Free practice questions for the California CSLB C-54 Ceramic and Mosaic Tile trade exam — with a written explanation on every answer, in English, Spanish, and Russian.
8 questions, about 4 minutes. 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.
Practice across the full question bank.
Understand why the correct answer works — not just which letter is right.
Spend more time on the questions you miss.
Practice under exam-style time pressure before exam day.
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 C-54 Ceramic and Mosaic Tile course is 500 questions across 5 blocks, drawn from these five official sections. CSLB calls the percentages approximate.
Exam structure, topics, study areas and official resources.
The C-54 Ceramic and Mosaic Tile exam is the trade half of a California tile contractor's license; the Law and Business exam is the other half. CSLB's official study guide splits it into five sections — planning and estimating, preparation for tile and stone installation, installation and repairs, specialty installations, and safety. Practice it in the free sample above: no sign-up, with a written explanation on every question.
Almost a fifth of the exam, and it is the paperwork half of the trade. CSLB lists three subtopics: review plans and specifications, select materials, and estimate material quantities and costs. So expect to read a finish schedule, choose a tile and a setting system that suit the substrate and the exposure, and turn areas into pieces, boxes, bags of mortar and hours. The study guide says outright that some questions require mathematical computation and that a calculator is provided, so the arithmetic is not optional. Build the estimate in a fixed order — net area, then the waste allowance, then the coverage of the actual unit — and round up at the end, because a partial tile is still a tile you have to buy.
Demolition, disposal and job site preparation; substrate preparation; membranes and barriers. This is where the code does the deciding. The 2025 California Residential Code section R702.4.2 and its Table R702.4.2 name the backer materials permitted behind wall tile in tub and shower areas: glass mat gypsum backing panel (ASTM C1178), fiber-reinforced gypsum panels (ASTM C1278), nonasbestos fiber-cement backer board (ASTM C1288 or ISO 8336, Category C) and nonasbestos fiber mat-reinforced cementitious backer units (ASTM C1325). R702.3.7 governs water-resistant gypsum board: permitted on ceilings, edges sealed as the manufacturer recommends, never installed over a Class I or II vapor retarder in a shower or tub compartment — and R702.3.7.1 keeps it out of direct water and continuous high humidity altogether. Demolition carries its own homework: old resilient flooring, mastic and sheet goods in older buildings get tested before they get broken up.
The heaviest section by a wide margin: installing tile and stone, joint treatment for tile and stone installations, repairs and restoration, and showers and steam rooms. Substrate flatness, bond-coat coverage, movement joints and the difference between a wet area and a merely damp one all live here, and so do the finish heights the inspector measures. In a dwelling, CRC R327.2 requires the nonabsorbent surface above a bathtub with a shower head, and in a shower compartment, to reach not less than 6 feet above the floor. In commercial work the 2025 California Building Code section 1210.2.4 asks for a smooth, nonabsorbent finish not less than 72 inches above the drain inlet — the low point of a sloped pan, not the curb and not the room floor. Same idea, two different datums; exam questions like that gap. Tile setters also carry the ANSI numbers R702.4.1 references — A108 for installation, A118 for materials, A137.1 for the tile itself.
Specialty tile installation, stone slab and countertop installation, and accessories. Large-format and thin porcelain panels behave nothing like a 6-inch wall tile; a stone slab is cut, supported and set rather than laid; and every accessory is a hole in a surface that is supposed to keep water out. The California Building Code treats them as exactly that: section 1210.2.2 requires accessories such as grab bars, towel bars, paper dispensers and soap dishes provided on or within walls to be installed and sealed to protect structural elements from moisture, and it takes walls within 2 feet of service sinks, urinals and water closets to a smooth, hard, nonabsorbent 4 feet above the floor. Section 1210.2.1 adds the base: where a tile floor meets the wall in other than dwelling units, a smooth, hard, nonabsorbent vertical base extends not less than 4 inches up the wall.
Personnel safety and job site safety — as heavy as planning, and the questions are specific. Cutting tile, stone and backer board makes respirable crystalline silica, so Cal/OSHA's Title 8 section 1532.3 is the one to know cold. Its Table 1 pairs each task with a control and then tells you whether a respirator is still required: a stationary masonry saw with an integrated water delivery system that continuously feeds the blade needs none at any duration, while the same water-fed handheld saw used indoors or in an enclosed area needs an APF 10 respirator no matter how long the task runs. Off the table you are into the numbers, where the permissible exposure limit is 50 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour time-weighted average. Cleanup is regulated too — no dry sweeping or dry brushing where wet sweeping or HEPA-filtered vacuuming is feasible, and no compressed air to clean clothing or surfaces except under the narrow conditions the section allows — and medical surveillance must be offered to any employee required to wear a respirator 30 or more days a year.
You take the C-54 exam on a computer at a PSI testing center. CSLB's official Ceramic and Mosaic Tile (C-54) study guide states the test policy: closed book, no reference materials during the exam, multiple choice with four choices per question and one BEST answer, some questions requiring computation with a calculator provided, and no penalty for guessing. CSLB's Examinations FAQ gives you 3½ hours to complete each examination; candidates who fail may retake after 21 calendar days, inside the 18-month window that starts when the application is accepted. C-54 is one of the ten exams with an official Spanish version, chosen when you schedule with PSI. CSLB does not publish a question count or a passing score for the trade exams, so treat any site quoting one as guessing. Most first-time applicants also sit the CSLB Law and Business exam.
The full LICENA C-54 course is 500 questions across five blocks that follow the five official sections. At 30 questions a day that is about three weeks: one pass to find out what you do not know, a second pass on the sections you missed, then the timed final. Weight your time the way the exam does — installation and repairs alone is a third of it, and together with preparation it is nearly half. Do the estimating math on paper with a calculator, the way you will on test day. Read the explanation on every question you get wrong, because the exam rewords facts and memorizing answer letters buys you nothing. If your work starts at the slab, the free C-8 concrete practice test covers the substrate side. Pair all of it with CSLB's free official study guide, and treat any resource promising a guaranteed pass as a red flag.
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