Arkansas is one of the few states that does not publish its exam format. We checked both official sources — the Arkansas Driver License Study Guide and the Arkansas State Police Driver Examination page — and neither states how many questions the knowledge test has or what score passes it.
So rather than print a number we cannot stand behind, we have set our own format and labeled it as ours: 30 questions, 24 to pass. The questions themselves come straight from the official study guide, so the material is right even though the format is our choice.
What Arkansas does publish is unusually detailed, and there is a lot in it that other study sites get wrong. Details below the quiz.
Arkansas Practice Test
Arkansas does not publish its exam format
This is the honest answer, and almost nobody gives it. We checked both official sources and neither states how many questions the Arkansas knowledge test contains or what score passes it.
- The Arkansas Driver License Study Guide covers the $5 exam fee, the vision standard, and every stage of graduated licensing in detail. It never mentions a question count or a pass mark.
- The Arkansas State Police Driver Examination page — from the agency that actually administers the test — lists study guides, scheduling, document checklists and vision forms. Same silence.
Plenty of study sites confidently print 25 questions with 20 to pass. That figure may well be right, but no official Arkansas source we can find supports it, so we are not going to repeat it as fact. Our test uses 30 questions scored at 24, which is our own format and labeled as ours throughout.
Two agencies, two buildings
Arkansas splits licensing between two bodies. The Arkansas State Police run the vision test, the knowledge exam and the road skills test at troop testing centers. The Department of Finance and Administration revenue office then issues the actual card.
You may need to visit two different locations on the same day, and a site that refers to the Arkansas DMV is describing an agency that does not exist under that name.
An instruction permit and a learner’s license are not the same thing
Most study sites treat these as one credential. Arkansas does not.
- The instruction permit comes first. Minimum age 14, requires the knowledge and vision tests, and is valid for two years from the date you passed the knowledge exam
- The learner’s license comes second. It needs a valid instruction permit showing you have completed the knowledge, vision and skills tests, and you collect it from a revenue office
That two-year permit validity is worth noting on its own, because a great many sites publish one year.
A clean record is a licensing requirement, not just good advice
Under Arkansas statute 27-16-704, your driving record must be free of any serious accident or serious traffic violation conviction for the previous 6 months before a learner’s license, and the previous 12 months before an intermediate license. The State Police flag this as an important notice because it delays licensing more often than people expect.
Points: 3 to 8, warning at 10, hearing at 14
Arkansas runs an administrative point system assigning 3 to 8 points to every moving violation. At 10 points a warning letter goes out. At 14 or more a hearing is scheduled automatically, and if you do not attend, the license is suspended automatically.
A few values worth memorizing: speeding 1–10 over is 3 points, 15 or more over is 5, and 31 or more over is 8. Reckless driving, hit and run, racing and illegally passing a school bus are all 8. DUI carries no points at all, because it triggers revocation instead and stays on your record for decades.
DFA does not publish the time window over which those points accumulate, so we have not stated one.
Four ways to skip the intermediate stage
A 16 or 17 year old can get an unrestricted Class D license early if they have six months of driving experience and are graduated with a diploma or GED, married, enlisted in the military, or legally emancipated. It is a genuinely unusual provision and rarely mentioned.
Testing in another state?
Formats vary enormously, where they are published at all. Utah keeps its pass mark in the administrative code, Nevada lets you test at home by webcam, and Kansas has no point system whatsoever. Compare every state on our states page, or read the full Arkansas licensing guide.
Disclaimer: Pass The Permit is an independent study resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Arkansas State Police, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, or any government agency. Our questions are original practice material, not real exam questions, and our 30-question format is our own rather than the state’s. Always confirm current requirements with the official Arkansas Driver License Study Guide and the Arkansas State Police.