North Carolina Contractor License Exam

North Carolina contractor exams are computer-based, delivered by PSI, open book, and every one of them requires 70% to pass. They are one step in the licensing process. Your qualifier sits a Business and Law exam plus a trade exam for the classification you want. You cannot book until the Board has processed your application and issued an eligibility letter.

You apply before you can sit it

This is the single most useful thing to know about the North Carolina process. Complete the license application first; when it is in order, the Board emails an eligibility letter containing what you need to schedule with PSI.

That means the exam is not the first hurdle, it is roughly the fourth — and the financial evidence attached to the application is usually the thing actually holding people up.

Lengths and pass marks

Lengths and pass marks

Exam	Questions	Time	To pass
Business and Law	40	90 minutes	70%
Building Contractor	90	200 minutes	70%
Residential Contractor	90	210 minutes	70%

Across the full specialty list, question counts range from 40 to 100 and time allowances from 90 to 265 minutes. The 70% pass mark is constant — it does not vary by classification.

Which trade exam you need follows the classification you need you are applying for. A small number of unscored experimental questions may be added to any exam; they do not count toward your score, and the time to answer them is accounted for.

Open book, with conditions

Open book here does not mean bring anything you like.

• You bring your own reference material. Nothing is supplied.
• References must be bound. Printed or downloaded material is acceptable so long as it is spiral bound or hole-punched into a 3-ring binder. Partial references are not accepted.
• You may highlight, underline and index in advance.
• Tabs must be permanent — permanent plastic tabs or self-stick permanent adhesive index tabs. Post-It flags are not acceptable, because they come off. No notes may be written on tabs.
• You may not write in the references before or during the exam. Candidates caught doing so have their references confiscated and are reported.
• No loose or attached extra papers may travel with the references.
• A silent, non-printing, non-programmable calculator is allowed. A magnifying glass is available on request.

For Code questions the exam is based only on the edition of the Code book listed in the bulletin, so check the edition before you buy anything. More on assembling references at preparing for it.

Retakes

You may retake an examination as many times as you choose within a 12-month period, so long as all the information in your license application remains valid. No mandatory waiting period between attempts is specified by the Board — availability is a matter of PSI’s scheduling rather than a rule.

Failing candidates receive a diagnostic report. It is worth reading rather than simply rebooking, because it identifies which subject areas cost you the marks.

Two routes that skip a trade exam

NASCLA. The Board accepts the NASCLA National Accredited Building Examination for the Building classification. It is administered by NASCLA, not by PSI or the Board, and you take it before applying in North Carolina.

Examination waivers. North Carolina holds waiver agreements with South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The other state’s board completes the Examination Waiver Form and it is submitted together with your application.

Neither route removes the Business and Law exam. With a waiver, your qualifier must still pass the North Carolina Business and Law exam — see coming from another state.

No course is required to sit it

G.S. 87-10(a) lists what an applicant must do before being entitled to an examination — age, character, financial responsibility, the fee and a background check — and no course, class or training program appears among them. Preparation is still worth doing; it is simply not a statutory prerequisite. What is and is not required, and the continuing education courses that come after licensing, are at license classes and courses.

Fees

PSI currently charges $79 per examination. That is separate from the Board’s application fee. G.S. 87-10(a1) caps the examination fee at $100, so the charged figure can move within that ceiling — check the current bulletin before budgeting. Full breakdown at what it costs.

Which references are allowed in, how they may be tabbed, and what gets confiscated are covered at what you may take into the exam room.