Rhode Island CDL Practice Test

50, with 40 correct needed (80%). The manual’s chart lists the rest: Air Brakes 25 (20), Hazardous Materials 30 (24), and Combination, Tankers, Passenger, Doubles/Triples and School Bus 20 each (16). Tests are on a computer, each with a time limit.

The Rhode Island Commercial Driver License Manual (Modernized Version, September 2025): the DMV’s guidelines pages and the national CDL text (2005 testing system, July 2014 version) on safe driving, cargo, passengers, air brakes, combination vehicles, doubles and triples, tankers, hazardous materials and school buses.

You wait before retaking that exam: the manual says five business days, the DMV’s CLP page says seven days, so check when you book. Passed exams are banked, and only one exam of each type is allowed per day.

80% on each of the 8 tests, each graded on its own (General Knowledge: 40 of 50). Every test's numbers are in the table on this page. Always confirm the current tests with the Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV), Department of Revenue. Why 80% in every state →

Drivers 18 or older who have held a license for at least two years (suspended time doesn’t count). Under 21 the CDL is intrastate only. The DMV also checks your record: for example, no three or more moving violations within 12 months in the last two years.

Up to one year, with no renewal; after it expires you retake every knowledge test and pay the fees again. You need a DOT medical certification before the CLP is issued and must hold it 14 days before the skills test.

Knowledge exams at the CDL Office in the Cranston DMV, by appointment; skills tests (vehicle inspection, basic control and road test) at the North Kingstown test site, booked online. Entry-Level Driver Training must be finished first.

Not from you: your certified medical examiner submits it electronically to FMCSA’s National Registry, which forwards it to the DMV. If it lapses, your CDL is downgraded until a new one arrives.

No. Since December 12, 2025, and until further notice, the RI DMV can’t issue non-domiciled CDLs: no new ones, transfers, updates, duplicates or renewals, and no knowledge or skills tests for them.

Yes. Under the RI DMV's rules you can't have any drug or alcohol conviction in the five years before you apply. In the three years before, your license can't have been suspended for a moving violation, and you can't have a conviction for reckless driving or eluding police.

No earlier than 45 days before it expires, and only with a completed application. Renewals and address changes can be done online; every in-person CDL transaction happens at the Cranston DMV, where CDLs and endorsements are issued.

Original documents (no copies) each time you apply for, renew, update or transfer a CDL: a U.S. passport, a certified birth certificate, a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, a naturalization or citizenship certificate, or a permanent resident card, plus proof of Rhode Island residency. A passport issued in the last six months may need a second identity document.

No. The full test (vehicle inspection, basic controls and road test) is for first-timers and anyone who failed the inspection. Once you have passed the inspection you take the modified test (basic controls and road test), and once you have passed basic controls too, only the road test. Book the right one or you won't be tested.

Arrive empty: a loaded vehicle isn't tested and the test fee is lost. Tank vehicles must be empty, and hazmat tankers also cleaned, purged and backed by a certificate. Bring the vehicle and trailer registrations, an active inspection sticker and proof of insurance, plus the original cards of your CLP and license.

Not always. A driver 18 or older who meets the federal farm-driver exemption can drive a farm tractor, farm equipment or a farm vehicle registered under 76,600 pounds without a CDL, as long as it isn't a tractor-semitrailer and carries crops, farm machinery or supplies to or from a farm.

Service members on military business (active duty, reservists, the National Guard and Coast Guard); firefighters and others driving emergency vehicles with lights and sirens; and people driving a motor home or camping trailer for their own or family use. Using that camper for any business ends the exemption.

Yes. State law says an insulin-dependent driver can't be turned down automatically; each case is decided on its own. If a doctor certifies that you're monitored regularly and your condition is stable and controlled, the DMV issues a license limited to driving within Rhode Island, or an interstate one when every federal rule is met.

Rhode Island bans driving a commercial vehicle with any alcohol at all in your system. If you're found with some, you must stop driving commercial vehicles for 24 hours; keep driving and your commercial license is revoked for three months. At 0.04 or more, it counts as driving under the influence.

After a conviction in any vehicle, in any state or Canadian province (parking aside), tell the DMV and, in writing, your employer within 30 days. If you lose your license or privilege, let your employer know no later than the close of the following business day, and the DMV within seven days when another state or province took the action.

No. For a CDL holder, the district court and the traffic tribunal may not mask a conviction, defer judgment or send you to a diversion program in a way that keeps a traffic conviction (other than parking) off your record. That holds in any vehicle, whether the offense happened in Rhode Island or another state.

Your first CDL expires on your birthday in the second year after it's issued, so new drivers renew fairly soon. After that, a renewed CDL lasts until your birthday five years on.

Yes, if they qualify. A former member of the armed forces, the Rhode Island National Guard included, who held a military license for heavy equipment doesn't take the road test for a similar class of commercial vehicle, as long as they meet the federal military-waiver conditions in 49 CFR 383.77.

Be 21 and hold a CDL, finish Entry-Level Driver Training (first time) and the TSA threat assessment (fingerprints and a status check; enroll 60 days ahead), then pass the hazmat test. The assessment must be under a year old and the test under 60 days old when the endorsement is added.

Be 21 with three years of driving experience, meet the vision standard, file a chauffeur application with references and a BCI report, and pass the Passenger exam (plus the School Bus exam for S), ELDT and the skills test. School bus drivers also need a RI School Bus Certificate (the “White Card”) through the CCRI course.

Yes. A Rhode Island school bus company or school district must sponsor you and send your papers to the DMV, including a BCI report under 60 days old and a DOT medical card under 90 days old. Once you are approved, CCRI schedules the certification course; you then pass a pre-trip inspection and road test in a school bus.

A certified driving record and a criminal background check from each state or country where you held a license during the past five years. The same applies if you don't live in Rhode Island.

Not necessarily. A pupil transportation vehicle carries up to 10 passengers plus the driver. Its driver needs a chauffeur endorsement or a CDL with P, a current DOT medical card and a Rhode Island Pupil Transportation Certificate: be 21 with three years of driving, have a sponsor, and pass a DMV written exam on the Pupil Transportation Manual.

Yes. After notice and a hearing, the DMV administrator can suspend a school bus driver's certificate, or the right to get one, for up to five years after a criminal driving offense or any driving offense involving alcohol or drugs, in any motor vehicle, including one committed in another state.