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50 free Driving Test trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
France made the world's first national driving test compulsory in 1899. Belgium let people buy a licence without one until 1977. Britain stopped testing for a year during the Suez Crisis, and its monarch is the only person in the country who has never needed a licence at all. Every country has quietly built its own rules about who may drive, at what age, with what letter stuck to the bumper. This quiz tours those rules: the early permits for Carl Benz and Russian motorised bicycles, the Geneva and Vienna conventions that made licences pink, the UK's L, D, P and R plates and its hazard perception clips, Japan's Young Leaf mark and Gold licence, Germany's first-aid course, Norway's dark-driving module, Brazil's simulator hours, New Zealand's colour-coded stages, Australia's logbooks, Saudi Arabia's 2018 change, and the US state that lets 14-year-olds behind the wheel. Fifty questions, four options each, with a short explanation after every answer. Play on your phone or print it for a quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01France introduced the world's first mandatory national driving test in which year?
1899
Most tests today still split into a theory part and a practical road test, and many countries require the theory pass first.
Q 02Carl Benz got a permit to drive his Motorwagen in 1888 after neighbours complained about what?
Its noise and smell
The Grand Ducal authorities issued it; European permits stayed ad hoc until the early 20th century.
Q 03Prussia's compulsory 1903 driving tests were run by a body that supervised what?
Steam boilers
The Dampfkesselüberwachungsverein tested mechanical aptitude. Germany went national in 1910 with a model copied by other countries.
Q 04Which European country let people buy a permit without a driving test until 1977?
Belgium
It was the last in Europe to introduce testing.
Q 05Which US state was first to require all drivers to pass an exam, in July 1913?
New Jersey
New York's 1910 law, North America's first, had covered only professional chauffeurs.
Q 06North America's first licensing law, New York's in 1910, applied only to whom?
Professional chauffeurs
Legislators had studied the French and German statutes after traffic deaths soared.
Q 07The 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic said national driving permits should be which colour?
Pink
International Driving Permits were to have grey covers with white pages.
Q 08The entire last page of an International Driving Permit must be drawn up in which language?
French
The preceding pages repeat it in several languages that must include English, Russian and Spanish.
Q 09The idea of an International Driving Permit was first mooted at a 1926 convention in which city?
Paris
The term translates the French 'permis de conduire international'. The document is A6, slightly larger than a passport.
Q 10In which year did the UK introduce compulsory driving tests?
1934
Mandatory licences had arrived in 1904 at a minimum age of 17 with a 20 mph limit; the Road Traffic Act added testing three decades later.
Q 11UK driving tests were suspended for a year in 1956 because of what?
The Suez Crisis
They had also stopped for seven years from 1939 for the Second World War.
Q 12Who is the only person not required to hold a licence to drive on Britain's roads?
The sovereign
Everyone else needs one on any 'road' as defined in the Road Traffic Act 1988, whoever owns the land beneath it.
Q 13From what age can someone in Great Britain apply for a provisional driving licence?
15 years 9 months
Northern Ireland waits until 16 years and 10 months. Car driving itself starts at 17, or 16 for some disability benefit recipients.
Q 21In which year was the first edition of The Highway Code published?
1931
It cost a penny and ran to 21 pages, mostly arm signals. Illustrated road signs arrived with the 1934 second edition.
Q 22What did the 2022 edition of The Highway Code introduce?
A hierarchy of road users
Road users are ranked by their risk in a collision, with pedestrians and cyclists at the top.
Q 23What is the official UK name for the three-point turn?
Turning in the road
The full phrase adds 'using forward and reverse gears'. Ireland calls it a turnabout, since it may take more than three points.
Q 14Learner drivers in Wales may display plates bearing which letter instead of L?
D
D for Dysgwr, Welsh for 'learner'. Supervisors must be 21 or over and have held a full licence for three years.
Q 15New drivers in Northern Ireland must show R plates for a year and keep below what speed?
45 mph
Failing to display the orange R costs two penalty points and a fine. The Isle of Man uses red R plates and a 50 mph cap.
Q 16What colour are the optional 'probationary' P plates some new drivers display in Great Britain?
Green
They are not a legal requirement and can stay on as long as the driver likes; they are rarely seen in Northern Ireland.
Q 17A new UK driver's licence is revoked on reaching how many penalty points within two years?
Six
The driver must then pass the full test again, and the points stay on the new licence until they expire.
Q 18In which year was the hazard perception test added to the UK driving test?
2002
Live-action clips were replaced with computer-generated ones in 2015. New South Wales uses an almost identical test.
Q 19What is the maximum score for spotting a single hazard in the UK hazard perception test?
5
The earlier you click, the more you score, but repeated clicking on one clip scores zero.
Q 20What is the hazard perception pass mark for car drivers?
44 of 75
Across 14 clips. Approved instructors need 57 and lorry drivers 67 of 100; fail either theory part and you resit both.
Q 24In Ireland, what is the three-point turn officially called?
A turnabout
Because an acceptable manoeuvre may need more than three movements. Elsewhere it is a Y-turn, K-turn or broken U-turn.
Q 25In Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, the manoeuvrability tests are unusual in being what?
Timed
Candidates must finish each task within an expected time so they do not hold up traffic.
Q 26In most EU countries, passing the test in a car with no clutch pedal restricts the licence to what?
Automatic vehicles only
The same rule applies in Australia and New Zealand; a later manual test lifts the restriction.
Q 27What is the 'Young Leaf' sign that Japanese drivers must display in their first year called?
Shoshinsha mark
It applies again whenever a driver gains a licence for a new vehicle class, however long they have driven.
Q 28The Gold licence for 'superior drivers', marked by a gold band, needs how many clean years?
Five
Holders get a shorter, cheaper renewal, sometimes at a separate Superior Drivers renewal centre.
Q 29Applying for a German driving licence requires a first aid course of how many 45-minute units?
9
Plus proof of an eye test, which optometrists are legally bound to offer cheaply. Theory lessons can even be repeated to make up the count.
Q 30Norway's compulsory 'trafikalt grunnkurs' basic traffic course lasts how long?
Four days
It covers road rules and accident first aid; students over 25 are exempt from most of it.