Passing another vehicle — California Permit Test
Passing another vehicle on the California permit test — 6 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
To pass safely, a hill or curve ahead should be at least one-third of a mile away.
Over a rise or round a bend you cannot see the car that is already coming at you.
To safely pass, the hill or curve should be at least one-third of a mile ahead.
Do not pass within 100 feet of an intersection, bridge, tunnel, railroad crossing or other hazardous area.
Those are the places where something can come out at you with nowhere for either of you to go.
Within 100 feet of an intersection, bridge, tunnel, railroad crossing, or other hazardous area.
Do not pass at crossroads and driveways.
A car pulling out of a driveway looks for one line of traffic, not for a second car beside it.
At crossroads and driveways.
Do not pass unless you have enough space to return to your own lane.
The pass is not finished until you are back, and the space to come back has to exist first.
Unless you have enough space to return to your lane.
Do not pass if you are approaching a hill or curve and cannot see whether other traffic is coming, which is very dangerous on roads with one or two lanes.
On a two-lane road the space you pass into is the space an oncoming car is using.
If you are approaching a hill or curve and cannot see if other traffic is approaching.
Before you pass, look ahead for road conditions that may cause other vehicles to move into your lane.
A parked truck or a pothole ahead will pull the car you are passing straight across in front of you.
Before you pass, look ahead for road conditions that may cause other vehicles to move into your lane.
On the test
How far ahead should a hill or curve be before you pass?
One-third of a mile. Over a rise or round a bend you cannot see the car that is already coming at you. California Driver’s Handbook, p.24: “To safely pass, the hill or curve should be at least one-third of a mile ahead.”
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 California Driver’s Handbook, published by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-21.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/CA.pdf (California Driver’s Handbook, DL 600 ENGLISH (REV. 6/2025), retrieved 2026-09-14; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/CA.pages.txt (the pdftotext -layout fixture every citation here was cut against and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/SOURCES.json, CA entry — the folio offset of 6 and its basis, the three non-law pages, the two sign gallery pages, and the record of why California’s exam shape is this app’s own
- docs/plans/chosen-exam-shapes.md section 5 — the decision that a state publishing neither exam figure ships 40/32 with both disclosed
- docs/plans/how-to-build-laws.md — the rule that the handbook is the syllabus and nothing enters this file without a page in it