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How hard is Ontario’s driving test?

Ontario splits its written test into two walls you have to clear one at a time, then hands you the safest roads in the country. Reach the 80 percent bar on both signs and rules, work through about twenty months of graduated licensing, and you drive where road deaths fall to the lowest rate in Canada.

2nd
Test difficulty of 13
How hard the written test is to pass
5th
Licensing journey of 13
How long and involved the road to a full licence is
2nd
Road safety of 13
How safe the province’s roads are
02550751000255075100Test difficulty (harder →)Road safety (safer →)QCBCABSKMBNSNBPENLNTYTNUOntario2nd of 13 hardest test2nd of 13 safest roads

Source: Drive IQ Canada Driving Index. Road-safety data: Transport Canada CMVTCS 2023.

The test

The G1 test is 40 questions in two parts, 20 on signs and 20 on rules, and each is gated on its own: 16 of 20, an 80 percent bar you must reach twice. Miss five signs and it does not matter how well you know the rules. Ontario ranks it the second most demanding test in the country, taken in person at a DriveTest centre.

Path to a full licence

You start at 16 on a G1 permit, hold it a year, or eight months with an approved Beginner Driver Education course, pass the first road test into G2, spend twelve months there, then a second road test grants the full G. With the course the whole thing runs about 20 months, fully licensed at about 17 years and 8 months, quicker than Quebec's mandatory-course route.

On the roads

Here is Ontario's real distinction: it has the safest roads in Canada. The province records 3.4 deaths for every billion kilometres driven, well under the national 4.5 and the lowest of all thirteen jurisdictions. Dense, well-policed urban driving and a mature road network do much of that work.

Ontario3.4 deaths1st of 13 safest05101520← betterworse →Road deaths per billion vehicle-kilometres

Source: Transport Canada CMVTCS 2023 (fatalities per billion vehicle-km).

The laws

New drivers carry a zero blood-alcohol limit through both G1 and G2. A first handheld-phone conviction runs from 615 dollars up to 1,000 at trial, and Ontario mandates no winter tires, though insurers must discount drivers who fit them.

Commercial licences

Ontario was the first province to require Mandatory Entry-Level Training, 103.5 hours since 2017, before a driver can test for the Class A tractor-trailer licence, and that figure became the national minimum. The training push tracks the safety numbers: commercial vehicles are involved in about one in five road deaths, and provincial police logged more than 9,000 transport-truck crashes in 2022 alone. Class A is the top licence and carries a separate air-brake exam, tested apart from the G licence this page prepares you for.

See the Ontario commercial licence test

Ready to practise, Ontario?

Free Ontario practice test, straight from the official handbook. No sign-up.

Start the free Ontario practice test

Nearby in the index

Quebec
1st of 13 on road safety · 4th-hardest test
Manitoba
3rd of 13 on road safety · 5th-hardest test
Saskatchewan
4th of 13 on road safety · 2nd-hardest test
Nova Scotia
6th of 13 on road safety · 2nd-hardest test
Alberta
8th of 13 on road safety · 3rd-hardest test
Newfoundland and Labrador
9th of 13 on road safety · 1st-hardest test

Sources

Test specifications last verified July 2026.

Always confirm current rules with MTO / DriveTest before you book.

Drive IQ Canada is an independent study tool, not affiliated with the MTO, SAAQ, ICBC, SGI, MPI, or any provincial licensing authority. Road-safety data is from Transport Canada (2023) and Statistics Canada (2024).

Spot an error? Email [email protected] and we will look into it.

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How hard is Ontario’s driving test? (2026)