Delaware CDL practice tests

Delaware runs its commercial licensing through the Division of Motor Vehicles, and because the state is one of the smallest in the country by area, you are rarely far from a DMV office that handles CDL testing. That is unusual: in bigger states a learner can face a long drive just to sit the knowledge exam, and in Delaware that is much less likely to be the reason you delay booking.

What Delaware requires

Every figure below names the document it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

Passing score
80% 49 CFR Part 383, Commercial Driver's License Standards, 383.135
Minimum age (in-state driving)
18 years old 49 CFR Part 383, Commercial Driver's License Standards, 383.71
Minimum age (across state lines)
21 years old 49 CFR Part 391, Qualifications of Drivers, 391.11
Permit holding period
14 days 49 CFR Part 383, Commercial Driver's License Standards, 383.25

Fees change without notice, so we do not repeat them here. Check Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles for the current cost.

Delaware practice tests

The knowledge tests are set by federal rule, so the questions are the same wherever you sit them. What changes is the paperwork above.

What Delaware does differently

Most of the syllabus is federal, not state-specific. The knowledge exams, the endorsement rules and the pass mark all come from 49 CFR Part 383, and Delaware administers them the same way any other state does: multiple choice, computer-based, at a DMV counter. Delaware's own contribution is procedural rather than substantive — the state's small size means the DMV runs a smaller number of locations than most, so the practical question for a Delaware learner is which office to book, not which region to drive to. It's a state with only three counties in total, which keeps administration comparatively centralised.

Which tests you actually need

General knowledge is the one everyone sits. Past that, it depends on the vehicle. Air brakes need their own exam, and failing it doesn't block a license — it adds a restriction that stops you driving anything fitted with them. Anyone pulling a trailer over 10,000 pounds needs the combination vehicles exam on top. Then come the endorsements: tank, doubles and triples, passenger, school bus, and hazardous materials.

Hazmat carries an extra step that has nothing to do with Delaware or any other state: a background check run by the Transportation Security Administration, on top of the written exam. That check takes its own time, so it's worth starting early rather than leaving it until the rest of your paperwork is ready.

Before you book

You need a commercial learner permit before the skills test, and federal rule sets a minimum number of days the permit must be held first. Use that waiting period to get the knowledge exams out of the way rather than leaving them to the last few days, because a failed attempt is much easier to absorb when there's still time left on the permit.

We don't list fees here. Delaware sets and changes them, and a number that's gone stale by the time you read it is worse than no number at all — check the DMV page before you go. What this site gives you instead is the actual content of the exams, with each answer traced back to the page it came from. If you do need to rebook a test, Delaware's small footprint at least means the rebooking itself is rarely the hard part, even if the paperwork still is.

Jump to a test

Every question on every one of these is free, and each answer names the handbook page it came from.

Other states

Cited to the page, every time.

Every question names the handbook, section and page it was read from, so you can check the answer instead of taking our word for it.

How we write these