Free NY Learner Permit Practice Test: 10 Questions

The answer is B. An octagon is a stop sign and can be nothing else, which is why you can read it from behind or under snow. Shape carries meaning on its own, before you are close enough to read the words.

• A is wrong: Diamonds carry every kind of warning, from a curve ahead to a deer crossing.
• C is wrong: That shape means yield, and yield is close enough to stop that it is worth knowing which is which. Several other signs use triangles too.
• D is wrong: Upright rectangles carry speed limits, parking rules and most other regulations, so there are dozens of them.

The answer is A. Orange means people are working on or near the road, so expect lanes to move, workers on foot and fines that are often doubled. Yellow warns of the road itself; orange warns of what has been done to it.

• B is wrong: School signs are their own shape, a five-sided one, and they are yellow-green rather than orange.
• C is wrong: A closure is spelled out in words on a sign that may be any color. Orange is about who is working on the road.
• D is wrong: Those are blue. Getting this one wrong in a work zone is how somebody arrives at a lane closure too fast.

The answer is D. The state rule and the city rule are opposites, and a driver who learns one and crosses the line gets it wrong. Outside New York City, stop fully and then turn unless a sign forbids it. Inside it, the turn is banned unless a sign allows it.

• A is wrong: That is the rule for the rest of the state. The five boroughs run the opposite way around.
• B is wrong: Checking the crosswalk is necessary everywhere and it is not what makes the turn legal here.
• C is wrong: There is no such schedule. The prohibition applies all the time unless a sign lifts it.

The answer is B. Yield on entry, then keep moving. Signal right as you leave, and do not stop inside the circle unless traffic ahead forces it.

• A is wrong: The right-hand rule belongs to ordinary uncontrolled junctions. A roundabout replaces it with one rule for everybody.
• C is wrong: Arrival order decides nothing here. Traffic in the circle keeps moving, and stopping it is what jams a roundabout.
• D is wrong: Size gives nobody priority anywhere. It is worth allowing for, and it is not a rule.

The answer is A. The common case is a vehicle waiting to turn left. The rest of the time, pass on the left, and never put two wheels off the pavement to do it.

• B is wrong: Slow is frustrating and it is not a reason to pass on a side the other driver is not expecting.
• C is wrong: The shoulder is not a lane. Using it to get past is illegal and it is where people stand beside broken-down cars.
• D is wrong: It is allowed in the situations the manual lists, including a road with two or more lanes going your way.

The answer is A. Fifteen feet, measured either side. It is one of the figures worth knowing exactly, because it is enforced constantly and the ticket is expensive.

• B is wrong: Five feet does not leave a crew room to work a hose around the hydrant, which is the whole reason for the rule.
• C is wrong: Thirty feet would take most of a parking space either side of every hydrant in the state.
• D is wrong: Somebody sitting in the car cannot be found in the thirty seconds a fire crew has, and the rule makes no such exception.

The answer is C. Pick something fixed ahead, start counting when the vehicle in front passes it and stop when you do. Under two seconds you are too close, and the figure grows in rain, at night and behind anything large.

• A is wrong: Reaction time varies with the driver and the moment. This is a measurement you can actually take while driving.
• B is wrong: Two seconds looking away at highway speed is most of a football field driven blind.
• D is wrong: Nothing sets a fixed wait at a stop sign. You stop, look, and go when it is clear.

The answer is B. Under 21, a reading of 0.02 through 0.07 is handled under Zero Tolerance, which costs the license. From 0.08 the ordinary DWI law applies at any age, and 0.05 to 0.07 is DWAI for everybody.

• A is wrong: The 0.08 figure applies to drivers of 21 and over. A separate and much lower line applies below that age.
• C is wrong: There is no such halfway position. Under 21, a reading in that range is an offense in its own right.
• D is wrong: Zero Tolerance does not wait for bad driving. The reading is the offense.

The answer is B. Off the gas, no brakes, and look and steer where you want to end up. Be ready for the back to come back the other way and to catch that too.

• A is wrong: Braking in a slide locks what little grip is left and turns a correctable slide into a spin.
• C is wrong: Steering away from where you want to go points the car further off line, and the correction has to come back through the middle.
• D is wrong: A straight wheel while the back is coming around leaves the car pointing somewhere nobody chose.

The answer is C. New York is stricter than most states here: red lights flashing means every driver stops, both directions, divided highway or not. Stay stopped until the lights go off and the bus moves.

• A is wrong: A number of states allow that. New York does not, and a driver who learned elsewhere gets this wrong.
• B is wrong: There is a 20 mph rule for passing a stopped bus on school grounds. On the road, the requirement is to stop.
• D is wrong: Traffic in both directions must stop. Children cross the road, which is the whole reason for the rule.