A South Dakota driver’s license (DL) is a card that gives you permission to drive a motor vehicle. Your full name, date of birth, mailing address, signature, photo, and physical description are available on the DL card. You have to bring the card anytime you drive a motor vehicle.
Before you can get a class C license in South Dakota, you are required to pass relevant knowledge and driving tests to show your knowledge about the rules of the road and indicate your driving skills. The DMV permit test is a set of multiple-choice questions and is administered by the state’s official South Dakota DMV only. Our free South Dakota DMV practice test is all based on information available in the South Dakota driver’s manual. We put the free DMV written test 2025 and the official manual book to help you prepare well for these tests. Our gamified learning methods and our South Dakota practice driving test will help you easier to obtain knowledge than just studying the manual.
The South Dakota written driving test consists of 25 questions, of which you have to correctly answer at least 20 questions (80%) to pass the test.
You must be at least 14 years old and have enough of the required documents to apply for a driver’s license in South Dakota. However, drivers under 18 years old can operate a motor only when there is a parent or legal guardian seat next to them.
The South Dakota written driving test covers some topics such as road rules, road signs and signals, traffic laws, and safe driving practices. These topics are written in the South Dakota Driver’s Manual, so reviewing this book carefully before taking the exam will help you a lot.
You have to pay $28 to obtain a South Dakota driver’s license. However, you should prepare for additional fees including application fees, testing fees, processing fees, or some combination of these costs.
A South Dakota driver’s license is valid for five years. Before your driver’s license expires, you have up to 180 days to renew it. In South Dakota, you don’t need to wait in line to renew your driver’s license because the state allows you to apply online or renew by mail.
To get your South Dakota driver’s license, you must pass a vision exam.
You are not allowed to open a book on the South Dakota DMV test. You will be immediately disqualified if you are found cheating on the test. Therefore, you should spend time studying the South Dakota Driver’s Manual, prepare well, and practice regularly to pass the test.
The South Dakota road test requires you to demonstrate some driving skills such as 3-point turns, smooth stops, and accelerations, baking up, stopping at a curb, turning safely, proper following distance, yielding the right-of-way, and so on. Spending time practicing these maneuvers will help you pass the road test easier.
There is no restriction, and if you fail the test 3 times within 6 months, you don’t need to pay an additional fee. However, after that time, you must pay another fee and start over.
South Dakota DMV test only accepts 5 mistakes made by the examinee. If you make more than 5 mistakes, you have to retake the test.
You have about 15 to 30 minutes to complete your South Dakota written driver’s license test.
To familiarize yourself with the format of the DMV written tests, you can try our South Dakota DMV sample tests here.
