- You need 75% on 100 scored questions in 240 minutes to pass the HI-GEC exam.
- Excavation including Blasting is the single largest domain at 13 questions.
- Board approval and eligibility last six months, with unlimited attempts inside that window.
- Combined exam fees (HI-GEC plus Business and Law) total $165 before licensing costs.
What the HI-GEC Exam Actually Tests
The HI-GEC exam is the trade portion of Hawaii's A - General Engineering Contractor license, administered by the Hawaii Contractors License Board under the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs' Professional and Vocational Licensing Division (DCCA PVL). PSI Services LLC delivers the actual test, whether you sit at a physical test center or use remote proctoring. This is not a professional-engineer credential - it's a contractor classification exam covering heavy-civil construction and fixed public works: bridges, canals, utilities, earthwork, pavement, and the equipment and safety practices tied to those projects.
If you're still sorting out terminology, our companion pieces on What Is HI-GEC? and HI-GEC Meaning walk through the naming and scope in more detail. This guide assumes you already know you need the A classification and want a concrete plan to pass on your first attempt.
Exam Format, Fees, and Delivery Options
The current PSI Contractor Examinations candidate bulletin (dated January 20, 2026) lays out the mechanics plainly:
- 100 scored questions, plus up to 10 unscored experimental items mixed in - you won't know which are which.
- 240 minutes of testing time, and time spent on the experimental questions doesn't count against that clock.
- Passing score: 75% on the scored portion.
- Exam fee: $85 per attempt.
- Computer-based, closed-book format, available at a PSI test center or via remote proctoring.
PSI supplies an on-screen calculator during the test, but you're also permitted to bring a physical calculator to a testing center as long as it's silent, battery-powered, nonprogrammable, nonprinting, and free of an alphabetic keyboard. Don't show up with a scientific calculator that has letter keys or graphing functions - it will be rejected at check-in.
For a full cost picture, including the separate Business and Law exam and licensing fees, see HI-GEC Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown. The short version: new applicants pay $85 for the trade exam and $80 for Business and Law, totaling $165 in combined exam fees before the $50 application fee and any prep materials.
Key Takeaway
Budget for two exams, not one. The HI-GEC trade test and the Business and Law exam are both required for a new General Engineering Contractor license, and they're scheduled and paid for separately.
Domain Breakdown: Where the Points Live
The official question allocation across the 11 content areas is fixed, which means your study time should be, too. Here's how the 100 scored questions are distributed:
| Domain | Approx. Questions |
|---|---|
| Excavation including Blasting | 13 |
| Sitework including Layout and Surveying | 12 |
| Utilities | 12 |
| Asphalt and Concrete Pavement | 12 |
| Bridges/Miscellaneous Structures | 10 |
| Heavy Equipment and Sitework | 10 |
| Safety OSHA | 10 |
| Estimating and Plan Reading | 8 |
| Steel Erecting and Welding | 6 |
| Metal Barriers, Striping, Signs, and Fences | 6 |
| Canals, Reservoirs and Flood Control | 1 |
Notice that four domains - Excavation including Blasting, Sitework including Layout and Surveying, Utilities, and Asphalt and Concrete Pavement - together carry nearly half the exam. Canals, Reservoirs and Flood Control, by contrast, is worth a single question. That's a huge signal for how to allocate your limited study hours. For a domain-by-domain walkthrough of exactly what's tested inside each area, see HI-GEC Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 11 Content Areas.
Excavation including Blasting
The largest single domain at 13 questions. Candidates need to understand trench safety, shoring and sloping requirements, soil classification, blasting sequencing and safety zones, and how excavation work interacts with utility locates and site conditions.
- Trench protective systems and when they're required
- Blasting safety distances and vibration control basics
- Soil classification and its effect on excavation method
Sitework including Layout and Surveying
Tied for second-largest at 12 questions. This domain covers grading, staking, benchmarks, and the surveying fundamentals a general engineering contractor relies on to translate plans into a buildable site.
- Reading and applying grade stakes and cut/fill data
- Basic surveying instruments and terminology
- Site preparation sequencing before vertical or utility work begins
Utilities
Also 12 questions. Expect material on underground utility installation, trenching for pipe and conduit, backfill compaction, and coordination with utility locates before excavation starts.
- Pipe bedding and backfill standards
- Utility conflict identification and avoidance
- Compaction requirements around utility trenches
Asphalt and Concrete Pavement
The fourth heavyweight domain at 12 questions. This area draws on the Hawaii Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction and the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for paving sequencing, joint work, and traffic control during paving operations.
- Asphalt mix placement, compaction, and joint construction
- Concrete pavement jointing and curing
- Work-zone traffic control during paving
The listed study references - International Building Code (2018), Hawaii Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction (2005), Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (2009), and Modern Welding, 11th Edition (2013) - are study sources, not materials you can bring into the test. Read them with your domain weighting in mind rather than cover to cover; Modern Welding matters far more for the 6-question Steel Erecting and Welding domain than it does for the exam as a whole.
Eligibility and Getting Approved to Sit
Before PSI will even let you schedule, the Contractors License Board has to approve your application. Requirements differ slightly depending on whether you're applying as a sole proprietor or as an RME:
- Minimum age 18 and demonstrated good character.
- Four years of qualifying on-site supervisory experience within the preceding ten years.
- At least three notarized experience certificates documenting that work.
- A chronological project list supporting your experience claims.
- RMEs must be employed and formally appointed by the contracting entity they intend to qualify.
- Sole proprietors must additionally satisfy financial-statement, credit, applicable tax-clearance, and insurance requirements.
The application fee is $50, separate from the exam fees themselves. Once approved, your examination eligibility window lasts six months, and inside that window you can attempt the exam an unlimited number of times - though not on the same day after a failure (more on that below). Full detail on documentation and edge cases lives in HI-GEC Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
Key Takeaway
Six months of eligibility with unlimited attempts sounds generous, but each attempt still costs $85. Treat your first sitting as the one that counts - plan your prep around passing on attempt one, not around the retest safety net.
A HI-GEC-Specific Study Timeline
A generic study calendar won't help you much here - what matters is matching study time to the actual point distribution. Below is a six-week structure built around the domain weights, not a one-size-fits-all template.
Excavation including Blasting (13 questions)
- Trench shoring, sloping, and soil classification
- Blasting safety zones and sequencing
- Practice questions isolated to this domain before moving on
Sitework/Layout and Surveying, plus Utilities (12 + 12 questions)
- Grade stakes, benchmarks, cut/fill calculations
- Underground utility installation and backfill compaction
- Cross-reference against real project sequencing, not isolated facts
Asphalt and Concrete Pavement (12 questions)
- Pull relevant sections from the Hawaii Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction
- Work-zone traffic control basics from the MUTCD
- Joint construction and curing for concrete pavement
Bridges/Miscellaneous Structures, Heavy Equipment and Sitework, Safety OSHA (10 + 10 + 10 questions)
- Structural elements common to bridge and miscellaneous structure work
- Heavy equipment operation and site logistics
- OSHA-driven safety practices across excavation, equipment, and traffic control
Estimating and Plan Reading, Steel Erecting and Welding, Metal Barriers/Striping/Signs/Fences (8 + 6 + 6 questions)
- Quantity takeoffs and plan interpretation
- Welding terminology and processes referenced in Modern Welding, 11th Edition
- Barrier, signage, and fencing installation standards
Full-Length Review and Canals/Reservoirs/Flood Control (1 question)
- Timed full-length practice runs under the 240-minute limit
- Brief review of flood control and reservoir basics
- Revisit weak areas identified from earlier weeks
If you're unsure how difficult this exam feels relative to other contractor tests, How Hard Is the HI-GEC Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 breaks down the format and content load in more depth, and HI-GEC Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass explains exactly how the 75% threshold is applied. When you're ready to test your recall against realistic questions organized by these same domains, our practice test platform lets you drill weak domains directly instead of guessing where you stand.
Test Day Logistics and Retest Rules
A few procedural details trip up otherwise well-prepared candidates:
- You must have board approval on file before PSI will let you schedule an appointment.
- Choose between a physical PSI test center or remote proctoring - both are closed-book, computer-based sessions.
- If you bring a physical calculator, confirm it's silent, nonprogrammable, nonprinting, and has no alphabetic keyboard, or rely on PSI's on-screen calculator instead.
- If you fail, you cannot rebook for the same day. A retest may become available within two business days, subject to scheduling availability - so don't count on testing again the next morning.
- Every attempt inside your six-month eligibility window costs the $85 exam fee again.
For scheduling windows and how deadlines interact with your eligibility period, check HI-GEC Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling. And if you want a compact reference to skim the morning of your test, HI-GEC Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts condenses the highest-yield facts from every domain onto one page.
After You Pass: Licensing and Renewal
Passing the HI-GEC exam is one piece of the licensing puzzle. New applicants also need to pass the separate Business and Law examination ($80) before the Contractors License Board issues an actual license. Once licensed, contractor licenses renew on September 30 of even-numbered years. For the 2026 renewal cycle, active renewal fees are $338 for entities or sole proprietors and $208 for RMEs. Active entities and sole proprietors also need matching-name tax clearance issued within six months of renewal, and required insurance has to stay in force throughout.
If you're weighing whether the time and cost investment pays off relative to the work you'll be able to bid on, Is the HI-GEC Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 and HI-GEC Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis lay out the practical tradeoffs. For a broader look at how this credential fits into Hawaii's licensing landscape, HI-GEC Certification and HI-GEC Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows are useful companion reads, and HI-GEC Training covers formal preparation options beyond self-study.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are 100 scored questions plus up to 10 unscored experimental questions mixed in, with 240 minutes of testing time. Time spent on experimental questions doesn't count against that 240-minute limit.
You need 75% correct on the 100 scored questions. The experimental questions are not counted toward your score either way.
Excavation including Blasting carries the most weight at 13 questions, followed closely by Sitework including Layout and Surveying, Utilities, and Asphalt and Concrete Pavement at 12 questions each. Together these four domains make up nearly half the exam.
No. You cannot rebook a failed exam for the same day. A retest may be available within two business days, subject to scheduling availability, and you'll pay the $85 exam fee again for each attempt.
Yes. New applicants must also pass the separate $80 Business and Law examination, bringing combined exam fees to $165 before application, licensing, and preparation costs.