California Real Estate Practice Exam
A free practice test for the California salesperson exam, for the weeks before your test date, with an explanation on every answer. Score yourself against California's real 70% pass line before you book.
Take the full test. Answers and explanations are shown when you submit, as on exam day.
A newly licensed California salesperson asks whether California has a post-licensing course like Florida's. What is the correct answer?
This practice exam is a study aid, not the real exam. Our questions are written by us to match the published content outline. They are not actual exam questions, no score here predicts a pass, and this site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by PSI, Pearson VUE, ARELLO, any state real estate commission, or any government agency. Your state commission and your candidate handbook are the only authoritative sources.
California real estate exam at a glance
| National questions | 150 scoredsource |
|---|---|
| State-law questions | Combined single examsource |
| Passing score | 70%source |
| Time limit | 3 hourssource |
| Exam fee | $100.00 per attemptsource |
| Test provider | State-administeredsource |
| First-attempt pass rate | 64%source |
| Pre-licence education | 135 hourssource |
Figures verified against official sources on . Exam fees and rules change. Check the linked source before you book.
10 sample questions, with answers explained
Every question above with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Read the explanations for the ones you answered correctly too. A lucky guess and knowing the rule look identical on a score report. These are sample questions from our larger bank.
1. A newly licensed California salesperson asks whether California has a post-licensing course like Florida's. What is the correct answer?
Why: California has no post-licensing course. Instead, a salesperson renewing an original license for the first time must complete 45 clock hours of DRE-approved continuing education with prescribed subjects. Florida's 45-hour post-licensing course is the trap.
2. A California tenant's one-year lease with monthly rent expires, the tenant stays on, and the landlord accepts the next month's rent. Under Civil Code 1945, the parties are presumed to have:
Why: Civil Code 1945 presumes a renewal on the same terms when the landlord accepts rent from a holdover tenant, but not exceeding one month when rent is payable monthly. Before the landlord accepted rent, the holdover was a tenancy at sufferance.
3. A California public agency plans to take a parcel by eminent domain for a road. Under Code of Civil Procedure 1240.030, which is NOT one of the required findings?
Why: CCP 1240.030 requires three findings: public interest and necessity require the project, it is planned for the greatest public good and least private injury, and the property is necessary for it. A count of refused offers is not one of them.
4. During a break at a DRE exam center, a candidate wants to check messages on her cell phone. What is the rule?
Why: DRE prohibits cell phone use and even mere possession of a cell phone during an exam, including while out on break. Phones must be powered off and placed in an individual locker, so no break exception applies.
5. A California licensee intentionally postpones a mortgage closing solely to increase borrower-paid charges. How is this treated?
Why: Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 10176(l) prohibits intentional loan-closing delay solely to increase borrower interest, fees or charges.
6. A California broker takes an exclusive right-to-sell listing whose term reads "until the property is sold." Under BPC 10176(f), what is the problem?
Why: BPC 10176(f) makes claiming, demanding or receiving compensation under an exclusive agreement that does not contain a definite, specified date of final and complete termination a ground for discipline. "Until sold" is not a date. The statute sets no minimum term and no recording rule.
7. A California listing agent knows the basement floods every winter. Showings happen in a dry August, and nothing visible suggests water damage. The seller tells the agent to say nothing. What must the agent do?
Why: The 2079.16 form makes a seller's agent owe both buyer and seller a duty to disclose all facts known to the agent materially affecting value or desirability that are not known to, or within the diligent attention and observation of, the parties. Fiduciary loyalty to the seller does not cancel that affirmative duty.
8. A California licensee is 71 years old and has held a license in good standing for 32 continuous years. What may she request at renewal?
Why: Under Business and Professions Code 10170.8, a licensee 70 or older with 30 or more continuous years in good standing may request exemption from CE entirely. Once approved it carries forward, but it ends if the license stops being in good standing.
9. Using DRE's published fees, what do the salesperson exam fee, the original license fee and the fingerprint processing fee total, before the Live Scan vendor's own service fee?
Why: $100 exam + $350 license + $49 fingerprint processing = $499. That is a known-charge subtotal, not an all-in cost, because the Live Scan vendor service fee is charged on top. $450 is the exam and license fees without fingerprinting.
10. A candidate asks who will give her the California real estate salesperson examination. Which statement is accurate?
Why: California is state-administered: the Department of Real Estate runs the exam at its own five exam centers (Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno, La Palma and San Diego). PSI and Pearson VUE deliver the exam in many other states, which is the trap, and DRE describes no remote option.