Florida licenses commercial drivers through the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, and it is one of the states that leans heavily on approved third-party testers. That matters practically: where you sit the exam is not always a state office, and the third party you book with sets its own availability. The state publishes its own CDL handbook, and the edition currently on the public site is the July 2022 version, which is what we cite when a question comes from a Florida page.
Every figure below names the document it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Fees change without notice, so we do not repeat them here. Check Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles for the current cost.
The knowledge tests are set by federal rule, so the questions are the same wherever you sit them. What changes is the paperwork above.
The knowledge test every commercial driver takes, whatever class or endorsement they are after.
Required before you may drive any commercial vehicle with air brakes.
Required for a Class A licence. Coupling and uncoupling, off-tracking, trailer brakes and the handling of a vehicle that is jointed in the middle.
The H endorsement. Placarding, shipping papers, loading and segregation rules, and what to do when something leaks.
The N endorsement. Surge, baffles, bulkheads, high centre of gravity and the way a part-full tank changes how a vehicle stops and turns.
The T endorsement. Coupling and uncoupling multiple trailers, converter dollies, crack-the-whip and the inspection points a second trailer adds.
The P endorsement. Pre-trip and post-trip checks on a bus, loading and unloading, standee lines, and handling passengers on the road.
The S endorsement, taken alongside the passenger endorsement. Danger zones, mirror adjustment, loading and unloading students, and railroad crossings.
A study drill for the pre-trip inspection.
The exams are federal. 49 CFR Part 383 fixes what has to be tested and what counts as a pass, so the general knowledge questions are the same material whether you test in Tampa or in Pittsburgh. The pass mark is at least eighty percent on each knowledge test, and that is the regulation, not a state choice.
Because of that, the practice tests on this site are not Florida-specific in their questions and they do not pretend to be. What is Florida-specific is the process around them, and that is what this page is for.
Everyone sits general knowledge. Air brakes applies to any vehicle fitted with them, and a fail there means a restriction on your licence rather than a refusal. Combination vehicles covers pulling a trailer. Then the endorsements: tank, doubles and triples, hazardous materials, passenger, school bus.
Hazardous materials is the slow one. It requires a Transportation Security Administration background check as well as the written exam, and no amount of preparation shortens that.
If you go through a third-party tester, confirm what they are authorised to administer before you pay for anything. Some handle skills testing only, and you will still need the knowledge exams done through the state. Getting that order wrong is the most common wasted trip in Florida.
Start with general knowledge and keep taking it until you are clearing eighty percent without having to think about it. The test draws a fresh set of questions each time, so a good score twice in a row means more than a good score once. After that, take only the endorsements your job actually needs — there is no benefit to collecting them, and each one is a separate exam you have to pass.
Read the explanation on every question you get wrong. Each one names the handbook page it came from, so you can go and read the paragraph around it instead of memorising the answer. That is the difference between passing this test and knowing the material when a loaded trailer is behind you.
Fees are not published on this site. Florida changes them and a stale figure costs you a journey, so check with the department directly. What we can give you is every question with the handbook page behind it, so when you disagree with an answer you can go and settle it.
Every question on every one of these is free, and each answer names the handbook page it came from.
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