Texting while driving — North Dakota Permit Test
Texting while driving on the North Dakota permit test — 4 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
In North Dakota, it is not legal for anyone to text while driving, that is, to compose, read or send an electronic message.
Eyes on a phone for a few seconds means driving blind for the length of a football field.
It is not legal for anyone to text (composing, reading, or sending an electronic message) while driving or fail to maintain control of a motor vehicle due to activity that is not necessary to the operation of the vehicle and actually impairs, or would reasonably be expected to impair, the ability of the individual to safely operate the vehicle.
Under North Dakota's texting law, texting means composing, reading or sending an electronic message while driving.
Reading a message takes your eyes off the road as much as writing one, so the law covers both.
It is not legal for anyone to text (composing, reading, or sending an electronic message) while driving or fail to maintain control of a motor vehicle due to activity that is not necessary to the operation of the vehicle and actually impairs, or would reasonably be expected to impair, the ability of the individual to safely operate the vehicle.
It is also illegal to fail to maintain control of a vehicle because of an activity that is not necessary to driving and impairs your ability to drive safely.
Eating, grooming or fiddling with gear can pull your attention just like a phone.
It is not legal for anyone to text (composing, reading, or sending an electronic message) while driving or fail to maintain control of a motor vehicle due to activity that is not necessary to the operation of the vehicle and actually impairs, or would reasonably be expected to impair, the ability of the individual to safely operate the vehicle.
In North Dakota, the penalty for texting while driving is a $100 fine.
A fine gives drivers a reason to put the phone away before it causes a crash.
The penalty is a $100 fine.
On the test
Who may not text while driving in North Dakota?
Any driver, of any age. Eyes on a phone for a few seconds means driving blind for the length of a football field. North Dakota Noncommercial Driver License Manual, p.30: “It is not legal for anyone to text (composing, reading, or sending an electronic message) while driving or fail to maintain control of a motor vehicle due to activity that is not necessary to the operation of the vehicle and actually impairs, or would reasonably be expected to impair, the ability of the individual to safely operate the vehicle.”
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.
All North Dakota permit topics
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against North Dakota Noncommercial Driver License Manual, published by the North Dakota Department of Transportation, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-04.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/ND.pdf (North Dakota Noncommercial Driver License Manual, 2025-2027, Revised 2025, North Dakota Department of Transportation, retrieved 2026-09-14 and re-checked 2026-10-04; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/ND.pages.txt (the plain pdftotext fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- https://www.dot.nd.gov/driver/noncommercial-driver-license-manual (read 2026-10-04; links the manual)
- https://www.dot.nd.gov/driver/driver-license (read 2026-10-04; states no count or mark for the Class D knowledge test)
- https://ndlegis.gov/information/acdata/pdf/37-03-01.pdf (N.D. Admin. Code chapter 37-03-01 and the rest of article 37-03, read 2026-10-04; states no knowledge-test figure)
- https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t39c06.pdf (NDCC chapter 39-06, read 2026-10-04; section 39-06-13 sets what the examination covers and states no figure)