Iowa’s journeyman credential is the Journeyman Plumber with Gas. It is an open-book examination of 75 questions in three hours, passed at 75 percent, administered through Kirkwood Community College — a board-approved provider, not PSI — and built on two references a candidate must use together: the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code and the Iowa State Plumbing Code 2024 Amendment Booklet. The PassProfessor Iowa Journeyman Plumber with Gas program prepares candidates for that sitting.
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What this credential certifies
The full name of the credential is the first fact to learn, because it carries information: Journeyman Plumber with Gas. Iowa’s journeyman credential expressly includes gas within its scope, and the name on the license is the name candidates should use in every application, search, and conversation about the examination. A candidate who searches under a shortened or generic title risks pulling material for the wrong credential, the wrong level, or the wrong state — in a batch of states where several plumbing examinations look alike on the surface, Iowa’s route is in fact one of the most distinctive in the country.
The credential certifies a journeyman: a plumber past the apprentice stage, qualified to work at journeyman level on the plumbing and gas systems the Iowa code governs. Above it sits the master level, which Iowa examines separately and at greater length, as the ladder section below describes. The journeyman examination is the working credential’s gate, and Iowa has built that gate in a particular way — open book, code-and-amendment based, and administered through an educational provider rather than a national testing vendor. Each of those choices shapes how a candidate should prepare, and each is taken up in turn on this page.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | Iowa Journeyman Plumber with Gas |
| Examination format | Open book |
| Questions | 75 questions |
| Time | 3 hours |
| Passing standard | 75 percent |
| Examination fee | $119 |
| References | 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code + Iowa State Plumbing Code 2024 Amendment Booklet |
| Adopted code | 2024 UPC, adopted at 481 IAC 425.1, effective March 26, 2025 — tested = adopted |
| Iowa amendment of note | Iowa replaces the UPC trap-arm table with its own table |
| Administrator | Kirkwood Community College, a board-approved provider — there is no PSI bulletin for Iowa plumbing |
| Ladder context | Master: 125 questions / 6 hours / 75 percent / $119 |
| Companion guide | /iowa-journeyman-plumber-exam-guide/ |
| Administrator note | PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with Kirkwood Community College or with Iowa’s plumbing licensing authority |
Two references, used together: the 2024 UPC and the Iowa Amendment Booklet
Iowa adopted the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code at 481 IAC 425.1, effective March 26, 2025, and Iowa candidates are examined on that same 2024 edition — tested equals adopted. But “the 2024 UPC” is only half of the reference statement, and candidates who stop there will answer some items wrong. The second reference is the Iowa State Plumbing Code 2024 Amendment Booklet: Iowa’s own amendments to the UPC, which the examination treats as part of the governing code. Where the booklet amends a UPC provision, the Iowa text is the examined text.
The amendment booklet is therefore not an appendix to be skimmed after the “real” study is done. It is a co-equal reference, and its contents are exactly the material that separates an Iowa sitting from a generic UPC sitting. A candidate may know the 2024 UPC thoroughly and still miss amended items, because the examination keys those items to Iowa’s version. Preparation in Iowa is thus a two-document discipline from the first day: every topic is learned in the UPC and then checked against the booklet, until reaching for the amendment becomes a habit rather than a step remembered at the end.
One amendment is named in the verified record and deserves emphasis here, with the full treatment in the companion guide: Iowa replaces the UPC trap-arm table with its own. Trap-arm length is everyday drainage practice — it decides how far a fixture trap may sit from its vent — and Iowa candidates must learn Iowa’s table, not the table printed in the UPC itself. It is the perfect illustration of the Iowa method: the national code supplies the structure, and Iowa’s amendment supplies the answer.
Open book: what it changes and what it does not
The Iowa journeyman examination is open book, and candidates should understand precisely what that buys them. It buys lookup: a provision half-remembered can be found, a table can be consulted, a sizing figure can be verified rather than guessed. It does not buy time. Seventy-five questions in three hours is a working pace of roughly two and a half minutes per question, and a candidate who must look up most answers will run out of sitting long before running out of questions. Open book rewards candidates who already know the code and use the references to confirm and to catch detail; it punishes candidates who arrive expecting the books to do the knowing.
Open book also changes the value of the two references’ physical organisation. A candidate whose 2024 UPC and Amendment Booklet are tabbed, familiar, and quick to navigate converts lookup time into answering time. Preparation should therefore include the references themselves as instruments: learn where each chapter and table lives, practise finding provisions against the clock, and treat the Amendment Booklet’s layout as familiar ground. In an open-book sitting, retrieval speed is a scored skill whether or not the blueprint names it.
Administered through Kirkwood Community College — and not through PSI
Iowa plumbing examinations are administered through Kirkwood Community College, a board-approved provider. That sentence carries a practical warning that this page states plainly because candidates lose time to it: there is no PSI bulletin for Iowa plumbing. PSI administers plumbing examinations for a number of other states, and its candidate bulletins are the documents candidates in those states quite properly follow. Iowa is not one of those states. An Iowa candidate searching PSI’s catalogue for a bulletin, a scheduling route, or sitting rules will find nothing that governs this examination, because the administration runs through Kirkwood instead.
The consequence for preparation is simple. Every administrative fact about the sitting — scheduling, sitting arrangements, what the open-book permission covers in the room — should be taken from Kirkwood Community College’s administration of the examination and from Iowa’s licensing authority, in their current published form. Material written for PSI-administered states will describe doors that do not exist in Iowa, and Iowa material found in national products should be checked for exactly this error, because vendor confusion is one of the most common ways secondary sources go wrong on Iowa.
What the examination covers
The examination’s subject matter is the journeyman’s work as the 2024 UPC, Iowa-amended, governs it — plumbing and gas together, reflecting the credential’s name.
Drainage, waste, and venting, Iowa-amended — fixture units, drainage sizing, traps and trap arms, and venting, with Iowa’s own trap-arm table replacing the UPC table as the authority candidates must apply. This is the area where the two-reference discipline is tested most directly.
Water supply and distribution — demand estimation and sizing, pressures, and the protection of potable water, including backflow and cross-connection provisions, applied at journeyman level.
Fixtures and installation standards — permitted fixtures, installation, clearances and connections, and the materials and workmanship provisions that frame compliant work.
Fuel gas piping — present in this credential by name. Gas sizing, materials, installation, and testing are part of what the Journeyman Plumber with Gas is certified to do, and candidates whose recent work has been water-and-drainage only should give gas provisions deliberate study rather than assuming familiarity.
General provisions of the amended code — the administrative and general chapters of the 2024 UPC as Iowa amends them, including any provision the Amendment Booklet alters, adds, or removes. Candidates should expect amended provisions to be examined as Iowa law, not as UPC trivia.
The ladder: journeyman and master in Iowa
Iowa examines two levels relevant to this page. The Journeyman Plumber with Gas is 75 questions in three hours, passed at 75 percent, with an examination fee of $119. The master examination above it is a substantially longer sitting — 125 questions in six hours, also passed at 75 percent, also $119. Those master figures appear on this page only as ladder context: they show the shape of the step beyond journeyman, and they are not the figures for the sitting this program prepares candidates to take. Candidates should be careful, when reading Iowa material, to note which level a stated figure belongs to; the two examinations share a passing percentage and a fee, which makes their differing lengths and question counts easier to transpose by mistake.
The route, in order
The route runs: confirm that the Journeyman Plumber with Gas is the credential your work requires, in its full name and at the journeyman level. Confirm your eligibility with Iowa’s licensing authority. Take the examination arrangements from Kirkwood Community College, the board-approved provider administering the sitting — not from any PSI source. Prepare on the two references together, the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code and the Iowa State Plumbing Code 2024 Amendment Booklet, building the amendment-checking habit and learning Iowa’s trap-arm table in place of the UPC’s. Sit the open-book examination — 75 questions, three hours — and reach the 75 percent passing standard. The examination fee is $119. Candidates who do not reach the standard should follow the retake arrangements published by the administering provider and the licensing authority, and should diagnose the sitting before repeating it: in an open-book examination, the useful question is rarely “what didn’t I know” and usually “what couldn’t I find or apply fast enough, and which Iowa amendments did I answer from the unamended code.”
What makes this examination demanding
Three features combine to make the Iowa sitting demanding in its own specific way. The first is pace under open-book conditions, already described: 75 questions in three hours forgives knowledge gaps that can be looked up quickly, and forgives nothing else. The second is the amendment layer. Iowa has taken a current national code — the 2024 UPC is among the newest editions any state in this field examines on — and amended it, and the examination holds candidates to the amended text. Every amended provision is a place where the most widely available study material, written to the unamended UPC, points toward the wrong answer. The third is breadth that includes gas by name: the credential’s scope is written into its title, and the sitting can fairly range across it.
Underneath all three sits the ordinary journeyman demand: systems presented as problems, provisions to be located and applied, and distractors built from plausible field practice that the amended code does not permit. Iowa’s version of that demand is simply sharper, because the candidate’s books are open — the sitting is free to test application and judgement rather than memory, and it does.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
Built on the platform architecture: a 2024 UPC core plus an Iowa delta — with the delta taught as co-equal, not as a supplement. PassProfessor plumbing programs are composed in two layers, and in Iowa the layering is the lesson. The first layer is the journeyman core written to the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code: drainage and venting, water supply and protection, fixtures, and fuel gas. The second is the Iowa delta, taught alongside the core from the start: the Iowa State Plumbing Code 2024 Amendment Booklet provision by provision where it changes the UPC, Iowa’s own trap-arm table learned in place of the UPC table, the full credential name and the gas scope it signals, the open-book format and the retrieval discipline it demands, and Kirkwood Community College as the administering provider. Every item is written from scratch against primary sources; no item is drawn from another provider’s material.
Open-book performance as a trained skill. Because the sitting permits the references, the program trains with them: locating provisions and tables against the clock, checking the amendment before answering, and pacing 75 questions across three hours until the rhythm is familiar. For the full route, the two-reference method, and a study plan built around the amendment booklet, read the companion guide at /iowa-journeyman-plumber-exam-guide/.
Independence, stated plainly. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with Kirkwood Community College or with Iowa’s plumbing licensing authority, and this program is not an Iowa licensing course. Completing it confers no license and no exemption; the licensing authority alone licenses, and candidates take examination arrangements through Kirkwood Community College as the board-approved provider.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The Iowa Journeyman Plumber with Gas program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program. No date is promised, because the program will open when it meets the standard described above, not before.
Frequently asked questions
What is the full name of Iowa’s journeyman plumbing credential?
Journeyman Plumber with Gas. The gas scope is part of the credential’s name and of what it certifies.
How many questions are on the Iowa journeyman examination, and how long is it?
75 questions in three hours. The passing standard is 75 percent, and the examination fee is $119.
Is the Iowa journeyman examination open book?
Yes. It is an open-book sitting — which rewards candidates who know the code and can retrieve provisions quickly, at a pace of 75 questions in three hours.
What references is the examination built on?
Two, used together: the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code and the Iowa State Plumbing Code 2024 Amendment Booklet. Where the booklet amends the UPC, the Iowa text governs.
What is Iowa’s trap-arm position?
Iowa replaces the UPC trap-arm table with its own table. Iowa candidates must learn and apply Iowa’s table, not the table printed in the UPC.
Which code edition has Iowa adopted?
The 2024 UPC, adopted at 481 IAC 425.1 effective March 26, 2025. The examined edition is the same — tested equals adopted.
Who administers the Iowa plumbing examination? Is there a PSI bulletin?
Kirkwood Community College, a board-approved provider, administers it. There is no PSI bulletin for Iowa plumbing; PSI material does not govern this sitting.
How does the master examination differ?
As ladder context only: the master sitting is 125 questions in six hours, also passed at 75 percent, also $119. Those are not the journeyman figures.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with Kirkwood Community College or Iowa’s licensing authority?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider. Kirkwood Community College administers the examination as a board-approved provider, and the licensing authority alone licenses.
When does enrollment open?
The program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address on this page and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program.