Regulatory signs — California Permit Test
Regulatory signs on the California permit test — 8 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
At this sign you make a full stop before entering the crosswalk or at the limit line, and check traffic in all directions before proceeding.
The stop is what buys you the look, and the look is the only thing that keeps the intersection safe.
Make a full stop before entering the crosswalk or at the limit line.
At this sign, slow down and be ready to stop to let any vehicle, bicyclist or pedestrian pass before you proceed.
It asks you to give up your turn, which costs seconds and saves the collision at the merge.
Slow down and be ready to stop to let any vehicle, bicyclist, or pedestrian pass before you proceed.
This sign means do not enter the road or ramp where it is posted.
It is usually facing you because the road behind it runs the other way.
Follow the sign’s instruction. For example, DO NOT ENTER DO NOT means do not enter the road or ramp where the sign is posted.
This sign is posted when you have entered a roadway against traffic, and when it is safe you should back out or turn around.
Every car on that road is coming at you, and none of them expects to meet anybody.
If you enter a roadway against traffic, DO NOT ENTER and WRONG WAY WRONG WAY signs may be posted.
On this kind of sign the picture inside the circle shows what you cannot do, and it may be shown with words as well.
The picture is the rule, so reading the drawing is the whole of understanding the sign.
The picture inside the circle shows what you cannot do and may be shown with words.
A rectangular sign of this kind communicates important rules you must obey.
It is not a warning about the road. It is an instruction with the force of law behind it.
Communicates many important rules you must obey.
Where this sign is posted you may not turn right at a stopped signal, even after coming to a complete stop.
The turn is usually allowed after a stop, and this sign is the state taking that back at one place.
You can turn right at a red light, if:
Where this sign is posted you may not turn your vehicle around to go back the way you came.
The turn crosses every lane at once, and here there is not enough room or sight to do it.
At an intersection on a green traffic light or green arrow, unless a NO U-TURN sign is posted.
On the test
What must you do at this sign?
Make a full stop and check all directions. The stop is what buys you the look, and the look is the only thing that keeps the intersection safe. California Driver’s Handbook, p.35: “Make a full stop before entering the crosswalk or at the limit line.”
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