An over-the-counter medicine warns that it may cause drowsiness. What should guide your decision about driving?
Correct answer: Check and follow its driving warnings before taking the wheel.
Prescription and over-the-counter medicines can affect driving. Read and follow the warnings before driving; a short test drive is not a safe way to find out whether you are impaired.
Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, Revised May 2025 (printing 09/25), printed p. 42: Chapter 4 - Your Driving, Medications; corroborated by NHTSA Drug-Impaired Driving - Many Substances Can Impair Driving ↗
You are choosing a place for a rear-facing infant restraint. Which proposed location is unsafe?
Correct answer: A front passenger seat with an active frontal airbag.
Do not put a rear-facing infant restraint in front of an active frontal airbag. Use an appropriate rear location and follow the vehicle and restraint instructions.
Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, Revised May 2025 (printing 09/25), printed p. 45: Chapter 4 - Your Driving, Child Safety Points ↗
You can see a sharp curve ahead on an otherwise dry road. When should you make the main reduction to a safe speed?
Correct answer: Before entering the curve.
Reduce speed before entering a curve so you are not relying on a sudden correction while turning. The safe entry speed depends on the road and conditions.
Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, Revised May 2025 (printing 09/25), printed p. 53: Chapter 4 - Your Driving, Rounding a Curve ↗
Before getting into a car that you will back out of a driveway, what should you check?
Correct answer: The area behind it for children and small obstacles.
Check behind the car before entering. Small children and low objects can be difficult to see from the driver's seat, so mirrors alone are not enough.
Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, Revised May 2025 (printing 09/25), printed p. 56: Chapter 4 - Your Driving, Backing ↗
A large truck enters the roundabout ahead of you and needs more than one lane's width. How should you respond?
Correct answer: Give it extra room rather than trying to squeeze alongside.
Large trucks and buses may need to straddle a lane while negotiating a roundabout. Leave room for that movement; do not squeeze into the truck's turning space.
Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, Revised May 2025 (printing 09/25), printed p. 59: Chapter 4 - Your Driving, Roundabouts - Tips & Reminders; current NCDOT Roundabouts - Roundabout Tips & Reminders ↗
You leave a broad highway for a paved secondary road. Why might the same speed be unsuitable?
Correct answer: The secondary road may have sharper curves, steeper hills and shorter sight distances.
Paving does not make every road suitable for main-highway speeds. Secondary roads may have limited sight distance and more demanding hills or curves, so choose speed for the actual conditions.
Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, Revised May 2025 (printing 09/25), printed p. 63: Chapter 4 - Your Driving, Open Roads - Secondary Roads ↗
Your car continues bouncing after ordinary bumps and leans unusually far in turns. What should you do?
Correct answer: Have the suspension inspected and any defects corrected.
Continuous bouncing or excessive leaning can indicate a suspension problem that affects control. Have it inspected instead of trying to compensate with abrupt steering or delaying the check.
Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, Revised May 2025 (printing 09/25), printed p. 67: Chapter 4 - Your Driving, Vehicle Equipment - Suspension System ↗
An approaching driver keeps bright headlights on. How should you protect your view?
Correct answer: Keep your own lights low and look slightly right toward the road edge.
Do not stare into the glare or retaliate with high beams. Keep your own lights low, reduce speed as needed and use the right road edge as a guide while continuing to watch ahead.
Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, Revised May 2025 (printing 09/25), printed p. 71: Chapter 4 - Your Driving, Night Driving - Tips for nighttime driving ↗
On a cold evening, most pavement still looks clear. Which areas deserve special attention for early ice?
Correct answer: Bridges, overpasses and shaded stretches.
Bridges, overpasses and shaded areas are often the first places to freeze. Do not assume that a clear-looking approach means the next surface has the same traction.
Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, Revised May 2025 (printing 09/25), printed p. 73: Chapter 4 - Your Driving, Snow and Ice ↗
Why does a long truck need more room than a car to turn a corner?
Correct answer: Its rear wheels do not follow the same path as its front wheels.
A truck's rear wheels follow a different path from its front wheels, so its turning space can be larger than it first appears. Watch its signals and leave room instead of entering that space.
Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, Revised May 2025 (printing 09/25), printed p. 91: Chapter 6 - Sharing the Road, Trucks and Other Vehicles ↗
You are waiting to turn left, and the signal controlling that turn remains a steady red arrow. An oncoming-traffic gap appears. What should you do?
Correct answer: Remain stopped for the red arrow
The North Carolina handbook's steady red arrow display means stop with no turn allowed. A traffic gap does not change the red arrow into a permissive indication. This concerns the controlled left turn, not a circular-red right-turn rule.
Source: NCDMV Driver Handbook, revised May 2025, printing 09/25, current-linked 108-page PDF metadata modified September 10, 2026; Chapter 5 Signals, Signs and Pavement Markings; printed 81 / physical PDF 83; Flashing Yellow Arrow Traffic Signal Heads - Solid Red Arrow. ↗
At a freeway entrance ramp, the ramp-meter signal is dark rather than red or green. There is no other control requiring a stop. What does the dark meter allow?
Correct answer: Proceed past the meter and merge as normal conditions allow
A dark ramp meter allows passage without a meter-required stop. This differs from a failed intersection signal and does not remove ordinary merging or yielding duties.
Source: NCDMV Driver Handbook, revised May 2025, printing 09/25, current-linked 108-page PDF metadata modified September 10, 2026; Chapter 5 Signals, Signs and Pavement Markings; printed 82 / physical PDF 84; Ramp Meter Traffic Signals. Current corroboration read September 13, 2026: G.S. 20-158(c)(6), with adjoining nonintersection-control context read. ↗
You want to return along the road you just traveled. This sign is posted at the intersection. Which plan does it rule out?
Correct answer: Making a U-turn at that intersection
The red slash over the U-shaped arrow prohibits a U-turn there. It does not by itself prohibit continuing ahead or using another lawful route.
Source: NCDMV Driver Handbook, revised May 2025, printing 09/25, current-linked 108-page PDF metadata modified September 10, 2026; Chapter 5 Signals, Signs and Pavement Markings; printed 86 / physical PDF 88; Regulatory Signs panel - No U Turns. ↗
You are in the right lane when this warning appears. What does the diagram tell you about the roadway ahead?
Correct answer: The right lane narrows into the lane beside it
The tapering line shows the right lane ending. Recognize the change early and plan a safe merge; the sign does not authorize an abrupt lane change.
Source: NCDMV Driver Handbook, revised May 2025, printing 09/25, current-linked 108-page PDF metadata modified September 10, 2026; Chapter 5 Signals, Signs and Pavement Markings; printed 87 / physical PDF 89; Warning Signs panel - Lane Drop. ↗
Two adjacent travel lanes are separated by a yellow center line rather than a white lane line. What does that color difference tell you?
Correct answer: The adjacent lanes carry opposing directions of traffic
Yellow separates opposing traffic; white separates lanes traveling in the same direction. Color alone does not establish permission or safe conditions for a pass.
Source: NCDMV Driver Handbook, revised May 2025, printing 09/25, current-linked 108-page PDF metadata modified September 10, 2026; Chapter 5 Signals, Signs and Pavement Markings; printed 88 / physical PDF 90; Pavement Markings - lane-line colors. ↗
