DMV ChampIllinois · Illinois Secretary of State
The Illinois written exam has 35 multiple-choice questions, and you need 28 correct answers to pass. DMV Champ teaches every question with its explanation, then checks you with 5 simulated exams in exactly that format.
35
questions
28
correct to pass
80%
passing score
None
time limit
The number of questions and the passing score are confirmed by 92 Ill. Adm. Code 1030.80. Check the current Illinois handbook before your exam.
Illinois’s exam is a middle-length one: 31 jurisdictions ask fewer questions and 17 ask more. You need 80% to pass, which means you can miss 7 questions and still get your permit. There is no time limit, so read every question twice.
The exam is given by the Secretary of State (Illinois Secretary of State). Its questions come from the official Illinois driver’s handbook, which is also where every DMV Champ question is checked.
The Illinois Rules of the Road calls it the written exam, so that is the phrase you’ll see at the counter and on the agency’s site. Passing it is how you get an instruction permit, which you can apply for from age 15 in Illinois. If you fail, the rule on retaking is: three attempts within one year of paying the application fee.
36 topics in Illinois: the 34 every state tests, plus winter driving and flooding, because the Illinois handbook teaches them.
Exam simulator
Pick Illinois once in the app and every simulated exam uses these figures. Nothing is revealed mid-exam, and each attempt is graded against the 28-correct passing score at the end. Retake an exam as often as you like, reordered each time.
What you study
Signs and signals, road rules, safe driving and driving laws. The topics come from the AAMVA guidelines every state builds its exam on, checked against the Illinois handbook. Each is a short group of questions you can get through in a few minutes, and every answer is explained the moment you check it.
No chapters to read first. Every practice question carries its answer and the reasoning, so a wrong answer is how the next thing is taught.
A question you get wrong returns until you get it right. Once you’ve answered every new question and corrected every mistake, you’ve finished the learning phase.
The score you’d likely get on the Illinois exam today, with the 28-correct passing score marked on it and a 14-day trend.
Illinois questions
35. The Illinois written exam has 35 multiple-choice questions, and you need 28 correct answers (80%) to pass.
7. With 35 questions and 28 needed to pass, you can get 7 wrong and still pass.
No. Illinois does not put a time limit on the written exam. Only 8 jurisdictions do.
15. In Illinois the first permit is called an instruction permit, and the handbook sets 15 as the youngest age for it. The written exam is part of getting one.
From the official Illinois driver’s handbook, which is what the Secretary of State writes its test from. Every DMV Champ question is checked against it and explained the moment you answer.
A few questions a day is enough. Not in Illinois?