Louisiana Pile Driving Exam: Complete Study Guide (2026)
Imagine landing a contract to drive steel piles for a new bridge over the Atchafalaya River — or working a barge crew on a Gulf Coast dock project. That kind of work is reserved for licensed professionals in Louisiana, and the Louisiana pile driving exam is the gateway to that license. Issued by the state licensing website, a Louisiana Pile Driving license authorizes you to install steel, concrete, and timber piles; construct deep foundations and slurry walls; raise and level structures; and operate cranes and pile-driving equipment on heavy civil projects. This guide walks you through everything you need to know: exam format, topic breakdown, approved references, study strategy, and sample questions. You can also try our free practice exam to gauge where you stand before test day.
Louisiana Pile Driving Exam Overview
The exam is administered by PSI. You can review the full official exam bulletin and register at the exam registration page.
- Questions: 50 scored questions
- Time limit: 120 minutes
- Passing score: 70% — you must answer at least 35 of the 50 questions correctly
- Format: Multiple-choice, four answer options per question
- Open book: Yes — you bring your own approved references into the test room
Because it is open book, this exam rewards preparation of a specific kind. The question isn't whether you can memorize regulations; it's whether you can find the right page in under 90 seconds. That distinction shapes your entire study approach.
Topics Covered on the Louisiana Caisson Drilling Exam
The exam draws from four content areas. Here they are, ranked by weight on the real exam:
Pile and Caisson Drilling and Foundation Preparation — 30 items
This is the dominant section. Expect questions on pile types (timber, steel, concrete, composite, and sheet piles), hammer selection, skin friction versus end-bearing mechanisms, site investigation, test pile programs, and bearing capacity. Compressed-air caisson work is also tested here, including OSHA 1926.801 and 1926.803 safety requirements. Thirty of the 50 exam items come from this area — it deserves the majority of your study time.
Concrete — 8 items
This section covers mixture design, fresh concrete field testing (slump, air content, compressive strength cylinders per ASTM standards), placement methods, formwork design and lateral pressure, reinforcement placement, and fiber-reinforced concrete.
General Knowledge — 6 items
Think estimating, bidding, equipment ownership costs, labor burden calculations, productivity rates, and contractor bonding requirements.
Safety / OSHA — 6 items
Covers PPE for pile driving, fall protection systems, crane and dedicated pile driver requirements under Subpart CC, excavation and cofferdam safety, and noise exposure limits during pile driving operations.
Sample Questions from the LA Pile Driving Practice Test
These questions reflect the style and difficulty you'll encounter. Work through them — and then check your instincts against our practice exam.
Question 1 — Pile and Caisson Drilling and Foundation Preparation (Medium)
When installing wellpoints in a less permeable soil such as silt, what technique is used to increase the rate of water flow to each wellpoint?
- A) Installing the wellpoints at spacings of 10 to 15 ft along the header
- B) Increasing the header pipe diameter to 14 inches or larger
- C) Driving a large-diameter pipe, removing soil, installing the wellpoint, and backfilling with sand or fine gravel
- D) Connecting multiple wellpoints to a single riser pipe to increase suction
Question 2 — Pile and Caisson Drilling and Foundation Preparation (Medium)
On a compressed-air caisson project, the medical lock must be designed for a working pressure of what value?
- A) 75 p.s.i.g.
- B) 60 p.s.i.g.
- C) 50 p.s.i.g.
- D) 100 p.s.i.g.
Question 3 — General Knowledge (Hard)
A contractor purchases a crawler crane for pile-driving operations at $470,000 delivered. The crane has an expected service life of 4 years at 1,800 hours per year with an estimated salvage value of $75,000. Using the Average Annual Investment method, the AAI is multiplied by what rate to determine the cost-of-money portion of depreciation?
- A) Tax depreciation rate
- B) Corporate cost-of-capital rate
- C) Insurance premium rate
- D) Property tax rate
Question 4 — Safety / OSHA (Medium)
Ladders must extend above landing by:
- A) 24 inches
- B) 30 inches
- C) 36 inches
- D) 42 inches
Question 5 — Concrete (Medium)
When a portion of the portland cement in a concrete mixture is replaced by fly ash or slag cement, what effect can this have on the time required before formwork can be stripped?
- A) The stripping time may need to be doubled
- B) The stripping time remains unchanged
- C) The stripping time is reduced by approximately half
- D) The stripping time is only affected in hot weather
Not sure on a few of those? That's exactly the point. Start with our free practice exam — 10 questions, no account required — to see how the real exam feels.
What Types of Questions to Expect
Here's a closer look at the kinds of problems each topic tests.
Pile and Caisson Drilling and Foundation Preparation
This is the deepest pool for a reason. Questions probe pile classification and material selection, hammer type and energy calculations, the mechanics of skin friction versus end-bearing, and how you read a bearing capacity determination from a test pile program. Compressed-air caisson work adds another layer: OSHA pressure limits, decompression procedures, and medical lock requirements. Wellpoint dewatering — as the sample question above shows — also appears here.
Concrete
Expect mix design math (water-cementitious ratios, admixture selection), field testing procedures tied to specific ASTM standards, and formwork lateral pressure calculations. You'll also need to know how supplementary cementitious materials like fly ash and slag affect concrete properties — including curing time and stripping schedules.
General Knowledge
This section tests contractor business math. Equipment ownership cost using the Average Annual Investment method (as shown in Question 3), markup and overhead calculations, crew productivity with correction factors, and bonding requirements. Questions are computational — have a calculator ready and know where to find the formulas in your references.
Safety / OSHA
Questions are drawn from 29 CFR 1926, focused on the pile driving context: fall protection trigger heights, PPE selection, crane safety under Subpart CC, noise dose limits, and excavation shoring requirements for cofferdams. Ladder rules (like Question 4) are a perennial favorite.
In total, we offer 287 practice questions across all four topic areas — far more than you'll see on a single exam attempt, which keeps every practice session fresh.
Approved Reference Books for the Louisiana Pile Driving Exam
This is an open-book exam, so your references are your most important tool. Here are the four approved books — and the ones you'll want to own before you start studying:
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OSHA 29 CFR 1926 — The OSHA Standards for the Construction Industry. This covers fall protection, cranes, excavations, compressed-air work, and noise limits. Know it well; six exam items depend on it.
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Construction Planning, Equipment, and Methods — The 9th Edition by Peurifoy et al. This is your primary reference for pile-driving equipment, hammer selection, production rates, and equipment cost calculations. The single most heavily tested book on this exam.
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The Contractor's Guide to Quality Concrete Construction — The ACI 4th Edition (2018). Covers all the concrete topics: mix design, testing, formwork, and reinforcement. Eight exam items come from this content area.
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Pipe and Excavation Contracting — Dave Roberts' practical guide to excavation and underground utility work. Referenced for the General Knowledge estimating and bidding content.
You are responsible for bringing your own copies to the test center. Do not assume the testing facility provides them.
Study Tips for the LA Pile Driving Contractor License Exam
Master your books before you open them in the exam room. On an open-book exam, the candidates who pass fastest aren't necessarily the ones who know the most — they're the ones who can find any answer in under 90 seconds. Highlight key tables, add permanent tabs to major sections, and study the index and table of contents of each book until navigation is automatic. Temporary tabs like Post-It notes are not allowed on exam day; only permanent tabs pass inspection.
Triage your questions. Work through all 50 questions once, answering the ones you're confident about and flagging the ones that need reference work. Then return to the flagged items. Don't sink five minutes into a single question while the clock runs on 20 others.
Set your practice bar above 70%. Give yourself three to six weeks of structured preparation. Use the official exam bulletin as your roadmap for what's tested. Aim for three consecutive practice sessions at 80% or higher before you schedule your real exam — that margin gives you a meaningful cushion on test day.
Practice under time pressure. Our full practice exam matches the real exam: 50 questions, 120-minute clock, same topic breakdown. Use it timed. By the time you walk into the PSI testing center, the format should feel routine.
Ready to Start Preparing?
The Louisiana Pile Driving license opens doors to serious civil and marine construction work — bridge foundations, dock systems, coastal infrastructure, and more. The exam is achievable with structured preparation and well-organized references.
Start with our free practice exam to get a feel for the question style and identify your strongest and weakest topic areas. When you're ready to prepare in earnest, upgrade to the full practice exam: 50 questions, timed to match the real exam, with a detailed score breakdown by topic so you know exactly where to focus. Order your reference books early, start tabbing them now, and give yourself the runway you need. You've got this.