ICC Residential Electrician Exam (R18): Requirements, Cost, and Who Accepts It
What the ICC Standard Residential Electrician exam (R18) takes: no ICC experience rule, the $120 fee, the four NEC-edition series, which jurisdictions accept it, and why your city or county sets the license rules.
Contents
ICC Residential Electrician Exam (R18): Requirements and Who Accepts It
The International Code Council (ICC) writes and gives the Standard Residential Electrician exam, but ICC is not a licensing agency. It does not issue electrician licenses. Each city, county or state decides whether it accepts an ICC exam, which one, and on which edition of the NEC. R18 is the residential exam written on the 2023 NEC.
Who accepts it
Acceptance is local, and it varies. Jurisdictions that license residential electricians, or register residential contractors, may accept an ICC result in place of their own test:
- Naperville, Illinois accepts ICC Standard Residential certification (and the Standard Master) in lieu of its own municipal testing.
That is one example, not a list. Before you book, ask your city or county building department whether it accepts the ICC residential exam at all, and for which license or registration.
Which edition? The four series
ICC offers the residential exam on four NEC editions, each with its own series letter:
| Series | NEC edition |
|---|---|
| F | 2014 |
| G | 2017 |
| T | 2020 |
| R | 2023 |
R18 is the 2023 series. ICC has not announced a 2026 NEC version. Your jurisdiction may name one series or accept several, so ask which series it wants before you book. Booking the wrong edition can mean a passing score your city or county will not take.
Eligibility and experience
ICC sets no experience requirement to sit the exam. Experience hours, apprenticeship, application paperwork, the license itself and its renewal all come from the jurisdiction that accepts the exam. Confirm those rules with your city or county before you book.
The exam
ICC gives R18 at Pearson VUE test centers for $120:
- 60 multiple-choice questions in 3 hours, four options and one correct answer each,
- open book with the 2023 NEC (NFPA 70) and Ugly's Electrical Reference (any edition),
- 70% to pass, and after a failed attempt you wait 10 days to retest.
It covers dwelling work only, so unlike the journeyman and master exams it has no motors or control-devices areas. What is on the exam breaks down the seven-area outline.
Fees
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| ICC exam | $120 |
| License or registration, if your jurisdiction issues one | Set by the jurisdiction |
Licensed in another place?
An ICC certification is national, but a license is local. Whether one jurisdiction honors another's license, or an ICC result taken elsewhere, is that jurisdiction's call. Ask the licensing office directly rather than assuming a passing score transfers.
Moving up
If your work goes beyond dwellings, the journeyman exam (R17) is 80 questions in 4 hours, and the master exam (R16) is 100 questions in 5 hours and passes at 75%. See ICC Journeyman Electrician requirements and ICC Master Electrician requirements.
Getting ready
ICC does not publish exam pass rates. Try our free 10-question practice test on the 2023 NEC, see the full ICC Residential Electrician exam prep, or compare every ICC electrician exam on the ICC electrician hub.
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