Quick answers about the North Carolina knowledge test.

The North Carolina knowledge test has 25 multiple-choice questions on traffic laws and safe driving. NCDMV doesn't publish that count itself; 25 is the number test takers and prep providers consistently report, and it lines up with the state's pass rule, which is written as a percentage rather than a raw score.

A separate traffic-signs test comes with it. You identify regulatory and warning signs by color and shape and explain what each one means, and you have to pass that test on its own: a strong knowledge score doesn't cover a missed signs test.

Both tests are taken in person at an NCDMV driver license office, offered in several languages, with an oral version available on request. There's no online option and no published time limit on either test.

You need 80 percent correct, which on North Carolina's 25-question test comes out to 20 right and 5 wrong. That 80 percent standard is written directly into the state's administrative code, not into the driver handbook.

The traffic-signs test carries its own pass rule and is scored apart from the knowledge test. Passing the knowledge test doesn't carry you through the signs test, and passing the signs test doesn't substitute for the knowledge test. You clear both, separately, before you move on to the road test.

Yes. North Carolina gives the traffic-signs test separately from the knowledge test. You identify regulatory and warning signs by their color and shape and explain what each one means, and you have to pass it on its own. A high knowledge-test score doesn't make up for a failed signs test.

Both tests happen in person at an NCDMV driver license office, usually in the same visit, offered in several languages, with an oral version available on request.

No. North Carolina doesn't offer at-home online knowledge testing. A first-time license or identification card, including a first-time REAL ID, can't be issued through the online system, and that includes the knowledge test: you complete it at a local NCDMV driver license office.

Online service through NCDMV is limited to renewals, duplicates and address changes for people who already hold a license. If you're applying for your first permit or license, plan on an in-person visit for the knowledge test and, separately, the traffic-signs test.

Seven calendar days. NCDMV lets you retake the knowledge test, or the road test, seven days after a failed attempt. There's no escalating wait for a second or third miss, and no age-based exception.

There's also no separate retake fee. A regular Class C license or learner permit doesn't carry a line-item test charge at all: you pay the fee for the permit or license once, when it's issued, and that fee covers the test no matter how many tries it takes.

A learner permit costs a flat $25.50, whether it's the Level 1 limited learner permit for a teen or an adult learner permit. A first Regular Class C license runs $52 for an 8-year term, at $6.50 a year, and renewal costs the same $52.

The graduated-license stages for teen drivers price differently: Level 1 (limited learner permit) and Level 2 (limited provisional license) are each a flat $25.50, and Level 3 (full provisional license) is $6.50 a year until the holder turns 21.

NCDMV doesn't charge a separate fee for the knowledge test, the traffic-signs test, or the road test. Whatever you pay is the fee for the permit or license itself.

You'll present one proof of identity, one proof of your full Social Security number, and proof of residency, plus a parent or guardian signature if you're under 18.

Identity can be a valid U.S. passport, a certified birth certificate, a Permanent Resident Card, an Employment Authorization Document, a Certificate of Naturalization or Citizenship, or a valid North Carolina or out-of-state driver license or ID card, among other accepted documents. Photocopies, laminated cards and altered documents are never accepted.

For the Social Security number, bring the card itself, a W-2, an SSA-1099, or a pay stub showing your name and full number; Medicaid and Medicare cards no longer print the number and won't work.

Adults 18 and older need two documents proving a North Carolina address; applicants under 18 have a wider list that includes school records, a lease listing them as an occupant, or medical records. North Carolina's Limited Learner Permit is available starting at age 15.

Sixty hours, with at least 10 of them at night, before you move up from the Limited Learner Permit. North Carolina issues that permit starting at age 15, and you have to hold it for at least 9 months before you're eligible for the next stage, the Limited Provisional License.

Applicants under 18 also need a driver-education certificate showing at least 30 hours of classroom instruction and 6 hours of behind-the-wheel instruction, and a signed driving log documenting the 60 supervised hours, before the road test.

North Carolina's Level 2 stage, the Limited Provisional License, carries a driving curfew from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. and a passenger limit. You reach Level 2 at 16.

Driving unsupervised, you can carry at most one passenger under 21 who isn't a member of your household. A second under-21, non-household passenger is allowed only if that passenger is a student you're driving directly to or from school. There's no limit on passengers under 21 who are members of your own household, and household members under 21 can't ride along at the same time as a non-household passenger under 21. Every passenger has to be belted in or in an appropriate child seat.

Level 3, the Full Provisional License, drops both restrictions and is available at 16 years, 6 months, once you've completed Levels 1 and 2.

0.08 for drivers 21 and older, 0.04 behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle, and 0.00, zero tolerance, for anyone under 21.

A conviction with a BAC of 0.15 or higher triggers mandatory ignition interlock on the restored license, the same requirement as a second DWI conviction within seven years. A first DWI conviction carries a mandatory one-year license revocation, and refusing a chemical test brings an immediate 30-day civil revocation plus a separate 12-month DMV revocation.

Yes, after a complete stop, unless a sign specifically prohibits it. North Carolina's traffic-signal law only ever mentions a right turn on red: there's no provision anywhere in the statute allowing a left turn on red, even from one one-way street onto another one-way street, which some other states permit.

After you stop, you owe two separate yields: to other traffic and pedestrians already in the intersection, and to pedestrians who are approaching and about to cross in front of the traffic your red light is stopping. Failing that second yield is its own infraction, $100 to $500.

A flashing red is different from a steady red: stop, yield to vehicles in or approaching the intersection, then proceed.

No, not for adult drivers. North Carolina bans texting and emailing while driving, an infraction carrying a $100 fine plus court costs, but an adult can still hold the phone to make a voice call. A bill that would have banned all handheld phone use, the Hands Free NC Act (Senate Bill 526, 2025), never passed the General Assembly, despite a claim that circulated online that a handheld ban took effect on December 1, 2025. It didn't.

Drivers under 18, at any level of the graduated license, face a stricter rule: no cell phone or associated technology use at all while driving, with narrow exceptions for calling law enforcement, a health care provider or emergency services.

For a policy issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2025, North Carolina requires $50,000 in bodily injury coverage per person, $100,000 per accident, and $50,000 in property damage coverage, often written as 50/100/50.

Those numbers roughly doubled the prior minimums of $30,000 per person, $60,000 per accident and $25,000 in property damage, and the printed 2026 driver handbook still shows the old figures because it predates the change. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is mandatory on every policy, not an optional add-on, and underinsured motorist coverage specifically became mandatory on all new or renewed policies starting the same date, July 1, 2025.

North Carolina is a tort state, not a no-fault state, so there's no personal injury protection minimum: an injury claim runs through the at-fault driver's liability coverage.