Six sign shapes, one priority ladder, three distance formulas and the alcohol limits — that is most of it. The exam is 30 questions worth 2–5 error points each; you fail above 10, and two wrong 5-pointers fail you on their own. Every rule below carries its StVO paragraph, checked on 2026-08-03.
Every 'who goes first' question is solved by walking down this list and stopping at the first line that applies. Never mix two levels — a sign does not argue with a traffic light, it simply loses.
§36, §37, §8 StVO
The signs that settle it
You are reading which part of their body faces you. See their side or shoulder and you may go. See their chest or their back, with arms stretched sideways, and you stop. One arm raised straight up means “attention”, like amber: stop, unless you are already too close to stop safely.
§36 Abs. 2 StVO
These apply whatever the signs say, and most of the hardest questions live here.
| Situation | Who goes | Why, in plain words | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| You turn left; someone comes towards you | Them | A priority road protects you against traffic joining from side roads. It does nothing against oncoming traffic. Turning left you always wait — there is no exception anywhere in the rules. | §9 Abs. 3 StVO |
| You turn right; a cyclist beside you goes straight | The cyclist | Anything going straight beats a turn across its path, and §9 Abs. 3 names cyclists explicitly, including ones riding beside you in your own direction. This is the most common serious accident in German cities. | §9 Abs. 3 StVO |
| You come out of a driveway, car park, petrol station or traffic-calmed area | Everyone | Rechts vor links does not apply to you here at all. You are joining the carriageway, so you wait for everybody — including people walking on the pavement you drive across — and you must be guided in if you cannot see. | §10 StVO |
| You reverse, turn round, or pull out from the kerb | Everyone | The entire responsibility is yours. If you cannot see, somebody must stand outside and guide you. | §9 Abs. 5, §10 StVO |
| A tram meets you at an unsigned crossroads | Whoever is on the right | Rechts vor links applies to the tram as well. §8 Abs. 1 StVO has exactly two exceptions — priority signs, and vehicles coming off a Feld- oder Waldweg — and rail vehicles are not one of them. A tram approaching from your left waits for you. | §8 Abs. 1 StVO |
| You are turning and a tram is coming, including alongside you | The tram | This is where rail vehicles do win. When you turn, you must let rail vehicles through even when they are running on or beside the carriageway in your own direction — and you may never force a tram to brake by standing on its rails. | §9 Abs. 3, §2 Abs. 3 StVO |
| A bus indicates to leave a marked stop | The bus | You must let it pull out, and slow down or stop if you must. There is no 'only inside towns' limitation on this rule — it applies wherever the stop is. | §20 Abs. 5 StVO |
| A bus stands at a stop with hazard lights on | The passengers | You may pass only at walking pace and without endangering anyone. On an undivided road that binds oncoming traffic too. | §20 Abs. 2 & 4 StVO |
| Emergency vehicle with blue light AND siren | Them | Everyone clears the way at once and forms a Rettungsgasse in slow traffic. Blue light with no siren means the vehicle is only travelling and puts no duty on you. | §38 Abs. 1 StVO |
| Something is parked in your lane and you must go round it | Oncoming traffic | Whoever's side is blocked waits — unless Zeichen 208 or 308 is present and hands the priority to one direction. | §6 StVO |
| Your lane ends and two become one | Take turns | Zip merge: drive to the very end of your lane, then let one in, go, let one in. Merging early wastes half the road and is not the polite option. | §7 Abs. 4 StVO |
| A level crossing, whatever the signs say | The train | Never drive on unless you can get completely off the other side. A train needs several hundred metres to stop and cannot steer. | §19 StVO |
When you can walk that ladder without hesitating, the junction trainer is where it stops being theory: 31 real junctions, in the order the cars actually go.
Every one of these is believed by people who already drive. Five of them were wrong in the source material this trainer was built from, and were corrected against the StVO before a single question was written.
This is the single most widespread German driving myth. A Streckenverbot such as Zeichen 274 stays in force until Zeichen 278 or 282 lifts it, or until a new limit replaces it — passing a junction does nothing at all. A ZONE sign (Zeichen 274.1) is different again: it covers every street inside the area until the matching end sign. OLG Hamm has treated believing otherwise as a vermeidbarer Verbotsirrtum — an avoidable mistake of law, which is not an excuse.
§41 StVO · Zeichen 274 / 278 / 282
§8 Abs. 1 StVO gives rechts vor links exactly two exceptions: priority signs, and vehicles coming off a Feld- oder Waldweg. Rail vehicles are not on that list, so at an unsigned crossroads a tram from your left waits for you like anything else. What trams do get is §9 Abs. 3 — when you turn, you let them through, including when they run alongside you in your own direction — plus the practical duty never to obstruct a vehicle that cannot steer around you.
§8 Abs. 1, §9 Abs. 3 StVO
When a bus indicates to leave a marked stop, you must let it go. The rule is written without any built-up-area restriction, so it applies on a country road exactly as it does in a city. Many study guides add an innerorts qualifier that the statute simply does not contain.
§20 Abs. 5 StVO
You may pick up a phone or any electronic device only when the vehicle is standing and the engine is completely switched off. The statute anticipates the loophole in as many words: “allein die automatische Motorabschaltung im Rahmen eines Start-Stopp-Systems ist kein vollständiges Ausschalten des Motors”. So at a red light with start-stop active, the phone is still forbidden. Hands-free is fine as long as you do not hold the device.
§23 Abs. 1b StVO
§24a StVG is the general 0,5 ‰ Ordnungswidrigkeit that applies to every driver. The absolute zero-tolerance rule for learner drivers in the two-year Probezeit and for everyone under 21 sits in its own paragraph, §24c StVG, and it also forbids starting a journey under the influence at all. Cannabis is treated the same way for that group.
§24c StVG
The indicator tells other people what you plan to do. It does not oblige anyone to let you do it, and it does not transfer priority. The same is true in reverse: someone waving you through has given you nothing, and if you crash while accepting the invitation, the liability is still yours to argue about.
§9 Abs. 1 StVO
Anyone entering the carriageway from a driveway, a car park, a footpath, a field track or a traffic-calmed area must let all other traffic pass — and must be guided in by somebody else if they cannot see. Rechts vor links does not help you here, and neither does the fact that the other car was “far away”. The identical duty applies when you pull out from the kerb.
§10 StVO
Hazard lights, high-visibility vest on before you leave the car, warning triangle out. Then first aid, then the emergency call. An unsecured scene produces a second, bigger accident. And leaving the scene of an injury or damage crash — including a scraped mirror on a parked car — is a criminal offence, not a ticket.
§15, §34 StVO · §142 StGB
These apply when no sign says otherwise. The thing to learn is not the numbers — it is which sign tells you which rule you are currently under.
The signs that set your speed
| Limit | Who it applies to | How you know | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 km/h | Everything inside a built-up area | The yellow Ortstafel (Zeichen 310) IS the speed limit. There is no separate '50' sign, which is exactly why people miss it. It applies to lorries too. | §3 Abs. 3 Nr. 1 StVO |
| 100 km/h | Cars and vehicles up to 3.5 t outside a built-up area | Country roads carry no speed sign at all — the absence of one means 100. | §3 Abs. 3 Nr. 2c StVO |
| 80 km/h | Anything towing, any bus, anything over 3.5 t | Set by your own vehicle, not by a sign. Hitch a trailer and your personal limit drops to 80 everywhere outside a built-up area, motorway included, unless a Tempo-100 plate is fitted. | §3 Abs. 3 Nr. 2 StVO |
| 130 km/h | Cars on the Autobahn — a recommendation | No fine for exceeding it, but in a crash you can be held partly liable even if the other driver caused it. That twist is the exam point, not the number. | Autobahn-Richtgeschwindigkeits-VO |
| Walking pace | Everyone in a verkehrsberuhigter Bereich | Also required passing a bus with hazard lights at a stop, and a stopped tram with no boarding island. No statutory number exists — see the note below. | §42, §20 StVO |
| 30 km/h | Everyone inside a Tempo-30-Zone | Junctions inside these zones are usually unsigned, so rechts vor links applies throughout — that is the actual reason the zone question exists. | Zeichen 274.1 |
| As shown | Everyone | A Streckenverbot ends at Zeichen 278, at Zeichen 282, at a new limit, or at the Ortstafel. It does not quietly expire at a junction. | §41 StVO |
| 50 km/h | Whenever snow chains are fitted, or the rear fog light is legally on | Set by your equipment and the weather. The rear fog light is only allowed under 50 m visibility, and that visibility caps you at 50. | §17 Abs. 3, §3 Abs. 1 StVO |
| 60 km/h | Minimum DESIGN speed to be allowed on an Autobahn or Kraftfahrstraße | A property of the vehicle, not a speed you must drive. Anything that cannot exceed 60 km/h is banned from these roads. | §18 Abs. 1 StVO |
Not statute: Schrittgeschwindigkeit has no number in the StVO. The courts have put it between roughly 4 and 7 km/h and have disagreed with each other — OLG Karlsruhe settled on no more than 7 km/h, OLG Naumburg accepted up to 10. Learn it as “slow enough to stop instantly”, and treat any exam option quoting a precise figure with suspicion.
The posted limit is a ceiling, never a permission. You must always drive at a speed you can control — slower in fog, rain, snow, poor visibility, near children, and on a road you cannot see far enough along. A crash at the posted limit in conditions that demanded less is still your fault, and the exam tests this repeatedly.
§3 Abs. 1 StVO
Distance questions carry 4 and 5 error points, because these are the metres that decide whether an incident becomes a crash.
Reaktionsweg = (speed ÷ 10) × 3 · Bremsweg = (speed ÷ 10)² · Gefahrbremsung = (speed ÷ 10)² ÷ 2 · Anhalteweg = thinking + braking. At 50 km/h that is 15 + 25 = 40 m, or 27.5 m with a full-force stop.
The safe following distance is half the speedometer reading, in metres — 25 m at 50 km/h, 50 m at 100 km/h. Lorries over 3.5 t and buses must keep at least 50 m outside built-up areas whenever they exceed 50 km/h.
Run the stopping-distance simulator to watch why doubling the speed quadruples the braking distance rather than doubling it.
§4 Abs. 1 & Abs. 3 StVO
§4 StVO
Signs and posts that measure distance for you
| Rule | Distance | What you measure, and why |
|---|---|---|
| Warning triangle inside a town | ≈ 50 m | Behind your car. Unfold it first and carry it in front of you as you walk, facing the traffic. |
| Warning triangle, country road | ≈ 100 m | Faster traffic needs more warning. Around a bend or over a crest, place it before the bend, not after it. |
| Warning triangle, Autobahn | ≈ 200 m | Walk behind the crash barrier, never along the hard shoulder. Everyone waits behind the barrier too. |
| Passing a cyclist inside a town | 1.5 m | From your widest point — the mirror — to theirs. If the road is too narrow to give it, you may not pass at all. |
| Passing a cyclist outside a town | 2.0 m | Higher speed pushes a bigger wall of air at them. |
| Lorry over 3.5 t or bus, outside towns above 50 km/h | 50 m | A fixed legal minimum for heavy vehicles, not a half-speedometer calculation. |
| Countdown boards before a level crossing | 240 / 160 / 80 m | Three stripes, two, one. The stripes always slope down towards the road, so a board on your right has stripes rising left to right. |
| Countdown boards before an Autobahn exit | 300 / 200 / 100 m | Blue with white stripes. Different numbers from the red rail boards — the exam tests both, next to each other. |
| Danger signs before the hazard, outside towns | 150–250 m | A white plate underneath gives the exact figure when it differs from the default. |
| Reflector posts (Leitpfosten) on country roads | 50 m | A free tape measure: one gap is 50 m, the right gap at 100 km/h, and the visibility threshold for the rear fog light. |
Not statute: The neat 200 / 100 / 50 m triad for the warning triangle is what driving schools teach, not what the statute says. §15 StVO requires only an “ausreichende Entfernung” and mentions “etwa 100 m bei schnellem Verkehr”. Learn the triad because the exam marks it, but on a real road the test is whether drivers get enough warning.
Close quarters — step these out
Mirror to handlebar, §5 Abs. 4 StVO · ≈ 2 paces on foot
More speed, bigger wall of air · ≈ 3 paces on foot
From where the kerb lines cross · ≈ 7 paces on foot
So drivers can see cyclists coming · ≈ 11 paces on foot
If your car would hide it · ≈ 13 paces on foot
The bus needs the whole length · ≈ 20 paces on foot
Warning distances — you walk or drive these
One gap = 50 m = the fog threshold · 3.6 s at 50 km/h
Zeichen 162 · 5.8 s at 50 km/h
§15 StVO: 'ausreichende Entfernung' · 7.2 s at 50 km/h
Zeichen 160 · 12 s at 50 km/h
Walk behind the crash barrier · 14 s at 50 km/h
Zeichen 159, the first warning · 17 s at 50 km/h
Bars are to scale inside each column, not across both — 240 m and 1.5 m cannot share a ruler and stay readable. A pace is taken as 0.75 m, so the left column is something you can actually walk out on a pavement. The right column is converted into seconds instead, because at speed a warning distance is really an amount of time.
Start with the three words. Almost every parking question is really a question about which of them you are doing.
Forced to stand still by traffic — a red light, a queue, a barrier. It is neither Halten nor Parken, so no stopping ban touches it.
A deliberate stop of up to three minutes, and you stay with the car. Zeichen 286 (eingeschränktes Haltverbot) still allows it.
Longer than three minutes, or leaving the vehicle at all — even for thirty seconds. Zeichen 283 (absolutes Haltverbot) bans both.
§12 Abs. 2 StVO
Signs that govern the kerb
| Where | How much | What exactly is banned |
|---|---|---|
| Before and after a junction | 5 m each side | PARKING, measured from where the kerb lines cross — not from the corner of the building. It becomes 8 m before the junction where a cycle path runs along your right, so drivers can see cyclists coming. |
| Bus or tram stop sign | 15 m before and after | PARKING around the sign, whether or not the road is marked. The bus needs that whole length to pull in parallel to the kerb for prams and wheelchairs. |
| A light or sign you would hide | 10 m | STOPPING. The test is whether your car blocks the view of it, not the tape measure alone. |
| Level crossing | 5 m in town / 50 m outside | PARKING before and after, so the crossing stays visible from a distance. |
| Fußgängerüberweg | On it, and 5 m before | STOPPING and PARKING. A parked car hides the child stepping out — that single sight line is the whole reason for the rule. |
| Driveways and dropped kerbs | The whole entrance | PARKING in front of an entrance, and opposite it too on a narrow road. Dropped kerbs are wheelchair and pram crossings. |
| Fire brigade access | The whole marked area | Even STOPPING. You get towed rather than ticketed. |
| Narrow or blind spots, sharp bends, motorway slip lanes | — | STOPPING, outright, and no sign is needed for any of them. |
| Which side may you park on? | The right | Except in a one-way street, or where tram rails run along the right-hand side — then the left is allowed too. |
§12 StVO
First gear facing uphill, reverse facing downhill, handbrake on, wheels turned towards the kerb. Chock the wheels if the vehicle is heavy or the hill is steep.
Whoever opens the door carries the whole liability. Mirror, then look over your shoulder, and open with the far hand so your body turns towards the traffic. Children get out on the pavement side, and you supervise them doing it.
§14 StVO
The trap: Hazard lights do not create a right to stop. “I was only two minutes” is not a defence anywhere in the StVO.
Four different limits sit on top of each other, and they are not the same rule. Which one applies to you depends on your age, your licence and how you were driving.
| Level | Status | In practice | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0,0 ‰ | Compulsory in the 2-year Probezeit and for everyone under 21 | Around €250, one point and a compulsory course. There is no 'one small beer' version of this rule, and it also forbids starting the journey at all. | §24c StVG |
| 0,3 ‰ | Already criminal IF you drive noticeably badly or cause a crash | Relative Fahruntüchtigkeit. Weaving, a late reaction or an accident turns a legal level into a criminal one. | §316 StGB |
| 0,5 ‰ | The general legal ceiling for everyone else | First offence roughly €500, two points and a one-month driving ban. | §24a StVG |
| 1,1 ‰ | A crime no matter how well you drove | Absolute Fahruntüchtigkeit: criminal record, licence withdrawn, and your insurer can claim its payout back from you. | §316 StGB |
| 3,5 ng/ml THC | The cannabis limit | Zero during the Probezeit and under 21, and mixing any alcohol at all with cannabis is banned outright. | §24a StVG |
Set a starting level and slide the clock forward. The shaded wedge is the whole range of plausible outcomes: the top edge is the slow body (0,1 ‰ per hour), the bottom edge the fast one (0,2 ‰ per hour). Nothing you can do moves either edge.
After 0 h
1,20 ‰ – 1,20 ‰
Slowest case: absolute Fahruntüchtigkeit, a criminal offence (§316 StGB)
Below 0,5 ‰ after
3 h 30 min – 7 h
fast body – slow body
Down to 0,0 ‰ after
6 h – 12 h
the Probezeit and under-21 limit
This is a teaching aid, not a green light. Elimination rates vary with body mass, sex, food, liver function and how much you drank; 0,1–0,2 ‰ per hour is the range German driving schools teach and the exam marks. Nobody can measure their own level, and the exam has exactly one correct answer to “how do I sober up faster?” — you cannot.
They expire on their own: a 1-point entry after 2½ years, 2 points after 5, 3 points after 10.
§4 StVG
§2a StVG
Not statute: Every euro figure on this page comes from published Bußgeldkatalog tables rather than from statute, and is last verified 2026-08-03. Points and bans are set by regulation and change; the binding number is always the one on your own Bußgeldbescheid.
German signs are a system, not a picture gallery. Learn six shapes and you can read a sign you have never met, at 100 km/h, in the rain.
Shape + colour already tells you what kind of instruction it is. The pictogram only fills in the detail.
German signs are a system, not a picture gallery. Before your eye resolves the drawing, the outline has already told you whether you are being warned, banned, ordered or informed. That is why a driver can obey a sign glimpsed at 100 km/h through rain — and why the exam can test you on a sign you have never seen.
The trap: Learning 150 pictures one by one. Learn six shapes and you can decode a sign you have never seen in your life.
Something is coming. You are told nothing you must do — only what to get ready for.
Gefahrzeichen, StVO Anlage 1 (zu §40). Outside a built-up area they stand roughly 150–250 m before the hazard; inside a town, much closer, because you are already slow. A warning sign never creates a rule — it creates a reason to reduce speed under §3 Abs. 1 StVO, which requires you to drive at a speed you can control.
The trap: Thinking a triangle gives you or anyone else priority. It never does. Only the priority signs do that.
Something is forbidden, or capped at a number.
Verbotszeichen, part of the Vorschriftzeichen in StVO Anlage 2 (zu §41). Red rim, white face, black or red pictogram. If the picture shows a vehicle, that vehicle type is banned. If it shows a number, that number is your ceiling.
The trap: A red circle with a number in it is a maximum. A BLUE circle with a number in it is a minimum (Zeichen 275). Same digits, opposite instruction.
You must do this. It is not an offer.
Also Vorschriftzeichen, StVO Anlage 2. A blue circle with a bicycle does not mean 'cyclists welcome' — it means cyclists must use this path (Radwegbenutzungspflicht, Zeichen 237) and motor vehicles must stay off it. A blue circle with an arrow does not suggest a route; it is the only route you may take.
The trap: Reading blue as friendly. Blue circle = must. Blue rectangle = information. The corner radius is the whole difference.
Tells you what kind of road you are now on.
Richtzeichen, StVO Anlage 3 (zu §42). Harmless-looking, and occasionally the most consequential sign on the road: Zeichen 330.1 (Autobahn) silently activates §18 StVO — no pedestrians, no cyclists, nothing with a design speed of 60 km/h or less, no reversing, no U-turns, and no stopping at all, including on the hard shoulder.
The trap: Assuming information signs are optional reading. §18 StVO applies from the sign, whether you noticed it or not.
You have Vorfahrt (right of way) at every junction until the diamond ends.
Zeichen 306 (Vorfahrtstraße), StVO Anlage 3. The only yellow-and-white diamond in the system, and the single most valuable sign to spot instantly. Your priority runs until the next Zeichen 205, 206 or 307 — the StVO says so in as many words.
The trap: Believing the diamond protects you when you turn LEFT. It does not. §9 Abs. 3 StVO makes every left-turner wait for oncoming traffic, on any road, under any sign.
A rule imposed earlier is lifted. The road's default returns.
Grey never imposes anything. It only removes. When it removes a speed limit, what comes back is the statutory default under §3 Abs. 3 StVO — 50 km/h inside a built-up area, 100 km/h outside for cars and vehicles up to 3.5 t, 80 km/h if you are towing.
The trap: Reading the grey 'end of limit' sign as permission to accelerate freely. The default limit is still a limit.
The rule applies to every street inside the area, not to one stretch of road.
Zone signs (Zeichen 274.1 Tempo-30-Zone, 290.1 Haltverbotszone, 270.1 Umweltzone, 314.1 Parkraumbewirtschaftungszone) stay in force through junctions and around corners until the matching end sign. An ordinary single-post sign generally stops mattering at the next junction; a zone does not.
The trap: Looking for priority signs inside a Tempo-30-Zone. There usually are none — which is exactly why rechts vor links (§8 Abs. 1 StVO) keeps applying at every junction inside it.
Vorfahrt gewähren is the only point-down triangle. Stop is the only octagon.
Both shapes are recognisable from the back and when plastered with snow, because getting these two wrong is what kills people at junctions. The shape carries the message even when the face is unreadable.
The trap: Treating them as interchangeable. Zeichen 205 asks you to yield — you may roll through an empty junction. Zeichen 206 requires the wheels to stop turning, every time, empty road or not.
Zusatzzeichen (supplementary plate) — it limits, extends or cancels the sign above.
It can restrict the sign to certain vehicles, certain hours or wet weather, or free a group from it entirely. 'bei Nässe' (Zusatzzeichen 1053-35) makes a limit apply only when the road has a film of water on it. 'Anlieger frei' (1020-30) lets residents and their visitors through a ban that stops everyone else.
The trap: Reading the big sign and driving on. The plate is small and it wins.
Blue background = Autobahn. Yellow = Bundesstraße and other non-motorway routes. White = local streets and destinations. Green appears on Autobahn signposts to point AT another Autobahn.
This is the reverse of Italy, Spain and much of South Asia, where green marks the fast road. If you follow green out of habit in Germany you will end up on a country road — or, worse, hesitate at 120 km/h on an interchange.
The trap: Colour habits from home. Re-learn this one consciously; it is the most common navigation error for new arrivals.
Lines, arrows and hatching are Vorschriftzeichen with Zeichen numbers, and they are enforced like posts.
Zeichen 295 (Fahrstreifenbegrenzung) — the solid white line — may not be crossed, 'not even partly', in the StVO's own words. Zeichen 294 is the stop line, 298 is the hatched Sperrfläche. At roadworks, temporary YELLOW markings override the white ones underneath.
The trap: Where yellow and white markings disagree, yellow wins. Drivers who follow the white lines through a roadworks contraflow are following the wrong road.
Every sign these rules mention — 150 of them, drawn and explained in English — lives in the sign catalogue.
Everything else in the syllabus, with the signs shown where they are mentioned. Each topic ends with the trap its questions are built around.
Signs in this topic
Überholen is going round something moving in your direction. Vorbeifahren is going round something standing still. The exam separates them because the rules differ.
Every one of these has to be true before you pull out: you can see the whole manoeuvre through to the end with room to spare; you are clearly faster, because a crawling overtake is itself prohibited; nobody behind has already started overtaking you; the driver you pass will not have to brake when you pull back in; and there is no solid line, no Überholverbot and no unclear situation.
It is banned outright at and near a Fußgängerüberweg — the car you are passing may be stopping for someone you cannot see — beyond the Andreaskreuz at a level crossing, and anywhere the view is unclear: bends, crests, dips, fog. You must give a cyclist 1.5 m in town and 2 m outside it; if the road is too narrow for that, you may not pass at all.
Passing on the right is normally forbidden. It is allowed in queues on multi-lane roads inside built-up areas, and on the Autobahn only when traffic is genuinely slow and then only with a small speed difference. You may also pass on the right a driver who has clearly pulled over and indicated to turn left.
The trap: Zeichen 276 (Überholverbot) covers motor vehicles. Passing a bicycle or a moped is still allowed — with the full side clearance.
Signs in this topic
Mirror → indicator → position → mirror → shoulder check → move. Every single time.
Turning right: get close to the right kerb early so nobody can slip up your inside, turn slowly, and let cyclists and pedestrians going straight go first. Turning left: position near the centre line, wait with the wheels straight so a rear-end shunt does not push you into oncoming traffic, and give way to everything coming towards you and to pedestrians crossing the road you are entering.
The shoulder check is not optional. Mirrors leave a gap about one car-width wide beside you — exactly where a cyclist rides. Beside a lorry that gap is enormous: if you cannot see the driver’s face in their mirror, they cannot see you.
Outside built-up areas you drive as far right as practical. Free lane choice exists only inside towns on multi-lane roads. A blue direction arrow is binding — once you are in that lane, that is where you go. Where two lanes become one, zip-merge at the merge point, one for one.
The trap: Indicating gives you nothing. §9 Abs. 1 StVO makes it an announcement of intention, not a grant of priority — you still wait until it is actually safe.
Signs in this topic
Dipped headlights (Abblendlicht) belong on in the dark, at dusk, and in fog, snow or rain. They switch your rear lights on too. Daytime running lights usually do not, which is exactly how cars disappear in spray.
Front fog lights are for badly reduced visibility — a wide low beam that lights the kerb instead of the fog. The rear fog light is legal only under 50 m visibility, and once it is legal your ceiling is 50 km/h. In ordinary rain it dazzles the driver behind and hides your brake lights.
Main beam is for unlit roads with nobody to dazzle: dip for oncoming traffic and for the car you are following, and never use it in fog, where it reflects straight back at you. Hazard lights mean you have become a hazard — broken down, towing or being towed, or approaching the back of a jam.
Reflector posts on country roads stand 50 m apart. If you can see only the next post, visibility is 50 m: the rear fog light becomes legal and 50 km/h becomes your limit. Your following distance should never exceed the distance you can actually see.
The trap: The rear fog light is not a wet-weather light. Using it in rain is an offence in its own right, and it is one of the questions the examiners like.
Signs in this topic
Use the whole acceleration lane to reach the speed of the traffic: joining traffic has no priority (§18 Abs. 3 StVO). Leave via the deceleration lane and do your braking inside it, not on the carriageway. Blue countdown boards mark 300, 200 and 100 m to the exit — not to be confused with the red rail boards at 240, 160 and 80 m.
Completely forbidden: reversing, turning round, driving against the flow, and stopping at all — including on the hard shoulder except in a genuine emergency. Running out of fuel counts as an avoidable breakdown and is an offence. Pedestrians, cyclists and anything unable to exceed 60 km/h by design may not be there at all.
The Rettungsgasse is formed as soon as traffic slows, not once it stops: between the far-left lane and all the others. On two lanes, the left car goes left and the right car goes right (§11 Abs. 2 StVO).
If you break down: hazard lights, get off the carriageway, high-visibility vest on before you open the door, everyone out on the passenger side and behind the crash barrier, then the warning triangle, walking behind the barrier, then call for help.
The trap: 130 km/h is a Richtgeschwindigkeit, so there is no fine for exceeding it — but in a crash you can be held partly liable even when the other driver caused it. That twist is the actual exam point.
Signs in this topic
Near children, elderly people and people with disabilities the legal standard is higher than “careful”. §3 Abs. 2a StVO requires you to reduce speed and be ready to brake, to the point where a mistake by them cannot cause an accident.
Children misjudge speed, act on impulse, and are short enough to be hidden by a parked car until they step out. A ball means a child is next. Cyclists wobble when setting off and swerve round opening doors and drains: 1.5 m clearance in town, 2 m outside.
At a Fußgängerüberweg anyone clearly wanting to cross must be let through, wheelchair users included; you stop, they do not wait for a gap. A bus with hazard lights at a stop means walking pace and no overtaking, and on an undivided road that binds oncoming traffic too. Where tram passengers step straight into the road, walking pace and ready to stop.
E-scooters: minimum age 14, top speed 20 km/h, cycle paths not footpaths, and the same alcohol limits as a car.
The trap: An elderly person stepping out is not “their fault” if you were driving in a way that made stopping impossible. §3 Abs. 1 StVO puts the speed choice on you.
Signs in this topic
Aquaplaning: the steering suddenly goes light and the engine note rises. Ease off, hold the wheel straight, do not brake hard and do not steer sharply. Grip returns abruptly, and if the wheels are turned when it does, the car snaps sideways.
Corners: brake before, steady throttle through, accelerate out. Cornering force grows with the square of speed, which is why the bend signs exist at all — people arrive too fast, not too slow.
Long descents: choose a low gear before you start down. Sitting on the brake overheats the discs until the pedal goes soft (brake fade). Neutral is worse: no engine braking at all. Black ice forms first on bridges, in shade, at forest exits and in dips — around 0 °C expect it even where the road looks dry.
ABS stops the wheels locking so you can still steer while braking hard; it does not always shorten the braking distance, and on gravel or loose snow it can lengthen it. ESP brakes individual wheels to correct a skid but cannot create grip that is not there.
The trap: Assistance systems reduce mistakes; they never remove your responsibility. That one sentence answers almost every technology question in the catalogue.
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Heavy things go low and hard against the back of the seats, with nothing loose on the rear shelf. In a 50 km/h crash an unsecured object strikes with tens of times its own weight — a 10 kg toolbox arrives like a quarter of a tonne. Roof loads raise the centre of gravity and cost noticeable fuel.
A load projecting more than 1 m beyond the rear light needs a red flag, cloth or cylinder no higher than 1.5 m above the road, and at night a red light and reflector (§22 StVO).
Trailers: check coupling, safety cable, lights and noseweight before every trip. Your limit outside built-up areas drops to 80 km/h, and to 80 on the Autobahn as well unless the trailer carries a Tempo-100 plate. If it starts to snake, do not accelerate and do not counter-steer: come off the throttle and brake gently in a straight line. Reversing, the trailer turns the opposite way to your steering.
People: a child restraint is required under 12 years or 150 cm — whichever they pass first releases the requirement. A rear-facing seat goes on the front passenger seat only with the airbag switched off. The head restraint sits level with the top of your ears; that, not the belt, is what prevents whiplash.
The trap: The 80 km/h trailer limit is set by your vehicle, not by a sign. There is nothing on the road to remind you, and forgetting it is a speeding offence like any other.
Medicine:antihistamines, painkillers, sedatives, cough syrup and some eye drops all affect fitness to drive. Read the leaflet and ask a pharmacist. “It was prescribed” is not a defence — §316 StGB asks whether you were fit to drive, not why you were not.
Tiredness: microsleep lasts a few seconds. At 100 km/h that is 28 m every second, driven completely blind. The warning signs are heavy eyelids, drifting in the lane, missing signs, and not remembering the last few kilometres.
The only fix is stopping and sleeping — 15 to 20 minutes works. Coffee buys perhaps half an hour and then lets you down harder. Fresh air, loud music and opening the window are wrong answers in every question they appear in.
The trap: Every answer offering a shortcut to alertness or sobriety is false, in every question, always. If an option sounds like a life hack, it is the distractor.
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The order the exam wants, and the order that keeps you alive:
Leaving the scene without exchanging details is a criminal offence under §142 StGB, including for a scraped mirror on a parked car. A note on the windscreen is not enough: wait a reasonable time, then report it to the police.
Blue light and siren obliges everyone to clear the way immediately (§38 Abs. 1 StVO). Blue light alone means the vehicle is only travelling and puts no duty on you. Broken down on a level crossing: people out first, then try to move the car, then the number on the signal box or 112.
The trap: Securing the scene comes before helping anyone. An unsecured scene produces a second, bigger accident with you in it.
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Tyres: the legal minimum tread is 1.6 mm; 3 mm summer and 4 mm winter are the recommended figures, because wet grip collapses long before the legal limit. Check pressure cold, and include the spare.
Winter tyres are required whenever conditions are wintry — ice, snow, slush, frost. There is no calendar date in the law (§2 Abs. 3a StVO). Running summer tyres in snow brings a fine and a point, and your insurer can cut its payout.
Before a long trip: tyres, oil, coolant, washer fluid, lights, brakes, mirrors, head restraints, load secured. Then set the seat so your wrist rests on top of the wheel with a slightly bent arm.
On you: driving licence and registration Part I (Zulassungsbescheinigung Teil I). Part II is the ownership document and stays at home. In the car: warning triangle, in-date first-aid kit and at least one high-visibility vest. A fire extinguisher is recommended, not required. The Hauptuntersuchung is every two years; a new car first after three.
The trap: Part I in the car, Part II at home. Carrying Part II is how stolen cars get re-registered, which is exactly why the question exists.
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Uses less fuel: shifting up early, around 2,000 rpm; looking far ahead and coasting, because on the overrun a modern engine injects no fuel at all; correct tyre pressure; taking the roof box off when you are not using it; switching off rather than idling.
Wastes it: warming the engine while parked, which is both wasteful and prohibited; short cold trips, where consumption roughly doubles; air conditioning running constantly; accelerating hard into the next red light.
A Umweltzoneneeds the green sticker on the windscreen. Without it you may not enter, visitor or not, and the sticker is tied to the vehicle’s emissions class rather than to you.
Unnecessary noise and avoidable exhaust fumes are offences in their own right (§30 StVO): revving while stationary, slamming doors at night in a residential street, and using the horn for anything other than a warning.
The trap: “Warming the engine before driving off” feels considerate and is explicitly forbidden. The correct answer is always: start and drive gently.
Signs in this topic
If you learned to drive under different conventions, these specific reflexes cost points in the test and cause real trouble on the road here.
The trap: Waving somebody through does not transfer priority either. If they crash while accepting your invitation, you can be held partly liable for it.
Nobody counts your correct answers. You accumulate error points, and there are two independent ways to fail.
In 45 minutes, at TÜV or DEKRA, available in English and about a dozen other languages.
Each question is worth 2, 3, 4 or 5 error points by how safety-critical it is. Exactly 10 is still a pass.
An independent fail condition. Get two 5-point questions wrong and you fail even at 10 points or fewer.
30 questions in 45 minutes. There is no pass mark in correct answers — you collect error points, 2 to 5 per question depending on how safety-critical it is, and you fail above 10. Exactly 10 is a pass. Separately, two wrong 5-point questions fail you even if the total is 10 or under.
Most learners need 20 to 40 hours spread over three to six weeks. The failure mode is memorising answers instead of rules: the catalogue is large enough that recognition alone breaks down under exam pressure, and every question here therefore explains the rule rather than just marking the right box.
No statutory number exists. Case law puts walking pace somewhere between roughly 4 and 7 km/h and the courts have disagreed — OLG Karlsruhe settled on no more than 7 km/h, OLG Naumburg accepted up to 10 — so treat it as 'slow enough to stop instantly' rather than a speedometer reading. It applies in a verkehrsberuhigter Bereich (Zeichen 325.1), when passing a bus with hazard lights at a stop, and wherever a sign or plate imposes it.
No, and this is the most widespread German driving myth. A Streckenverbot such as Zeichen 274 runs until Zeichen 278 or 282 lifts it, or a new limit replaces it. Passing a junction changes nothing. A zone sign (Zeichen 274.1) is different again: it covers every street inside the area until the matching end sign. OLG Hamm has treated believing otherwise as an avoidable mistake of law, not an excuse.
Yes. The Klasse B theory exam is offered by TÜV and DEKRA in English and about a dozen other languages, and the questions are the same ones translated. The signs, the German terms and the sign texts stay German, which is why every rule on this page carries its German name — that vocabulary is what you actually need on the road afterwards.
Original practice questions — not the amtlicher Fragenkatalog. Every question, sign description and scenario here is written by us and covers the same StVO rules as the official Klasse B test. We are not TÜV, DEKRA or a Fahrschule, and we do not reproduce the official catalogue. Road signs themselves are amtliche Werke (StVO Anlage 1–3). Rules checked against StVO and FeV on 2026-08-03.
Fines and Punkte are indicative. The amounts shown come from published Bußgeldkatalog tables, not from statute, and are last verified 2026-08-03. The binding figure is the one on your own Bußgeldbescheid.
Last updated: 2026-08-03