Virginia Contractor General Portion Exam: Complete 2026 Study Guide
The Virginia Contractor General Portion is the business and law exam you have to clear before the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation will issue a Class A or Class B contractor license. It is Part 2 of the exam combination for both classes. It does not ask you about framing or rough-in. It asks whether you can run a company: bid a job, write a contract, make payroll, file the right tax form, and keep your crew off the ground safely.
Work through this guide, know what each topic covers, and put in the practice hours.
Virginia Contractor General Portion Exam Overview (2026)
Here are the numbers and rules you need before you schedule anything.
| Questions | 50 questions |
| Time limit | 100 minutes |
| Passing score | 35 correct answers out of 50 scored questions |
| Books in the exam room | Open book |
| Exam fee | The examination fee is $40 for one portion, $72 for two portions and $85 for three portions. |
On exam day
- Candidates must present one valid, non-expired, signature-bearing photo ID matching the name used to register, from the bulletin's list of acceptable documents.
- Candidates should arrive at the examination site at least 30 minutes before their appointment.
- All examinations are open book, candidates must bring their own bound, unmarked references, and study guides, sample examinations, loose papers and unbound references are not permitted.
- References may be highlighted, underlined and indexed beforehand and tabbed with permanent tabs only, but any writing in a reference makes it inadmissible.
- Handheld calculators are prohibited items at the examination.
- Test center candidates receive an LCD writing tablet for notes that must be returned at check-out, remote candidates may not use scratch paper, and a long list of personal items including electronic devices and writing materials is prohibited.
References you may bring
- NASCLA Contractors Guide to Business Law and Project Management, Virginia (11th edition)
Scheduling, changes and retakes
- Candidates schedule the examination online at PSI's registration website or by telephone with a PSI registrar at (855) 340-3910.
- An appointment may be cancelled and rescheduled without forfeiting the fee if notice is received two days before the scheduled examination date, and voicemail or email is not an acceptable form of cancellation.
- Missing the appointment, not being checked in by the scheduled start time, arriving late or failing to present proper identification causes forfeiture of the examination fee.
- A retake cannot be scheduled on the same day as the examination taken, but unsuccessful candidates may be able to retest within two business days depending on space availability.
- After passing, the candidate applies to the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, which issues the license once all requirements are verified.
Source: Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation Contractor Examination Candidate Information Bulletin, 6/5/2024. Check the bulletin before test day: fees and rules can change.
What Topics Are Covered on the Exam?
The official outline splits the Virginia Contractor General Portion into ten topics. Here they are, with what each one covers.
Estimating and Bidding — 10 items (20%). The biggest chunk, and it's math plus ethics. Expect to calculate labor cost using the quantity take-off formula (required labor hours per task × labor rate), add labor burden for employment taxes and insurance, figure total material cost from price per unit and quantity, and compute equipment cost by dividing total yearly cost by estimated hours of use, then multiplying that hourly cost by the hours the project needs. Overhead is the one that trips people: since overhead is a percentage of revenue, you divide direct costs by the remaining percentage rather than just adding the overhead percentages on top. You also need to tell project overhead (temporary storage, bonds, dumpsters, job-site offices) from company overhead (office rent, accounting fees, legal fees). Know the three unethical practices cold — bid shopping, bid peddling, and bid rigging — and who initiates each. Then there's the estimating framework (define the phases, then list each task and material per phase), the CSI MasterFormat classification system, the unit price method, and the job cost recording system with its distribution codes for material, labor, equipment, and project overhead.
Contract Management — 10 items (20%). Tied for the heaviest. Start with the four required elements: offer and acceptance, consideration, competent parties, legal purpose. Our practice questions put you in a scenario — a heavily intoxicated homeowner verbally agreeing to hire you — and ask which element is missing. Know your pricing structures: lump-sum (contractor assumes the risk for unforeseen conditions), unit-price (for when quantities can't be accurately calculated in advance), and cost-plus (actual labor and material cost plus a markup fee for overhead and profit). Retainage percentages, final payment documentation (affidavits that subs and bills are paid, final lien waivers, certificates, warranties, as-built drawings), material breach, liquidated damages math and the fact that liquidated and actual damages are mutually exclusive. Add the ADR methods — negotiation, mediation, collaborative law, arbitration — and the claims procedure timeline. Virginia written contract requirements for residential work show up too, including the disclosure of cancellation rights.
Project Management — 7 items (14%). Scheduling drives this topic. Calendar and bar chart (Gantt) methods share the same weakness: they don't show interdependencies. CPM does, which is why a one-week delay on a critical path task pushes the whole project a week. Know activity duration (total labor hours ÷ hours per day available), float time, and contingency time. Then the supervisory team roles, the preliminary cash flow budget used to spot cash shortages during construction stages, just-in-time material delivery and its theft-reduction benefit, and shop drawing review.
Financial Management — 5 items (10%). Ratios and formulas. Liquidity ratio (current assets ÷ current liabilities) to see if you can pay current debts. Profit margin (net income ÷ revenues). Working capital (current assets − current liabilities). Straight-line depreciation ((initial cost − salvage) ÷ useful life). Percentage of completion, including how billings in excess of cumulative earnings land on the balance sheet. And the accrual method, where expenses are recorded when incurred, not when paid.
Safety — 5 items (10%). Straight OSHA construction standards. Fall protection trigger height on unprotected sides or edges, guardrail deflection limits under a 200-pound downward load, anchorage strength for personal fall arrest, stairrail and handrail requirements by riser count, portable ladder extension above the upper landing, and the eight-hour oral reporting window to the nearest OSHA Area Office for a fatality or hospitalization of three or more employees.
Federal and State Taxes — 4 items (8%). Who needs an EIN and who doesn't, federal deposit schedules for a new business, penalty rates for late deposits, the FUTA/state unemployment wage threshold, and Virginia withholding filing frequency based on estimated quarterly withholding.
Business Organization — 2 items (4%). C corporation double taxation, LLC formation documents and fees filed with the Virginia Corporation Commission, general vs. limited partner liability, and the extra step for filing an assumed or fictitious name.
Risk Management — 3 items (6%). Builder's risk insurance, completed operations liability, Virginia's workers' compensation employee threshold, and bond types — including the lien bond that keeps liens off the owner's property.
Labor Laws — 3 items (6%). Form I-9 deadlines, summer working-hour limits for 14- and 15-year-olds, Virginia new hire reporting deadlines, and what the ADA prohibits during hiring.
Lien Laws — 1 item (2%). One question, but it's worth knowing: the subcontractor's written notice to the owner, the mechanics' lien agent notice window on one- and two-family dwellings, the 150-day lookback on a memorandum of lien, and the Class 5 felony penalty under Virginia Code § 43-13.2.
Sample Virginia Contractor General Portion Exam Questions
Four practice questions. No answers here on purpose — work them, then test yourself on more questions in the free practice exam.
1. Estimating and Bidding
You are a contractor evaluating whether to purchase or lease a backhoe that your company would use on multiple projects over the next several years. Which combination of factors makes purchasing the most advantageous option?
A. High maintenance costs, frequent technology upgrades, limited storage space
B. Short project duration, distant job location, equipment currently being repaired
C. Tax-deductible payments, no down payment, return at end of term
D. Long useful life, low obsolescence risk, available salvage value
Tests whether you can weigh the buy-versus-lease decision for owned equipment.
2. Contract Management
Which two organizations have developed standardized forms that can be used to execute change orders in the construction industry?
A. OSHA and EPA
B. ICC and ANSI
C. NAHB and NFPA
D. AIA and AGC
Tests your knowledge of standardized change order documentation.
3. Project Management
On a large construction project, which supervisory team member is primarily responsible for ensuring that materials are procured accurately and delivered on time?
A. Materials expediter
B. Superintendent
C. Foreman
D. Owner's representative
Tests the supervisory team roles and who owns procurement and delivery.
4. Safety
You are a contractor building a temporary stairway on a construction site. The stairway has five risers. Which of the following is required for this stairway?
A. At least one handrail and one stairrail system along each unprotected side or edge
B. A guardrail system but no handrail
C. Only a handrail on one side
D. No handrail or stairrail is required for fewer than six risers
Tests stairway protection requirements under the OSHA construction standards.
What Types of Questions to Expect
Our practice questions come in three kinds.
Scenario questions. You're given a situation — a sub approaches you after award with a lower number, a homeowner agrees to hire you while intoxicated, a crew is working 8 feet up — and asked to name the practice, the missing element, or the required protection. Read the facts, then match them to the rule.
Calculation questions. Labor cost, material cost, equipment cost, overhead markup, liquidated damages, depreciation, working capital, profit margin, activity duration. The wrong options are usually built from the wrong formula, not bad arithmetic. Pick the formula first.
Direct recall questions. Deadlines, thresholds, percentages, and code requirements stated flat out. Trigger heights, anchorage loads, filing windows, deposit schedules.
Recommended Study Materials
- NASCLA Contractors Guide to Business, Law and Project Management - Virginia, 11th Edition — required. Chapters on bidding, contracts, scheduling, risk, employee management, financial management, and taxes, plus the Virginia appendices on lien law and withholding tax.
- Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (Construction Code), 2021 — required. The Virginia construction code reference.
- OSHA 29 CFR 1926 Standards for the Construction Industry — optional. The source for the fall protection, guardrail, ladder, and stairway numbers in the Safety topic.
- Sharpie Tank Highlighters, 12-pack — for highlighting your reference as you study.
- Redi-Tag Permanent Colored Tabs, 100-pack — for indexing chapters and appendices so you can find a section fast.
Study Tips for the Virginia Contractor General Exam
Put your hours where the weight is. Estimating and Bidding and Contract Management together make up 40% of the exam. Project Management adds more on top. If you only have a few weeks, those three carry your score. Don't spend an evening on Lien Laws and skip overhead math.
Practice the formulas until they're automatic. Write out labor cost, material cost, equipment cost, the overhead divisor, straight-line depreciation, working capital, profit margin, and activity duration on one sheet. Redo them with fresh numbers until you don't have to think about which one to use.
This is an open book exam — build your book before exam day. Open book does not mean easy. It means the clock is your enemy instead of your memory. Study the reference until you know roughly where everything lives so you can land on a section in seconds. A reference you've never opened is dead weight.
Answer from memory first, then verify. At about 2 minutes per question, you don't have time to look up every item. Read the question, commit to an answer, and only open the book when you're genuinely unsure or a number is on the line.
Watch the clock in thirds. Check yourself at roughly a third and two-thirds through. If you're behind, flag the long calculations and come back.
Do full-length timed runs. Solid Virginia Contractor General Portion exam prep means sitting the whole thing under time with your reference on the table, the way you'll actually take it. That's what builds lookup speed.
Review the explanations on everything you miss. The explanation tells you which formula or rule you had wrong. Fix the rule, not the single question.
Ready to Pass? Start Practicing Today.
Reading the book gets you familiar. Answering questions gets you ready. Our Virginia Contractor General Portion practice test mirrors the real outline, topic by topic, so you find your weak spots before they cost you.
Start free with 10 questions, then go for the full timed set of 50 questions when you want a real dress rehearsal. Every practice question comes with the correct answer, an explanation, and a citation you can look up in your reference — which is how you build the lookup speed you'll need on exam day.
Start the free practice exam · Official bulletin · Schedule your exam · Virginia DPOR