NASCLA States: Who Accepts the Exam — and As What
The lists floating around count anywhere from 14 to 20 states because nobody re-reads the source, and they all flatten the part that matters: not every board accepts the exam as the same thing. Twenty boards are on the current list — 16 as a true trade-exam waiver, the rest as experience or training substitutes, and California with an out-of-state-only asterisk.
| Board | Accepted as | The fine print |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama — Home Builders Licensure Board | Waives the trade exam | Accepted as of March 2025 |
| Alabama — Licensing Board for General Contractors | Waives the trade exam | — |
| Arizona — Registrar of Contractors | Waives the trade exam | For B-1 and B-2 commercial classifications; transcript must be under 2 years old |
| Arkansas — Contractors Licensing Board | Substitutes for experience | Taken in lieu of documenting experience on the application — not a trade-exam waiver |
| California — CSLB | Restricted acceptance | Out-of-state applicants only (licensed 5+ years in good standing elsewhere); California residents still take the CA B trade exam |
| Florida — Construction Industry Licensing Board | Waives the trade exam | Florida Business/Finance AND Florida Building Code portions still required on top |
| Georgia — Board for Residential and General Contractors | Waives the trade exam | — |
| Louisiana — State Licensing Board for Contractors | Waives the trade exam | — |
| Mississippi — State Board of Contractors | Waives the trade exam | — |
| Nevada — State Contractors Board | Waives the trade exam | — |
| New Mexico — Construction Industries Division | Waives the trade exam | For the GB98 license; needs a letter showing 1+ year licensed in good standing elsewhere |
| North Carolina — Licensing Board for General Contractors | Waives the trade exam | Covers Commercial AND Residential building classifications; score must be under 2 years old |
| Oregon — Construction Contractors Board | Waives pre-license training | Waives the 16-hour pre-licensure training; Oregon has no trade exam to waive |
| South Carolina — Contractors' Licensing Board | Waives the trade exam | Score must be under 3 years old |
| South Carolina — Residential Builders Commission | Waives the trade exam | Via reciprocity with the SC Contractors' Licensing Board; 3-year score window |
| Tennessee — Board for Licensing Contractors | Waives the trade exam | Administering state since March 2021 |
| Utah — DOPL Construction Trades Bureau | Substitutes for experience | Utah has no trade exams; NASCLA meets the 2-year experience requirement instead |
| US Virgin Islands — DLCA | Waives the trade exam | — |
| Virginia — Board for Contractors (DPOR) | Waives the trade exam | Comparable to the Virginia Commercial Building classification |
| West Virginia — Contractors Licensing Board | Waives the trade exam | Scores before Sept 1, 2013 not accepted |
Source: nascla.org participating state agencies , each board's detail page read 2026-09-01. Every board still requires its own application and business & law exam — NASCLA replaces the trade exam only.
The exam, from the current bulletin
Questions
115 scored
+10 unscored pretest
Time
330 min
5½ hours, open book
To pass
81 correct
minimum passing score
Per attempt
$130
3 attempts per 1-year eligibility
Heaviest domains: Procurement & Contracting Requirements (31 questions) and General Requirements (25) — together nearly half the exam, and both live mostly in the NASCLA business/law guide rather than the technical texts.
All 24 books, and the tab rules
The test center provides nothing — what you carry in is what you have. Rules from the bulletin: highlighting and underlining allowed, no writing in the books, no loose papers, and permanent tabs only — Post-its get removed at the door.
- NASCLA Contractors Guide to Business, Law and Project Management (Basic 14th Ed.)
- International Building Code (2021 or 2024)
- OSHA 29 CFR Part 1926 (2023 Ed., or PSI OSHA Excerpts 2025)
- Principles and Practices of Commercial Construction (11th Ed., 2024)
- Construction Project Management (4th or 5th Ed.)
- Construction Jobsite Management (4th or 5th Ed.)
- Carpentry and Building Construction (2016)
- Mechanical and Electrical Systems for Construction Managers (4th Ed., 2024)
- ACI 318 — Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (318-14 or 318-19)
- The Contractor's Guide to Quality Concrete Construction (4th Ed.)
- Placing Reinforcing Bars (10th Ed., 2019+)
- Modern Masonry — Brick, Block, Stone (9th Ed., 2020)
- Gypsum Construction Handbook (7th Ed.)
- SDI Manual of Construction with Steel Deck (2016)
- Technical Digest No. 9 — Steel Joists and Joist Girders (3rd Ed.)
- Erectors' Manual — Pre-Cast Concrete (2nd Ed.)
- PTI — Unbonded Post-Tensioning Level 1 (3rd Ed.)
- BCSI — Metal Plate Connected Wood Trusses (2018/2020 or 2025)
- ICC A117.1-2017 — Accessible and Usable Buildings
- ANSI/EIMA 99-A-2017 — EIFS
- Roofing Construction and Estimating (1995, reprinted 2022)
- Pipe and Excavation Contracting (2011)
- Green Building Fundamentals (2nd Ed., 2011)
- EPA — Developing Your Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (2007)
The open-book exam is a speed-of-lookup exam
115 questions in 330 minutes across 24 references is under three minutes per answer, lookup included. The dashboard's NASCLA bank drills you question-by-question with the reference cited on every explanation, so exam day is the second time you hunt each answer down — not the first.
- NASCLA-aligned bank with per-domain accuracy (Procurement & Contracting is 31 of 115)
- Book-lookup trainer built for the tabbed-references workflow
- Free tier before you spend anything on top of $1,500 in books
Asked for a decade on Contractor Talk
Which states accept the NASCLA exam?
Twenty boards across 17 states plus the US Virgin Islands, as of the nascla.org list read September 2026 — but "accept" means different things. Most waive their commercial trade exam; Arkansas and Utah accept it as an experience substitute, Oregon as a training waiver, and California only from out-of-state applicants licensed 5+ years elsewhere. The table above keeps each board's actual terms.
Does NASCLA get me out of the business & law exam?
No — this is the mistake that costs people application cycles. NASCLA itself says it does not administer state business & law exams; the accredited exam replaces the TRADE exam only. Every participating state still runs you through its own business/law exam and full application process, and Florida additionally keeps its Building Code portion.
What is the NASCLA exam format?
115 scored questions (plus 10 unscored pretest items), 330 minutes, minimum passing score of 81, open book, $130 per attempt, with a maximum of 3 attempts inside your 1-year eligibility window — per the PSI bulletin updated July 2026. The heaviest content areas are Procurement & Contracting (31 questions) and General Requirements (25).
Do I really need all 24 reference books?
The bulletin lists 24 (plus a blueprint packet handed out on site), and the test center provides none of them — what you bring is what you have. In practice the business/law guide, the IBC, OSHA 1926 and the commercial-construction texts carry most questions, while several specialty standards exist for a handful each. Buying used and reselling after is standard practice; complete tabbed sets trade for $1,500–3,000 for a reason.
What are the tabbing and highlighting rules?
Permanent tabs only — Post-it-style temporary tabs must be removed before the exam starts. Highlighting and underlining are fine; writing in the books is not, and no loose or attached papers are allowed. Tab the code chapters and each book's index before exam day; the open-book exam is really a speed-of-lookup exam.
Is my NASCLA score good forever?
NASCLA itself keeps your transcript, but boards impose their own freshness windows: Arizona and North Carolina want scores under 2 years old, both South Carolina boards under 3, and West Virginia ignores anything before September 2013. If you plan to license in several states, sequence the applications before the clock runs.