Montana CDL practice tests

Montana runs commercial licensing through its Motor Vehicle Division. It is a more conventional setup than some neighbouring states — a dedicated vehicle division rather than a tax authority or a general public safety department — but the practical challenge in Montana has less to do with which agency you deal with than with how far you might have to travel to reach it.

What Montana 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 Montana Motor Vehicle Division for the current cost.

Montana 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.

One of the biggest, least crowded states

Montana is among the largest states by land area and one of the least densely populated. If you live outside one of the larger towns, the nearest office equipped to handle a CDL knowledge or skills test can be a genuinely long drive — hours, not minutes, in some parts of the state. Plan your test date around that distance rather than assuming an office is nearby, and try to bundle attempts so a single trip covers as much as possible.

The knowledge tests don't change with geography

However far you have to travel, what you are tested on does not vary. The knowledge exams come from 49 CFR Part 383, the same federal rule that governs every state, so general knowledge, air brakes, and hazardous materials content is identical to what a driver in a much smaller, denser state would study. The pass mark is 80 percent per section, again set federally rather than by Montana.

Picking your tests

General knowledge applies to every applicant. From there it depends on the vehicle: air brakes fitted means the air brakes exam, and skipping it does not stop you getting a license — it adds a restriction against driving anything with air brakes instead. A trailer over ten thousand pounds means combination vehicles. Endorsements on top — tank, doubles and triples, passenger, school bus, hazardous materials — apply only if the work calls for them.

Hazardous materials needs more than the written test: a Transportation Security Administration background check, run on a federal schedule independent of your exam score. Given how far some Montana applicants already have to travel for other steps, starting the TSA process early is worth doing so it is not the thing holding up an otherwise-finished application.

Sequencing around distance, not just time

Federal rule requires a commercial learner permit to be held 14 days before the skills test. In a state where trips to a testing office take real planning, it is worth sitting your knowledge exams as early in that 14-day window as you can — a re-sit is far less disruptive early on than it is close to your booked skills test. The age rules are the same federal ones as anywhere: 18 to drive commercially inside Montana, 21 the moment a route crosses state lines.

Fees are left off this page

We don't publish dollar figures here. The Motor Vehicle Division sets and revises them, and given how much a wasted trip costs in a state this size, a stale fee here would do more harm than good. Check the current amount with the Motor Vehicle Division before you go. What this page and the linked tests give you reliably is exam scope and a named source for every answer.

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