Kansas CDL practice tests

Kansas runs commercial licensing through the Division of Vehicles, which sits inside the Department of Revenue rather than a transportation or public-safety agency. That's an odd pairing on paper — your CDL application is processed by the same department that collects the state's taxes — but it's how Kansas has organized the job for years, and it's worth knowing before you go looking for a "DMV" that, in Kansas, doesn't exist under that name.

What Kansas 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 Kansas Division of Vehicles for the current cost.

Kansas 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 Kansas does differently

The exams themselves are federal. Part 383 of Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations sets what's asked, how it's marked, and the endorsements on offer, and none of that changes because you're testing in Kansas rather than anywhere else. What does change is how far you might have to travel to sit one. Kansas is one of the larger states by land area, and population thins out fast west of Wichita — a testing site that's a short hop in the east of the state can be a couple of hours' drive once you're out past the middle of it.

Kansas's economy leans heavily on grain and cattle, and a lot of that freight never crosses a state line — it moves from a farm to a local elevator or a regional processor. That makes the intrastate age rule genuinely relevant here: 18-year-olds can hold a CDL and drive commercially within Kansas three years before federal rule lets them take a load across the border.

Which tests you actually need

General knowledge is compulsory for everyone. After that, the vehicle decides the rest. Air brakes need their own exam, and a fail there doesn't stop you being licensed — it restricts the license so you can't drive anything fitted with them. Anything towing over 10,000 pounds pulls in the combination vehicles test, and then come the endorsements: tank, doubles and triples, passenger, school bus, and hazardous materials.

Hazmat is the one to start early. It carries a Transportation Security Administration background check on top of the written test, and that runs on a timeline you don't control, so get it moving before you assume the rest of your paperwork is done.

Before you book

A commercial learner permit comes before the skills test, and federal rule sets a 14-day minimum hold on that permit before the skills test can be scheduled. Sit the knowledge exams in the first part of that window rather than the last, so there's still room to resit one if it doesn't go your way.

This page doesn't quote fees. Kansas changes them, and a number we don't keep current is worse than none at all — check the Division of Vehicles' own page before you travel. What we do give you is the actual content of the exams and exactly where each answer is drawn from.

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