Virginia’s road test is administered by the DMV. You need 45 supervised hours before testing — 15 must be at night. Virginia’s 15-hour night requirement is tied for the highest in the country (shared with New York, Louisiana, and Minnesota). The permit must be held for at least 9 months.

What the test covers

Virginia road tests run on public streets near the DMV location. Tests typically last 15-20 minutes.

Skills tested:

Intersection navigation
Left and right turns
Lane changes on multi-lane roads
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. Virginia examiners are strict about this. A slow roll to near-zero is still a deduction.

Blind spot checks. Every lane change requires a signal, a mirror check, and a head turn. Virginia examiners watch for all three steps. Missing the head turn is a deduction every time.

Parallel parking. Not all Virginia DMV locations test parallel parking, but many do. Hitting cones or ending up far from the curb are the common failure points here.

Right-of-way errors. Failing to yield when turning left across oncoming traffic is a serious deduction. Failing to yield to pedestrians in marked crosswalks is also heavily penalized.

Speed. Residential streets in Virginia are typically 25 mph. Exceeding the limit, even briefly, costs points.

The 15 night hours

Virginia’s 15-hour night requirement is one of the most challenging to complete. Night in Virginia is defined as from 30 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise.

The 9-month permit period gives you time to do this right. The winter months are your best window: sunset before 5 PM means evening drives starting at 5:30 count. Three 30-minute drives per week from November through February gets you 6 hours per month. By February, you can have 15 night hours without ever driving past 7 PM.

Don’t leave night hours for the last month. Families that do end up doing late-night practice drives in a rush, which isn’t the best environment for a new driver.

Before the test

Bring:

Valid Virginia learner’s permit
Driving log showing 45 hours (15 night)
Vehicle registration and current insurance
Parent or guardian if under 18

Tracking your hours

Virginia’s 15 night hours use a sunset-based definition that shifts daily. The 30-minutes-after-sunset cutoff means you need to know the exact sunset time for each practice session.

Moda handles this automatically. Every session is tagged correctly based on your location and the date. Download on the App Store

Full Virginia permit requirements: Virginia permit hours

Stop manually tracking hours. Moda logs driving automatically.

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