South Dakota Journeyman Electrician License: Requirements, Experience, and How to Apply

South Dakota Journeyman Electrician License: Requirements and How to Apply

South Dakota licenses electricians through the South Dakota Electrical Commission. The licenses are apprentice, journeyman, Class B and electrical contractor. A Class B electrician can contract only for farm and residential wiring and takes its own 60-question exam. South Dakota has no "master" title: the electrical contractor license is the master-level license.

Experience

You need four years (2,000 hours a year) as a licensed apprentice, working under an electrical contractor or a Class B electrician. Apprentices register with the Commission every two years.

Credit toward the four years is given for:

• wiring school, month for month,
• an electrical engineering degree (two years),
• apprenticeship classroom hours, and
• military electrical experience.

Applying and the exam

Apply to the Commission first, with a $60 application fee. Once you are approved, you have 90 days to test.

ICC gives the South Dakota Journeyman Electrician exam (531) at Pearson VUE test centers for $115:

• 80 multiple-choice questions in 4 hours, four options and one correct answer each,
• open book with the 2023 NEC and Ugly's Electrical Reference (any edition); the hardcover NEC Handbook is also allowed,
• 70% to pass. After a failed attempt the state requires a 30-day wait, and 90 days after a second failure.

What is on the exam breaks down the ICC outline.

Fees

Which code?

South Dakota applies the 2023 NEC, with state amendments, to installations permitted on or after November 12, 2024. Its exams moved to the 2023 NEC on December 2, 2024.

Renewal and continuing education

Every South Dakota electrical license expires June 30 of even-numbered years. You need 16 hours of continuing education per two-year cycle, at least 8 on the NEC and no more than 8 online or by correspondence.

Licensed in another state?

South Dakota has journeyman reciprocity with Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, New Hampshire, Texas, Alaska, Colorado and New Mexico. The license must have been held active for at least one year.

Moving up

The electrical contractor license takes two years as a licensed journeyman, at least one of them in commercial work. See South Dakota Electrical Contractor requirements.

Getting ready

South Dakota and ICC do not publish exam pass rates. Try our free 10-question practice test on the 2023 NEC, or see the full South Dakota Journeyman Electrician exam prep.