North Carolina Intermediate Electrical Contractor (I)

North Carolina Intermediate Electrical Contractor Exam: What You Need to Know in 2026

You've put in thousands of hours on the job. Now it's time to make it official. The North Carolina Intermediate Electrical Contractor exam stands between you and a license that lets you run your own electrical contracting projects — legally and independently. Pass it, and you can take on single projects up to $150,000. That's real work, real revenue, and real professional standing. This guide covers everything about the NC electrical contractor license exam: the format, the topics, what to study, and how to prepare smart.

Exam Overview: The Basics

The North Carolina Intermediate Electrical Contractor exam is administered by PSI at authorized testing centers. Here's what you're looking at:

• Questions: 100 scored multiple-choice questions
• Time: 360 minutes (6 hours)
• Passing score: 70 correct answers out of 100
• Cost: $125, paid to the Board with your application
• Results: Displayed on screen immediately after you finish

You schedule the exam through PSI after the Board approves your application. You have a 90-day authorization window to schedule and sit for it — don't let that slip. The PSI North Carolina electrical exam is administered at testing centers across the state; check the exam registration page to find a location near you.

Three reference books are allowed in the testing room: the 2020 National Electrical Code, the 2013 NFPA 72 (National Fire Alarm Code), and the current edition of the NASCLA Contractors Guide to Business, Law and Project Management. That's it — nothing else comes in with you. Questions covering the Electrical Contractors Licensing Law, the Board's Rules, and the NASCLA Contractors Guide are open-book too: you can't bring separate copies of the law and rules, but the North Carolina Electrical Edition of the NASCLA guide reprints both as appendices.

Topics Covered on the NC Intermediate Electrical Contractor Exam

The exam covers 11 topic areas. Here's how the 100 scored questions break down — study time should follow these weights:

Laws, Rules, Basic Business Practices, and Practical Applications carries the most weight at 16 items — and it's open book, as long as you can find the answer in your NASCLA guide. That section covers North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 87, Article 4, the Board's administrative rules, the NASCLA Contractors Guide, lighting and power plans, estimating, and the National Fire Alarm Code. Know this material cold — and know exactly where it sits in the NASCLA guide.

Bonding and Grounding and Load Calculations each carry 11 items. These are the technical heavy hitters. Expect service calculations, conductor ampacity, grounding electrode conductors, and bonding jumper requirements.

Sample Questions

Here are five sample questions from the North Carolina Intermediate Electrical Contractor practice test pool. Work through them — but don't expect easy answers.

Question 1 — Appliances, Equipment, and Lighting
For an electric-discharge lighting system operating with an open-circuit voltage exceeding 1000 volts, the secondary circuit voltage of the supply transformer shall not exceed what nominal value under any load condition?

• A) 7500 volts
• B) 15,000 volts
• C) 10,000 volts
• D) 1000 volts

Question 2 — Overcurrent Protection
You are applying a series-rated combination in a commercial panelboard: a 400-ampere fused switch on the line side and 100-ampere circuit breakers on the load side whose interrupting rating is 10,000 amperes. Motor circuits are connected between the higher-rated line-side device and the lower-rated breakers. The series rating may not be used if the sum of these motor full-load currents exceeds what percentage of the interrupting rating of the lower-rated circuit breaker?

• A) 1 percent
• B) 10 percent
• C) 5 percent
• D) 3 percent

Question 3 — Laws, Rules, Basic Business Practices, and Practical Applications
You sat for the intermediate qualifying examination in March and did not pass. What is the earliest you may take another examination in the same classification, and what must you submit?

• A) Six months later, with a new application and required fees
• B) Three months later, with a new application and required fees
• C) One year later, after documenting additional creditable experience
• D) Immediately, upon paying the examination review fee

Question 4 — Load Calculations
You are calculating the service load for a four-unit multifamily building. Each dwelling unit has one household electric clothes dryer with a nameplate rating of 4.5 kW. What total clothes dryer load must be included in the service calculation?

• A) 22,500 volt-amperes
• B) 25,000 volt-amperes
• C) 20,000 volt-amperes
• D) 18,000 volt-amperes

Question 5 — Boxes and Fittings
You are selecting a box that will enclose utilization equipment supplied by 6 AWG conductors. What is the minimum internal depth the box must have?

• A) 2 1/2 in.
• B) 15/16 in.
• C) 1 3/16 in.
• D) 2 1/16 in.

Know your answers? Take the free practice exam and see how you score across all the topics.

What Types of Questions to Expect

Here's what each topic actually tests:

• Bonding and Grounding: Identifying which systems require grounding, locating grounding connections, selecting the right conductor size for grounding electrode conductors, and applying bonding jumper rules.
• Overcurrent Protection: Sizing fuses and breakers for specific circuits, applying rules on location, selecting enclosures, and working through series-rating scenarios like the sample question above.
• Wiring Methods and Terminations: Permitted uses for different wiring methods, conduit fill calculations, wireway sizing, and termination requirements.
• Boxes and Fittings: Box fill calculations, minimum depth and volume requirements, and fitting selection for specific conductors.
• Service Entrance and Equipment: Service conductor sizing, service equipment installation, clearance requirements, and general sizing rules.
• Motors and Control Wiring: Branch circuit and feeder ampacity for motors, overload protection sizing, short-circuit protection, and disconnect and controller requirements.
• Special Occupancies and Hazardous Locations: Emergency systems, health care facility wiring, mobile home parks, assembly occupancies, theaters, and swimming pool installations.
• Load Calculations: Branch circuit loads, total service calculations, demand factors for dryers and other appliances, and conductor ampacity requirements at low and high voltage.
• Appliances, Equipment, and Lighting: Air conditioner branch circuit requirements, transformer installation, electric discharge lighting limits, space heating, and residential versus commercial equipment rules.
• General: NEC definitions and general installation requirements that don't fit a specific system category.
• Laws, Rules, Basic Business Practices, and Practical Applications: NC licensing law, Board rules, NASCLA guide content, lighting and power plan reading, estimating basics, and National Fire Alarm Code fundamentals.

Total practice questions available: 515, drawn from every topic on the real exam.

Study Materials

Three books are allowed in the testing room. Get them early and learn them well.

NEC 2020 — The 2020 National Electrical Code is your primary technical reference and one of the three books allowed in the testing center. Tab it, highlight it, and know how to find answers fast. You won't have time to read it cover-to-cover during the exam.

NASCLA North Carolina Electrical Guide, 14th Edition — This covers business law, project management, and NC-specific requirements. Remember: you can bring this one into the exam, and the North Carolina Electrical Edition reprints the licensing law and Board rules as appendices. Tab it and know it well, so you can find those answers fast.

For the legal text directly:

• Electrical Contractors Licensing Law (GS Chapter 87, Article 4) — The statutory foundation for your license. Know the scope of the Intermediate classification, penalty provisions, and qualifying agent requirements.
• Board's Rules (21 NCAC 18B) — Administrative rules on applications, experience requirements, exam retakes, and license renewal.

Study tools that make a real difference:

Sharpie Tank Highlighters — Twelve fluorescent highlighters in assorted colors. Color-code your NEC by topic: one color for grounding, another for OCPD rules, another for wiring methods. It's a fast system when you need to find something in 30 seconds under exam pressure.

Redi-Tag Permanent Colored Tabs — 100 tabs in five colors. Tab your NEC by article number and major section. Combined with your highlighting system, you'll find answers in seconds instead of minutes.

Study Tips

Master your index and table of contents. The NEC is open-book, but that's only useful if you can find the right article fast. Practice locating specific requirements by topic. Time yourself. If it takes you more than a minute to find a grounding electrode conductor sizing table, you need more index practice.

Study by exam weight, not by page count. Laws, Rules, and Practical Applications has 16 items — all answerable from the NASCLA guide, if you know the material and know where to look. That's where the exam is won or lost for most candidates. Bonding/Grounding and Load Calculations follow at 11 items each. Put your hours where the exam puts its questions.

Every real exam is unique. The questions change order, the wording shifts, and new items rotate in. What stays constant is the topic breakdown from the official exam bulletin. Study the topics, not a fixed question list.

Practice in exam conditions. Our full North Carolina electrical contractor practice test matches the real PSI exam — 100 questions, 360 minutes, same topic distribution. Run it under timed conditions. That removes the format surprise on test day.

Pre-annotate your books. You can highlight, underline, and add notes to your NEC, NFPA 72, and NASCLA guide before the exam. Do it systematically. You cannot write in them during the exam, and any loose papers or attachments beyond the approved references will be confiscated.

Ready to Start Preparing?

The NCBEEC intermediate exam is thorough, but it's passable with the right preparation. Get your NEC 2020 and NASCLA North Carolina Electrical Guide, tab them with Redi-Tags, color-code them with Sharpie highlighters, and drill the material by topic weight.

Start with the free practice exam — 10 questions, no account needed, immediate feedback. When you're ready to go deeper, the full practice exam gives you 100 questions in exam format with a detailed score breakdown by topic so you know exactly where to focus. Check the state licensing website for application details, and get registered at the official exam bulletin.

You've already done the hard work in the field. Now go pass the exam.