NEVADA C-23 DRILLING WELLS CONTRACTOR
LICENSING EXAMINATION COMPLETE PRACTICE
EXAM | COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE | PRACTICE
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | UPDATED 2026/2027
Examiner/Administrator: Nevada State Contractors Board (NSCB)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
NEVADA C-23 DRILLING WELLS CONTRACTOR LICENSING EXAMINATION
2026/2027 EDITION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM
100 MULTIPLE-CHOICE PRACTICE QUESTIONS
PASSING SCORE: 70%
TESTING TIME: 120 MINUTES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Nevada Contractor Laws & Regulations
2. OSHA Safety Requirements
3. Site Evaluation & Planning
4. Geology & Groundwater Principles
5. Drilling Equipment & Operations
6. Well Construction Standards
7. Grouting & Well Sealing
8. Pumps & Well Development
9. Environmental Protection
10. Troubleshooting, Maintenance & Professional Practice
,NEVADA STATE CONTRACTORS BOARD || ALIGNED WITH CURRENT LICENSING
BLUEPRINTS || DRILLING WELLS CONTRACTOR EXAM PREPARATION ||
PROFESSIONAL STUDY GUIDE || ORIGINAL PRACTICE QUESTIONS ||
COMPREHENSIVE LICENSING REVIEW || PREPARED FOR PROFESSIONAL
EXAMINATION USE
Questions 1–8 — Nevada Contractor Laws, Regulations & Safety
QUESTION 1.
A contractor begins drilling a domestic water well before verifying that all required
permits have been obtained. What is the contractor's greatest professional
responsibility?
A. Proceed if the owner accepts liability.
B. Verify all applicable permits and regulatory approvals before commencing work.
C. Begin drilling and submit permit paperwork afterward.
D. Allow the drilling subcontractor to determine permit requirements.
Correct Answer: B. Verify all applicable permits and regulatory approvals before
commencing work.
Explanation: Proper permitting is the contractor's responsibility before work begins.
Starting work without required approvals can result in enforcement actions, project
delays, and potential liability. Owner approval does not replace regulatory compliance,
paperwork cannot typically be completed retroactively, and responsibility cannot
simply be delegated to subcontractors.
QUESTION 2.
Before mobilizing a drilling rig, the contractor's first priority regarding underground
utilities should be:
A. Begin drilling carefully.
,B. Review nearby property surveys only.
C. Ensure underground utility locations have been identified through the
appropriate notification process.
D. Wait until excavation begins.
Correct Answer: C. Ensure underground utility locations have been identified
through the appropriate notification process.
Explanation: Underground utility damage poses serious safety risks. Utility locating
procedures should be completed before drilling activities begin. Survey documents
alone may not identify all buried facilities.
QUESTION 3.
Which OSHA principle best protects employees working around rotating drill rods?
A. Increase drilling speed.
B. Remove machine guards for visibility.
C. Maintain machine guarding and keep personnel clear of rotating components.
D. Allow loose clothing for comfort.
Correct Answer: C. Maintain machine guarding and keep personnel clear of
rotating components.
Explanation: Rotating drill strings create severe entanglement hazards. Proper
guarding, exclusion zones, and appropriate clothing are essential safety measures.
Loose clothing significantly increases risk.
QUESTION 4.
Who remains ultimately responsible for maintaining a safe drilling site?
A. Equipment manufacturer
, B. Property owner
C. Contractor supervising the work
D. Material supplier
Correct Answer: C. Contractor supervising the work.
Explanation: The contractor directing the work is responsible for implementing safety
procedures, supervising employees, and complying with applicable safety regulations.
QUESTION 5.
A safety meeting should primarily accomplish which objective?
A. Increase production quotas.
B. Review hazards, controls, and employee responsibilities.
C. Reduce equipment maintenance.
D. Eliminate written documentation.
Correct Answer: B. Review hazards, controls, and employee responsibilities.
Explanation: Effective safety meetings communicate current hazards, reinforce safe
work practices, and ensure employees understand their responsibilities before work
begins.
QUESTION 6.
When severe thunderstorms approach an active drilling operation, the safest action
is to:
A. Continue until drilling is completed.
B. Increase drilling speed.
C. Suspend operations if conditions create an unsafe work environment.
LICENSING EXAMINATION COMPLETE PRACTICE
EXAM | COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE | PRACTICE
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | UPDATED 2026/2027
Examiner/Administrator: Nevada State Contractors Board (NSCB)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
NEVADA C-23 DRILLING WELLS CONTRACTOR LICENSING EXAMINATION
2026/2027 EDITION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM
100 MULTIPLE-CHOICE PRACTICE QUESTIONS
PASSING SCORE: 70%
TESTING TIME: 120 MINUTES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Nevada Contractor Laws & Regulations
2. OSHA Safety Requirements
3. Site Evaluation & Planning
4. Geology & Groundwater Principles
5. Drilling Equipment & Operations
6. Well Construction Standards
7. Grouting & Well Sealing
8. Pumps & Well Development
9. Environmental Protection
10. Troubleshooting, Maintenance & Professional Practice
,NEVADA STATE CONTRACTORS BOARD || ALIGNED WITH CURRENT LICENSING
BLUEPRINTS || DRILLING WELLS CONTRACTOR EXAM PREPARATION ||
PROFESSIONAL STUDY GUIDE || ORIGINAL PRACTICE QUESTIONS ||
COMPREHENSIVE LICENSING REVIEW || PREPARED FOR PROFESSIONAL
EXAMINATION USE
Questions 1–8 — Nevada Contractor Laws, Regulations & Safety
QUESTION 1.
A contractor begins drilling a domestic water well before verifying that all required
permits have been obtained. What is the contractor's greatest professional
responsibility?
A. Proceed if the owner accepts liability.
B. Verify all applicable permits and regulatory approvals before commencing work.
C. Begin drilling and submit permit paperwork afterward.
D. Allow the drilling subcontractor to determine permit requirements.
Correct Answer: B. Verify all applicable permits and regulatory approvals before
commencing work.
Explanation: Proper permitting is the contractor's responsibility before work begins.
Starting work without required approvals can result in enforcement actions, project
delays, and potential liability. Owner approval does not replace regulatory compliance,
paperwork cannot typically be completed retroactively, and responsibility cannot
simply be delegated to subcontractors.
QUESTION 2.
Before mobilizing a drilling rig, the contractor's first priority regarding underground
utilities should be:
A. Begin drilling carefully.
,B. Review nearby property surveys only.
C. Ensure underground utility locations have been identified through the
appropriate notification process.
D. Wait until excavation begins.
Correct Answer: C. Ensure underground utility locations have been identified
through the appropriate notification process.
Explanation: Underground utility damage poses serious safety risks. Utility locating
procedures should be completed before drilling activities begin. Survey documents
alone may not identify all buried facilities.
QUESTION 3.
Which OSHA principle best protects employees working around rotating drill rods?
A. Increase drilling speed.
B. Remove machine guards for visibility.
C. Maintain machine guarding and keep personnel clear of rotating components.
D. Allow loose clothing for comfort.
Correct Answer: C. Maintain machine guarding and keep personnel clear of
rotating components.
Explanation: Rotating drill strings create severe entanglement hazards. Proper
guarding, exclusion zones, and appropriate clothing are essential safety measures.
Loose clothing significantly increases risk.
QUESTION 4.
Who remains ultimately responsible for maintaining a safe drilling site?
A. Equipment manufacturer
, B. Property owner
C. Contractor supervising the work
D. Material supplier
Correct Answer: C. Contractor supervising the work.
Explanation: The contractor directing the work is responsible for implementing safety
procedures, supervising employees, and complying with applicable safety regulations.
QUESTION 5.
A safety meeting should primarily accomplish which objective?
A. Increase production quotas.
B. Review hazards, controls, and employee responsibilities.
C. Reduce equipment maintenance.
D. Eliminate written documentation.
Correct Answer: B. Review hazards, controls, and employee responsibilities.
Explanation: Effective safety meetings communicate current hazards, reinforce safe
work practices, and ensure employees understand their responsibilities before work
begins.
QUESTION 6.
When severe thunderstorms approach an active drilling operation, the safest action
is to:
A. Continue until drilling is completed.
B. Increase drilling speed.
C. Suspend operations if conditions create an unsafe work environment.
