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Around 100 to 150, split national and state — and whether the two are scored separately matters more than the count.
Most real estate licence exams total somewhere between a hundred and a hundred and fifty questions, split into a national portion of commonly around eighty questions and a state-specific portion of commonly thirty to fifty, depending on the state. The exact count is set individually by each state, so treat that as the common pattern rather than a guarantee for your state.
There is no single national answer because real estate licensing is regulated at state level rather than federally. Each state's real estate commission sets its own exam requirements and contracts with a testing vendor to administer it, which means the number of questions, the split between national and state content, the time limit and the passing score are all decided independently. There is no single real estate exam the way there is one standardised admissions test nationwide. That said, most states converge on a similar shape, because most license testing to the same handful of vendors, who build exams around a broadly standard national content outline with a state-law layer on top.
Within that pattern, the national portion commonly runs around eighty questions, the state portion commonly thirty to fifty, and the combined total commonly a hundred to a hundred and fifty. But the variation underneath those ranges is the part worth understanding. Some states run a noticeably larger national section, approaching a hundred questions on its own, with a comparatively small state layer. Others keep the national portion at the common eighty and add a heavier state component. The consequence is that two states can land on a similar total while splitting national against state content very differently, so do not assume your state matches a number you saw quoted for a different one. Any specific per-state figure you find online, including in prep-provider roundups, is worth confirming against the primary source before you plan around it.
Whether the two sections are scored separately also varies, and this one matters more than the raw count. Some states require you to pass the national and state portions independently, which means you can fail overall by missing the bar on just one section even with a strong score on the other. Other states combine both into a single overall score. That distinction should shape how you study: if your state scores the sections independently, doing well nationally cannot compensate for a weak state-law score, so you cannot afford to under-prepare either half.
Confirm your state's exact structure by checking your real estate commission's candidate handbook, or the testing vendor's site for your state. These handbooks are free, official and specific to your state's current question count, time limit and scoring rules, which makes them the single best source of truth before you register. Searching for your state's name alongside real estate exam candidate handbook usually finds the document directly.
Time limits generally scale with question count, most commonly landing around a minute and a half to two minutes per question, with three hours being a common allowance for an exam in the hundred-to-a-hundred-and-fifty range. Broker exams, when tested separately from salesperson exams, often run longer, since they cover additional material. Knowing your state's actual per-question time budget matters for practice: if you are consistently running out of time on timed mocks built to a generic pattern but your state's exam is shorter or longer, adjust your practice timer to match your state's real limit rather than an average.
Once you know or can estimate your state's actual question count and time limit, build practice sessions that match it rather than defaulting to a generic hundred-question quiz. A mock that is shorter than your real exam will not build the stamina you need for hour two or three, which is when careless errors tend to spike. The topics that populate both sections almost everywhere are property law, contracts, financing, agency, fair housing and maths, so a topic-organised bank lets you drill the specific categories rather than grinding a single mixed pool. CoStudy's real estate question bank is organised that way, and the first ten questions are free with no signup if you want to check the question style before committing.
A few questions come up repeatedly. On the national portion, it commonly runs around eighty questions, though some states run a larger national section approaching a hundred. On the state portion, commonly thirty to fifty depending on the state. On whether all states have both, most do, since most license testing through vendors that build exams on a national content outline plus a state-law layer, though a small number structure things differently, so confirm with your own commission. On how many you need right to pass, that depends on your state's passing score, commonly seventy to seventy-five per cent, and the total count: on a hundred-and-fifty-question exam at seventy per cent you would need around a hundred and five correct. And on whether the broker exam differs, often yes, since broker exams frequently cover additional content such as brokerage management, trust accounts and supervision, and may carry a different question count and a longer time limit than the salesperson exam in the same state.
CoStudy is a study tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by any state real estate commission or testing vendor. Exam format and question counts vary by state and change over time, so confirm current specifics with your state real estate commission before registering.
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