driver manual nor the DMV's licensing regulations set one, so work at a steady pace rather than racing a clock that does not exist.

You need 14 of the 20 questions correct, and separately at least 2 of the 4 road-sign questions. Both conditions have to be met.

That second threshold is the one people get caught by, because it means a high overall score is not automatically a pass. Miss three of the four sign questions and answer every other question correctly and you have 17 out of 20, which is comfortably above the overall mark, and you still fail: only one sign question is right and the minimum is two. The signs are a gate, not extra credit.

The practical consequence is that road signs deserve study time as their own category rather than as a slice of general review. Four questions is a small enough sample that two unlucky guesses end the attempt.

Sometimes, and the route depends on your age. New York runs two ways to take the written test without sitting at a DMV counter.

The first is the Online Knowledge Test Application, or OKTA, which runs at participating high schools. It is open to students at least 15 years and 11 months old and is offered in English and Spanish, on a school computer with a staff proctor supervising. Passing OKTA does not hand you a permit: you still bring the receipt and the completed forms to a DMV office, and you still have to be at least 16 to be issued the permit itself.

The second is an at-home test, and the DMV's current guidance offers it to applicants under 18. You run the department's Get a Permit Pre-Screening online and, if you qualify, take the test on a PC or tablet in about 30 to 40 minutes. One thing to plan around: after you pass, the DMV needs three business days to review the result before you can finish at an office. Go in sooner than that and you will be asked to take the test again in person.

As soon as the office can seat you. New York imposes no waiting period on a written test taken at a DMV office. No waiting period appears in the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in the licensing regulations, or in the DMV's own testing guidance.

What limits you is the fee rather than the calendar. The $10 application fee inside your combined permit-and-license charge entitles you to take the knowledge test twice. Fail both attempts and you owe a new $10 application fee before a third, and that fee buys another two attempts. There is no cap on how many times you may apply.

If you tested in an office and have time left in the day, taking the retake while the material is fresh costs you nothing. What decides whether you are seen is the reservation rather than a rule: when an office is running long waits, only people holding one are let in.

One age-based fee covers the learner permit, the written test, the road test and the driver license that follows. For a Class D license the published brackets run from $64.25 for applicants 21 and older to $92.50 for applicants between 17 and 17 and a half.

If the address on your application sits inside the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District, which is New York City plus Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester counties, an MCTD surcharge of $1.00 for every six months of validity is added. At the top of the range that takes the total to $102.50. A Standard license and a REAL ID cost the same; an Enhanced document, accepted for land and sea border crossings, adds $30.

There is no separate charge at the testing window for either test. The parts that can cost more later are the retakes: a third written attempt needs a new $10 application fee, and a third and fourth road test cost $10 together.

A completed Application for Permit, Driver License or Non-Driver ID (form MV-44), proof of your Social Security number, proof of name and date of birth worth at least six points, and proof of New York State residence.

The six-point system is worth understanding before you leave home, because the document you assume is enough often is not. A current or recently expired New York photo license, permit or non-driver ID is worth all six points by itself. A U.S. passport or passport card is worth four. An original Social Security card is worth two. At least one document you bring has to carry your signature, and every proof must be in English or come with a certified translation.

How many residency proofs you need depends on the credential. A standard permit or license takes one. A REAL ID or Enhanced document takes two. The address has to be preprinted on the document rather than written in, a P.O. box will not do, and an e-bill has to be printed out.

50 hours, of which at least 15 must be after sunset. A parent or guardian certifies on the Certification of Supervised Driving, form MV-262, that both are complete, and an applicant under 18 hands that form to the license examiner at the road test.

Practice has to be supervised by a driver at least 21 years old who holds a license valid for the vehicle you are driving and who is sitting in the front seat beside you. Where and when you may practice at all depends on the region: junior permit holders face different hours and supervision rules in New York City, in Nassau and Suffolk counties, and in the rest of the state.

The 15 night hours are the part people leave to the end and then scramble to finish. Spreading them across the six-month permit period is easier than collecting them in the last few weeks, and night driving is the condition new drivers are least prepared for.

They depend on where you are driving, and New York splits the state into three regions that do not work the same way.

In New York City a Class DJ or MJ junior license holder may not drive at all, under any circumstances. In Nassau and Suffolk counties you may drive only under the direct supervision of a parent, guardian, person in loco parentis, driver education teacher, driving school instructor, or someone your parent has authorized in writing, with limited exceptions: between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. you may drive alone directly between home and work, a work-study program, a college or registered evening high school course, a driver education course, or farm employment. Between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. ordinary employment drops off that list. Upstate, meaning every county north of the New York City line, you may drive unsupervised between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m., and between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. only directly to and from work or a school course.

Two rules apply everywhere. No more than one passenger under 21 unless the extra passengers are your immediate family, a cap that lifts while a qualifying adult is supervising you. And every passenger wears a seat belt, one per person.

A junior license does not have to last until you turn 18. At 17, bringing a Driver Education Certificate of Completion (form MV-285) to a DMV office trades it for a full Class D, and the restrictions come off a year early.

Statewide, yes, after a full stop and unless a sign prohibits it. In New York City, no. Turning on red is prohibited throughout the five boroughs unless a sign at that intersection specifically permits it, which is the exact reverse of the statewide rule.

The statewide permission also covers a left turn on red from a one-way street onto a one-way street. In both cases you stop completely first, then yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk and to traffic already in the intersection, and only then go.

No turn is ever allowed against a red arrow, anywhere in the state. A red arrow is not a red light with a suggestion attached; it means the movement it points to is prohibited until the signal changes.

55 mph statewide, on a city street exactly as on a rural road, unless a lower limit has been established. Interstates and other qualifying highways go to 65 mph where that limit is posted.

The exception matters more than the rule for most city driving, and the manual states it directly: some cities have limits below 55 mph that are not always posted. New York City is the case to know. Its limit is 25 mph throughout the five boroughs unless another limit is posted, so the absence of a sign there is not permission to drive 55.

New York publishes no separate statewide default for a residential street, an alley or a four-lane highway. School zones are set locally, cannot be lower than 15 mph, and apply either during the hours shown on the sign, which must fall between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., or while the sign's beacons are flashing.

0.08 for a driver 21 or older. At 0.18 or higher the charge becomes Aggravated Driving While Intoxicated. A commercial driver is over the limit at 0.04, and a driver under 21 at 0.02 under the Zero Tolerance law.

New York also charges impairment below 0.08. Driving While Ability Impaired covers a BAC over 0.05 up to 0.07, or any other evidence of impairment, and it is a traffic infraction rather than a misdemeanor. A first DWAI carries a $300 to $500 fine, up to 15 days in jail and a 90-day license suspension. A first DWI carries a $500 to $1,000 fine, up to a year in jail and at least a six-month license revocation. Aggravated DWI raises that to $1,000 to $2,500 and a one-year minimum revocation.

Every one of those convictions also draws a Driver Responsibility Assessment of $250 a year for three years, which the DMV collects separately from anything the court orders.

Six months, if you are under 18. The DMV will not let an applicant under 18 schedule a road test until six months have passed from the date the learner permit was issued.

If you are 18 or older there is no minimum holding period. What still stands between you and a road test is the 5-hour Pre-Licensing Course, which produces certificate MV-278, or a high school or college driver education course, which puts a Student Certificate of Completion (MV-285) on file instead. You need one of those before the scheduling system will give you a slot, along with a valid permit and at least one unused road test.

Expect the calendar to add time regardless. The scheduling system usually offers the earliest date three to five weeks out, and during summer and school breaks that can stretch to ten weeks. There are no waiting lists, so book as soon as you are eligible.

You wait at least 14 days before taking it again, and your learner permit stays valid until the date printed on it. A failed non-commercial road test does not cost you the permit, which runs about five years.

The fee you already paid covers two road tests, so a second attempt costs nothing extra. After two failures the next two cost $10 together, payable online through MyDMV or by phone. Do not confuse that with the $10 application fee that covers two written tests: they are separate charges in separate paragraphs of the same statute, and paying one does nothing for the other.

The deadline that actually binds is the permit's own expiration. Let it lapse before you pass and you start a fresh application, written test included. Results are posted after 6 p.m. on the day of your test, and if you passed, an interim license you can download is what lets you drive until the plastic arrives in about two weeks.