Required equipment lights — Alaska Permit Test
Required equipment lights on the Alaska permit test — 3 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Alaska requires at least two headlights on a vehicle, one on each side of the front.
A light at each edge shows other drivers how wide your car is, so they do not misjudge where it ends.
Headlights. At least two, one on each side on the front.
An Alaska vehicle must have at least two red taillights on the rear, and both must be working.
With one taillight out, a car can look like a motorcycle at night, and drivers behind misjudge its size and place.
Taillights. At least two red lights on the rear. (Both must be working).
Alaska requires two brake lights, which must light only when the foot brake is applied, and both must work.
Drivers behind read a brake light as a sign you are slowing now, so a light that glows at other times hides a real stop.
Brake lights. Two which shall only work when foot brake is applied.
On the test
Where must a vehicle's required headlights be placed in Alaska?
One on each side of the front. A light at each edge shows other drivers how wide your car is, so they do not misjudge where it ends. Alaska Driver Manual, p.80: “Headlights. At least two, one on each side on the front.”
How this works
Most practice tests hand you a bank of questions and leave the manual somewhere else. This one puts them together.
You read one law and the reason behind it, then answer a question on that law while it is still fresh. Get it right and you move on; get it wrong and you have found the gap while it is cheap to fix, not on the morning of the exam.
Learning one rule at a time, and proving it immediately, is what turns a manual you skimmed into something you actually know — and it makes studying feel like getting somewhere rather than like waiting to find out.
What it costs
- One payment, once — not a subscription. Nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel, for an exam you sit one time.
- Free to start: a 10-question test and the first section of cards. No sign-up and no account.
- Paying opens the rest of the cards, unlimited full-length practice tests, and retests built from exactly the questions you got wrong.
- Every level up to Prepared — 3 tests passed in a row.
- Do the work, fail the real exam, and we refund you.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Alaska Driver Manual, published by the Alaska Department of Administration, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-04.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/AK.pdf (Alaska Driver Manual, REV.10/2025, Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles, retrieved 2026-09-14 and re-checked 2026-10-04; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/AK.pages.txt (the plain pdftotext fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- https://dmv.alaska.gov/credential-services/drivermanual/ (read 2026-10-04; links the manual)
- https://dmv.alaska.gov/credential-services/instruction-permit/ (read 2026-10-04; states no count or mark)
- https://dmv.alaska.gov/credential-services/your-first-alaska-drivers-license/ (read 2026-10-04; states no count or mark)
- https://www.akleg.gov/basis/aac.asp?media=print&secStart=2.90.010&secEnd=2.90.990 (2 AAC 90, read 2026-10-04; 2 AAC 90.420(h)(2) sets the knowledge test's retest wait and no figure)