NSW Driver Knowledge Test (DKT)

What the Driver Knowledge Test is

The Driver Knowledge Test, almost always called the DKT, is the first step in getting a NSW driver licence. It is a written test of the road rules and of safe driving knowledge, and you sit it before you are allowed to drive on a learner licence.

It is run by Transport for NSW through Service NSW. This site is independent practice material and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to either of them — always confirm the current rules, fees and eligibility on the official Service NSW website before you book.

Two ways to sit the DKT

You can sit the DKT online at home, or book an in-person test and do it at a service centre. Both roads lead to the same result: pass, and you can apply for your learner licence.

• Online — you do the test at home, at a time you choose.
• In person — you book a slot and sit it at a Service NSW centre.

What the DKT costs

The test fee is $58 whether you sit it online or in person, so the choice between them is about convenience rather than money. Fees change: the figure here is carried as a dated fact, and the official Service NSW page is always the final word.

How many attempts you get

Sitting the DKT online gives you 12 months of access to the course and as many attempts at the test as you need — you pay the test fee once, not once per attempt. That is worth knowing before you sit it nervous: the online road is forgiving of a first attempt that does not go your way.

What happens once you pass

Once you have passed the DKT and you are 16 years or older, you can apply for your learner licence. That is the point at which you can legally start driving with a supervising driver.

How to prepare for the DKT

The DKT is a knowledge test, so it rewards the kind of preparation that knowledge tests always reward: reading the official material once properly, then testing yourself until the answers stop being a guess.

The trap is rote learning. People memorise the wording of practice questions rather than the rule underneath, then meet the same rule phrased differently on the day and freeze. If you can explain WHY a rule exists — why you give way where you do, why a speed limit changes where it does — you will answer any wording of it.

Sit practice tests until you are passing comfortably rather than barely. A score that scrapes through on a practice run is a score that fails on a nervous morning.

What a learner licence lets you do

Passing the DKT is not permission to drive alone. A learner licence lets you drive while supervised by a person who holds a full Australian driver licence, with L plates displayed, and while following the conditions that apply to learners in NSW.

Those conditions — supervision, speed, alcohol, mobile phones, logged hours — are set by Transport for NSW and they do change. Read them on the official site rather than taking them from a forum or from a friend who got their licence some years ago.

Practise the DKT here, free

Everything on this page runs in your browser, with no sign-up and no limit on attempts.

Mock tests: 8 full-length tests of 45 questions each, built the way the real DKT is built — 15 general knowledge questions and 30 road safety questions. They are marked on the official rule set by Transport for NSW: at least 12 of the 15 general knowledge questions and at least 29 of the 30 road safety questions.

Topic tests: 12 sets grouped by subject — road signs, intersections, speed limits, traffic lights and lanes, pedestrians, seat belts, alcohol and drugs, fatigue and more — so you can work on the area that keeps catching you out.

Practice sets: 9 shorter sets for a quick run through the whole bank.

Your best score and attempts are kept on this device, so you can see which sets you have mastered and which still need work.