Minnesota Journeyman Electrician Exam Prep

About the Minnesota Journeyman Electrician license

Minnesota licenses electricians through the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI), under code and licensing rules adopted by the Board of Electricity. The Journeyman Electrician license authorizes you to perform electrical work, generally under the general supervision of a master or supervising electrician. You earn it by documenting the required on-the-job experience (see Section 2), optionally supplemented by approved technical-college or apprenticeship classroom credit, and passing the trade exam, which DLI administers directly.

The exam is National Electrical Code (NEC) based, because Minnesota adopts the NEC as its electrical code. The references are supplied at the site, not brought in: DLI supplies an untabbed, soft-cover copy of the adopted NEC, a Laws and Rules booklet, and a desk calculator at the test site — you may not bring your own code book, notes, tabs, or any electronic device, including a phone, into the building. Practice with a personal, tabbed study copy while you prepare, but plan to navigate the untabbed version from memory of the code's structure on exam day, because the exam is as much a test of how fast you can locate a section without aids 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 held by the individual, not the company; most installations require a permit and inspection before concealment (rough-in) and again at final; you must work within the classification you hold; and performing electrical work without the required license, or beyond your scope, is a violation that can cost you the license and carry civil penalties.

How Minnesota licensing works

• Experience: 48 months is the minimum total on the DLI electrical-license experience page for a Class A journeyworker, and at least 24 months of that total must be wiring for and installing electrical wiring, apparatus, and equipment. Planning, laying out, and supervising are not credited on this journeyworker row. Maintenance and repair may be credited up to 24 months. The department verifies those months before it schedules the exam. The Class A master row on the same page is a different total, 60 months, and it is not this paper.
• Education: the experience page allows a maximum of one year of experience credit for successful completion of a two-year post-high-school electrical course the board has approved. That credit counts inside the 48-month total. It does not skip the 24 months of wiring and installing.
• Application: submit the application, fees, and proof of experience (often signed off by a supervising/master electrician or employer) to the board before you are approved to sit.
• Exam administrator: the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) itself — DLI administers the exam directly at its St. Paul office and select regional sites, not through a third-party vendor such as PSI. The Class A Journeyworker exam is 80 questions, allows up to 5.5 hours, and the passing score is 70 percent. Confirm current details on DLI's published electrical license examination guide before you apply.
• Renewal: the Journeyworker license renews every two years; renewal requires 16 hours of DLI-approved continuing education, at least 12 hours of which must cover the National Electrical Code.

Before you rely on any value in this guide, confirm the currently adopted NEC edition on DLI's electrical license examination guide. The DLI Electrical license examination guide states that the 2026 NEC became effective Aug. 17, 2026, and that edition is the one used for electrical license exam questions. The examination format, degree of difficulty, and length have been in effect since Sept. 8, 2026. The lineman exam is a different paper and is based on the 2023 National Electrical Safety Code. Ampacities, GFCI/AFCI scope, working-clearance distances, and receptacle-spacing rules all change between editions, so confirm which edition governs your specific exam date.