New Hampshire Learner's Permit Practice Test

Free New Hampshire DMV practice test for your learner's permit — road signs, right-of-way and the rules of the road, with real New Hampshire knowledge-exam questions.

What's on the New Hampshire knowledge test

The New Hampshire knowledge test is a single 40-question exam covering road signs and the rules of the road together. You need 32 correct (80%) to pass.

Questions and exam format researched against New Hampshire's official driver handbook and state sources. Last verified 20 August 2026.

Topics covered

Sample New Hampshire permit test questions

What shape is always used for a STOP sign, including in New Hampshire?

Answer: Octagon

STOP signs use the eight-sided octagon shape nationwide under the MUTCD, so they're recognizable even from behind.

Road Signs

New Hampshire's basic speed law (RSA 265:60) sets the fundamental rule for how fast you may drive. What is it?

Answer: You must never drive faster than what is reasonable and prudent for the conditions

New Hampshire's basic speed law requires never driving faster than reasonable and prudent under the conditions, regardless of the posted limit.

Speed & Spacing

Does New Hampshire have a general seatbelt law requiring adult drivers and passengers to buckle up?

Answer: No — New Hampshire has no general adult seatbelt law; only drivers/passengers under 18 are required to buckle up

New Hampshire has no general adult seatbelt law (RSA 265:107-a); only drivers and passengers under 18 are legally required to wear a seatbelt.

NH Laws

How does New Hampshire's approach to a 'learner's permit' differ from most other states?

Answer: New Hampshire does not issue a physical learner's permit at all — RSA 263:25 instead authorizes practice-driving directly

New Hampshire does not issue a physical learner's permit. Instead, RSA 263:25 authorizes eligible teens to practice-drive directly, with no separate permit card.

Youth Operator Rules

When passing a bicyclist at 30 mph or under, how much clearance must a New Hampshire driver leave (RSA 265:143-a)?

Answer: 3 feet

New Hampshire's bicycle passing law presumes safe clearance at 3 feet when traveling 30 mph or under.

Sharing the Road

A white rectangular sign with black or red lettering (like a speed limit sign) is generally what type of sign?

Answer: Regulatory sign

White signs with black or red lettering are regulatory signs — they state a legal requirement, like a speed limit.

Road Signs

What is the default speed limit in a New Hampshire business or urban residence district, absent a posted sign?

Answer: 30 mph

Business and urban residence districts default to 30 mph.

Speed & Spacing

What is the fine for a first seatbelt violation by a driver/passenger under 18 in New Hampshire?

Answer: $50

A first under-18 seatbelt violation carries a $50 fine.

NH Laws

Ways to practise

Other states

Sources

Questions and exam format researched against New Hampshire's official driver handbook and state sources. Last verified 20 August 2026.

Full research notes, including what could not be confirmed

New Hampshire RSA statutes fetched directly and official NH DMV pages, researched and verified 2026-08-19: RSA 265:60 (basic speed rule and district defaults, including the I-93 mile-marker-45-to-VT-border 70mph exception), RSA 265:79 (reckless driving), RSA 265:10 (right/left turn on red — NH has no left-on-red provision, including no one-way-to-one-way exception), RSA 265:107-a (seatbelt law — no general adult requirement, only under-18; child restraint tiers), RSA 265-A:2 (DUI BAC limits and impairment standard, covering vehicles/OHRVs/boats), RSA 265:79-c (current hands-free phone law, effective July 1, 2015; the older texting-specific RSA 265:105-a was repealed effective January 1, 2023), RSA 265:37-a (Move Over law), RSA 266:31 (headlight requirements — time window and weather trigger only; deliberately excluded the "wipers-on-means-headlights-on" framing since that is pending/proposed legislation (HB 1167/HB 419), not current statute text), RSA 265:69 (parking/standing/stopping distances), RSA 265:143-a (graduated bicycle-passing distance formula), RSA 265:54 (school bus stop-arm law and penalties), RSA 265:23 (rotary/one-way roadway right-of-way, referenced as NH flavor given the state's high rotary density), RSA 263:25 (practice-driving authorization in lieu of a physical learner's permit), and the official NH DMV Demerit Points page (Saf-C 212) for the full point table and age-tiered suspension thresholds. Exam format: the official NH DMV testing-requirements page confirms an 80% passing score; the 40-question count is corroborated by 5+ independent test-prep sources plus a Google-indexed snippet of the official manual PDF, but the manual PDF itself could not be opened directly this session, so the 40-question figure is treated as high-confidence but not directly manual-verified (unified knowledge test, signCount: 0, no separate sign-recognition gate). Deliberately excluded as unconfirmed: specific flashing-signal statute details (RSA 265:12 text not retrieved), the "wipers-on-means-headlights-on" rule as current law (it is pending legislation only), handicap/parallel-parking numeric distance rules, and the license/test fee amount. Re-verify periodically, as RSA sections, DMV thresholds, and fees change over time. RE-VERIFIED 2026-08-20 (Wave 2 Batch 4): dmv.nh.gov (driver-licensing-testing-requirements page and the nhdm.pdf manual) returned 403 again this session, same as before — direct official confirmation of the 40-question count is still not possible. However, a Google-indexed search snippet of the official nh.gov/safety/divisions/dmv testing page this session independently states "All knowledge exams require a passing grade of 80%," which upgrades the 80% pass threshold from test-prep-site corroboration to an indexed snippet of the state's own testing page; the 40-question count itself remains sourced only from third-party test-prep aggregators (epermittest.com, zutobi.com, driving-tests.org, dmv-permit-test.com — all independently agreeing on 40Q/32-to-pass), not a directly-fetched official document, so it is still treated as high-confidence but not manual-verified, exactly as the prior research pass flagged it. Full rules array re-scanned this session for meta-question phrasing (asks about the manual/document's own wording or emphasis rather than a real driving fact, e.g. "is this explicit in the manual") — none found. The one "explicit" occurrence in the array (r29's wrong-answer choice "holding a phone to your ear is explicitly legal") is a distractor about the underlying law's content, not a meta-question about a document, so no change was needed there.

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