South Dakota licenses its top plumbing tier as the Plumbing Contractor, examined directly by the South Dakota State Plumbing Commission in three parts with mixed book status: a code part in which the code may be used, a code part in which it may not, and a drawings-based sizing exercise. The published standard is stated in the rule’s own words: “The passing grade for plumbing contractors is 80 percent.” The PassProfessor South Dakota Plumbing Contractor program prepares candidates for all three parts, including the sizing work that a purely written preparation must handle honestly.
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What this credential is — and what South Dakota does not call it
South Dakota has no class styled master plumber and no class styled journeyman plumber. Candidates searching state law for either title will not find one, because neither class exists in the state’s plumbing scheme. The top tier — the subject of this program — is the Plumbing Contractor. Below it sits the class named simply Plumber, referred to on this page only as ladder context. Beneath that structure the state also licenses apprentices and a range of restricted and specialty classes, none of which is the subject of this program.
The distinction in the statute is functional. A plumbing contractor, in the words of the definition at §36-25-1(6), is a person qualified and skilled in the planning, superintending, and practical installation of plumbing, qualified and registered to contract for plumbing installations and conduct the business of plumbing. A plumber, by contrast, works as an employee of, or under the direction of, a plumbing contractor. The contractor examination therefore tests code knowledge both with and without the book, plus the ability to size a system from drawings — a full part of the examination, with its own hour, disclosed plainly below.
Authority rests with the South Dakota State Plumbing Commission, within the Department of Labor and Regulation, under SDCL chapter 36-25 and ARSD Article 20:53; the Commission itself serves as a committee of plumbing examiners. Sittings are held in person in Pierre by appointment, and in Sioux Falls or Rapid City when eight to ten applicants warrant a session. No examination vendor is named in any primary source, and none is named here. Candidates apply first, are approved, and then sit; exam applications expire six months from approval, with fees forfeited on failure to appear.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | South Dakota Plumbing Contractor: the top examined tier in South Dakota plumbing licensure |
| Regulator | South Dakota State Plumbing Commission (Department of Labor and Regulation), under SDCL chapter 36-25 and ARSD Article 20:53 |
| Administrator | Commission-administered, in person: Pierre by appointment; Sioux Falls or Rapid City when 8–10 applicants warrant |
| Examination structure | Three parts: Part 1, code-based questions, code may be used, maximum 2 hours; Part 2, code-based questions, code may not be used, maximum 2 hours; Part 3, drawings sizing exercise, maximum 1 hour, code may be used for the plumbing contractor examination |
| Passing standard | Published verbatim: “The passing grade for plumbing contractors is 80 percent” |
| Code basis | The state plumbing code: the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code as adopted with South Dakota amendments |
| Fees stated | Application $50; examination and reexamination $100; Plumbing Contractor license and annual renewal $275 |
| Administrator note | PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the South Dakota State Plumbing Commission |
Two absences in this table are deliberate. No question counts are published for any South Dakota examination, and no content outline, blueprint, or topic weighting is published either. Preparation is therefore built on the rule’s own description of the three parts — code questions with the book, code questions without it, and drawings to size — rather than on an invented syllabus.
Three parts, three different disciplines
The Plumbing Contractor examination is set by rule at §20:53:03:07 in three parts, and its most consequential feature is that the parts do not share a book rule. The examination must never be described, in shorthand, by a single book label, because no single label is true of it.
Part 1 presents code-based questions on which the code may be used, maximum two hours. It examines lookup fluency: finding the governing provision in the state plumbing code and applying it at a pace that respects the clock.
Part 2 presents code-based questions on which the code may not be used, maximum two hours. It examines held knowledge: the provisions a contractor must command without reference. Together, Parts 1 and 2 divide the code into what must be findable and what must be known; a plan that trains only the first skill enters half-prepared.
Part 3 is the drawings sizing exercise, maximum one hour, code may be used for the plumbing contractor examination, treated in full in the next section. The questions and drawings for plumbing contractors and plumbers may be different, as the rule states.
The three maxima add to five hours. How the standard applies across the parts is addressed in the passing-standard section below.
Part 3 disclosed plainly: a drawings-based sizing exercise
Part 3 must be described exactly, because it decides what honest preparation can and cannot promise. Under the rule, the applicant is given drawings of plumbing fixtures on which the applicant is to size all stacks, wastes, and vents and to insert the pipe size. It is, in short, a drawings-based sizing exercise performed on paper in the examination room: read the fixture arrangement, work the sizing, and record the pipe sizes the system requires.
It is not a hands-on practical. No primary source describes any pipe-joining, installation, or other hands-on component in any South Dakota examination, and this program never describes Part 3 in practical-examination language. But the converse also holds: Part 3 is not a multiple-choice topic that ordinary written drilling fully rehearses. It requires the candidate to produce sizes on drawings, under a one-hour maximum, with the code available for the contractor examination. A written program carries a substantial drawings-sizing block — fixture-unit reasoning worked on drawn systems, stacks, wastes and vents sized end to end — precisely so that its candidates meet this part practised in its own discipline. The companion guide at /south-dakota-master-plumber-exam-guide/ sets out how that block is sequenced.
The passing standard, in the rule’s exact words
The rule publishes the contractor standard in one sentence, and this page prints it verbatim: “The passing grade for plumbing contractors is 80 percent.”
That sentence is the whole of the published standard. Whether the 80 percent is computed across the whole examination or required part by part is unpublished, and this program claims neither computation. Candidates should prepare on the prudent reading — strength needed in every part — while understanding that reading is a study discipline, not a published rule. No raw count accompanies the percentage, because no question count is published from which one could be drawn.
For ladder context only: the same rule sentence gives the Plumber class a passing grade of 70 percent. That figure belongs to the class below and plays no part in the contractor standard.
The code the examination keys on
The examination rule bases the examination on “the state plumbing code” without naming an edition in the examination layer itself. The state plumbing code, at ARSD §20:54:02:01, adopts the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code, published by IAPMO on January 1, 2024, with 59 South Dakota amendments and stated exclusions, and SDCL §36-25-15 requires plumbing to be in substantial accord with that code. Adopted and tested therefore meet in the same code, amendments included — the adopted text excludes whole chapters and appendices of the model code, so preparation keyed to an unamended national text mis-teaches the South Dakota sitting.
What the room permits beyond the rule’s per-part statements — the physical form in which the code may be brought and any related room rules — is not stated in any examination-facing primary source, and this program states none of it. Candidates should confirm room arrangements with the Commission when they schedule.
Who may sit: the six-year gate
The Plumbing Contractor gate joins the Licensing page and the rule at §20:53:03:02. An applicant must show six years of experience as a plumbing contractor, plumber, or plumber’s apprentice, with at least two of those years as a plumbing contractor or plumber, at at least 1,900 hours per year. The structure rewards breadth followed by responsibility: years in the trade in any of the three capacities build the six, but at least two of them must be at the contractor or plumber level. Under a rule effective November 3, 2026, qualifying training must be licensed work experience, creditable only if completed after the applicant was issued the applicable license, with a supervisor experience affidavit available on request. Experience narratives assembled without regard to that licensed-work condition risk failing at the application stage, before any examination question is reached.
As ladder context, the Plumber class below requires four years as an apprentice plumber at at least 1,900 hours per year, with defined credit routes in the rules, including military plumbing credit. Those routes belong to that class’s application; the contractor gate above is stated on its own terms and does not borrow them.
Fees, renewal, continuing education, and retakes
The corroborated fee set for this program is short and is stated in full. The application fee is $50. The examination and reexamination fee is $100, payable before the examination and non-refundable, and capped at that figure by SDCL §36-25-19. The Plumbing Contractor license fee, and its annual renewal, is $275. One examination only is covered by each examination fee paid. No state bond or insurance minimum exists for this license — that is a verified position, not an omission: any bond figure presented as a South Dakota state requirement for plumbing contractors should be treated as belonging to some other layer, such as a local requirement, and not to the state license.
Continuing education binds the contractor at renewal: four hours in the previous license period, at least two of them code-related, an hour counted at no fewer than 50 minutes. Reciprocity applicants owe the same four hours before issuance.
Retakes run on a fixed interval: one sitting for the same license only once every three months, with no published attempt cap beyond that interval. For a Sioux Falls or Rapid City session, the re-examination fee must be submitted at least two weeks prior. Combined with the six-month life of an approved application, the interval makes preparation before the first attempt essential.
Reciprocity exists as a mechanism only: registration without examination where the other state’s regulation is substantially equivalent, the applicant was licensed by examination, its laws are similar, and its code is equal or better, with the examination fee payable despite no examination being sat. No state is named as qualifying in the sources, and none is named here.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
Built around the three parts as the rule states them. Our catalog now includes this program in three blocks mirroring the sitting: code lookup under time, on the state plumbing code as adopted with its amendments; held code knowledge, through recall drilling at examination pace; and the drawings-sizing block — drawn fixture systems sized repeatedly against the clock Part 3 imposes.
Honest about its own boundary. This is a written preparation program. It rehearses Part 3’s sizing discipline on drawings, as the examination itself presents drawings, and presents itself as rehearsing no hands-on performance, because the examination contains none. Where the examination is unpublished — counts, outlines, the computation of its standard across parts — the program says so rather than filling the gap with invented precision.
Independence, stated plainly. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the South Dakota State Plumbing Commission or the Department of Labor and Regulation. Completing this program confers no license and no approval to sit; the Commission alone licenses, approves applications, and administers the examinations through its own sittings. The full part-by-part treatment is in the companion guide: /south-dakota-master-plumber-exam-guide/.
Tell me when enrollment opens. This 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.
Frequently asked questions
What is South Dakota’s top plumbing license called?
Plumbing Contractor. South Dakota has no class styled master plumber and no class styled journeyman plumber; the class below the contractor is named simply Plumber.
Who administers the Plumbing Contractor examination?
The South Dakota State Plumbing Commission itself. Sittings are held in person in Pierre by appointment, and in Sioux Falls or Rapid City when eight to ten applicants warrant a session. No examination vendor is named in any primary source.
How is the examination structured?
In three parts under §20:53:03:07: Part 1, code-based questions, code may be used, maximum two hours; Part 2, code-based questions, code may not be used, maximum two hours; Part 3, a drawings sizing exercise, maximum one hour, code may be used for the contractor examination. It is a mixed-book examination, describable by no single book label.
What is Part 3?
A drawings-based sizing exercise: the applicant is given drawings of plumbing fixtures and must size all stacks, wastes, and vents and insert the pipe size. It is not a hands-on practical — no South Dakota examination includes a hands-on component — and this program carries a dedicated drawings-sizing block for it.
What score passes?
Verbatim: “The passing grade for plumbing contractors is 80 percent.” Whether that grade is computed across the whole examination or required part by part is unpublished, and this page claims neither.
How many questions does the examination contain?
No question count is published for any South Dakota examination, and no content outline is published either. This program states none.
Which code is examined?
The state plumbing code: the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code as adopted at ARSD §20:54:02:01 with 59 South Dakota amendments and stated exclusions. Preparation on an unamended national text does not match the South Dakota sitting.
What experience must a contractor applicant show?
Six years of experience as a plumbing contractor, plumber, or plumber’s apprentice, with at least two of those years as a plumbing contractor or plumber, at at least 1,900 hours per year. Qualifying training must be licensed work experience completed after the applicable license was issued.
What are the fees?
Application $50; examination and reexamination $100, payable before the examination and non-refundable; Plumbing Contractor license and annual renewal $275. No state bond or insurance minimum exists for this license.
How often may I retake the examination?
Only once every three months for the same license. No attempt cap beyond that interval is published. An approved exam application expires six months from approval, with fees forfeited on failure to appear.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Commission?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the South Dakota State Plumbing Commission or the Department of Labor and Regulation.
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.