NC Contractor Business & Law Exam Prep 2026: Free Practice Questions by Topic

Why study by topic, not by cramming the whole code

The North Carolina Business and Law exam is not a random sweep of trivia. Every scored item maps to a defined area of the statutes, and the areas are not weighted equally. Our own 822-question bank mirrors the way the exam distributes its emphasis: 424 questions on licensing and the Board, 161 on liens and bonds, 102 on one-call underground utilities, 73 on erosion and sedimentation control, and 62 on subcontractor payment. Licensing alone is roughly half of everything, so a candidate who spends half of their study time on Chapter 87 and the Board rules is spending it where the marks actually are. Studying in that proportion, one topic at a time, is far more efficient than reading the statutes front to back and hoping the right sections stick. The five guides below follow that same order so you can work through them in the sequence that matches the weight of the test.

The five topics the exam covers

Each guide answers the real questions North Carolina candidates ask, explains the governing statute, gives you a comparison table for the points people confuse, and lets you try free practice questions drawn from the same 822-question bank that powers our offline app. Together they walk the whole syllabus:

• Licensing and the Board: who must be licensed under NCGS 87-1, the five classifications, the qualifier, exams, renewals, continuing education and unlicensed-contracting penalties under NCGS 87-2 through 87-15.
• Liens and bonds: mechanics' liens on real property, the lien agent, liens upon funds and payment bonds under NCGS Chapter 44A.
• One-call underground utilities: the Underground Utility Safety and Damage Prevention Act, locate notices, the tolerance zone and damage reporting under NCGS 87-115 through 87-129.
• Erosion and sedimentation control: the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act of 1973, erosion control plans, ground-cover deadlines and penalties under NCGS 113A-50 through 113A-65.1.
• Subcontractor payment: the seven-day interim payment rule and unenforceable pay-if-paid clauses under NCGS Chapter 22C, plus public prompt-payment under NCGS 143-134.1.

Where the law behind the exam lives

The exam pulls from more than one place, and knowing which agency owns which rule helps the material make sense. Chapter 87 and the Title 21 administrative rules are the Licensing Board's own turf: the Board sets the classifications, runs the examination and disciplines contractors. The lien and bond law in Chapter 44A is court-enforced private and public construction law, not something the Board administers, which is why the vocabulary of contractors, first, second and third tier subcontractors, lien agents and payment bonds is worth learning precisely. The one-call rules in Article 8A run through the statewide notification center, commonly known as NC811, and are enforced through a Review Board and civil penalties. Erosion and sedimentation control sits with the North Carolina Sedimentation Control Commission and the Department of Environmental Quality under Chapter 113A. Subcontractor payment splits between private jobs under Chapter 22C and public jobs under Chapter 143, Article 8. When a practice question feels unfamiliar, identifying which of these regimes it belongs to is half the battle.

Check your readiness, then go deeper

Not sure where to start? Work the free practice questions on each topic page to find your weak areas, then drill them. Each topic page exposes a slice of the same question bank that powers our offline app, so you can sample the real difficulty for free before you decide to unlock all 822 questions. Because the North Carolina General Statutes are public-domain edicts of government, published free by the General Assembly at ncleg.gov, every fact on these pages is taken from the enacted statutes and the administrative rules rather than any copyrighted study guide. The facts here were last reviewed on 2026-07-17, so treat this hub as your citable starting point and verify any deadline or threshold against the current statute before you act on it, since the General Assembly amends these chapters from time to time and a snapshot can fall behind the law.