Florida Contractor License Exams (2026): All Three Papers, Question Counts, and Time Limits

August 26, 2026

Florida does not have a contractor exam. It has three, and you can pass one and fail another.

That structure catches people out more than any code question does. Below is how the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation actually splits its construction examinations, with the question counts and time limits from the DBPR candidate information booklet.

Three separate papers, scored separately

A certified contractor in Florida sits a Business and Finance examination and, depending on the license, one or two trade papers. Each is a distinct exam with its own result. Passing Contract Administration does not carry you through Project Management.

Examination	Scored questions	Time
Business and Finance	120	6.5 hours
General Contractor – Contract Administration	60	4.5 hours
General Contractor – Project Management	60	4.5 hours
Building Contractor – each of two papers	50	4.5 hours each
Residential Contractor – each of two papers	45	4.5 hours each
Certified Electrical Contractor (Technical and Safety)	100	5 hours
Certified Plumbing Contractor (multiple choice portion)	110	see below
Certified Air Conditioning Contractor, Class A	130	7.5 hours

All of these are open book.

Four and a half hours for sixty questions

The General Contractor trade papers allow 4.5 hours for 60 scored questions. That is four and a half minutes per question, and it is not generosity.

Florida’s construction exams are reference-lookup exams. They are testing whether you can locate and apply the right provision under time pressure, not whether you memorized it. A candidate who has studied by reading rather than by looking things up in the actual reference will find that the clock disappears faster than the maths suggests.

The corollary is that speed-reading practice questions is the wrong preparation. Work through them with the book open, the way you will sit the exam.

The plumbing exam has a portion no practice test can simulate

The Certified Plumbing Contractor examination is 110 multiple-choice questions plus five isometric drawings. The whole paper is scored out of 160 points and you need 112 to pass.

The drawings are worth knowing about well in advance, because no multiple-choice practice prepares you for them. If you are preparing for the Florida plumbing license, budget separate practice time for isometric drafting rather than assuming the question bank covers everything.

Air conditioning: Class A and Class B are different exams

Florida issues Class A (unlimited) and Class B air conditioning licenses, and they are not the same paper. Class A is 130 scored questions over 7.5 hours. Class B is a shorter exam. Confirm which class your application is for before you build a study plan around the wrong length.

Electrical splits technical from business too

The Certified Electrical Contractor examination runs a Technical and Safety paper of 100 scored questions over 5 hours, requiring 75 percent, with the business component sat separately as its own 50-question exam. Electrical candidates therefore face the same two-track structure as everyone else, with a higher pass mark on the technical side than most Florida papers.

What this means for how you prepare

Plan per paper, not per license. Three exams with three results means three preparation targets and, usually, three exam days.
Practice at full length. A 4.5-hour paper is an endurance event. Sitting one complete timed run tells you more than another week of reading.
Practice with the reference open. Open book only helps if your tabs and your recall of where things live are good enough to beat the clock.
Do not let Business and Finance drift. At 120 questions over 6.5 hours it is the longest single paper most Florida candidates sit, and it has nothing to do with your trade.

Florida exam prep

We build practice exams to the real length and time limit of the paper you are actually sitting, with an answer explanation for every question and a full study guide.

Before you register

The DBPR booklet is revised periodically and the counts above reflect the current edition at the time of writing. Confirm three things on the booklet for your own license before you pay:

How many papers your license class requires, and whether they can be sat on separate days.
The scored question count for each, since the pass mark is measured against scored items.
Whether your trade has a non-multiple-choice portion, as plumbing does.