CSLB Law & Business exam facts: what CSLB actually publishes

What CSLB does publish, quoted

CSLB is not silent about this exam — it is silent about two specific numbers. Everything below is quoted from a CSLB page or a CSLB PDF.

• “You will be informed at the test site about the percentage of correct answers needed to pass each examination.”

  — CSLB, “Studying for the Examination” · source

• “At the end of your examination, you'll be given a printed report showing whether you passed or failed.”

  — CSLB, Examinations FAQ · source

• “The failing score report will indicate the candidate's overall score, including the number of items answered correctly. The passing score report does not show the overall score.”

  — CSLB, Examinations FAQ · source

• “You will be given 3-1/2 hours to complete each examination.”

  — CSLB, Examinations FAQ · source

• “This is a closed-book examination. No reference materials may be used during the examination.”

  — CSLB, Law and Business Study Guide · source

• “This is a multiple-choice examination with four choices per question. Examination questions are written to provide only one BEST answer. Some questions require mathematical computation. A calculator will be provided.”

  — CSLB, Law and Business Study Guide · source

• “There is no penalty for guessing. If you are unsure about a particular question, it is better to answer the question than to leave the question blank.”

  — CSLB, Law and Business Study Guide · source

Note what is missing from all of it: a number of questions, and a percentage needed to pass. CSLB tells you the required percentage at the test site, and its score report only shows you a number if you fail.

The official content outline (this part CSLB does publish)

Transcribed from CSLB’s Law and Business Examination Study Guide (form 13E-LAW, revised 03-2026). CSLB prints the caveat “Percentages are approximate” directly beneath this list.

Source: CSLB — Law and Business Examination Study Guide (PDF, form 13E-LAW, rev. 03-2026)

What third-party sites claim — and how much they disagree

Because CSLB publishes neither number, everything you will read elsewhere is somebody’s estimate. Here is what five of them actually say, each attributed to whoever said it. Note that they contradict each other on both the question count and the passing score.

• Ultimate Electricians Guide says most versions of the exam contain “around 115 multiple-choice questions,” allows three and a half hours, and states you need “a minimum score of 65%” — “roughly 75 of the 115 questions.”

  Third-party claim, not a CSLB figure. Retrieved 2026-09-02.

• Contractors Licensing Schools says the threshold for trade exams “sits at approximately 67%, and the Law and Business exam requires a 72% to pass.” It gives no question count.

  Third-party claim, not a CSLB figure. Retrieved 2026-09-02.

• Trade Safe Insurance says “The CSLB law and business exam requires 70% (28 of 40 questions) to pass” — a 40-question exam, not a 115-question one.

  Third-party claim, not a CSLB figure. Retrieved 2026-09-02.

• Mometrix gives no California-specific numbers at all, only that contractor exams “generally” run “between 50 and 120 questions” with “at least 70%” needed, and that requirements “vary from state to state.”

  Third-party claim, not a CSLB figure. Retrieved 2026-09-02.

• California Contractors License Guru agrees with CSLB rather than with the other prep sites: “CSLB does not publish one universal question count or passing-score percentage that should be treated as the rule for every contractor examination,” and warns readers not to build a strategy around the older 115-question and 70%/72% claims.

  Third-party claim, not a CSLB figure. Retrieved 2026-09-02.

Three different passing scores and two different question counts, from five sites, none citing a CSLB document. That spread is the honest answer to “what is the passing score for the CSLB Law and Business exam” — nobody outside CSLB knows, and CSLB tells you on the day.

The one exam-performance number CSLB does publish: the pass rate

CSLB reports Law & Business examination results to the Legislature in its sunset review. Table 8 of CSLB’s 2024 Sunset Review Oversight Report gives four fiscal years of candidate counts and overall pass rates:

The same report states that CSLB conducted an occupational analysis for the Law and Business examination in August 2020 and targeted the next one for 2025 — so the content outline above can change, and the item pool with it.

Source: CSLB — 2024 Sunset Review Oversight Report (PDF), Table 8: Examination Data

What we could not verify, and did not print

A page like this is only worth anything if it is explicit about its gaps, so:

• •No CSLB document we could retrieve states a number of questions for the Law and Business exam. We searched CSLB's Examinations FAQ, its “Studying for the Examination” step page, the official Law and Business Study Guide PDF (13E-LAW, rev. 03-2026, read in full), PSI's CSLB candidate page, CSLB's 2024 Sunset Review Oversight Report (full-text searched), and the Legislature's CSLB sunset background paper. None of them gives a total.
• •No CSLB document we could retrieve states a passing percentage or a raw cut score. The same six sources were checked.
• •A specific historical item-count-and-cut-score figure circulates in forum posts and prep-site copy as though it came from a CSLB committee. We could not retrieve any CSLB document containing it, so we are not reprinting the numbers here — a precise-sounding figure with no retrievable source is worse than silence.
• •We have not confirmed whether the occupational analysis CSLB targeted for 2025 was completed, or whether it changed the content outline. Not checked.

Frequently asked questions