North Dakota licenses its Master Plumber through an examination the North Dakota State Plumbing Board administers itself, in four parts over five hours, on the 2018 North Dakota Plumbing Code. The passing grade for a master plumber is 80 percent. The PassProfessor North Dakota Master Plumber program prepares candidates for that sitting — its closed-book opening part, its open-book completion and sizing work, and the responsibility the master license carries once it is held.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
What this credential certifies
The North Dakota Master Plumber license certifies the top examined tier of the trade in this state. The statute defines a master plumber as a person skilled in the planning, supervision, and the practical installation, alteration, and repair of plumbing, and familiar with the laws, rules, and regulations governing the same. Planning and supervision stand first: a journeyman has already proved examined competence on the tools, and a master candidate is examined as the person who will plan the work, supervise it, and answer for whether it was installed correctly.
The license carries a structural role no other North Dakota credential carries. There is no separate plumbing-contractor or firm license in this system. A person, firm, corporation, or limited liability company may engage in the business of installing plumbing in a location having a public waterworks or sewerage system only when, at all times, a registered and licensed master plumber responsible for the proper installation is in charge of the work. One exception exists: in cities under 1,000 population and in all rural areas, a licensed journeyman may engage in the business.
The Board’s license classes for plumbers are master plumber, journeyman plumber, and plumber’s apprentice. Sewer-and-water and water-conditioning licenses are separate Board families with their own examinations, outside this program. A master and a journeyman license may be held by the same person, and a master holder may be granted a journeyman license without the journeyman fee. The companion North Dakota Master Plumber Exam Guide works through the route in full.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | North Dakota Master Plumber |
| Authority | North Dakota State Plumbing Board, under NDCC chapter 43-18 and NDAC Title 62 |
| Administrator | Board-administered examination — no testing vendor exists for this credential |
| Code tested | 2018 North Dakota Plumbing Code — the 2018 Uniform Plumbing Code chapters and appendices as adopted by North Dakota; tested equals adopted |
| Examination structure | 4 parts in 5 hours; Part 1 is 100 multiple-choice questions, closed book; Parts 2, 3, and 4 are open book — 40 completion questions, a water pipe sizing completion, and a drain, waste and vent completion |
| Passing standard | 80 percent — the passing grade for a master plumber under NDAC 62-02-01-03 |
| Drawing and sizing work | The governing rule requires drawings of all stacks, wastes, and vents with minimum pipe sizes inserted; Parts 3 and 4 are sizing completion work — see the disclosure below |
| Hands-on practical | None |
| Retake | At least six months must pass after a failed examination |
| Fees (state fees) | Application $50; examination $50; Master Plumber license $200; renewal $200 |
| Eligibility gate | Age 21 or older, with two years (3,400 hours) as a licensed journeyman plumber |
| Administrator note | PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the North Dakota State Plumbing Board |
Board-administered, and what that changes
North Dakota does not hand this examination to a testing company. The Board itself offers the sitting, publishes its own examination schedule, and states the parts, hours, and retest rules in its own examination information. No vendor candidate bulletin exists, and material describing a vendor’s standard computer-based format describes a sitting that does not exist in this state. Examinations are held at the time and place prescribed by the Board, with in-person sittings in Bismarck, Grand Forks, Minot, and Fargo; Bismarck sittings run from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
The code: the 2018 North Dakota Plumbing Code, exactly as adopted
Tested edition and adopted edition are the same book in North Dakota, and its name must be stated exactly: the 2018 North Dakota Plumbing Code. North Dakota adopted the 2018 edition of the Uniform Plumbing Code, to be known as the 2018 North Dakota Plumbing Code, including chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 17; appendices A, B, C, D, E, I, and M; and chapter 62-03.1-03. Chapters 5 and 12 through 16 are not in the adopted list.
The Board instructs candidates to bring the 2018 North Dakota Plumbing Code to the examination, and the credited answers live inside North Dakota’s selection — not inside the full national text read without regard to what the state set aside. Study that treats the unamended model text and the North Dakota code as interchangeable wastes effort on excluded material and may carry excluded provisions into answers where state law does not contain them. Local ordinances are expressly not displaced by the state code article — a further reason the master in charge must know which layer governs an installation.
Four parts in five hours: a mixed-book sitting
The master examination consists of four parts, with five hours allowed for the examination as a whole. No per-part time split is published, so the candidate manages one five-hour sitting across four exercises. Part 1 is closed book and contains 100 multiple-choice questions. Parts 2, 3, and 4 are open book: Part 2 contains 40 completion questions, Part 3 is a water pipe sizing completion, and Part 4 is a drain, waste and vent with fixture units completion. Candidates bring the 2018 North Dakota Plumbing Code, a calculator, and a photo ID; cell phones may not be used during the examination.
This page states the shape without abbreviation, because generic descriptions get it wrong: the master examination is not simply an open-book examination. Its first part is a substantial closed-book paper, and only after that paper do the open-book parts begin. The journeyman examination, by contrast, runs to five parts, two of them closed book, at a 70 percent standard. The master examination is the shorter architecture with the higher standard — four parts, one closed-book part, a passing grade ten points higher. A candidate who prepares only for lookup has not prepared for Part 1; a candidate who prepares only from memory has not prepared for the sizing completions, where accurate, efficient use of the code under time is the skill examined.
The drawing and sizing component, disclosed plainly. The governing rule defines this examination, in part, as preparing drawings on which the applicant is to draw all stacks, wastes, and vents, and to insert the minimum pipe sizes. In the Board’s part structure, that applied work is present as the sizing completion parts — Parts 3 and 4. A written preparation program can train sizing method, fixture-unit reasoning, and code-table fluency, and the program below does that work deliberately. It cannot fully rehearse the completion performance itself: producing the sizing work, on the Board’s exercise, inside the sitting, is a performance the candidate must bring to the room. Candidates should practise sizing as produced work — completed, checked, and timed — rather than as reading about sizing. There is no hands-on pipe-joining practical in this examination.
The 80 percent standard, and the six months standing behind it
The passing grade for a master plumber is 80 percent. The rule states the two grades side by side — 80 percent for the master, 70 percent for the journeyman — and the master figure is the one to plan around. Whether the 80 percent is computed across the whole examination or part by part is not stated in the published material this program is built on, and this page claims neither; thorough preparation across all four parts answers either computation.
Failure is expensive in time. If an applicant fails, the applicant is denied the right to take another examination until at least six months have passed from the date of the last examination. Each reexamination requires a fresh $50 examination fee — one examination only is given for each fee paid. A failed applicant may review the examination to determine the reasons for failure and may appeal to the Board; neither right shortens the six months. At the master tier, where the candidate is often planning work that depends on being the master in charge, a six-month delay is a business delay as well as a licensing delay.
The verified state fees are: application $50, examination $50, license after passing $200, renewal $200, with a late renewal fee of $50 — renew by January 31 to avoid the late fee. Those are state fees, separate from any preparation a candidate chooses.
Who may sit, and what holding the license involves
All applicants must be twenty-one years of age and must have had two years — stated in the rule as 3,400 hours — of experience as a journeyman plumber licensed by North Dakota or by another state that has a state licensing law. Behind that gate stands the journeyman’s own route: four years as an apprentice under a licensed master plumber, at least 1,900 hours a year and 7,600 hours in total, with apprentice registration from age eighteen within thirty days of starting employment.
Holding the license changes the holder’s working position. Not more than five apprentices may work under the immediate and personal supervision of one master or journeyman on any project, and fourth-year apprentices — three years and 5,700 hours — may work alone under the rule. Plumbing inspectors employed by the Board or a political subdivision must themselves be licensed as journeyman or master plumbers. The license runs on an annual term expiring December 31, with renewal application within thirty days after expiration; a license expired one year or more need not be renewed, and the Board may require a fresh examination. Continuing education is required on a two-year cycle. Reciprocity exists only in layered form: the statute is discretionary and names no states, while the Board’s published answers name written agreements with South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana with conditions — confirm them with the Board rather than assume a transfer.
What makes this examination demanding
Three demands concentrate here. First, depth under a closed book: one hundred questions answered from command of the material, at the tier where planning and supervision judgement is being certified. Second, produced sizing work under a shared five-hour clock, on drawings requiring minimum pipe sizes — work that exposes any candidate whose sizing knowledge is recognition rather than production. Third, the standard itself: 80 percent, with a six-month wait behind a miss, in a Board-run sitting with no vendor blueprint and no published per-topic weights.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
Built on the platform architecture: a code core plus a North Dakota delta. PassProfessor plumbing programs in our catalog pair a model-code core — original practice material written to the plumbing principles, drainage, venting, water supply, and sizing method a master needs — with a state delta: the 2018 North Dakota Plumbing Code as adopted, chapter and appendix selection included; the four-part mixed-book structure; the 80 percent standard; the six-month retest rule; and the master-in-charge framework. Every item is written from scratch against primary sources.
Preparation matched to both halves of the sitting. The program trains closed-book command and open-book production as separate skills. Retrieval work builds the unprompted knowledge Part 1 examines. Timed sizing work — completed and checked as produced exercises — builds the fluency Parts 3 and 4 examine, with the disclosure above kept in view: the program trains the method thoroughly, and the candidate must still bring the completion performance to the Board’s room.
Independence, stated plainly. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the North Dakota State Plumbing Board, and this program is not a Board course. Completing it confers no license; the Board alone licenses and examines, through its own channels. The Board can be reached at 1110 College Drive, Suite 210, Bismarck, ND 58501. The full route is set out in the companion North Dakota Master Plumber Exam Guide.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The North Dakota Master Plumber program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Our catalog now includes preparation for master plumber examinations across the country, and this program joins it when it meets the standard described above. Leave an email address and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program.
Frequently asked questions
Who administers the North Dakota Master Plumber examination?
The North Dakota State Plumbing Board administers it directly. No testing vendor administers this examination, and no vendor bulletin exists.
How is the master examination structured?
Four parts in five hours. Part 1 is 100 multiple-choice questions, closed book. Parts 2, 3, and 4 are open book: 40 completion questions, a water pipe sizing completion, and a drain, waste and vent with fixture units completion.
Is the master examination an open-book examination?
Not simply. Part 1 is closed book; Parts 2, 3, and 4 are open book.
What score passes the master examination?
80 percent — the passing grade for a master plumber under NDAC 62-02-01-03. The journeyman grade, for comparison, is 70 percent.
Which code is tested?
The 2018 North Dakota Plumbing Code — the 2018 Uniform Plumbing Code chapters and appendices as adopted by North Dakota, including chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 17 and appendices A, B, C, D, E, I, and M.
Does the examination include drawing or sizing work?
Yes. The governing rule requires drawings of all stacks, wastes, and vents with minimum pipe sizes inserted, and Parts 3 and 4 are sizing completion work. A written program can train sizing method but cannot fully rehearse that performance.
Is there a hands-on practical?
No. The master examination has no hands-on pipe-joining practical.
Who is eligible to sit for the master examination?
An applicant aged twenty-one or older with two years (3,400 hours) of experience as a journeyman plumber licensed by North Dakota or by another state that has a state licensing law, with satisfactory evidence of experience furnished to the Board.
What happens after a failed attempt?
At least six months must pass before another examination may be taken, and each reexamination requires a fresh $50 examination fee. A failed applicant may review the examination and may appeal to the Board.
What are the state fees for the master route?
Application $50, examination $50, Master Plumber license $200, renewal $200, with a $50 late renewal fee. These are state fees, separate from any preparation.
Does North Dakota license plumbing firms separately?
No. A business operates through a registered and licensed master plumber in charge of the work, with an exception for cities under 1,000 population and all rural areas, where a licensed journeyman may engage in the business.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Board?
No. PassProfessor is independent. The Board alone licenses plumbers and administers the examination.
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 it is ready — and only about this program.