California General Electrician Study Guide (2026 Edition)

What the exam tests

The California General Electrician exam uses the references listed in the current bulletin, including the 2023 NEC, NFPA 70E, and the CAL/OSHA guide. 100 questions, 4 hours 30 minutes, 70% to pass. The official outline weights four domains:

• Installation, 66%. The biggest section by far. Branch circuits, services, feeders, motors, grounding, raceways, conductors, lighting, equipment.
• Determination of electrical system requirements, 22%. Calculations and load determination. Service load, feeder ampacity, motor branch circuits, dwelling unit calcs.
• Safety, 6%. Personal protection, lockout/tagout, OSHA basics, working space requirements.
• Maintenance and repair, 6%. Troubleshooting, replacement, retrofit considerations.

How much time each topic deserves

The Installation section alone is two-thirds of the exam. Don’t burn equal time across all four domains. Proportional weight wins.

Installation cluster (≈66%)

• Articles 210, 215, 220: branch circuits, feeders, calculations.
• Article 230: services and service equipment.
• Article 250: grounding and bonding (high-confusion area).
• Article 300 series: wiring methods.
• Article 310: conductors and ampacities.
• Article 314: boxes and conduit bodies.
• Articles 404, 406, 408: switches, receptacles, panelboards.
• Articles 422, 424: appliances and fixed heating.
• Article 430: motors.
• Article 440: air-conditioning and refrigeration.
• Articles 600, 680, 690, 700: signs, pools, PV, emergency.
• Article 760: fire alarm cable.

Calculations cluster (≈22%)

Daily reps. Voltage drop, conduit fill, box fill, motor sizing, dwelling unit load, service load, transformer sizing. By exam day you should be able to set up any of these without looking at the formula sheet.

The provided-reference problem

The test center provides the references. That changes the prep. You still need to know the NEC map, but you cannot count on your own tabs, notes, or familiar page markings. Generic practice that only checks memorized facts misses the real skill: finding the right rule family fast under a clock.

• Branch circuits and required circuits.
• Load calculations and service sizing.
• Grounding and bonding table selection.
• Raceways, conductors, boxes, and fill.
• Motors, HVAC, PV, fire alarm, and special equipment.

A 30-day allocation

Days 1-7: codebook speed (no tabs)

Train index navigation. The current bulletin says references are provided and your own materials are not allowed. Index recall is the real skill. Drill: random article lookups every day, target 30 seconds each.

Days 8-15: calculations

Voltage drop, conduit fill, box fill, motor FLA, dwelling load, service load, transformers. Two new types per day. Yesterday’s type as 10-minute warm-up.

Days 16-22: weak topics + grounding

Article 250 deserves three days alone. The grounding electrode conductor / equipment bonding jumper / supply-side bonding jumper split is where most candidates lose easy points.

Days 23-30: full mocks + cleanup

Two full 100-question timed mocks. Score them. Fix what you missed. Last 2 days: light review, sleep, hydrate, show up.