What's on the Oklahoma Residential Electrical Contractor Exam? All 12 Areas and How to Study Them

What's on the Oklahoma Residential Electrical Contractor Exam?

The Oklahoma Residential Electrical Contractor license takes two exams. This article covers the trade exam: 80 scored items in 210 minutes, and you need 56 (70%) to pass. The second exam, Business and Law, has its own outline; see what is on the Business and Law exam.

The outline (80 items)

PSI's candidate bulletin for the Construction Industries Board publishes these counts:

The bulletin lists subtopics under each area but gives no subtopic counts and no NEC article numbers. Up to 10 unscored experimental questions may be added on top.

The same outline as the residential journeyman exam

These are the same 12 areas and the same counts as the Residential Journeyman exam, with the same 80 items and 210 minutes. If you passed the residential journeyman exam, you already know the shape of this one. The contractor license is about running the business; the extra material lives on the Business and Law exam, not here.

What the outline covers:

• General Knowledge (4): permits and inspections, preservation of structural integrity, and needs analysis and estimate.
• General Electrical Knowledge (12), the largest area: voltage, current and resistance in series, parallel and combination circuits; power used and power lost (heat) in a circuit; single- and three-phase AC theory; cost of power; troubleshooting and testing; using the NEC and its definitions; temporary wiring; and elevators and escalators.
• Special Occupancies (4): only two subtopics, mobile homes and mobile home parks with RVs and RV parks, and wiring for swimming pools, fountains and hot tubs. No hazardous locations and no health care.
• Lighting and Signs (4): fixture installation, grounding and wiring, fluorescent and recessed fixtures, and lighting systems under 30 volts.
• Safety (4): job site sanitation, PPE, excavation, emergency action plans, training, ventilation, first aid kits, signs and barricades, and tools, all from 29 CFR 1926.
• No Motors and Transformers area. The unlimited contractor exam has 6 items on it; this one has none.

The core Code areas carry the exam: installation requirements (10), services, feeders and branch circuits (10), overcurrent protection (8), grounding and bonding (8) and conductors and cables (8). Together they are 44 of 80 items, more than half.

On the 2023 NEC, as amended in Oklahoma

The exam tests NFPA 70, 2023 edition, "as revised and adopted by the Oklahoma Uniform Building Code Commission" (OUBCC). Oklahoma exams have used the 2023 NEC since December 14, 2024.

Where a state code conflicts with a national one, the bulletin says the state code wins. Oklahoma's two changes to Code text both land in dwellings, so they matter on a residential exam:

• 210.8(F) outdoor outlets: the exception that says GFCI is not required for listed HVAC equipment is kept with no expiration date. The national 2023 NEC gives that exception an expiration date; Oklahoma's version does not.
• 422.16(B)(5), added: a gas-fired central furnace supplying a dwelling unit may be cord-and-plug connected, on a cord no longer than 9 feet.

None of the NEC's informative annexes is adopted in Oklahoma, though they are still printed in your book.

What about the 2026 NEC?

OUBCC's 2026 NEC Technical Review Committee held its first meeting on September 9, 2026, but no adoption or effective date has been set. Until OUBCC adopts it and PSI updates the bulletin, study the 2023 edition. When Oklahoma moved to the 2023 NEC, CIB gave a 90-day testing grace period before the exams switched, so expect notice before any change.

The NEC, not the IRC

The reference list has three books: the 2023 NEC, 29 CFR 1926 and Ugly's Electrical References. The International Residential Code is not on it. Even though this is a residential license, the exam is written to the NEC as Oklahoma adopts it, so answer by the NEC.

A study plan built on the weights

1. Theory first. Twelve items, 15% of the exam. Ugly's (any edition) has the formulas; work Ohm's law, series and parallel circuits, power and cost-of-power problems until they are quick.
2. Services, feeders and branch circuits, and installation requirements (20 combined). Articles 110, 210, 215, 220, 225, 230 and 300, with dwelling load calculations.
3. Overcurrent protection, grounding and bonding, and conductors and cables (24 combined). Articles 240, 250 and 310 and the cable articles, especially NM, SE/USE and UF.
4. Raceways and boxes (6). Conduit fill with Chapter 9 and box fill with Article 314.
5. Everything else (18 combined). Pools, mobile homes and RVs, lighting, safety, low voltage and general knowledge: Article 680, Articles 550 to 552, Article 410, the Chapter 7 and 8 low-voltage articles and 29 CFR 1926, plus permits and estimating.
6. Learn the two Oklahoma amendments. Both are dwelling rules, and your book will not show them.
7. Practice at exam pace. 80 questions in 3½ hours is about 2.6 minutes each, with the book open.

Our free practice test gives you a feel for the questions on the 2023 NEC. The full exam prep has full-length practice exams weighted to this outline, with every answer explained. For eligibility and fees, see Oklahoma Residential Electrical Contractor requirements, and for the day itself, exam day.