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Maryland permit practice test
Practice for the Maryland MVA knowledge test, then see why the Maryland path is one of the longest on the East Coast: nine months on the permit and sixty logged hours.
Your score · Maryland
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| Practice target: 16 of 20 (80 %) |
| You can still miss 4 |
Practice questions written from the state handbook and federal rules. Not the official test.
In Maryland the learner's instructional permit can be issued at 15 years 9 months, after the knowledge test at the Motor Vehicle Administration. The MVA pages we could read do not state the number of questions or the pass mark, so the practice test here uses 20 questions and an 80 % target. The permit must then be held 9 months, a longer wait than in most states, while the learner completes 60 hours of supervised driving, 10 of them at night. Driver education is required (30 h classroom + 6 h driving instruction) before the provisional license test. The provisional license is possible at 16 years 6 months; until 18 years, a provisional driver may drive unsupervised unsupervised driving only 5 a.m.-midnight. Maryland applies an alcohol limit of 0.00 to drivers under 21, and phones are banned for drivers under 18. Permit and license fees were not confirmed on the pages we read.
Alcohol limit for drivers under 21
Under 21 in Maryland
0.00
| Adults | 0.08 |
| Commercial vehicle drivers | 0.04 |
Questions and state rules by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How the questions are written
Zero tolerance in Maryland
Alcohol questions show up on every knowledge test in the country, and Maryland's answer for young drivers is simple: the legal limit under 21 is 0.00. Adults are held to the 0.08 standard described by NHTSA. Pick any state in the tool to compare the under-21 rule.
Alcohol limit for drivers under 21
Under 21 in Maryland
0.00
| Adults | 0.08 |
| Commercial vehicle drivers | 0.04 |
A long apprenticeship
Few states ask for as much time behind the wheel before a first license. A Maryland teen who gets the permit on the first eligible day still needs 9 months and 60 logged hours, 10 of them at night, plus the classroom and in-car lessons of driver education. Splitting the hours into two or three sessions a week is usually enough to finish inside the holding period. Night practice is easier to collect in winter, when darkness falls early.
| Maryland | Pennsylvania | Virginia | Delaware | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Permit from | 15 years 9 months | 16 years | 15 years 6 months | 16 years |
| Held at least | 9 months | 6 months | 9 months | 6 months |
| Supervised hours | 60 | 65 | 45 | 50 |
| Unrestricted at | 18 years | 17 years 6 months | 18 years | 17 years |
Pennsylvania asks for more hours, 65, while Virginia matches Maryland's nine months on the permit with 45 hours.
Preparing for the MVA test
The knowledge test covers traffic signs, signals, pavement markings, right of way, speed, sharing the road and impaired driving. Maryland drivers deal with dense commuter traffic around Baltimore and the Washington suburbs, toll facilities, long bridges and rural two-lane roads in the west of the state, so lane changes, merging and following distance deserve extra attention. Sign questions use the shapes and colors of the national MUTCD; select "Road signs only" above to drill them separately.
Because the MVA does not publish its question count on the pages we checked, do not rely on a fixed number of allowed mistakes. Train until you score well above 80 % on several full practice runs.
When the dates line up
Maryland's numbers fit together neatly. Add the 9 months holding period to the permit age of 15 years 9 months and you land on 16 years 6 months, which is also the provisional license age, 16 years 6 months. A teen who passes the knowledge test on the first eligible day therefore loses no time, while one who fails or waits pushes every later date back by the same amount. That is the practical case for preparing early: a late permit means a late license. The driver education course, the logged hours and the road test can then be planned as one calendar instead of three separate tasks. The date calculator draws that calendar from a date of birth, and the supervised hours guide shows how other states count their logs.
The figures on this page come from the Maryland MVA; this site is independent of the MVA.