Roundabouts — Virginia Permit Test
Roundabouts on the Virginia permit test — 5 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
A roundabout is a circular intersection with an island in the middle. Traffic entering must yield to people crossing and to traffic already in the circle.
Everyone in the circle is committed and cannot stop, so all of the yielding has to happen before you enter it.
After entering a roundabout, drive counterclockwise around the island.
Going the other way puts you head-on into every car entering, which is why the direction is fixed rather than chosen.
Choose your lane before you enter a roundabout. Stay right to turn right, stay left to turn left, and use either lane to go straight where there are two.
Changing lanes inside the circle crosses the path of a car that is already committed to its exit.
Use your right turn signal inside a roundabout to show which exit you are taking, and stay in your lane until you are ready to leave.
Drivers waiting to enter read your signal to decide whether they have a gap, so the signal is doing work for somebody else.
Each road approaching a roundabout is marked with a yield sign and may also have a yield line painted on the pavement.
The sign is what makes the yield a rule rather than a courtesy, and the painted line shows where the view actually opens up.
On the test
Who must a driver entering a roundabout yield to?
Walkers and traffic already in it. Everyone in the circle is committed and cannot stop, so all of the yielding has to happen before you enter it.
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 Virginia Driver’s Manual, published by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-02.
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/licenses-ids/exams/know-exam
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/sites/default/files/forms/dmv39.pdf
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/sites/default/files/documents/dmv39i.pdf
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/licenses-ids/learners/apply
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/licenses-ids/learners/restrictions
- https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/section46.2-870/
- https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/section46.2-873/
- https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/section46.2-874/
- https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/section46.2-862/