Tennessee BC-A Residential Contractor Practice Exam
Tennessee moved its contractor exams from PSI to Prov on July 1, 2026. This practice test still follows the PSI exam outline. It covers the same subject areas, and the PSI-approved books our questions cite are allowed in Prov's test room through January 1, 2027, so it's fine to study with. We're updating it to Prov's new outline, and the update will show up in your account automatically.
Free Practice Exam
Test your knowledge with 10 questions from our pool of 20 free questions.
- 10 questions per attempt
- 30 minute time limit
- Unlimited attempts
- A new mix each time
- Instant results
Full Practice Exam
Complete exam simulation matching the real PSI test format.
- 100 questions (same as real exam)
- 300 minute time limit
- 8 topic areas covered
- 900 questions in pool
- Detailed explanations
Texts preferred · 9am–9pm Central
Tennessee BC-A Residential Contractor Practice Exam Guide
What's on the exam
Questions per topic, out of 100The BC-A Residential Contractor trade portion is an open-book examination, and the official outline tells you exactly where the weight sits: carpentry and the estimating/plan-reading/code group carry the most items, with sitework and foundations, concrete, roofing, associated trades, masonry and OSHA safety filling out the rest. The practice questions here follow that outline topic by topic, and they draw on the same reference set — the IRC, Carpentry and Building Construction, Modern Masonry, The Contractor's Guide to Quality Concrete Construction, the Gypsum Construction Handbook, the roofing texts and 29 CFR 1926.
You have two ways to work. The free practice exam gives you 10 questions per attempt, and you can retake it as often as you like. The full practice exam gives you 100 questions, timed at 5 hours, drawn fresh from our question bank on every attempt, so a second sitting is never a memory test of the first.
Sitework, Footings, and Foundation 10 items
Expect soil, footing and foundation fundamentals. Questions ask how soils are grouped for compaction — granular sands and gravels versus cohesive silts and clays (The Contractor's Guide to Quality Concrete Construction, Page 44) — and which portland cement type resists high-sulfate soils and groundwater (The Contractor's Guide to Quality Concrete Construction, Page 15). Footing items cover bearing on firm soil below the frost line (Carpentry and Building Construction, Page 246) and the rule that on standard soils the width of a wall footing is twice the thickness of the foundation wall it supports (Carpentry and Building Construction, Page 257). Scenario practice questions include over-excavated footing trenches and pier-and-panel wall foundations.
Concrete and Concrete Reinforcement 10 items
You will see minimum concrete cover over reinforcing steel in footings (Carpentry and Building Construction, Page 230), the minimum compressive strength for a residential floor slab and bearing-wall footings (Carpentry and Building Construction, Page 300), and the term for driving out air pockets and forcing concrete into every part of the form (Carpentry and Building Construction, Page 233). Durability shows up as well: air entrainment where concrete faces moderate or severe weathering (Carpentry and Building Construction, Page 226) and air-entrained mixes for driveways in severe winter climates (Carpentry and Building Construction, Page 302). Site conditions appear too, such as a high water table forcing a design change (Carpentry and Building Construction, Page 248).
Masonry 7 items
Several practice questions here are code-anchored, such as those on foundation walls extending above finished grade — the smaller figure where masonry veneer is used and the larger figure elsewhere (Modern Masonry, Page 313; IRC R404.1.6). Another asks for the minimum anchor bolt diameter and the embedment into concrete or grouted cells of concrete masonry units for wood sill plates (IRC R403.1.6), where a cold-formed steel figure is offered as a distractor. Reinforcement spacing also appears: vertical bars set in the footing to tie it to the block wall above (Modern Masonry, Page 210).
Carpentry 20 items
Tied for the largest block. Framing questions cover crawl space clearance under the joists (Carpentry and Building Construction, Section 9.2 Establishing Lines & Grades, Page 247), girder end bearing on masonry (Carpentry and Building Construction, Section 15.1 Floor Framing Basics, Page 401), anchor bolt spacing and end distance (Section 15.2 Framing with Joists & Girders, Page 402), doubled joists separated by blocking for plumbing (Page 411), and girder-and-post spacing over crawl spaces (Page 416). Wood behavior appears through shrinkage and drywall nail pops (Section 12.1 Wood Basics, Page 323). Also expect dead versus live load (Section 14.1 Framing Systems & Structural Design, Page 383), truss types (Section 17.4 Roof Trusses, Page 493) and balloon framing details.
Roofing 10 items
The practice questions here test slope thresholds, lap dimensions and fastening counts. You will be asked the slope at which standard strip shingles are installed without special manufacturer instructions, the top lap and side lap for single-coverage underlayment, the nail count per strip under normal conditions versus high-wind areas, the lap of each section of metal valley flashing and how far the flashing runs up each side, and how far eaves protection extends inside the exterior wall line. Arithmetic appears too: the outline lists roof measurement and area calculation, and a practice question applies a gutter slope of 1 inch per 16 feet to a measured fascia run (Carpentry and Building Construction, Section 22.4 — Installation).
Estimating, Plan Reading, and Gen Residential Code Requirements 20 items
The other big block. Labor burden, concrete volume with waste, board feet by formula and by table (Carpentry and Building Construction, Ready Reference Appendix, Page 1033; Section 13.2, Page 359), excavation volume using the depth factor (Section 9.2, Pages 249-250), and rough floor-material estimating from area (Section 15.2, Page 419). Plan reading covers schedules for rough-opening sizes (Section 16.2, Page 440), window schedule notation (Section 20.2, Page 585), abbreviations such as HDR (Ready Reference Appendix, Page 1024), and reading a span table step by step (Section 14.1, Page 383; Section 13.2, Page 355).
Associated Trades 15 items
Drywall is only part of this topic; the outline also lists plumbing, electrical, HVAC, fuel gas and insulation. Screw quantity per 1,000 square feet changes with board size, framing spacing and orientation (Gypsum Construction Handbook, Appendix — Gypsum Board Screw Usage; Gypsum Construction Handbook, Appendix — Gypsum Board Screw Usage, Vertical Board Attachment). Fire and sound work includes the rating that measures impact sound through a floor-ceiling assembly, UL assembly requirements for stud spacing and staggered face-layer joints, and the note that steel studs are not attached to floor and ceiling runners in fire-rated non-load-bearing partitions (Gypsum Construction Handbook, Chapter 10 — Fire and Sound Tests). Also expect lateral design load for interior partitions (Chapter 10 — Structural Criteria) and outdoor storage limits (Chapter 11 — Handling and Storage).
OSHA Safety 8 items
Eight items. Many of the practice questions here are straight lookups in 29 CFR 1926. Fire protection is well represented: maximum travel distance to the nearest extinguisher (29 CFR 1926, §1926.150(c)(1)(i)) and the clearance between piped engine exhaust and combustible material (29 CFR 1926, §1926.151(a)(2)). First aid kit contents must be checked at a stated interval (29 CFR 1926, §1926.50(d)(2)). Extinguisher classes by fuel type — wood and paper, grease and oil, electrical, combustible metals — appear as a classification question (Carpentry and Building Construction, Construction Safety & Health, Page 81), along with penalty magnitude for repeat serious violations.
Sample 1 — Carpentry
Question: What total length of header stock is needed for every opening in the schedule (sum of the individual header lengths)? (Figure WF-1)
- A. 44.25 lin ft
- B. 46.50 lin ft
- C. 41.00 lin ft
- D. 42.75 lin ft
Correct Answer: A
Work the schedule line by line and add: 5 × 3'-3" plus 2 × 4'-3" plus 2 × 6'-6" plus 2 × 3'-3" equals 44.25 linear feet. Convert inches to decimal feet before multiplying — 3'-3" is 3.25, not 3.3 — and multiply by the quantity in each row before summing. The near-miss options sit close to the correct total, which is why totaling on paper beats totaling in your head (Carpentry and Building Construction — Ch. 16, Estimating Studs, Plates, and Headers; Estimating Sheathing).
Sample 2 — Estimating, Plan Reading, and Gen Residential Code Requirements
Question: Pouring slab 40×30 ft, 6" thick, 10% waste. How many cubic yards?
- A. 22 cu yd
- B. 25 cu yd
- C. 28 cu yd
- D. 30 cu yd
Correct Answer: B
Three steps, in order. Volume: 40 × 30 × 0.5 = 600 cubic feet. Convert: 600 ÷ 27 = 22.2 cubic yards. Then apply waste: 22.2 × 1.10 = 24.4, rounded up to 25 cubic yards. Note that 22 is sitting right there as a distractor for anyone who stops after the conversion, and this answer rounds 24.4 up to the next whole yard rather than to the nearest value.
Sample 3 — Associated Trades
Question: How many pounds of ready-mixed joint compound are needed, and how many pails is that? (Figure DW-1)
- A. 37 lb; 1 pail
- B. 71 lb; 2 pails
- C. 71 lb; 3 pails
- D. 76 lb; 2 pails
Correct Answer: B
Coverage tables are given per 1,000 square feet, so scale first: 518.0 ÷ 1,000 × 138 lb = 71.5 lb. Then convert weight to containers: 71.5 ÷ 61.7 lb per pail = 1.16, which rounds up to 2 pails. Both halves of the answer have to match, and options pair a correct weight with a wrong pail count. Round container counts up, never down (Gypsum Construction Handbook — Ch. 1, Joint Compound and Joint Tape Coverage).
Treat your first full attempt as a diagnostic, not a verdict. The number that matters is 73% correct, so compare your percentage to that and then stop looking at it — the useful information is one level down, in the topic breakdown.
Read that breakdown against the outline item counts. Carpentry at 20 items and the estimating/plan-reading/code group at 20 items together account for a large share of the scored questions, so a weak percentage in either one costs you far more than the same percentage in Masonry at 7 items or OSHA Safety at 8 items. Multiply your miss rate in each topic by its item count to see where the lost points actually live, then study in that order.
Watch the pattern of the misses, too. Calculation errors, table-lookup errors and outright unknowns need different fixes: arithmetic misses respond to a written procedure, table misses respond to practicing the lookup, and unknowns mean reading. Retake, and expect a fresh draw each time — if your score holds across attempts, the gain is real rather than recall.
Grabbing the wrong half of a two-part code rule. Several Masonry practice questions state one figure for one condition and a different figure for another: foundation walls above finished grade use the smaller dimension where masonry veneer is present and the larger dimension elsewhere (IRC R404.1.6). The sill-plate anchor bolt question (IRC R403.1.6) offers a cold-formed steel embedment as a distractor next to the correct wood sill plate figure. Read the condition in the stem before you read the numbers.
Stopping one step early in a quantity takeoff. In Estimating, the concrete slab question puts the pre-waste answer in the option list. The same trap shows up in the joint compound question, where the correct pound figure is paired with a wrong pail count. Finish every conversion — volume, then cubic yards, then waste, then any rounding the question calls for — before you look at the options.
Reading the adjacent row of a table. The ceiling plank question (Carpentry and Building Construction, Section 1.2, Table 1-2) offers the 24-inch on-center figure and two other lumber sizes alongside the correct 16-inch on-center value. The drywall screw charts do the same thing with horizontal versus vertical attachment (Gypsum Construction Handbook, Appendix — Gypsum Board Screw Usage). Put your finger on the row heading and the column heading, then read the cell.
Answering the normal condition when the stem says otherwise. Roofing questions distinguish standard nailing from high-wind nailing for three-tab shingles, and Concrete questions distinguish ordinary exposure from moderate or severe weathering, where air entrainment comes into play (Carpentry and Building Construction, Page 226). The qualifier in the stem is the whole question.
Letting the open book slow you down. 5 hours for 100 questions is about 3 minutes per question, which is plenty — but only if you know which book holds the answer. Know your references well enough that lookups are seconds, not minutes, and bank time on the recall items so the calculation items get the attention they need.
| Questions | 100 questions |
| Time limit | 5 hours |
| Passing score | 73% correct |
| Books in the exam room | Open book |
| Exam fee | $57 |
- You cannot rebook on the day you tested, but a candidate who fails on Monday can call Tuesday and retest as soon as Wednesday if space is available.
Source: TENNESSEE CONTRACTORS CANDIDATE INFORMATION BULLETIN, Revised 4/15/2026. Check the bulletin before test day: fees and rules can change.