Real Estate Licensing
State salesperson and broker pre-licensing exams.
57 exams · 4,915 free practice questions · Verified against official sources September 16, 2026
- Exams
- 57
- Exam families
- 3
- Free practice questions
- 4,915
- Study guides
- 57
- Cheat sheets
- 57
Which exam are you taking?
Exams are grouped with their close relatives — the other tiers of the same licence, the same exam in other states. Open a group to see each exam with its free practice questions, study guide and cheat sheet.
- Real Estate Broker licensing12 exams1,299 free questionsState pre-licensing exams for real estate brokers.North Carolina Real Estate BrokerCalifornia Real Estate BrokerTexas Real Estate BrokerOregon Real Estate+8 moreExplore Real Estate Broker licensing →
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- Real Estate Salesperson licensing43 exams3,315 free questionsState-mandated pre-licensing for real estate salespersons.Real Estate SalespersonNew Jersey Real EstateNorth Dakota Real EstateTexas Real Estate Sales Agent+39 moreExplore Real Estate Salesperson licensing →
Which real estate licence, in which state?
A real estate licence is issued by a state commission or board, and it is good in that state only. Every state has an entry-level licence and a senior one, but the names move around: most call the entry licence salesperson, Florida says sales associate, Kentucky and Oklahoma sales associate, Texas and Utah sales agent, Tennessee affiliate broker — and Colorado, Oregon, Washington and North Carolina hand new licensees a licence they call broker. The exam pages here are filed by state and by the state's own name, so look for your state first and the word second.
The exam itself is in two parts almost everywhere. A national portion covers principles common to every state — agency, contracts, property ownership, financing, valuation, fair housing — and a state portion covers that state's licence law, commission rules and disclosures. Pearson VUE or PSI delivers it under contract to the commission. Most states let a candidate who passes one portion and fails the other retake only the failed portion inside a set window, and out-of-state licensees moving in usually sit the state portion alone.
Before the exam comes a state-approved pre-licence course with the number of hours the state sets, and before the licence comes a background check — fingerprinting in many states, a clearance card in Arizona, an FBI check in Kentucky that must be started before you can even schedule the test. The broker licence sits on top: it requires a period of active experience as a salesperson, more coursework and its own exam.
Find your licence
Links go to the state exam guide, where course hours, exam fee, question counts by portion and the passing standard are verified against the commission or testing-company bulletin.
Entry-level licences, each with the state's own name and its own course requirement. All four are two-portion exams delivered by the state's testing contractor; Florida requires the exam in a physical test centre.
In these states the first licence is titled broker and the senior licence is managing, principal or designated broker. The exam is still the entry exam — do not confuse it with the broker exam other states give after years of experience.
Broker licences require active licensed experience — a set number of years within a recent window — plus additional coursework and a longer exam. California counts full-time salesperson experience within the last five years; Alabama and Maryland set their own periods.
Reciprocity is state by state. Many states let a licensee in good standing sit only the state portion; Missouri does exactly that. Others recognise specific states or require the full exam, and the background check is never waived.
Most states let you retake only the failed portion within a window — Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana and Louisiana all do — and require the full exam again once the window closes. Idaho also caps the time between passing the first portion and applying.
Home inspection and appraisal are licensed separately from sales. The National Home Inspector Examination is the exam most states adopt for inspector licensing, and appraisers sit the national uniform exam after state-approved education and supervised experience.
The national portion is common across states: agency, contracts, ownership, financing, valuation and fair housing. Study it once, then add your state's portion from the state page.
From course to licence
- 01Meet the state's age and education floor and complete the approved pre-licence course for your licence type. The commission publishes the hour requirement and approves the schools.
- 02Start the background check early. Arizona requires a fingerprint clearance card for an original licence; Kentucky requires the FBI check to be initiated before you can schedule the exam; most states fingerprint at some stage.
- 03Register with the state's testing contractor and sit both portions. Some states, Arkansas among them, register the national and state portions separately.
- 04Apply to the commission within the deadline after passing — Maryland allows a year — with a sponsoring broker named where the state requires one.
- 05Renew on the state's cycle with the continuing-education hours it sets; several states require specific core or consumer-protection courses inside the total.
Fee, format and passing standard
The 10 exams asked about most, of 57 on this page. Each figure is that exam's verified fact, cited to the regulator's page on the exam guide it links to. A blank cell means the regulator publishes no fixed figure.
| Exam | Fee | Questions | Time | Passing | Written by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas Real Estate Sales Agent | $58 | 125 | 4h | 56 national + 28 state (raw correct) | Texas Real Estate Commission |
| California Real Estate Salesperson | $100 | 150 | 3h | 70% | California DRE |
| Florida Real Estate Sales Associate | $37 | 100 | 3h 30m | 75% | Florida DBPR / FREC |
| New York Real Estate Salesperson | $15 | — | 1h 30m | Pass/Fail (no numeric score reported) | New York State Department of State, Division of Licensing Services |
| Georgia Real Estate Salesperson | $175 | 152 | — | Pass required on both portions (100 national + 52 state) | Georgia Real Estate Commission (GREC) |
| Colorado Real Estate Broker | $45 | 154 | 3h 50m | National 60/80 + State 53/74 correct (both required) | Colorado Division of Real Estate (DORA) |
| Washington Real Estate | $210 | — | — | Scaled 70 on each portion (national + state, per WAC 308-124A-760) | Washington State Department of Licensing (Real Estate Program) |
| California Real Estate Broker | $150 | 200 | 4h | 75% | California DRE |
| Florida Real Estate Broker | $37 | 100 | 3h 30m | 75 points | Florida DBPR / FREC |
| Texas Real Estate Broker | $58 | 145 | 4h | 60 national + 38 state (raw correct) | Texas Real Estate Commission |
Who writes these exams
- State real estate commissions and boards
- Issue and renew licences, approve schools and courses, set experience rules for the broker licence and adopt the exam. In some states the regulator sits inside a department of licensing, labor or commerce; the state page names it.
- Pearson VUE and PSI
- Deliver the exams under contract, publish the candidate bulletin with the outline of each portion, and run scheduling and retakes. They administer the commission's rules rather than set them.
Official pages this section is drawn from
- California DRE · Requirements to Apply for a Real Estate Salesperson License
- California DRE · Requirements to Apply for a Real Estate Broker License
- California DRE · Taking the Salesperson Examination
- Arizona Department of Real Estate · How to Obtain a License
- Alabama Real Estate Commission · BluePrint for Licensing Success: Obtaining an Alabama License
- Alaska Real Estate Commission · Salesperson Licensing Requirements
- Arkansas Real Estate Commission · Exam Information
- Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection · Real Estate Salesperson — Initial/Exam Application
- Delaware Division of Professional Regulation · Real Estate Commission — Salesperson
- Colorado Division of Real Estate · Broker Qualifying Education
Real Estate Licensing articles
All articles →Pass-rate breakdowns and independent prep-course comparisons for real estate licensing exams. Every figure links back to the body that publishes it.
- Virginia Real Estate Pass Rate 2026: 43% State PortionVirginia DPOR reports 43.0% state-portion and 36.3% national-portion pass rates for 2024 salesperson exams. Ex…
- Best New York Real Estate Exam Prep Courses 2026Six New York real estate exam prep options compared by July 2026 list price, access, practice tools and live s…
- Best Texas Real Estate Courses 2026: Real PricesTexas requires 180 hours before you can sit the exam. Kaplan, AceableAgent and Colibri compared on August 2026…
Frequently asked questions
Complete your state's pre-licensing course hours, pass the state licensing exam, clear the background or fingerprint check where required, then activate the license under a sponsoring broker. Every state sets its own hours and fees — each state's page here lists them.
Most states test a national portion plus a state-law portion, and the state-law detail is where retakes come from — agency rules, license law, and closing math. Drilling your own state's practice questions is the reliable preparation.
Sometimes. Many states have reciprocity or mutual-recognition agreements that waive part of the process, while others require their full exam regardless. The rules are set state-by-state — the state pages here list what each one requires.
Yes — every state's real estate practice exam here is free with answer explanations, alongside a study guide and a cheat sheet for the same state. No signup.
Official sources
Every exam number on this page traces to a document published by the body that sets or administers the exam. These are the primary publishers cited across Real Estate Licensing.
- Nevada Real Estate Division (NRED), Department of Business and Industrypearsonvue.comcited by 24 exams
- New Mexico Real Estate Commissiontest-takers.psiexams.comcited by 18 exams
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statisticsbls.govcited by 8 exams
- South Dakota Real Estate Commission (SD Department of Labor and Regulation)proctor2.psionline.comcited by 2 exams
- California Department of Real Estatedre.ca.govcited by 2 exams
- Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC)trec.texas.govcited by 2 exams
- Pennsylvania Department of Statepa.govcited by 2 exams
- Florida Legislatureleg.state.fl.uscited by 2 exams
- Florida DBPRwww2.myfloridalicense.comcited by 2 exams
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developmenthud.govcited by 2 exams
Last verified against these documents:
What you'll find on every Real Estate Licensing exam
Each exam has up to four pages, one per job to be done: practice the questions, understand the exam, study the outline, or revise the morning of. Flashcards and glossary terms sit inside the study guide rather than on pages of their own.
- Practice tests57
- Free question banks with a worked explanation on every answer.
- Exam guides57
- Cost, format, eligibility and difficulty, straight from the official outline.
- Study guides57
- Full outline coverage, plus the exam's flashcards and glossary terms.
- Cheat sheets57
- One-page summaries built for the last review, with a PDF download.