Headlights — Texas Permit Test
Headlights on the Texas permit test — 8 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
A driver must use headlights beginning 30 minutes after sunset and ending 30 minutes before sunrise.
The half hour either side of the sun is when the light is worst and drivers least expect it. The rule is a clock, not a judgment.
You must use your headlights beginning 30 minutes after sunset and ending 30 minutes before sunrise, or anytime when individuals or vehicles cannot be seen clearly for at least 1,000 feet
A driver must also use headlights any time people or vehicles cannot be seen clearly for at least 1,000 feet.
Fog and heavy rain make the clock useless. The distance test is what covers the middle of a dark afternoon.
or vehicles cannot be seen clearly for at least 1,000 feet
A driver uses low beam headlights within 500 feet of an approaching vehicle.
High beams at that distance put the oncoming driver in the dark for several seconds. Those are the seconds they need.
Use your low beam headlights when: 1. Within 500 feet of an approaching vehicle
A driver uses low beam headlights when following closely within 300 feet behind another vehicle.
High beams fill the mirrors of the car ahead. The driver you are dazzling is the one you are closest to.
Use your low beam headlights when: 1. Within 500 feet of an approaching vehicle 2. Following closely (within 300 feet) behind another vehicle
A driver uses low beam headlights when driving in fog, heavy rain, sleet, snow, or dust.
High beams bounce off the water in the air and come straight back. The low beam puts light under it.
Use your low beam headlights when: 1. Within 500 feet of an approaching vehicle 2. Following closely (within 300 feet) behind another vehicle 3. Driving on lighted roads 4. Driving in fog, heavy rain, sleet, snow, or dust
A driver uses low beam headlights when driving on lighted roads.
Street lights already show the road, and high beams only add glare for everybody else.
Use your low beam headlights when: 1. Within 500 feet of an approaching vehicle 2. Following closely (within 300 feet) behind another vehicle 3. Driving on lighted roads
A driver avoids looking directly into the headlights of approaching vehicles and shifts their eyes down to the lower right side of their traffic lane.
Looking at the lights leaves the eyes useless for several seconds afterwards. The lane edge gives something to steer by.
Avoid looking directly into the headlights of approaching vehicles; shift your eyes down to the lower right side of your traffic lane
A driver who must park on an unlighted highway at night leaves the parking lights or low beam headlights on.
An unlit car parked on a dark road is not there until it is. Leaving something on is what makes it visible.
Use your low beam headlights when: 1. Within 500 feet of an approaching vehicle 2. Following closely (within 300 feet) behind another vehicle 3. Driving on lighted roads 4. Driving in fog, heavy rain, sleet, snow, or dust If you must park on an unlighted highway at night, leave your parking lights or low beam headlights on
On the test
When must a Texas driver switch on the headlights?
From 30 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise. The half hour either side of the sun is when the light is worst and drivers least expect it. The rule is a clock, not a judgment. Texas Driver Handbook, p.47: “You must use your headlights beginning 30 minutes after sunset and ending 30 minutes before sunrise, or anytime when individuals or vehicles cannot be seen clearly for at least 1,000 feet”
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 Texas Driver Handbook, published by the Texas Department of Public Safety, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-16.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/TX.pdf (Texas Driver Handbook, form DL-7, Revised January 2026, Texas Department of Public Safety, retrieved 2026-09-14 from dps.texas.gov)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/TX.pages.txt (plain pdftotext over that PDF; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/SOURCES.json (sha256, folio offset 6, nonLawPages, the four extraction traps and the extraction flag, each with its measured basis)
- docs/plans/texas-exam-shape.md (the search that established that no official source states the question count, and the two decoys it disposes of)