New Jersey CDL practice tests

New Jersey licenses commercial drivers through the Motor Vehicle Commission rather than a conventional state department. It is set up as an independent commission with its own governing board, a structure New Jersey adopted specifically for motor vehicle services, and it is a different arrangement from the department-style agencies most states use.

What New Jersey 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 New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission for the current cost.

New Jersey 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 New Jersey does differently

New Jersey is the most densely populated state, and that shows up in a different way to the more common problem of testing offices being far apart. Facilities tend to be close together geographically, but that also means demand at any one of them can be high, so it is worth checking availability rather than assuming the nearest office is the quickest route to a test date. The knowledge content is unaffected by any of this: 49 CFR Part 383 sets it federally, so it reads the same whichever state's practice material you use.

Which tests you actually need

Every commercial driver starts with general knowledge, and the pass mark is 80 percent, set federally rather than by New Jersey. Miss more than one in five and you are retaking it. The syllabus for that test comes from 49 CFR 383.111: driver fitness, basic control of the vehicle, cargo and the other core topics every commercial driver has to know before the rest of the tests apply to them. What comes next depends on the vehicle: air brakes need the air brakes test, and going without a pass puts a restriction on your license that keeps you off anything air-braked. Towing a trailer over 10,001 pounds adds combination vehicles.

Endorsements cover tank vehicles, doubles and triples, passenger, school bus and hazardous materials. Hazmat needs more than a written test: it requires a Transportation Security Administration background check run in parallel, and that process has its own federal timeline separate from how prepared you are for the exam.

Before you book

A commercial learner permit is required before the skills test, and federal rule fixes the minimum wait between the two at 14 days. Since New Jersey's testing facilities can be busy even when they are nearby, book the skills test slot as soon as the permit allows rather than assuming a short drive means a short wait.

The age rules come from federal law: 18 for driving commercially within New Jersey, 21 before a commercial vehicle can cross into another state.

We do not list fees. New Jersey sets them and changes them without much notice, and an old number here would send you to the Commission with the wrong amount in hand. Check with the Motor Vehicle Commission directly. What we provide is the test material itself: practice questions for every New Jersey knowledge exam, each tied to the federal rule or handbook page it 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