Driving at night — California Permit Test

Driving at night on the California permit test — 6 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.

The rules

When driving at night, use your high-beam headlights on open country roads or dark city streets, and make sure you can stop in the distance lit by your headlights.

If you cannot stop inside the beam, you are driving into a piece of road you have not seen.

Make sure you can stop in the distance lit by your headlights.

California Driver’s Handbook, p.59

Dim your high-beam headlights to avoid blinding the driver of an oncoming vehicle, and do not use high beams where they are illegal.

A blinded driver keeps coming at the same speed with no idea where the lane is.

Dim your high-beam headlights to avoid blinding the driver of an oncoming vehicle.

California Driver’s Handbook, p.59

If another vehicle’s lights are too bright, look toward the right edge of your lane and watch the oncoming vehicle out of the corner of your eye.

The right edge keeps you in your lane while your eyes stay out of the glare.

Do not look directly into the oncoming headlights.

California Driver’s Handbook, p.59

Do not react to a driver with bright lights by keeping your own high beams on, because it only makes it harder for both of you to see.

Two blinded drivers on the same stretch of road is worse than one.

Do not react to the other driver by keeping your high-beam headlights on.

California Driver’s Handbook, p.59

When you leave a brightly lit place at night, drive slowly until your eyes adjust to the darkness.

Coming out of a lit parking lot, your eyes take a while to find the dark road.

When you leave a brightly lit place, drive slowly until your eyes adjust to the darkness.

California Driver’s Handbook, p.59

When a vehicle with one light drives toward you at night, drive as far to the right as possible, because it could be a bicyclist, motorcyclist or a vehicle with a missing headlight.

One light could be half of a car, and the missing half is on the side you cannot see.

When a vehicle with one light drives toward you, drive as far to the right as possible.

California Driver’s Handbook, p.59

On the test

How fast should you drive at night?

Slow enough to stop inside your headlight beam. If you cannot stop inside the beam, you are driving into a piece of road you have not seen. California Driver’s Handbook, p.59: “Make sure you can stop in the distance lit by your headlights.”

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

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Where these come from

Every rule here is checked against California Driver’s Handbook, published by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-21.