By state
Minnesota permit practice test
Prepare the Minnesota knowledge test with free questions, then check the provisional license limits that follow, month by month.
Your score · Minnesota
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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.
Minnesota's Driver and Vehicle Services issues the instruction permit from 15 years for $11.25, and driver education is required under 18. The pages we could read do not give the number of questions on the knowledge test or its pass mark; the practice test therefore runs 20 questions with an 80 % target. A learner holds the permit 6 months and completes 50 hours of supervised driving. Minnesota asks for an unusually large share at night: 15 of those hours. The provisional license costs $14.25 and is possible at 16 years. Its curfew reads: for the first six months, no driving midnight to 5 a.m. except home-work, school events, or with a licensed driver 25+. Its passenger rule: max 1 passenger under 20 (non-family) for first 6 months, max 3 for next 6 months, unless a parent is present. The provisional limits end by 17 years. Minnesota sets zero alcohol (0.00) for drivers under 21 and bars young drivers from using phones.
Provisional license restrictions
Restrictions until
17
| Phone | Banned |
| Under 21: alcohol | 0.00 |
Provisional, first 6 months: no driving midnight to 5 a.m. except home-work, school events, or with a licensed driver 25+ · Provisional: max 1 passenger under 20 (non-family) for first 6 months, max 3 for next 6 months, unless a parent is present
Questions and state rules by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How the questions are written
What a provisional driver may do
Minnesota loosens its limits in steps instead of lifting them all at once. The tool below summarizes them; it starts on Minnesota but accepts any state.
Provisional license restrictions
Restrictions until
17
| Phone | Banned |
| Under 21: alcohol | 0.00 |
Provisional, first 6 months: no driving midnight to 5 a.m. except home-work, school events, or with a licensed driver 25+ · Provisional: max 1 passenger under 20 (non-family) for first 6 months, max 3 for next 6 months, unless a parent is present
Night rule: for the first six months, no driving midnight to 5 a.m. except home-work, school events, or with a licensed driver 25+. Passenger rule: max 1 passenger under 20 (non-family) for first 6 months, max 3 for next 6 months, unless a parent is present.
The two rules relax on different schedules, which is the part most families miss. The curfew covers only the first six months of the provisional license, while the passenger cap continues in a softer form for the second half of the year.
How Minnesota compares
| Requirement | Minnesota | Wisconsin | Iowa | North Dakota |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instruction permit | 15 years | 15 years | 14 years | 14 years |
| Hours, of which night | 50 / 15 | 50 / 10 | 20 / 2 | 50 / not confirmed |
| Provisional license | 16 years | 16 years | 16 years | 15 years |
| Limits lifted | 17 years | 16 years 9 months | 17 years | 16 years |
Iowa starts younger, at 14 years, but asks for far fewer hours. Wisconsin matches Minnesota's 50-hour total with less night driving.
Building the 50 hours
The supervising driver signs off the log before the road test. A practical way to plan: one hour of daylight practice and one hour after dark each weekend, plus short weekday drives, finishes the requirement within the 6 months holding period. Vary the conditions on purpose: rain, the first snow, a parking lot after a storm, a stretch of interstate, a small town with four-way stops. Each one matches a chapter of the knowledge test.
The timeline itself is short. A learner who gets the permit at 15 years and holds it 6 months can take the road test at 16 years, and the provisional limits are gone by 17 years. That pace leaves little slack: the 50 hours, the 15 at night and driver education all have to fit before the sixteenth birthday for a teen who wants a license on that day. Families who start the log the week the permit is issued rarely run short. Those who leave it to the last two months often do, especially for night hours, which are hard to collect in June when darkness comes late.
Topics on the Minnesota test
The Minnesota driver's manual covers traffic laws, signs and signals, sharing the road with bicycles, motorcycles and snowplows, winter driving, and alcohol, including the zero tolerance rule for drivers under 21. Signs follow the federal MUTCD. Federal research on teen crash risk, summarized by NHTSA, explains why the first months of a provisional license carry the strictest limits.
Figures on this page were read on the Minnesota DVS site; this site is independent of Driver and Vehicle Services.