The format of the real test, with the source and the date we checked it.
| Test | Questions | Minutes | Correct to pass |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bus (D) | 100 | 120 | 74 |
Source: Bus (D), 2026-05-06, checked on 2026-09-15
Every question in our bank for this test, grouped by the study area it belongs to.
D, DE, D1 and D1E
Source: Prometric Ireland Ltd (Driver Theory Test Service), Driver Theory Test FAQs, dated 2026-08-14, checked on 2026-09-15
€72
Source: Prometric Ireland Ltd (Driver Theory Test Service), Driver Theory Test Bus or Truck, dated 2025-06-13, checked on 2026-09-15
2 years
Source: Prometric Ireland Ltd (Driver Theory Test Service), Driver Theory Test FAQs, dated 2026-08-14, checked on 2026-09-15
A full category B licence plus a C or D theory test certificate
Source: Citizens Information, Learner permit rules for specific vehicle categories, dated 2025-09-29, checked on 2026-09-15
21 years
Source: Citizens Information, Categories of motor vehicles and minimum age of drivers in Ireland, dated 2025-07-07, checked on 2026-09-15
24; 21 with a Driver CPC years
Source: Citizens Information, Categories of motor vehicles and minimum age of drivers in Ireland, dated 2025-07-07, checked on 2026-09-15
Rules of the road; Risk perception; Eco-driving; Hazard awareness; Safe driving behaviour
Source: Road Safety Authority, Theory test: what it is, undated, checked on 2026-09-15
Truck, bus and CPC case study candidates also bring a full current category B licence (Irish, EU, EEA, Swiss or Ukrainian), or a current C or D Irish learner permit, or a full C or D licence
Source: Prometric Ireland Ltd (Driver Theory Test Service), ID requirements, dated 2025-02-20, checked on 2026-09-15
Questions can be skipped or marked and returned to at any stage within the test time
Source: Prometric Ireland Ltd (Driver Theory Test Service), Driver Theory Test FAQs, dated 2026-08-14, checked on 2026-09-15
Choose an answer, then open the explanation to see the rule it comes from.
Because of this sign, what must you do?
Correct answer: C
The keep straight ahead sign is a mandatory sign under Regulation 4(1) of the Road Traffic (Traffic Signs) Regulations 2025, listed in Part 1 of Schedule 1. It requires traffic to go straight on. Keeping left, turning right further on and yielding are what other signs ask for.
CitationSource: Road Traffic (Traffic Signs) Regulations 2025 (S.I. No. 433 of 2025), Regulation 4(1)(a); Schedule 1, Part 1, checked on 2026-09-16.
Before a small bridge on a rural road, this sign faces you. What does it mean?
Correct answer: D
This is the maximum design gross vehicle weight sign. Under Regulation 27 of the Road Traffic (Traffic Signs) Regulations 2025, the driver of a vehicle whose design gross vehicle weight is over the figure shown, in tonnes, must not go past it.
CitationSource: Road Traffic (Traffic Signs) Regulations 2025 (S.I. No. 433 of 2025), Regulation 27(1), (2); Schedule 2, Part 2, checked on 2026-09-16.
Before a major road, you face this sign. What does it require?
Correct answer: A
Regulation 29 of the Road Traffic (Traffic Signs) Regulations 2025 provides that the stop sign indicates that traffic shall stop before entering a major road. Slowing and continuing, or stopping only when traffic is coming, does not meet that requirement, and the duty applies whichever way you are turning.
CitationSource: Road Traffic (Traffic Signs) Regulations 2025 (S.I. No. 433 of 2025), Regulation 29(4), (5), checked on 2026-09-15.
Which sign keeps a space for electric vehicles that are recharging?
Correct answer
Correct answer: B
Sign B is the electric vehicle recharging only sign. Part 2 of Schedule 2 to the Road Traffic (Traffic Signs) Regulations 2025 lists it among the restrictive signs made under Regulation 22. It keeps the space for electric vehicles while they recharge.
CitationSource: Road Traffic (Traffic Signs) Regulations 2025 (S.I. No. 433 of 2025), Regulation 22(1); Schedule 2, Part 2, checked on 2026-09-16.
The test you sit for a bus is the Bus Theory Test, coded D, and one sitting of it serves every bus category rather than one test for each vehicle. A pass on it is what the National Driver Licence Service looks for before it grants a first bus learner permit, so the theory comes before the permit, before the training and before the driving test.
A bus theory pass is not a standing start. It is one document in a sequence, and the order catches people out: certificate first, then the learner permit, then the training, then the driving test. Regulation 20(5)(a)(v) of the Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) Regulations 2006 makes a theory test certificate for the category a condition of a first learner permit. The certificate expires, and a long wait for a permit or a test slot can run it out, which means sitting and paying for the same test twice.
The bus categories do not share a single minimum age, and holding a Driver CPC moves some of them. Two people of the same age can be in different positions, one able to apply and one not, depending on the category on the application. Read the age against the category you are applying for rather than against buses in general: the minibus categories and the full bus categories are set apart from each other in regulation 9 of those Regulations as substituted.
The learner conditions bite harder on a bus than on a car. A bus learner must not tow a trailer, and no learner permit holder may carry passengers for reward, both under regulation 17(6)(b). Breaking a condition on the permit is an offence in its own right under the Road Traffic (Licensing of Learner Drivers) Regulations 2007, so a bus learner permit is not a way to start the work you are training for.
The topic list is the one every category is tested against, but the questions are written for a long, heavy vehicle carrying people who are mostly not belted in, and that changes what a right answer looks like. A gap that is fine in a car is not a gap a coach can take from a standing start. A braking question is asking about the weight behind you and the passengers on their feet in the aisle as much as about the distance to the vehicle in front.
Several separate bodies of rule sit behind the bus-only questions, each with its own instrument. Ordinary speed limits are set by vehicle type in the Road Traffic (Ordinary Speed Limits - Buses, Heavy Goods Vehicles, etc) Regulations 2008, where a bus built to carry standing passengers is held to a lower limit on every road than a bus that is not. Learn a single speed for buses and that question goes every time. Speed limiters are a separate requirement under the European Communities (Installation and Use of Speed Limitation Devices in Motor Vehicles) Regulations 2005, and a limiter question is about the device being fitted and working, not about the limit on the sign.
Driving time, breaks and rest come from Regulation (EC) No 561/2006, which reaches passenger vehicles built to carry more than nine people including the driver. That threshold puts a large minibus inside the drivers hours rules while smaller passenger work stays outside them. The records you must carry come from Regulation (EU) No 165/2014: the driver card, and the sheets for the current day and the previous 56 days. That period was lengthened, and older study notes still give the shorter one, which makes it the most common out of date answer in bus material.
The figures at the top of this page are the ones that decide the booking: what the sitting costs, how long you are in the chair, how many answers have to be right, and how long the certificate lasts once you hold it. Each is carried with the source it came from, so you can check it rather than take it on trust.
Two things go wrong on the day more often than a hard question does. The first is identification. Bus candidates are asked for more at check in than car candidates are, and the extra requirement is set out above; arriving with the car list alone is a wasted journey and a lost fee. The second is pacing. A long sitting invites two bad habits, racing the first half and then re-reading everything, or stalling on a single question instead of using the control that lets you come back to it.
The bus question set on this site is still being built, so the practice offered above is what actually exists rather than a promise of a full bus paper. The overlap is worth knowing while that work goes on: most of what the bus test asks is general road rules, signs and risk, and those questions are the same ones every other category faces. The lessons cover that ground now, and the bus-only material is the part still being added.
Source: Irish Statute Book, Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) Regulations 2006, regs. 17(6)(b) and 20(5)(a)(v), checked on 2026-09-16
Source: Irish Statute Book, Road Traffic (Licensing of Learner Drivers) Regulations 2007, reg. 2(b)(iii), checked on 2026-09-16
Source: Irish Statute Book, Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2011, reg. 2(d), substituting reg. 9, checked on 2026-09-16
Source: Irish Statute Book, Road Traffic (Ordinary Speed Limits - Buses, Heavy Goods Vehicles, etc) Regulations 2008, reg. 3, checked on 2026-09-16
Source: Irish Statute Book, European Communities (Installation and Use of Speed Limitation Devices in Motor Vehicles) Regulations 2005, reg. 4(1), checked on 2026-09-16
Source: EUR-Lex, Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 on the harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport, arts. 2(1), 6 and 7, checked on 2026-09-16
Source: EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 on tachographs in road transport, arts. 34 and 36, checked on 2026-09-16
The bus theory test has 100 questions in 120 minutes, and you pass with 74 correct answers.
Source: Prometric Ireland Ltd (Driver Theory Test Service), Driver Theory Test FAQs, dated 2026-08-14, checked on 2026-09-15
The test fee is €72. No limit on the number of attempts; the fee is paid each time.
Source: Prometric Ireland Ltd (Driver Theory Test Service), Driver Theory Test Bus or Truck, dated 2025-06-13, checked on 2026-09-15
Source: Prometric Ireland Ltd (Driver Theory Test Service), Driver Theory Test FAQs, dated 2026-08-14, checked on 2026-09-15
One pass of this test covers licence categories D, DE, D1 and D1E.
Source: Prometric Ireland Ltd (Driver Theory Test Service), Driver Theory Test FAQs, dated 2026-08-14, checked on 2026-09-15
The minimum age for category D1 is 21 years. The minimum age for category D is 24 years or 21 years with a Driver CPC.
Source: Citizens Information, Categories of motor vehicles and minimum age of drivers in Ireland, dated 2025-07-07, checked on 2026-09-15
Yes, the test is available in Irish as well as English.
Source: Prometric Ireland Ltd (Driver Theory Test Service), Driver Theory Test FAQs, dated 2026-08-14, checked on 2026-09-15
You need a full category B licence plus a C or D theory test certificate. For category D1E you need a full category D1 licence first.
Source: Citizens Information, Learner permit rules for specific vehicle categories, dated 2025-09-29, checked on 2026-09-15
Source: Citizens Information, Categories of motor vehicles and minimum age of drivers in Ireland, dated 2025-07-07, checked on 2026-09-15
Yes. The combined bus and truck theory test (CD) has 140 questions in 180 minutes, you pass with 104 correct answers, and the fee is €84. One pass covers licence categories C, C1, CE, C1E, D, D1, DE and D1E.
Source: Prometric Ireland Ltd (Driver Theory Test Service), Driver Theory Test FAQs, dated 2026-08-14, checked on 2026-09-15
Source: Prometric Ireland Ltd (Driver Theory Test Service), Driver Theory Test Bus or Truck, dated 2025-06-13, checked on 2026-09-15
Source: Citizens Information Board, Driver theory test, dated 2026-05-06, checked on 2026-09-15
Driver CPC periodic training is 35 hours every 5 years, taken in 7-hour blocks. You must be over 21 for a bus Driver CPC.
Source: Irish Statute Book, European Communities (Vehicle Drivers Certificate of Professional Competence) (No. 2) Regulations 2008, S.I. No. 359 of 2008, reg. 12(3), undated, checked on 2026-09-15
Source: Citizens Information, Learner permit rules for specific vehicle categories, dated 2025-09-29, checked on 2026-09-15
A learner permit application to the NDLS costs €45, and the bus driving test fee is €120. Your theory test pass certificate is valid for 2 years from the date of the test.
Source: National Driver Licence Service (NDLS), Fees, undated, checked on 2026-09-15
Source: Citizens Information, Driving test, dated 2026-02-25, checked on 2026-09-15
Source: Prometric Ireland Ltd (Driver Theory Test Service), Driver Theory Test FAQs, dated 2026-08-14, checked on 2026-09-15