California Real Estate Exam: What to Expect

The California real estate salesperson exam has 150 multiple-choice questions, and you get 3 hours to answer them. To pass, you need at least 70% of the questions right (DRE, Taking the Exam). The California Department of Real Estate (DRE) gives the exam in an electronic format at its own test sites in Fresno, La Palma, Oakland, Sacramento and San Diego (DRE). Before you can take it, you have to finish three college-level real estate courses and get the DRE to approve your application. The exam fee is $100 (DRE fees).

The exam at a glance

	Salesperson exam
Questions	150 multiple choice
Time allowed	3 hours
Passing score	70%
Format	Electronic, at DRE exam sites
Exam fee	$100 (retakes also $100)

All of these figures come from the DRE’s Taking the Exam page and its RE 206 fee schedule. The broker exam is a different test: 200 questions in 4 hours, with a 75% pass mark (same source).

What the exam covers

The DRE publishes the approximate share of the exam that goes to each content area (DRE, Salesperson Examination Content):

Content area	Approximate share
Practice of real estate and disclosures (including specialty areas)	25%
Laws of agency and fiduciary duties	17%
Property ownership and land use controls and regulations	15%
Property valuation and financial analysis	14%
Contracts	12%
Financing	9%
Transfer of property	8%

According to the DRE, the topic lists under each area are a sample of the field and not a complete list. Any single exam may leave out some listed subjects (same source). Under state law, the exam has to test your English and the arithmetic used in real estate, along with agency, contracts and deeds, business ethics, the Real Estate Law, and the Commissioner’s regulations (Bus. & Prof. Code § 10153).

Who can take it: the three required courses

The DRE lists three basic requirements. You must be at least 18 to be issued a license, you must be honest and truthful (a criminal conviction can lead to denial), and you must complete three college-level courses before the exam (DRE requirements). The DRE’s step-by-step guide adds that you need a Social Security number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (DRE steps guide).

The three courses are (DRE requirements):

1. Real Estate Principles (required).
2. Real Estate Practice (required). A practice course submitted on or after January 1, 2024 has to include implicit bias and fair housing components. The fair housing part includes a role-play in which you act as both the consumer and the agent.
3. One elective from this list: Real Estate Appraisal, Property Management, Real Estate Finance, Real Estate Economics, Legal Aspects of Real Estate, Real Estate Office Administration, General Accounting, Business Law, Escrows, Mortgage Loan Brokering and Lending, Computer Applications in Real Estate, or Common Interest Developments.

Each course must be three semester units or four quarter units and at least 45 hours. The courses have to come from a school accredited by WASC or another recognized regional accreditor, or from a private real estate school whose courses the Real Estate Commissioner has approved. Continuing education courses don’t count (same source). State law, as amended effective January 1, 2026, requires proof of all three courses before you take the exam (Bus. & Prof. Code § 10151(c)(2)). Members of the California State Bar don’t have to take the courses, and neither do applicants who already meet the broker exam’s education requirement (same source; DRE requirements).

California has no reciprocity with any other state, so a license from another state doesn’t excuse you from any requirement. You don’t need to live in California to get licensed, though (DRE, Out-of-State Applicants).

How to apply and what it costs

You can apply in one of two ways, either online through the DRE’s eLicensing system or by mail (DRE):

• Exam only: file the Salesperson Examination Application (RE 400A) with your course documents and the exam fee. You apply for the license after you pass.
• Combined exam and license: file the Salesperson Exam/License Application (RE 435) with your course documents, proof of Live Scan fingerprints, and the exam and license fees together (DRE steps guide).

These are the current salesperson fees (RE 206, Rev. 7/26; DRE fees page):

Fee	Amount
Examination	$100
Re-examination	$100
Rescheduled exam	$40
Original license	$350
Fingerprint processing	$49
Combined exam and license, total	$499

These amounts match the Business and Professions Code (§§ 10213.5, 10213.6 and 10215). If you live in California, you pay the $49 fingerprint fee directly to the Live Scan provider. The provider also charges its own fee for taking the prints (RE 202A). DRE fees are nonrefundable. That includes the combined exam and license fee, which isn’t refunded even if you never qualify, fail the exam, or are denied a license (RE 206). Your application and fee are good for two years. If you haven’t passed by then, you have to start over with a new application and fee (same source).

Scheduling and exam day

Once the DRE approves you, you choose a date and site in eLicensing. Qualified examinees can book an open seat as late as 6:00 a.m. on the day of the exam. If you book through eLicensing, you print your schedule notice yourself, since the DRE no longer mails one (DRE). You can hold only one scheduled exam at a time, so rescheduling removes you from the date you had. Each reschedule costs $40, and you can do it in eLicensing or by mail (DRE, Reschedule Your Exam; RE 206).

Sessions start on time, and the DRE asks you to arrive 30 minutes early. You’ll need one valid photo ID: a current state driver’s license or DMV ID card, a U.S. or foreign passport, or a U.S. military ID. Your phone has to be switched off and kept in your assigned locker, breaks included (DRE, Taking the Exam).

That same DRE page is inconsistent about calculators. Its list of items not allowed in the exam room includes calculators. Elsewhere on the page, it quotes Commissioner’s Regulation 2763, which allows silent, battery-operated, pocket-sized calculators that aren’t programmable and have no printout or alphabetic keyboard (same source). A regulation carries more legal weight than a list on a web page, but proctors enforce the room rules, so ask the DRE before exam day and be ready to test without a calculator.

Results and retakes

You get your result when you finish the electronic exam. More mail may follow, usually within five business days. Passing candidates aren’t told their score because the exam is “qualifying in nature” (DRE, Taking the Exam). If you fail, you see your score and your percentage correct in each subject area (same source).

After you get a failing result, you can apply to retake the exam through eLicensing or with your Examination Result Notice (RE 418A). Don’t reapply or pay before your results arrive. If you do, the DRE flags your record and holds your results while it assesses extra fees. You can retake as often as you want within two years of filing your original application (same source; Bus. & Prof. Code § 10153.8).

After you pass

If you filed exam-only, download the Salesperson License Application (RE 202) from your exam results in eLicensing. Send it in with a completed Live Scan form (RE 237) and the $350 license fee. Out-of-state residents also send a notarized Consent to Service of Process (RE 234). The DRE can’t issue the license until it gets your fingerprint results (DRE, Once You Pass). The DRE must receive your application, fingerprints and fee within one year of the date you passed (RE 202A; Bus. & Prof. Code § 10201.6).

A salesperson license lasts four years (Bus. & Prof. Code § 10153.7). You can be licensed without working for a broker, but until you have a responsible broker you can’t do any work that requires a license (DRE requirements).

To see how other states handle the same exam, read our guides to the Texas state portion and the Massachusetts salesperson exam, which split the test into national and state sections. California’s exam is one 150-question test.