Optional equipment — Texas Permit Test
Optional equipment on the Texas permit test — 4 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
A spotlight must be turned off for a vehicle approaching from the opposite direction.
A spotlight in the face of oncoming traffic blinds the person who most needs to see. Switching it off is the whole rule.
Spotlights must be turned off for a vehicle approaching from the opposite direction
Backup lights must not be used when the vehicle is in forward motion.
White light at the back of a moving car tells the driver behind it is reversing. Leaving them on sends that message by mistake.
Two backup lights are permitted separately or in combination with other lights. Do not use when vehicle is in forward motion
A motor vehicle may have up to three additional driving lights mounted on the front, not less than 12 inches and not more than 42 inches above the road.
Extra lights aimed too high shine into other drivers' eyes. The height band keeps them on the road where they belong.
Any motor vehicle may have up to three additional driving lights mounted on the front, not less than 12 inches but not more than 42 inches from the road surface
If the headlights fail, a spotlight may be used with the beam striking the road not more than 50 feet in front of the vehicle.
It is a way home, not a substitute for headlights. Keeping the beam short stops it blinding everyone else.
If headlights fail, it may be used with the beam striking the road not more than 50 feet in front of the vehicle on which it is used.
On the test
When must a Texas spotlight be turned off?
For a vehicle approaching from the opposite direction. A spotlight in the face of oncoming traffic blinds the person who most needs to see. Switching it off is the whole rule. Texas Driver Handbook, p.16: “Spotlights must be turned off for a vehicle approaching from the opposite direction”
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)