Louisiana road tests are administered by the Office of Motor Vehicles (OMV). You need 50 supervised hours before testing — 15 of those must be at night. Louisiana’s 15-hour night requirement is tied for the highest in the country.

What the test covers

Louisiana road tests run on public streets near the OMV location. Tests last about 15-20 minutes.

Skills tested:

Intersection navigation
Left and right turns
Stopping at signs and signals
Lane changes
Parallel parking at most locations
Backing
Speed management
Following distance
Mirror and observation habits

What gets people failed

Not stopping fully. Complete stop at every stop sign. This is the most common reason people fail in Louisiana.

Parallel parking. Hitting cones, mounting the curb, or ending up far from the curb are the typical failure points. Practice this specifically.

Blind spot checks. Signal, mirror, head turn, move. The head turn is what examiners watch for. Skipping it is a deduction.

Right-of-way errors. Louisiana has a lot of traffic. Failure to yield — when turning left across oncoming traffic, to pedestrians in crosswalks — carries heavy deductions.

Speed. Louisiana residential streets vary. Stay at or below the posted limit throughout the test.

Getting the 15 night hours

Louisiana has 15 required night hours, which takes deliberate planning. The state’s southern location actually works against you here: sunset in New Orleans in summer is after 8 PM. Winter evenings help, with sunset around 5:15 PM in December, but you still need to start night drives early in the permit period rather than leaving them for the end.

Before the test

Louisiana requires 50 hours and 15 night hours. The permit hold period is 6 months.

Bring:

Valid Louisiana learner’s permit
Driving log showing 50 hours (15 night)
Vehicle registration and current insurance
Parent or guardian if under 18

Tracking your hours

Louisiana’s night definition is sunset to sunrise. Tracking 15 night hours separately from the start is the only way to know where you stand.

Moda tracks Louisiana hours and splits them correctly. Download on the App Store

Full Louisiana permit requirements: Louisiana permit hours

Stop manually tracking hours. Moda logs driving automatically.

Auto-detects night driving, exports DMV forms, and syncs across family phones.