Is the District of Columbia Driving Test Hard? (2026 Statistics)
District of Columbia's knowledge-test difficulty is not yet scored. The state has the country's strictest distracted-driving law and one of the lowest teen-driver fatality rates in America.
The chart below plots every other jurisdiction's test difficulty against its road-safety composite. District of Columbia's difficulty score isn't available; the rest of the country is.
Source: DMV IQ Driving Index. FARS 2023 · FHWA 2024 · CDC BRFSS 2023 · IIHS 2025.
The test
DC DMV asks 25 questions and requires 80% correct — at least 20 right answers. That leaves a margin of 5 wrong
40 hours behind the wheel, with a parent watching.
District of Columbia requires only 40 supervised hours before the road test — below the 45.2-hour national mean and well short of the IIHS-recommended 70.
On District of Columbia's roads.
For every 100,000 licensed drivers aged 19 and under in District of Columbia, 6.0 die in a crash each year — one of the lowest rates in the country (the U.S. average is 16.8). In Mississippi the figure is 44; in Montana, 34.
Source: NHTSA FARS 2023 ÷ FHWA DL-22 2024.
Across all drivers, District of Columbia's road network sees 1.24 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles travelled. The U.S. average is 1.25.
Source: NHTSA FARS 2023 ÷ FHWA VM-2 2024.
The country's strictest law on driving with a phone in your hand.
District of Columbia scores a full 6.0 of 6 on our distracted-driving rubric — the only state to do so. The law bans handheld phones for all drivers, prohibits texting and manual data entry for all drivers, and applies a total cellphone ban to teen and novice drivers. District of Columbia's seat-belt law is primary enforcement — an officer may stop a vehicle for an unbuckled driver alone. Self-reported belt use is 94%.
On two wheels.
District of Columbia's motorcyclist fatality rate is 16.57 deaths per 10,000 registered motorcycles — well above the 6.87 U.S. average. District of Columbia is one of 19 jurisdictions with a universal helmet law: every rider, every passenger, no age exemptions.
Source: NHTSA FARS 2023 · FHWA MV-1 2024.
DC DMV's motorcycle knowledge test is 25 questions, with a 80% pass mark. Completion of the District of Columbia Motorcycle Safety Education Program waives the DC DMV road test. All riders and passengers must wear a DOT-compliant helmet.
On bigger rigs.
The District of Columbia CDL knowledge test is federally standardised — 50 questions, 80 percent to pass, the same content in every state. The CDL knowledge-test fee in District of Columbia is $78. Other fees and endorsement processing run through the DC DMV.
Pass the DC DMV test before you take it.
Free District of Columbia practice questions with instant explanations. Score 90 percent on three runs in a row and the real thing tends to look familiar.
Free District of Columbia practice testNearby in the index.
Six more state pages — neighbours first, then the closest matches on road safety.