About the Washington Journeyman Electrician license
Washington certifies electricians through the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I). The 01 General Journey Level Electrician certificate authorizes you to perform general electrical work on your own — no direct supervision required — and to supervise electrical trainees. (Operating an electrical contracting business is a separate registration that must designate a qualified electrical administrator; that is not the same as your individual journey-level certificate.) You earn the certificate by first registering as an electrical trainee, accumulating the required on-the-job hours and approved classroom instruction — or completing an approved apprenticeship — and passing the certification exam.
The exam is built around the National Electrical Code (NEC), because Washington adopts the NEC as its electrical code — the listed exam book is NEC 2020. WAC 296-46B-010 adopted the 2023 NEC for installations effective April 1, 2024, and it adopts the 2026 NEC for installations effective December 31, 2026. The PSI bulletin dated October 30, 2025, still bases examination questions on the 2020 NEC. But the Washington exam is not NEC-only: it is delivered in sections covering NEC code, basic electrical theory/calculations, and Washington laws and rules — the state-law questions drawn from RCW 19.28 and WAC 296-46B. It is open book and computer-based: you may bring a bound copy of NEC 2020 plus printed copies of the Washington laws and rules and a formula/reference guide. The October 30, 2025 bulletin allows highlighting, underlining, and permanent tabs added before you enter. It forbids writing in the references, and it forbids sticky notes. Plan to tab and index both the code book and your printed Washington rules 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 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 Washington licensing works
- Register as a trainee first: before you can count any hours, obtain an Electrical Trainee certificate from L&I (renewed every two years). All qualifying on-the-job hours must be worked under the supervision of a certified journey-level or specialty electrician and logged on your trainee affidavit of experience.
- Experience: the 01 general journey-level path requires 8,000 hours of documented electrical work experience, of which at least 4,000 hours must be in new commercial or industrial installations — broad exposure to the trade, not just one specialty.
- Education: 96 hours of approved basic classroom instruction (or completion of an approved apprenticeship) satisfies the education requirement that runs alongside the work hours.
- Application: submit the exam application, fee, and your experience affidavit to L&I; once your hours and education are approved, you are cleared to schedule the exam with PSI.
- Exam vendor: PSI. You must pass each section (NEC/theory and Washington laws & rules) with a score of 70 percent or greater. NEC and theory is 60 questions in 3 hours. Washington codes are 17 questions in 1 hour. Each section requires 70 percent. These practice exams are the combined 77 questions and 240 minutes.
- Renewal: the journey-level certificate renews every three years (by your birthdate) and requires 24 hours of continuing education — including at least 8 hours on adopted NEC changes and 4 hours on RCW 19.28 and the related WAC rules.
Before you rely on any value in this guide, use the 2020 NEC for the examination and the edition WAC 296-46B-010 has adopted for the permit. Ampacities, GFCI/AFCI scope, working-clearance distances, and receptacle-spacing rules all change between editions, and the exam is written to the edition your state has adopted — not necessarily the newest one published.
This is the opening of the full study guide. The complete guide continues into code navigation, worked calculations and solved exam questions.
