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Tennessee BC-B Commercial Contractor Practice Exam

What This Practice Exam Covers

The Tennessee BC-B Commercial Contractor exam is 100 questions with a 300-minute time limit. You need 73% — that's 73 correct answers — to pass.

This practice exam gives you two options.

Free practice exam: 10 questions per attempt, drawn from a limited pool. You can retake it as many times as you want. Use it to get a feel for question style and difficulty before committing to more prep.

Full practice exam: 100 questions, 300-minute clock — same format as the real thing. Questions are drawn from a pool of 753+ items, so each attempt gives you a different set. No duplicate exams. Topics mirror the exact breakdown the official test provider specifies. This is the tool you use for serious preparation — not just exposure, but repeated drilling across all nine topic areas until you know where you're weak.

Start free. Move to the full exam when you're ready to work.

What You'll Be Tested On

General Code, Plan Reading, and Estimating — 27 items
This is the heaviest section. More than a quarter of the exam lives here. Expect IBC occupancy classification (Group A, B, E, I, R, S, and so on), construction type limitations on building height and area, and fire-resistance rating requirements. You'll read plan symbols and dimensions directly from drawings. Estimating questions require multi-step math: change orders with markup, material takeoffs, board feet, and unit pricing. A slow reader or a shaky math foundation will bleed points here. Budget time accordingly.

Concrete and Concrete Reinforcement — 15 items
Second-largest section. Questions cover mix design and water-cement ratio, admixture effects, batching and transporting limits, consolidation with vibrators, curing methods and duration, and form contact area calculations. Reinforcement questions pull from ACI 318-11: cover requirements (ACI 318-11, Page 93, Section 7.7.1), splice lengths, and tie spacing (ACI 318-11, Page 99, Section 7.10.5.1). You need to know what the code requires numerically, not just conceptually. Expect calculations — they show up as form area problems, volume problems, and mix ratio problems.

Sitework, Footings, and Foundation — 10 items
Soil classification, allowable bearing values from IBC Table 1806.2, excavation safety under OSHA Subpart P, and footing geometry. OSHA Subpart P Appendix B (§B-1.1) is tested — know the soil type categories (A, B, C) and what protective system each requires. IBC Section 1803.5.8 governs geotechnical investigation requirements for compacted fill. Dampproofing vs. waterproofing distinctions matter: where each is required and what it consists of.

Masonry — 10 items
Know ASTM brick grades (SW, MW, NW) and where each is appropriate. CMU types and load-bearing vs. non-load-bearing applications. Mortar types M, S, N, O, K — proportions and correct use. Wall system types: solid, cavity, composite, hollow, veneer — how they differ structurally. Coursing calculations, lead construction, and mason's line setup are fair game. Reinforcement and joint reinforcement placement rules come from ACI 530/530.1-11 (TMS 402). Estimating brick quantities using modular coursing is also tested.

Metals — 10 items
Open web steel joist designations: K-, LH-, DLH-, CJ-series, and joist girders. Know what each designation means and when each type is used. Steel deck profiles — composite floor, roof, form, cellular — and how they're fastened (welding, mechanical fasteners, shear studs, side-lap connections). Bridging: erection bridging requirements and installation sequence per SJI standards. OSHA Subpart R steel erection safety rules apply here. Joist and joist girder erection sequence and attachment requirements are specific and testable.

Associated Trades — 10 items
Gypsum board types and their properties, including fire-rated and sound-rated assemblies. Drywall fastener spacing, framing requirements, and finishing levels 1 through 5 (what each level requires and where it's appropriate). IBC sections governing gypsum installation — 2021 IBC Sections 2508.5, 2508.6.2, 2508.6.4, and 2509.3 — are cited in the question bank. Suspended ceiling grid types, acoustical panel selection, and plaster base applications round out this section.

Carpentry — 6 items
Floor, wall, and roof framing components and their correct names. Engineered wood products — LVL, glulam, OSB, I-joists, plywood grades. Structural framing systems: platform, balloon, post-and-beam. Roof types (gable, hip, shed, mansard, gambrel) and rafter layout including common, hip, valley, and jack rafters. Ridge board vs. ridge beam — the difference matters structurally and shows up in questions.

OSHA Safety — 6 items
Fall protection triggers (29 CFR 1926, §1926.501(b)(1)), guardrail specs (§1926.502(b)(3)), scaffold load capacity (§1926.451(a)(1)), excavation cave-in protection, GFCI requirements (§1926.404(b)(1)(iii)(E)), and PPE employer responsibilities. Asbestos and silica permissible exposure limits are also tested.

Roofing — 6 items
Slope calculation, roof area using slope factors, underlayment requirements by slope and covering type, flashing types and installation sequence, and asphalt shingle application. Alternative materials — tile, slate, metal, built-up, and elastomeric — each have specific installation rules you need to know.

Worked Sample Questions

Question 1 — General Code, Plan Reading, and Estimating

A change order totals $9,000 in material and $5,000 in labor. The contractor applies a 15% markup. What is the total change order amount?

• A. $15,000
• B. $15,500
• C. $16,000
• D. $16,100

Correct Answer: D — $16,100

Add material and labor first: $9,000 + $5,000 = $14,000. Apply 15% markup: $14,000 × 1.15 = $16,100. The mistake candidates make is applying markup only to materials, or adding a flat $2,000 instead of calculating the percentage. The markup applies to the combined total.

Question 2 — Concrete and Concrete Reinforcement

How many square feet of wall forms (contact area) are required for the foundation walls shown in Figure FN-3, where the perimeter is 152 ft and wall height is 8 ft?

• A. 1,824 sq ft
• B. 2,432 sq ft
• C. 3,136 sq ft
• D. 1,216 sq ft

Correct Answer: B — 2,432 sq ft

Forms contact both faces of a wall. Contact area = 2 × perimeter × height = 2 × 152 × 8 = 2,432 sq ft. Option D (1,216) is the single-face area — a common error. Option A suggests a wrong perimeter was used. Always account for both sides of the form.

Source: Carpentry and Building Construction — Ch. 10, Estimating Footings, Foundation Walls and Concrete Block

Question 3 — Sitework, Footings, and Foundation

A geotechnical investigation for compacted fill more than 12 inches deep under shallow foundations must include specifications for which of the following?

• A. Stabilization of adjacent structures before compaction begins
• B. Installation of permanent dewatering wells beneath the fill
• C. Preparation of the site prior to placement of compacted fill material
• D. Removal of all vegetation within 50 feet of the foundation

Correct Answer: C — Preparation of the site prior to placement of compacted fill material

Per 2021 IBC Section 1803.5.8, Item 1, the geotechnical investigation must address site preparation before fill placement. This means the subgrade must be properly conditioned before any fill goes down and gets compacted in lifts. The other options describe requirements that may exist on some projects but are not what Section 1803.5.8 mandates as a required investigation item.

Source: 2021 IBC, Section 1803.5.8

How to Read Your Score

Pass is 73 correct out of 100.

Your first practice attempt is a diagnostic. Don't treat it as a verdict. Most people underperform on the first run because they haven't seen the question format and the timing pressure is new. What matters is your topic breakdown, not just your total.

If you score below 65%, you have meaningful gaps across multiple areas. Pick the two heaviest sections — General Code/Estimating and Concrete — and work those before anything else.

If you score 65–72%, you're close but not there. Scoring near the pass mark on practice usually means you need another round of focused study. A score that tight leaves no margin for exam-day errors or unfamiliar questions.

If you score 75% or above consistently across multiple attempts from the 753+ question pool, you're in good shape. One strong attempt can be luck. Three strong attempts means the knowledge is there.

Use the topic-by-topic breakdown after each attempt to find where you dropped points. A 9-point deficit in Concrete is fixable faster than a 9-point deficit scattered across six topics.

Where Candidates Lose Points

Estimating math errors. The General Code/Estimating section is 27 questions. Multi-step calculations — markup on combined labor and material, contact area for forms, board feet, stud counts — require clean arithmetic under time pressure. Skipping a step or applying a percentage to the wrong base kills points fast.

Wrong face of a wall. Form contact area questions catch people who calculate only one side. Both faces of every wall need forms. Double the single-face area.

Mixing up IBC code sections. Fire-resistance ratings, construction type area limits, and occupancy classification rules each live in different parts of the IBC. Candidates who half-remember a rule and apply it to the wrong occupancy group or construction type get the question wrong even though they studied.

OSHA thresholds. The safety questions have specific numerical triggers — fall protection heights, scaffold load limits, exposure limits for asbestos and silica. Off by one foot or one decimal place and you pick the wrong answer.

Joist designations in the Metals section. K-, LH-, DLH-, and CJ-series joists have distinct load and span characteristics. Candidates who lump them together lose points on questions that hinge on which designation applies to a given span or loading condition.

Time management. 300 minutes for 100 questions is three minutes per question. The estimating section has multi-step problems that can eat five minutes each if you're not careful. Flag long calculations, move on, come back.

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