Texas runs its commercial licence through the Department of Public Safety rather than a separate motor vehicle agency, so the office where you renewed your car licence is usually the office where you will sit the knowledge exams. The state publishes its own handbook, the DL-7C, and the March 2026 revision is the one the current exams are written from. Every question on this site that comes from a Texas page names that handbook and the page it was read on.
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 Texas Department of Public Safety 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.
Most of what you are tested on is federal. The knowledge exams, the endorsements and the pass mark are set in 49 CFR Part 383 and apply the same way in every state. Texas adds one thing worth knowing about before you walk in: the handbook carries a Section 14 on special requirements for Texas commercial vehicles, and the DPS administers the Texas Commercial Rules exam first, before general knowledge. So the first test you sit is the one that is genuinely Texas-specific, and it is the one least likely to be covered by generic practice material.
The exams are multiple choice and matching. A score of 80 percent or higher is needed to pass each section, which is the federal minimum rather than a Texas rule, and it means eight wrong answers out of fifty will fail you on general knowledge.
Everyone takes general knowledge. After that it depends on what you will drive. If the vehicle has air brakes you take the air brakes exam, and failing it does not stop you getting a licence — it puts an air brake restriction on it, which bars you from driving anything fitted with them. Pulling a trailer over ten thousand pounds means combination vehicles. Then the endorsements: tank, doubles and triples, hazardous materials, passenger, school bus.
Hazardous materials is the one to plan around. It needs a Transportation Security Administration background check on top of the written exam, and that takes time you cannot shorten by studying harder.
You need a commercial learner permit before you can take a skills test, and federal rule holds you to a waiting period after the permit is issued before the skills test can happen. Get the knowledge exams done early in that window rather than at the end of it, because a failed exam is much less painful when there is still time in the permit.
Fees are not listed on this site. Texas changes them and a stale number costs you a wasted trip, so check the DPS page before you go. What we can tell you is which questions the exams ask, and where in the handbook each answer comes from.
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