How Many Questions Are on the Technician Exam?

The Technician exam has 35 multiple-choice questions, and you need 26 correct to pass. That is set in FCC Part 97.503 for exam Element 2. The 35 questions come from a public pool of 409, one question from each of the pool's 35 question groups. The current pool is valid from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2030.

So you can miss up to 9 questions and still pass. That works out to about 74 percent. Every question you could see is published in advance, word for word, with its four answer choices.

Where the 35 questions come from

Part 97.523 requires one question pool per exam element, kept by all the Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (VECs) together. The pool must hold at least 10 times the number of questions on one exam, and it must be made public before it is used. For a 35-question exam that means at least 350 questions. The current Technician pool has 409.

The Question Pool Committee of the National Conference of VECs writes and maintains the pools. The 2026-2030 Technician pool was released on December 18, 2025, and an errata on February 19, 2026 reworded four questions. Pools are normally valid for four years and are released about six months before they take effect, which leaves time for study material to catch up.

If you want the full picture of how the pool is organised and how a question ID like T5A05 tells you where a question sits, I cover it in how the Technician question pool works. For a week-by-week approach to the whole exam, the complete ham radio exam study plan is the place to start.

How many questions each topic contributes

The pool is split into ten subelements, T1 to T9 and T0. Each subelement is split again into groups (T1A, T1B and so on), and the exam takes exactly one question from each group. Because the group count is fixed, so is the number of questions from each topic.

SubelementTopicQuestions in the poolQuestions on the exam T1FCC rules and the Amateur Service686 T2Operating procedures373 T3Radio wave characteristics353 T4Station setup and practices232 T5Electrical principles504 T6Electronic components464 T7Station equipment444 T8Modulation and signals474 T9Antennas and feed lines232 T0Electrical and RF safety363 Total40935

Rules are the biggest single block at 6 questions. The four technical subelements T5 to T8 together give 16 questions, close to half the exam. My view: those two areas decide most passes and most fails, so they deserve the most study time. The T1 rules questions and the T5 electrical principles questions each have their own study page.

A few questions refer to a figure. The pool includes three diagrams, T-1, T-2 and T-3, used by questions in groups T6C and T6D on schematics. They come with the pool, so you can study them like any other question.

What the questions look like

Every question has four answer choices, A to D, and one correct answer. In the published pool each question ID is followed by the correct letter in brackets, and some also carry a reference to the Part 97 rule behind them. On the actual exam neither the answer letter nor the rule reference appears with the question.

You do not know in advance which question from each group you will get. That is why I would study every question in the pool rather than trying to guess which ones show up.

Who gives the exam and how it is graded

A team of at least three Volunteer Examiners (VEs) runs the session under a VEC, per Part 97.509. Sessions are held in person or as remote video online exams. The VEs must grade your answers as soon as you finish each element, or at the earliest practical opportunity for a remote exam.

The exam fee is set by the VEC that runs the session and is usually $15 or less. The 2026 ARRL VEC fee is $15, and that one fee covers one attempt at each of the three elements. Under the ARRL VEC, candidates younger than 18 pay $5. Other VECs may have different policies, so check with the session organiser.

I could not find a fixed time limit for the Technician exam in Part 97 or on the ARRL exam pages, so I would ask the session team when you book.

If you do not pass

Part 97.509 says the same question set may not be given twice to the same examinee. So any retest uses a different version of the exam. Under the ARRL VEC, if you fail an element at a session and want to re-test for it, an additional fee is required. Whether a second version is available that day depends on the team, so ask before you start.

Elements you pass are not lost. The certificate you receive for a passed element (a CSCE) gives credit for each element passed within the previous 365 days, per Part 97.505.

Where to practise the 35-question format

The fastest way to get used to the format is to sit it. The Technician practice test draws 35 questions the same way the real exam does, one per group, and scores you against the same 26 mark. The Technician study pages list every pool question by topic, so you can drill your weak subelements on their own. Practice exams for all three classes are on the HamPost practice exam hub.

My rule for being ready: 85 percent or better on three practice exams in a row, with your missed-questions list cleared. Then book a session. If you have not yet worked through the steps from study to callsign, the beginner's guide to getting a ham radio license covers them. A local club is a good place to find people who have just sat the exam, as I explain in why joining a ham radio club is worth it.