What Is Actually on the Road Test? State-by-State Breakdown

Compiled August 2026. Licensing rules change often; verify against your state's official manual before testing.

Most of the road test is the same everywhere. A small, well-defined set of maneuvers — parallel parking chief among them — is what actually differs from state to state, and that's where most of the confusion comes from. Below is the universal core every examiner checks, the fails that apply no matter where you test, and a full state-by-state table of what varies.

The universal core

Every state tests these. If a skill isn't in the table further down, assume it's on your test:

Pre-drive vehicle check — before you start the engine, locate and demonstrate controls like the wipers, defroster, headlights, flashers, parking brake, and horn without hunting for them.
Seat, mirror, and seatbelt adjustment — get your seat, mirrors, and seatbelt set before shifting into gear, not after you've started driving.
Smooth starts, stops, and speed changes — accelerate and brake gradually and evenly; jerky starts, hard stops, or lurching get marked down even without a law broken.
Turns from the correct lane — signal well in advance, position yourself in the correct lane beforehand, and turn into the correct lane on the other side.
Complete stops — come to a full stop, not a rolling one, at every stop sign and red light, and stop behind the limit line or crosswalk rather than on top of it.
Intersection approach — scan left-right-left before entering, and correctly yield the right-of-way to cross traffic, pedestrians, or whoever arrived first.
Lane changes — check your mirrors and do a shoulder or head check for blind spots before signaling and moving into another lane.
Lane positioning and following distance — stay centered in your lane and keep enough space behind the car ahead to react safely if it brakes.
Speed control — match your speed to the posted limit and adjust it down for traffic, weather, or road conditions when needed.
Reacting to your surroundings — notice and respond correctly to road signs, pavement markings, pedestrians, and emergency vehicles as they come up.

Universal automatic fails

Any of these ends the test on the spot, no matter which state you're testing in or how clean the rest of the drive was:

Striking an object
Causing another driver or pedestrian to brake or swerve
Disobeying a traffic sign or signal
The examiner having to grab the wheel or use the instructor brake

What actually varies

The differences cluster in six areas:

Parallel parking — dropped in ~17 states
Off-street / cone course — a separate closed-course test in a few states
Backing — distance and method vary
Hill parking — only tested where terrain allows
Highway or freeway segment — depends on the test route
Who administers it — state examiner vs. approved third party

State-by-state breakdown

Parallel parking, off-street skills courses, and other notable differences by state.

State	Universal Core	Parallel Parking	Off-Street Skills Course	Notable
Alabama	Yes	No	—
Alaska	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Arizona	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Arkansas	Yes	No	—
California	Yes	No	—	Back straight 3 vehicle lengths within 3 ft of curb; hill parking if route has a hill; freeway segment at some offices
Colorado	Yes	No	—	Route may emphasize mountain / high-speed driving
Connecticut	Yes	Reported yes*	—	Examiner checks knowledge of driving phrases/commands; vehicle must be tint-compliant; no ignition interlock unless required
Delaware	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Florida	Yes	No	—	Route emphasizes lane changes and highway entry/exit
Georgia	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Hawaii	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Idaho	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Illinois	Yes	No	—
Indiana	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Iowa	Yes	Reported yes*	—	Road test can be waived for teens completing state-approved driver's ed
Kansas	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Kentucky	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Louisiana	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Maine	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Maryland	Yes	No	—	Dropped parallel parking in 2015; skills judged redundant with reverse two-point turn
Massachusetts	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Michigan	Yes	Yes	Yes	Closed-course basic control test before on-road portion: parallel park, sight-side and blind-side curved-path backing, forward stop line. Must finish within 12 in. of boundary. On-road includes an expressway or rural highway segment. Administered by third parties
Minnesota	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Mississippi	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Missouri	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Montana	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Nebraska	Yes	No	—	Written and road tests currently waived for qualifying applicants 17+ with a 12-month clean Provisional Operator's Permit
Nevada	Yes	No	—	Removed parallel parking in Jan. 2020
New Hampshire	Yes	Reported yes*	—
New Jersey	Yes	Yes	—
New Mexico	Yes	Reported yes*	—
New York	Yes	Yes	—	Wheels must finish within 1 ft of curb; 5 pts for parking too wide, 15 pts for failing the maneuver, 30 pts = fail. Under-18 must submit Certification of Supervised Driving (MV-262). No passengers besides the accompanying driver
North Carolina	Yes	No	—
North Dakota	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Ohio	Yes	No	Yes	Separate maneuverability (cone) test: forward and reverse through a 9 ft × 20 ft box with a point cone 20 ft ahead. Must pass before the road portion. Fail one part, retake only that part; 7-day wait. Applicants 21+ who fail must take an abbreviated adult driver training course before retesting
Oklahoma	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Oregon	Yes	No	—
Pennsylvania	Yes	Yes	—
Rhode Island	Yes	Reported yes*	—
South Carolina	Yes	Reported yes*	—
South Dakota	Yes	No	—
Tennessee	Yes	No	—
Texas	Yes	Yes	—
Utah	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Vermont	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Virginia	Yes	No	—
Washington	Yes	Yes	—	Parking assist / automated steering prohibited during the maneuver
West Virginia	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Wisconsin	Yes	Reported yes*	—
Wyoming	Yes	No	—
Washington, D.C.	Yes	No	—	Not formally removed, but not tested for several years

*"Reported yes" means the state isn't on any published no-parallel-parking list, so the maneuver is presumably still tested — it hasn't been verified against that state's official manual. Treat these cells as "probably, but confirm."

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Notes on the variable maneuvers

Parallel parking

The clearest split. States that dropped it argue the underlying skills — reversing, mirror use, depth perception — are already covered elsewhere in the test, and that removing it cuts repeat visits from drivers who fail only that segment. States that kept it treat it as a proxy for overall vehicle control, and it's usually a heavy point deduction rather than an instant fail. Most jurisdictions allow 2–3 corrections.

Backing

Even where parallel parking is gone, straight-line backing survives. California requires three vehicle lengths within three feet of the curb, over the right shoulder, with no more than one correction — cameras alone are not acceptable. Michigan requires roughly 100 feet in a straight line. Some states use a curved-path backing exercise instead.

Off-street cone courses

Only a handful of states run a separate closed-course exam. Ohio's maneuverability box and Michigan's basic control skills test are the two clearest examples, and both are pass-first gates before you're allowed on the road.

Hill parking

Tested where the route provides a grade — uphill wheels turned away from the curb, downhill turned in. Common in California and mountainous states, absent in flat ones.

Highway segment

Michigan explicitly includes an expressway or rural highway portion. California includes freeway driving at some field offices but not all. Many states never leave surface streets.

How to verify your state

Search for your state's official driver's manual or road test scoring sheet — most DMVs publish the exact rubric the examiner uses, including point values. That document is authoritative; third-party summaries (including this one) lag behind policy changes by months or years.

What is actually on the road test?