California Electrician PrepCertification, exam and code, in one place

Checked against primary sources 2026-09-05

Where the marks are

California Electrician Exam Content: The Percentages

The bulletin publishes a weighting for every one of the five certification exams, and they're not variations on one theme. Two are dominated by installation, one by fire alarm systems, one by retrofit work. Here's each outline and the code that sits under it.

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On this page
  1. Why the outline is the study plan
  2. General Electrician, 100 questions
  3. Residential Electrician, 80 questions
  4. Fire/Life Safety Technician, 50 questions
  5. Voice Data Video Technician, 50 questions
  6. Nonresidential Lighting Technician, 50 questions
  7. The code under Safety
  8. The code under Determination of Electrical System Requirements
  9. The code under Installation
  10. The code under Maintenance and Repair
  11. How to turn this into study
  12. Questions people ask
  13. What this page cites

Why the outline is the study plan

An outline that says installation is 66 percent of the paper is telling you where 66 marks live. Study in the order the outline is weighted and you spend your time where the marks are.

These figures come from the Candidate Information Bulletin. The pass mark is a minimum of 70 percent on every one of the five exams.

General Electrician, 100 questions

Roughly 88 of the 100 questions sit in the two middle areas. Determination of requirements is the sizing half of the trade: load calculations, conductor ampacity, overcurrent sizing. Installation is everything about putting it in.

The General Electrician exam page has the rest of the format.

Residential Electrician, 80 questions

Same shape as the General paper with a point moved from safety to sizing. The difference is the subject matter rather than the weighting: dwelling branch circuits, receptacle placement, and the load calculation for a house.

Fire/Life Safety Technician, 50 questions

Installation drops to 12 percent here and fire alarm systems takes a third of the paper. The exam supplies NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm Code, 2025 Edition and NFPA 170 on top of the NEC, which tells you where that third is coming from.

Voice Data Video Technician, 50 questions

Nine areas on a 50 question paper means four of them are two or three questions each. Preparation, installation and termination together are 58 percent, and the BICSI methods manual on screen is the reference that covers them.

Nonresidential Lighting Technician, 50 questions

Half the paper is one area and safety carries its highest weighting of the five exams. Lighting control at 22 percent is the area to take seriously, because controls moved further than fixtures did over the last decade.

The code under Safety

Two of the three books on screen are safety documents: NFPA 70E, Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace, 2024 Edition, and the Cal/OSHA Pocket Guide for the Construction Industry, updated 2022.

Inside the NEC itself the safety material clusters in Article 110, and 110.26 is the working space section that shows up in nearly every exam bank. It carries the same number in both the 2023 and 2026 editions.

The code under Determination of Electrical System Requirements

This is the arithmetic area, and it turns on four places in the book.

Load calculations. Article 220 in the 2023 edition this exam uses (Article 120 in the 2026 book). The dwelling unit load figures are the pair people misremember, and they sit in two different parts of the article.

Ampacity. Article 310, with Table 310.16 as the table you'll open most. Ambient correction and conductor bundling adjustment are separate steps, and the termination temperature limit in 110.14(C) is a third.

Overcurrent. Article 240, with the small conductor rule at 240.4(D) and the standard device ratings at 240.6.

Motors. Article 430, where the current used for sizing comes from the tables rather than from the nameplate.

Every one of those numbers reads the same in both editions.

The code under Installation

Two thirds of the General and Residential papers land here, so this is where a study plan should spend most of its weeks.

Boxes and fill. 314.16 and its tables, counting conductors, clamps, fittings, devices and grounds by the allowance each one draws.

Raceway fill. Chapter 9 Tables 1, 4 and 5, which are the percentages, the raceway areas and the conductor dimensions.

Grounding and bonding. Article 250, with 250.66 sizing the grounding electrode conductor. One subsection moved: the bar on re-bonding neutral to ground downstream is 250.24(B) in the 2026 book (250.24(A)(5) in the 2023 edition this exam uses).

Branch circuits and outlets. 210.8 for GFCI protection and 210.52 for receptacle outlet placement in dwellings, both unchanged in number between editions.

Wiring methods. Protection against physical damage is 300.6 in the 2026 book (300.4 in the 2023 edition this exam uses), which is one of the moves this site documents.

The code under Maintenance and Repair

Six percent of the General and Residential papers, which is six questions and four questions. It's the smallest area and the one to leave until last.

Definitions matter more here than anywhere else, because a maintenance question usually turns on whether a thing counts as a repair, a replacement or a new installation. Article 100 is where those live.

How to turn this into study

Take the outline for your certification, multiply each percentage by the question count, and you have the number of marks per area. Then spend your weeks in that ratio rather than in the ratio of what you enjoy.

Our diagnostic scores eight content areas so you can see which of them is costing you marks, and the free question sets break down to 25 questions a topic. The study plan puts the two together over eight weeks.

Questions people ask

What is on the California General Electrician exam?

Four areas: Safety at 6 percent, Determination of Electrical System Requirements at 22 percent, Installation at 66 percent and Maintenance and Repair at 6 percent. Those figures come from the Candidate Information Bulletin.

What passing score do I need?

A minimum of 70 percent, on all five certification exams. Both the bulletin and the DIR test information page give the same figure.

Which area is worth the most marks?

Installation, on the General and Residential papers, at 66 percent of each. On Fire/Life Safety it's Fire Alarm Systems at 34 percent, and on Nonresidential Lighting it's Troubleshooting, Replacement and Retrofit at 50 percent.

Does the exam test California amendments?

The book on screen is NFPA 70 itself rather than the California Electrical Code, so the questions turn on the model code. The amendment layer matters in the field, and our state amendments page covers what it is.

Are the outlines the same for all five exams?

No. The General and Residential papers share a four area shape, while Fire/Life Safety has six areas, Voice Data Video has nine and Nonresidential Lighting has four with a different mix.

How many questions is each area worth?

Multiply the percentage by the question count. On the 100 question General paper the percentages are the question counts, so installation is about 66 questions and safety about 6.

Put it to the test

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Every miss comes back with the arithmetic worked out and the code section named, so you learn the trap and not just the answer. No account.

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What this page cites

If your book is the other edition

The 2023 to 2026 section crosswalk maps every section that moved, both directions, $29 once.

Built and maintained by Jeff Clerisier, Trojan Digital Marketing.

Every rule here is cited to the section it comes from, and corrections are logged in public with the date. This is study material rather than electrical advice, and it does not replace your own code book or your inspector.

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