New Mexico CDL practice tests

New Mexico licenses commercial drivers through the Motor Vehicle Division, which operates inside the state's Taxation and Revenue Department rather than as a standalone motor vehicle agency. That pairing of driver licensing with a revenue department is unusual; most states run it through a dedicated transport or safety agency instead.

What New Mexico 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 Mexico Motor Vehicle Division for the current cost.

New Mexico 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 Mexico does differently

New Mexico is a large, sparsely populated state, closer in that sense to Nevada or Nebraska than to its smaller neighbours. Testing locations can be a genuine distance apart outside Albuquerque and the state's handful of other larger towns, so it pays to check which office actually runs the skills test for your vehicle class before you plan around the nearest one. None of that changes what is on the knowledge test: 49 CFR Part 383 sets the content federally, the same in New Mexico as anywhere else.

Which tests you actually need

General knowledge comes first, and the pass mark is 80 percent, a federal number rather than a New Mexico one. What it covers is set out in 49 CFR 383.111 and reads the same in every state: driver fitness, basic control of the vehicle, cargo handling and the general safety material every commercial driver needs before anything else applies. After that the vehicle decides what follows. Air brakes call for the air brakes test, and not passing it leaves a restriction on your license that rules out air-braked vehicles altogether. A trailer over 10,001 pounds means combination vehicles too.

The endorsements are tank vehicles, doubles and triples, passenger, school bus and hazardous materials. Hazmat stands apart from the rest because it adds a Transportation Security Administration background check alongside the written test, and that check moves on its own federal schedule, not yours.

Before you book

You need a commercial learner permit before New Mexico will let you sit the skills test, and federal rule sets the gap between the two at a minimum of 14 days. Given how far apart testing sites can be here, use that window to get the knowledge tests finished early rather than close to the skills test date, so a bad result still leaves time to try again.

Age limits are federal: 18 for commercial driving within New Mexico, 21 before you can take a commercial vehicle across a state line.

Fees are left off this page on purpose. New Mexico sets and adjusts them, and a number repeated here could easily be out of date by the time you read it. Check with the Motor Vehicle Division directly before you go. What we cover instead is the test material: practice questions for every New Mexico knowledge exam, each one linked back to the federal rule or handbook page behind it.

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