Restrictions — Maryland Permit Test
Restrictions on the Maryland permit test — 5 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
A provisional license holder under 18 may not drive unsupervised with passengers under 18 for the first 151 days, unless they are immediate family.
Passengers are the loudest distraction a new driver has, and the count is capped for that reason.
A provisional license holder may drive unsupervised between midnight and five in the morning only for a job, an organized volunteer program, an official school activity, or an athletic event or training session they are taking part in.
Those are the hours when a new driver is most tired and least likely to be seen.
If you hold a provisional license or a learner's permit you may not use any wireless communication device while driving, including a hands-free phone.
The restriction follows the license rather than the age, so it lasts until the license is full.
A provisional license holder must always use a safety belt, and all passengers must use safety belts or child safety seats.
For everybody else the belt is the law; for a provisional driver it is also a condition of keeping the license.
A second moving violation for a provisional driver under 18 is followed by a 90-day restriction limiting driving to work and education.
The restriction outlasts the suspension, so the cost is months rather than weeks.
On the test
For how long may a provisional license holder under 18 not carry unrelated passengers under 18?
The first 151 days. Passengers are the loudest distraction a new driver has, and the count is capped for that reason.
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.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Maryland Driver's Manual, published by the Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-06.