Iowa Road Signs Cheat Sheet.

The numbers to remember

• The practice test generates 25 questions at random from a larger official bank.
• You need 80% or higher to pass.
• Instruction permit: eligible at 14 years old; fee is $6.
• Intermediate license: at least 16 years old, with a 6-month clean driving record right before applying.
• Supervised driving: 20 hours total before the intermediate license, including 10 hours on the intermediate permit itself, with 2 of those hours between sunset and sunrise.
• The adult supervising must be at least 21 years old (25 if not family).
• Class C license fee runs $4 per year of the term.
• Iowa's Skip the Trip program lets an eligible teen's parent proctor the knowledge exam.
• Before any of that, applicants complete a vision screening, the knowledge test, driver's education if under 18, and a driving test.
• Signs and rules of the road are Chapter 2 of the Iowa Driver's Manual.

Sign shapes at a glance

• Octagon = stop, always — the only sign shaped this way.
• Downward triangle = yield.
• Diamond = warning ahead (curve, crossing, merge).
• Pentagon = school zone.
• Round = railroad crossing.
• Rectangle = regulatory rule or guide info.

• Red = stop/yield/prohibited.
• Yellow = warning.
• Orange = construction.
• Green = directions/distance.
• Blue = services (gas, food, lodging, hospitals).
• White = regulatory (speed limits).

Right-of-way in one breath

Right-of-way is given, never taken. First to arrive at a stop goes first; if tied, yield to the driver on your right. That same logic holds at every uncontrolled four-way intersection. Pedestrians in any crosswalk, marked or unmarked, beat turning cars. Vehicles already inside a roundabout beat vehicles entering it. Merging traffic yields to the road it's joining, not the other way around. Emergency vehicles with lights and sirens always go first — pull right and stop until they pass.

Top traps

• The posted speed limit is a ceiling, not a target — slow below it for rain, fog, snow, or construction, even though the number on the sign hasn't changed.
• An option that says "drive more carefully" instead of "pull over and stop" when drowsy or impaired is almost always the wrong answer.
• Driving on public roads implies consent to chemical testing if lawfully stopped for suspected impairment; refusing carries its own penalty separate from any impairment charge.
• A missed practice question means relearn the underlying rule, not just memorize that one answer — rerun the practice test since each attempt draws a fresh random 25.
• Sign shape alone can answer a question even with no readable text in the image, so review shapes and colors as a pair, not words.
• Fatigue behaves like impairment: slowed reaction time and the risk of microsleep are treated the same way distracted or drowsy driving is on the test.