The North Carolina Building Contractor Examination is the gate between you and a Building classification license from the North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors. It is administered by PSI at computer-based test centers, it is open book, and it mixes trade knowledge with North Carolina business, licensing, tax, labor, lien, and regulatory law. This post walks through the full format, the content areas, what you can bring, and what it costs.
The exam at a glance
- 90 questions. All scored questions count the same.
- 70 percent to pass. That is 63 correct out of 90.
- 200 minutes. That works out to about 2 minutes and 13 seconds per question.
- Open book. You bring the allowed references (18 of them) into the test center.
- $79 exam fee. Per attempt, first or retake, nonrefundable and nontransferable. Some older prep sites still quote $130; the current PSI bulletin says $79, and the bulletin controls.
- PSI bulletin revised 2025-11-19 governs the current rules. Fees, editions, and procedures can change, so verify against the current bulletin before you schedule.
This is an independent study aid, not affiliated with the North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors, PSI, or NASCLA. Always check the current PSI Candidate Information Bulletin for the exact rules at your test center.
How you get to the exam
You do not just walk in and sit down. First, the Board determines your eligibility. Once you are approved, you get an Eligibility Letter that is valid for 120 days for one attempt. You schedule through PSI after that determination.
If you fail, the bulletin sets no waiting period, and you may retake without limit within a 12-month period while your application stays valid. Cancel at least 2 days ahead or you forfeit the $79 fee. One small warning from the statutes: the Board may require a brand-new application if a qualifier takes the examination a third or subsequent time (G.S. 87-10(d1)), so do not treat attempts as free.
PSI may add 5 to 10 unscored experimental questions to your exam; they do not count against your time. You get a score report at the test center immediately after testing, and candidates who fail get a 30-minute missed-item review.
The 15 content areas
The official outline divides the 90 questions like this:
Trade knowledge: Site Work (6), Concrete (13), Masonry (6), Metals (12), Carpentry (7), Roofing (6), Associated Trades (3), Estimating/Plan Reading/General Building Code Requirements (14), and Sports Fields (5). The estimating/code area is the single largest block on the test at 14 questions.
Business and regulatory: Business and Law (7), Licensing (2), Liens (1), One Call (2), Erosion and Sedimentation Control (2), and Safety (4). That is 18 questions where North Carolina law, not craft skill, is the test. Our full breakdown of the NC contractor license classifications covers the Building, Residential, Highway, Public Utilities, Specialty, and Unclassified categories the licensing questions test.
Open book: what that really means
Open book does not mean easy. It means the exam tests whether you can find the right rule in the right book under time pressure. The allowed reference list runs to 18 titles, including the NASCLA Contractor's Guide to Business, Law and Project Management, North Carolina General Contractors Edition, 10th Edition (the business and law reference; it is not the national 4th edition), the NC State Building Code 2018, ACI 318 and ACI 530, the NC OSHA Standards for Construction, the NC Excavation Safety Guidelines (2022 or later), the NCLBGC Laws and Regulations booklet, and several trade texts. The SJI Technical Digest No. 9 is explicitly NOT allowed. Code questions are tested from the listed editions only; if your copy is a different edition, the tables will not match.
The marking rules are strict and worth learning verbatim:
- Permanent tabs only. Adhesive Post-It style flags are banned.
- Highlighting, underlining, and indexing before the exam are allowed.
- No writing in the books during the exam.
- A silent, nonprinting, nonprogrammable calculator is allowed.
The strategy that wins is a tabbing map: permanent tabs on each NASCLA chapter for the law questions and on the tables of contents, indexes, and key tables of every trade reference, all placed before exam day. Our open-book strategy guide walks through the full system.
A note on the separate Business and Law exam
One important caveat. The same PSI bulletin also lists a separate 40-question Business and Law exam (40 questions, 70 percent or 28 correct to pass, 90 minutes, open book, with the NASCLA guide as its only allowed reference). Who must take it is not confirmed from primary sources: one secondary source says only NASCLA-route candidates take it, while Board rule 21 NCAC 12A .0403 (one examination per classification) points the other way. Do not assume it applies to you, and do not assume it does not. On the standard Building path, business and law content is embedded in the 90-question Building exam itself (7 Business and Law plus 2 Licensing plus 1 Liens), and the Board is the authority on whether you need the separate exam.
What to bring on exam day
- All 18 allowed references, tabbed, highlighted, and indexed before you arrive.
- A silent, nonprinting, nonprogrammable calculator.
- Acceptable identification as listed in the PSI bulletin.
- Your confirmation and the exam fee payment as instructed.
Do not bring other books, notes, or loose summary sheets. Arrive early enough to check in without rushing.
The numbers worth drilling
Open-book exams still reward people who know the key figures cold, because every number you have memorized is a lookup you skip:
- 63 of 90: the passing score (70 percent).
- 200 minutes: the time limit, about 2:13 per question.
- $79: the exam fee.
- 120 days: Eligibility Letter validity, one attempt.
- 12 months: the retake window while your application stays valid.
- 2 days: cancel-ahead deadline or you forfeit the fee.
- $40,000: the licensing threshold, the lien-agent trigger, and the permit-verification line. The old $30,000 figure is a dead distractor on several questions.
When you work practice questions, notice how many turn on a single figure. That pattern is the exam.
Try the free practice quiz
Want to see where you stand right now? Take the free 12-question North Carolina Building Contractor practice quiz. You will get your score with explanations for every answer, so you can see exactly which topics need work. Start the free quiz