When to use headlights — Minnesota Permit Test

When to use headlights on the Minnesota permit test — 4 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.

The rules

Turn your headlights on at sunset and keep them on until sunrise.

Sunset is well before it looks dark to the person driving. Everyone else sees you sooner than you see yourself.

Turn on your headlights at sunset and keep them on until sunrise.

Minnesota Driver’s Manual, p.23

Use your headlights during rain, snow, hail, sleet or fog.

Falling water scatters light and hides a gray car completely. The lights are there to be seen, not to see by.

Use them during rain, snow, hail, sleet, fog or any time you cannot see the road ahead for at least 500 feet.

Minnesota Driver’s Manual, p.23

Use your headlights any time you cannot see the road ahead for at least 500 feet.

Five hundred feet is about the distance you need to spot trouble and do something about it.

any time you cannot see the road ahead for at least 500 feet

Minnesota Driver’s Manual, p.23

A white light must light the rear license plate so it can be read at night.

The plate is how a car is identified after a hit-and-run. Unlit, it is a blank rectangle.

A white light must illuminate the rear license plate so it is visible at night.

Minnesota Driver’s Manual, p.23

On the test

When must Minnesota headlights be turned on?

At sunset, until sunrise. Sunset is well before it looks dark to the person driving. Everyone else sees you sooner than you see yourself. Minnesota Driver’s Manual, p.23: “Turn on your headlights at sunset and keep them on until sunrise.”

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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  • 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.

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Where these come from

Every rule here is checked against Minnesota Driver’s Manual, published by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-22.