Florida licenses contractors statewide through the Construction Industry Licensing Board (CILB) at the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR). A certified license lets you contract anywhere in the state, and it rests on two or three open-book exams: Business and Finance, which every applicant shares, plus either the Division I pair for general, building and residential contractors or one trade-knowledge exam for a specialty such as air conditioning. Journeyman licenses are a separate track run by counties and cities, often tested by GITS. This guide walks both paths using only what DBPR's exam booklets, Florida Statutes chapter 489 and the GITS information sheets say.
Florida Statutes chapter 489, Part I, sets up two routes (sections 489.105 and 489.117). A certified contractor passes the state examination and may contract anywhere in Florida. A registered contractor holds a local competency license, registers it with DBPR and may work only in the jurisdictions where that local license is valid; the statute says no examination is required for the registration itself. This guide follows the certified route, because that is the one the state exams are built around.
CILB classes fall into two divisions (section 489.105(3)). Division I holds the three broad licenses. A certified general contractor (CGC) may do any work requiring a license under that part, except as section 489.113 provides. A building contractor (CBC) is limited to commercial and residential buildings of no more than three stories, plus remodeling of any size that does not affect structural members. A residential contractor (CRC) is limited to one-, two- and three-family homes of up to two habitable stories over at most one uninhabitable story. Division II is every specialty: sheet metal, roofing, air conditioning, mechanical, pool and spa, plumbing, underground utility, solar, pollutant storage and specialty contractors.
Air conditioning comes in classes. A Class A contractor's services are unlimited in size; a Class B contractor is capped at 25 tons of cooling and 500,000 Btu of heating in any one system. Class C, servicing only, is closed to new applicants: only those who held it on October 1, 1988 may keep it.
To qualify for licensure by examination, Florida Statutes 489.111 requires that you be at least 18, of good moral character, and meet one of several experience routes. The common one is four or more years of active work as a skilled worker or foreman, with at least one of those years as a foreman. Another is a four-year degree in engineering, architecture or building construction plus one year of experience in the category, and college credit can count toward the four years.
DBPR's Examinations at a Glance sets the combination. Division I applicants pass three exams: Business and Finance, Contract Administration and Project Management. Division II applicants pass two: Business and Finance plus the trade-knowledge exam for their class. Business and Finance is the same exam for everyone, and DBPR's Candidate Information Booklet notes that a candidate who has passed it and later seeks another category may not have to take it again.
The formats come from DBPR's chart. Business and Finance is 120 questions in 6.5 hours. Contract Administration and Project Management are 4.5 hours each, with 60 questions apiece for General, 50 for Building and 45 for Residential. Air Conditioning Class A is 130 questions in 7.5 hours, and Class B is 80 questions in 5 hours; both draw on the same nine content areas, from pre-installation and duct work to maintenance, safety, energy management and indoor air quality. Every construction exam is multiple choice with four options, and all the exams named here are taken by computer at Pearson VUE; the Plumbing contractor trade exam is the paper-and-pencil exception. You need 70% on each exam, scores are not rounded, and a few unscored pilot questions may appear.
Only the books on DBPR's reference list for your exam may come into the room. They must be bound; highlighting and underlining are allowed, handwritten notes and movable tabs are not, and nothing may be written in them during the exam. The Business and Finance list for 2026 names Florida Statutes chapter 455, Builder's Guide to Accounting, the Contractors Manual and the AIA documents A201, A401 and A701. The trade lists add the Florida Building Code volumes for the trade, OSHA's 29 CFR 1926 and the trade's handbooks.
Watch the code edition. The 2023 Florida Building Code, the 8th edition, is on the lists today, and the Florida Building Commission's workplan sets the 9th edition (2026) to take effect on December 31, 2026. The exams move on their own dates: the Air A and Air B list switches to FBC-Mechanical 2026 in January 2027 while Energy Conservation stays at 2023, and the General, Building and Residential list keeps the 2023 code until August 1, 2027. Check the list valid for your exam date before you buy books.
1. Choose your class. Match the license to the work you will contract for, using the scopes in section 489.105, and confirm that you meet one of the experience routes in section 489.111.
2. Apply to Professional Testing, Inc. (PTI). PTI registers candidates and develops and scores the CILB exams for DBPR. DBPR's page asks that complete applications and fees reach PTI at least 30 days before the exam date.
3. Book with Pearson VUE. Within 72 hours of approval you become eligible to schedule the computer exam online or at 888-204-6230. Ask for Spanish at that point if you want it: DBPR-developed exams are offered in English and Spanish at no additional cost, and a word-for-word translation dictionary is allowed.
4. Get your books and calculator ready. Buy the editions on the current reference list. A silent, hand-held, battery-operated, nonprinting calculator without an alphabetic keypad is allowed.
5. Take the exam. Bring two forms of signature identification, one of them government-issued. You receive your result report as soon as you finish, and each exam is graded on its own. If you fail, you may request a review of the questions you missed within 21 days.
Florida has no state journeyman license. DBPR's electrical board says in its FAQ that it does not license or regulate the journeyman's license and sends you to the local county licensing office. Florida Statutes 489.1455 (plumbing, pipe fitting, mechanical and HVAC) and 489.5335 (electrical and alarm) let counties and municipalities license a journeyman who scored at least 75% on a proctored exam approved for the trade, completed a registered apprenticeship or at least 12,000 hours of on-the-job training in the trade, and finished the advanced module courses approved by the Florida Building Commission. Both sections make every county must recognize a journeyman license issued by another Florida county or city.
Many counties test through Global Independent Testing Services (GITS); its county list includes Broward, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Duval, Hillsborough and Lee. You apply to your county or city licensing agency first, and GITS schedules the exam once it has the agency's approval. The three GITS exams we cover share one format: 75 questions in 3 hours, open book, 75% to pass. The Journeyman Plumber exam (PBE1A) spreads its questions over 17 subjects, from administration and definitions to vents, developed length and isometric analysis, with the Florida Building Code, Plumbing 2023 as its main reference. The Journeyman Electrician exam (EBE1A), given by 16 counties, covers General Theory, Safety and every chapter of the National Electrical Code; 56 of its 75 questions sit in NEC 2023 itself. The Mechanical Journeyman exam (MBE1A) has 11 subjects, from code compliance and fuel gas to controls, load calculations and psychrometrics, on the Florida Building Code Mechanical, Fuel Gas and Energy Conservation 2023; Broward gives its own version, MBE1B. GITS offers each exam in Spanish on request for an additional $25, though some agencies must approve a non-English exam first.
LICENA is a practice tool, not a school, and it is not affiliated with DBPR, the CILB, Professional Testing, Inc., Pearson VUE or GITS. Each Florida course is 500 questions in five blocks, written from scratch against open official sources, with a written explanation on every answer in English, Spanish and Russian and a timed final exam in the real format. Every page has a free sample with no sign-up.
Florida Business and Finance practice — the exam every CILB applicant shares: 120 questions in 6.5 hours.
Florida General, Building and Residential practice — Contract Administration and Project Management for Division I.
Florida Air Conditioning Contractor practice — the Class A and Class B trade-knowledge exam.
Florida Journeyman Plumber practice — the GITS PBE1A exam on the Florida Building Code, Plumbing 2023.
Florida Journeyman Electrician practice — the GITS EBE1A exam on NEC 2023.
Florida Mechanical Journeyman practice — the GITS MBE1A exam on FBC Mechanical, Fuel Gas and Energy Conservation 2023.
EPA 608 practice (free) — anyone who opens refrigerant circuits also needs EPA Section 608 technician certification.
OSHA construction practice (free) — the federal jobsite safety rules behind the safety areas of these exams.
One honest limit: the commercial books on the reference lists, such as the AIA documents, Builder's Guide to Accounting and the trade textbooks, are named by title only and are not reproduced, so the courses do not replace them.
Practice for the Florida exams LICENA has Florida banks for Business and Finance, General, Building and Residential, Air Conditioning, and the Journeyman Plumber, Electrician and Mechanical exams, with a written explanation on every answer in English, Spanish and Russian. The sample is free, no sign-up.
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