Free practice questions for the California CSLB B General Building trade exam — with a written explanation on every answer, in English, Spanish, and Russian.
The CSLB B (General Building) exam is the trade exam behind California's broadest contractor classification — the license that lets you take on a whole structure rather than a single trade. CSLB's official study guide splits it into five sections: planning and estimating, framing and structural components, core trades, finish trades, and safety. Practice it below — free, no sign-up, with a written explanation on every question.
No account needed. Pick an answer to see whether it's right and read the explanation — the same explanations you get on every question in the full course.
Every question tells you why the correct answer is correct and defines the terms it uses — so you learn the rule, not just the answer.
Questions are written from scratch against the official codes and agency publications for this exam — never copied from the real exam.
Every question and explanation is fully translated, with the English exam term kept alongside — not a shallow machine translation.
LICENA is a practice tool, not a school. We don't promise a pass — we help you understand the material and walk in prepared.
The full B General Building course is 500 questions across 5 blocks, drawn from these five official sections.
About 15% of the exam, and the part that happens before anyone picks up a tool: reading plans, shop drawings and specifications, spotting a design or construction error before it gets built, checking scope against code, coordinating the trades, running field inspections, and estimating material, equipment and labor cost. Expect arithmetic — CSLB's own outline says some questions require computation and that a calculator is provided on screen. The reliable trap is unit conversion. A 24 × 30 ft slab poured 4 inches thick is 240 cubic feet, which is 8.89 cubic yards, and concrete is sold by the yard. Candidates who forget that a cubic yard holds 27 cubic feet, not 9, lose points they had already earned.
About 20%: subfloor and wall framing, roof framing, seismic hardware and its installation, siding and stucco, decks and stairs. California numbers dominate here. A residential stair riser may not exceed 7¾ inches and the tread may not be less than 10 inches; a stucco weep screed sits at least 4 inches above earth or 2 inches above paved areas so trapped water can drain out instead of wicking into the framing. The commercial stair rule — 7-inch riser, 11-inch tread — is a different code for a different occupancy, so read every stem for whether it describes a dwelling.
The biggest section at about 30%: plumbing, electrical, HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning), concrete, earthwork and surveying, insulation, acoustical and weatherproofing, and roofing. A B licensee is not expected to be a specialist in each one, but is expected to recognise correct work. Horizontal drain piping falls at least ¼ inch per foot. Asphalt shingles need a 2:12 deck slope, and below 4:12 the underlayment has to be doubled. An excavation five feet deep or more needs shoring, shielding or sloping before anyone enters it. If one of these trades is your weak spot, drill it on its own — the C-10 Electrical practice and EPA 608 practice pages go far deeper into two of them.
About 20%: painting, staining and coatings, interior wall covering, tile and stone, floor covering, cabinetry and millwork, plaster, drywall and ceilings, windows, skylights and doors, and landscaping. Questions favour sequence and substrate — what goes over what, what has to cure or dry first, and where a moisture-resistant material is mandatory rather than merely sensible. A common miss: the nonabsorbent wall finish above a tub with a shower head must reach six feet above the floor, which is higher than a lot of tile surrounds actually stop.
About 15%: personnel safety, transportation and traffic control, and environmental safety. This is Cal/OSHA (California Division of Occupational Safety and Health) ground, and California is stricter than the federal rules people quote from memory. Fall protection is required above 7½ feet, not the federal six. Boom-type equipment must keep ten feet of clearance from an energized overhead line up to 50,000 volts. Whenever an option matches the federal OSHA figure you half-remember, look at it twice before you choose it.
You take the B exam on a computer at a PSI test center. It is closed book and multiple choice with four choices per question and one best answer; there is no penalty for guessing, and a calculator is provided, since personal calculators are not allowed in the room. You get 3½ hours per exam. Results are pass/fail and printed at the center, and a failing report shows your overall score and how many items you answered correctly. You may retake after 21 calendar days, paying a re-examination fee to PSI, as long as you are still inside the 18-month window that starts when CSLB accepts your application. B is one of ten exams CSLB publishes in an official Spanish version. The section names and percentages above come straight from CSLB's General Building (B) examination study guide.
The LICENA B course is 500 questions in five blocks, one block per official section, so the block you score worst on is the block you drill next. At 30 questions a day that is roughly three weeks: one full pass, then a second pass on missed items only. Weight your time the way the exam does — core trades is twice the size of safety, so give it twice the hours. Read the explanation on every miss, because the exam rewords facts: remembering that the answer was "C" is worth nothing, while knowing why the weep screed clearance is four inches survives any rewording. Almost every first-time B applicant also sits the CSLB Law and Business exam, so budget for two exams rather than one. And treat any program that promises a guaranteed pass as a warning sign — no honest one does.
The full 500-question bank with a written explanation on every answer, weak-area practice and a timed final exam, in EN·ES·RU. California exam-prep schools list programs from about $250 to $1,200 — this is $20/month, on your phone, cancel anytime.
Create free account The free sample above stays free. Creating an account is free — no card needed.LICENA gives you practice questions to study with. We are not an accredited school and we do not guarantee that you will pass any exam.
LICENA provides online practice only. Registration, exam scheduling and licensing are handled by the CSLB and its exam vendor PSI — not by LICENA. LICENA is not affiliated with the CSLB or PSI.