About the Arizona C-11 Electrical license
Arizona licenses electrical contracting through the Arizona Registrar of Contractors (ROC) — this is a contractor license held by a business, not a personal journeyman or master electrician card. Arizona does not issue a statewide journeyman or master electrician license at all. Instead, C-11 (commercial), R-11 (residential), and CR-11 (dual) are parallel classifications distinguished by the scope of work they cover, not by seniority — C-11 is not a "master" tier you graduate into from R-11. To obtain any of them, an individual called the qualifying party must document at least four years of hands-on and/or supervisory trade experience and pass the required exams; that person's experience and exam results are then tied to the specific business license. If the qualifying party leaves the business, the ROC generally allows a limited window to name a replacement qualifying party before the license goes inactive.
The trade exam is National Electrical Code (NEC) based. Arizona has no single statewide building/electrical code — individual cities and counties adopt and enforce their own NEC edition — but the ROC/PSI trade exam itself is written against one specific NEC edition, the code book for this paper is the 2017 National Electrical Code, even when a city has adopted a later edition for permits. The exam is open book: you may bring a clean copy of the specified NEC edition. Per PSI's testing rules, tabs must be permanent (the kind that would tear the page if removed) — sticky notes, flags, and other removable tabs are not allowed, and loose or handwritten notes are not allowed. Plan to tab and index your code book before test day, because the exam is as much a test of how fast you can locate a section as it is of what you have memorized.
Know these scope facts cold, because the exam asks them in plain-language form: the license is issued to the contracting business, with the qualifying party's experience and exam results attached to it — it is not a personal trade card you carry between employers; most installations require a permit and inspection before concealment (rough-in) and again at final; you must work within the classification you hold (commercial C-11 vs. residential R-11 vs. dual CR-11); and performing electrical contracting without the required license, or beyond your licensed scope, is a violation that can cost the license and carry civil penalties.
How Arizona licensing works
- Experience: at least 4 years of documented hands-on and/or supervisory trade experience, credited to the qualifying party who sits for the exams. Because Arizona has no separate journeyman card, this experience is verified directly by the ROC (through references and affidavits), not through a prior state license.
- Education: approved trade-school or apprenticeship instruction can count toward part of the 4-year experience requirement, but it does not substitute for either required exam.
- Application: the qualifying party submits the application, fees, and experience verification on behalf of the license entity (the contracting business) before being approved to sit for the exams.
- Exams: two are required — the online Statutes and Rules Exam (SRE) covering Arizona contracting law, and the C-11 trade exam (110 questions, 240 minutes, open book, administered by PSI) — or the NASCLA Accredited Examination for Electrical Contractors in place of the AZ trade exam. Both ROC exams pass at 70 percent; the NASCLA alternative passes at 75 percent. That count, that time, and that cut score are the figures printed on L-11.pdf, revised June 8, 2023. The NASCLA electrical examination is a different paper.
- Bonding: a contractor's license bond sized to your projected gross annual volume must be on file before the license issues — commonly $2,500 up to $150,000 in volume, stepping up to $50,000 for volume over $10 million. Confirm current amounts with the ROC.
- Renewal: licenses renew on a fixed 2-year cycle. Most ROC classifications have no continuing-education requirement, but electrical (C-11/R-11/CR-11) is an exception: 16 hours of continuing education every 2 years, with at least 8 hours on technical subjects.
Before you rely on any value in this guide, use the 2017 NEC for code values on this paper. Ampacities, GFCI and AFCI scope, and working-clearance distances change between editions. A city may enforce a different edition on a permit. This examination uses the 2017 book named on the outline.
This is the opening of the full study guide. The complete guide continues into code navigation, worked calculations and solved exam questions.
