Florida General Contractor Exam Registration: The Order of Operations

Section 489.111 sets the floor: you must be 18, of good moral character, and meet one of the experience or education routes. The common route is four years of active experience as a skilled worker or foreman, with at least one of those years as a foreman. College credit can replace up to three of those years, and a baccalaureate in engineering, architecture, or building construction plus one year of experience also qualifies.

General contractor applicants face two extra tests under Rule 61G4-15.001(2). The experience has to be commercial and cover at least four of six areas: foundations or slabs over 20,000 square feet, masonry walls, steel erection, elevated slabs, column erection, and formwork for structural reinforced concrete. You also need at least one year on structures of four or more stories. If your record doesn't show the four-story year, the building or residential license may be the one you can actually get; our general contractor license guide compares the three.

Form CILB 5-A asks for this experience project by project: employer, the qualifying contractor's name and license number, dates, which of the six areas the job covered, and whether the building was four stories or taller. The DBPR may contact the supervisor to verify it. If you can't fill that page in today, sort it out before you register for the exam.

The Candidate Information Booklet states that anyone who wants to sit a construction exam must apply directly with PTI, online at floridaexam.com or by phone at 407-264-0562. A printable version (the CILB 1 packet) can be mailed instead. On the registration you pick your license category and check the parts you want to take.

PTI charges a $135 registration fee, and the 2026 packet says it is charged every time a registration is made for any part. That includes each retake. After registration, the Bureau of Education and Testing sends Pearson VUE an authorization notice, and you get a confirmation letter by email (or by mail if you gave no email address). The packet says you can call Pearson VUE after 7 to 10 business days if nothing has arrived.

• Degree exemption: under s.489.113(1), a baccalaureate in building construction with a GPA of 3.0 or higher means you take only Business & Finance. You attest to it on the exam registration.
• Spanish: the registration form lets you request the exam in Spanish.
• Testing accommodations: request them through the DBPR's Special Testing Coordinator before each exam, separately from the PTI registration.
• Keep your candidate ID number. You need it to book at Pearson VUE, and later to link your exam results to your license application.

Professional Testing, Inc. develops and scores the exams; Pearson VUE schedules and delivers them on computer. Book online through Pearson VUE's Florida DBPR Construction page or by phone at 888-204-6230. The booklet notes that if you already know your candidate ID, you don't have to wait for the confirmation letter to make the reservation. Pearson VUE collects its own administration fee per part when you book. For Business & Finance that is $80, so each attempt at that part runs $215 at current rates.

Each part is its own appointment, so you can take Business & Finance first and the other two when you're ready. Pearson VUE lets you book as late as one calendar day ahead, seats permitting, and asks you to register your legal name exactly as it appears on your government-issued ID.

• Cancel or reschedule at least two full calendar days before the appointment to avoid a penalty. For a Monday exam, that means by midnight the Friday before.
• Miss an appointment and the 2026 packet says you get a failing score for that part and forfeit the fees. The booklet lists narrow excused-absence reasons (illness, a death in the family, a disabling accident, a court date or jury duty, military duty) with documentation due to Pearson VUE within four days.
• PTI registration fees are non-refundable and can't be handed to another employee.

Bring two forms of valid signature identification, one of them government-issued: a driver's license, state ID card, passport, or military ID. Student IDs, employee badges, and photo credit cards don't count. The booklet adds that your name and address must match what you submitted on your application. Arrive 30 minutes early; a photo is taken at check-in and printed on your score report.

Only books on the approved reference list come in. They can be underlined in pen or highlighter, but they can't contain notes, and only permanently attached tabs with plain chapter or page headings are accepted. Our books and tabs guide covers the list and the markup rules in detail. A silent, battery-powered calculator without an alphabetic keypad is allowed. You get your result before you leave: 70% passes, and scores are not rounded.

Rule 61G4-16.009 requires you to retake only the parts you failed. Before you can sit again, the booklet says you reapply directly with PTI, which means another $135 registration plus Pearson VUE's fee for the part. Passed parts stand, but not indefinitely: you must pass every part within four years of the first attempt, or all earlier scores become invalid and you start over. The 2026 packet says that clock begins with your first scheduled exam date, and that attempts inside the four years are unlimited.

A candidate who fails can review the missed questions at a Pearson VUE center. The review has to be requested within 21 days of the exam, and the packet bars taking an exam within 21 days of a scheduled review. Our guide to failing the Florida contractor exam covers how to use the score report before you rebook.

After the exams, the license application goes to the DBPR, online through DBPR Online Services or on the printable CILB 5-A. First-time Online Services users create an account and link their exam candidate ID. The DBPR's construction FAQ answers the timing question directly: you must apply within four years of passing, and after that you have to take the exam again. That clock runs after the exam clock, so passing first and applying second is the intended order.

The application fee depends on where the two-year licensing cycle stands when you file, so check the current amount on the form. The rest of the file:

• Employment history for every year of experience you claim, project by project, as described in Step 1.
• A credit report with a FICO-derived score (the DBPR publishes a list of credit agencies for reference, but says it isn't exhaustive), including a statement that local, state, and federal public records were searched.
• A score below 660 means proof that you completed a board-approved 14-hour financial responsibility course.
• Proof that any liens or judgments are satisfied and any bankruptcy discharged, if they appear on your record.
• An attestation that you carry public liability and property damage insurance at the minimums printed on the form, and that you have workers' compensation coverage or will get an exemption within 30 days after the license issues.
• Electronic fingerprints through a Livescan provider registered with FDLE, submitted right after the application. The DBPR checklist notes that FDLE wants the application on file first.

Most of the license file can be built during exam prep. Pull your credit early enough to fix errors or take the 14-hour course if you need it. Collect the project details for your experience pages while the people who can confirm them are still reachable. Get insurance quotes so the attestation isn't a surprise. Our license cost breakdown puts numbers on the fees, books, and fingerprinting.

The piece you can't shortcut is passing three open-book exams. Every failed attempt means another PTI registration and another Pearson VUE seat. Start with the free readiness quiz: it takes about eight minutes, is scored against the real exam outlines, and shows which part needs the most work before you register.