Tennessee has no state journeyman plumber license and no state master plumber license. The top state plumbing credential is the contractor’s license with classification CMC-A — Plumbing and Gas Piping, issued by the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors to a business entity, and earned through examinations passed by the entity’s Qualifying Agent. The PassProfessor program for this credential prepares Qualifying Agents for the CMC-A trade examination and the Tennessee Contractor Business and Law examination, both administered by Prov, Inc.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
What this credential actually is — and what it is not
Start with the identity, because Tennessee is routinely misdescribed. There is no Tennessee state license titled journeyman plumber, and none titled master plumber; a candidate looking for either at the state level is looking for a credential Tennessee does not issue. What Tennessee issues, at the top of its plumbing scheme, is a contractor’s license — held by the business entity itself, whether a sole proprietorship, a corporation, a partnership, or a limited liability company — carrying a classification that states what work the entity may contract for.
The classification at the centre of this page is CMC-A — Plumbing and Gas Piping. Gas piping sits inside the classification; Tennessee has no separate state gas-fitter license standing beside it. The human being who is examined is not the entity. The examined individual is the entity’s Qualifying Agent — the person whose successful examination score qualifies the business to hold the classification. That single structural fact shapes everything about preparation: the candidate studying for this program is studying as the qualifying mind of a business, not as an individual tradesperson collecting a personal title.
For the full route and the outlines in depth, read the companion guide at /tennessee-master-plumber-exam-guide/.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | Tennessee Contractor’s License, Classification CMC-A — Plumbing and Gas Piping: the examinations its Qualifying Agent must pass |
| Regulator | Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors (Department of Commerce & Insurance), under T.C.A. Title 62, Chapter 6 |
| Credential holder | The business entity; the examined individual is the entity’s Qualifying Agent |
| Examination vendor | Prov, Inc. — the Board’s trade exam provider since July 1, 2026 (bulletin effective October 31, 2026) |
| Trade examination | CMC-A — Mechanical Plumbing: 100 questions / 300 minutes / open book, computer-administered |
| Companion examination | Tennessee Contractor Business and Law: 50 questions / 150 minutes — required of all new contractor applicants |
| Tested code | International Plumbing Code 2021; fuel gas references permit the International Fuel Gas Code 2018 or 2021 |
| Passing standard | 73% to pass — published in that form only |
| Prov examination fee | $53.00 per examination |
| Board fees | Contractor initial $250; contractor renewal $200 per 2 years |
| Practical component | None. Isometric analysis appears as questions inside the written trade examination only |
| Administrator note | PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors |
Two examinations stand between the entity and the license
A new CMC-A applicant’s Qualifying Agent sits two examinations, and neither substitutes for the other.
The CMC-A trade examination — titled CMC-A — Mechanical Plumbing in the Prov bulletin — carries 100 questions in 300 minutes, open book, computer-administered. Its tested plumbing code is the International Plumbing Code 2021. The largest published content blocks tell a candidate where the weight sits: Drain, Waste, and Vent carries 20 questions and Isometrics carries 18, followed by Code Requirements, Fuel Gas Systems, and Water Supply at 10 each. The remaining references frame the sitting: the fuel gas references permit the International Fuel Gas Code in its 2018 or 2021 edition, and Mathematics for Plumbers and Pipefitters, 8th edition, supports the calculation work the trade paper expects.
The Tennessee Contractor Business and Law examination carries 50 questions in 150 minutes and is required of all new contractor applicants, CMC-A applicants included. Its reference is the NASCLA Tennessee guide to business, law and project management in its 4th edition, 2024. This is not an optional business add-on for applicants who feel commercial; it is a required second sitting, and a Qualifying Agent who prepares only for plumbing has prepared for half the route.
Both examinations print the same passing standard, in the same published form: 73% to pass. That is the whole of the published standard. No raw number of questions is printed for these examinations, and none should be worked backwards from the percentage and treated as official.
The full CMC is a different license — do not merge the two
Tennessee also issues the full CMC — Mechanical Contracting license. It is plumbing-bearing, but it is not this program, and the distinction is arithmetic as much as legal. The full CMC examination also carries 100 questions in 300 minutes, but Plumbing is only 20 of those 100 questions — the other 80 belong to the wider mechanical field. A candidate preparing for CMC-A, where the full paper is the plumbing paper, and a candidate preparing for the full CMC face materially different examinations that happen to share a duration and a passing standard of 73% to pass. Preparation material built for one does not become preparation for the other by relabelling, and this page does not absorb the full CMC’s 80 non-plumbing questions into the CMC-A account.
Who may be the Qualifying Agent, and what happens when one leaves
The Qualifying Agent is tied to the entity by a defined relationship. For a sole proprietor, the Qualifying Agent is the owner or a full-time employee holding power of attorney. For a partnership, a general partner or such an employee. For a corporation, a stockholder holding at least 20 percent or such an employee. For a limited liability company, a manager or member or such an employee. In each form, the pattern is the same: the examined person must be genuinely of the business, not a name rented for examination day.
The arrangement is policed after licensure, not just at application. If the Qualifying Agent leaves, the Board must be notified within 10 days, and a new Qualifying Agent must test and be appointed within 3 months — or the license becomes inactive, potentially while its contracts are still running.
Before any of this, there is a gate candidates miss: CMC and CMC-A applicants require Board pre-approval before scheduling with Prov — approval first, scheduling second.
The experience gate
The statutory gate for CMC-A is stated in the alternative: 3 years’ experience as a plumber, or an engineering degree in plumbing or a mechanical field. Either route qualifies on experience; neither route waives the examinations. The Qualifying Agent must still obtain a successful score in the classification, whatever their years or their degree.
Below this tier, as ladder context only, Tennessee issues the Limited Licensed Plumber license to an individual — a different credential with a different examination (40 questions in 120 minutes), for projects of less than the threshold described below, held by someone who is not a contractor and may not use the title “contractor.” CMC-A and CMC holders are exempt from it. It is context for the Tennessee ladder, not a step on the way to this license, and its examination is not part of this program.
What the license authorizes: the $25,000 line, monetary limits, and insurance tiers
The CMC-A license authorizes the entity to perform plumbing and gas piping work, as prime contractor or subcontractor, at $25,000 or more in total cost. The license is accepted statewide, although local permits and inspections still apply where the work is done. Below that line sits the Limited Licensed Plumber’s territory; at and above it, the contractor’s license is the instrument.
A Tennessee contractor’s license carries a monetary limit, part of the credential rather than back-office detail. The limit is the lesser of 10 times net worth or 10 times working capital; a licensee with $300,000 in both is unlimited. A 10 percent tolerance applies, and limits are never combined across licenses. General liability minimums are tiered by that limit: $100,000 at $500,000 or less, $500,000 at $1.5 million or less, and $1 million above $1.5 million. The Board’s current threshold for an initial CPA-reviewed statement sits at $3,000,000, with a surety-bond alternative of at least 50 percent of the requested limit available in lieu of the financial statement since July 1, 2026.
Renewal completes the picture: $200 per 2 years, and Tennessee imposes no continuing education requirement on CMC-A or CMC renewal — nor on Limited Licensed Plumber renewal. The residential continuing education elsewhere in Tennessee contractor law belongs to residential building classifications, not to this credential.
Sitting the examinations: delivery, fees, retakes, and a dated book transition
Prov delivers the examinations by computer at six Tennessee centres — Chattanooga, Greeneville, Knoxville, Memphis, Murfreesboro, and Nashville — or remotely via Examroom.ai. The Prov examination fee is $53.00 per examination, paid to Prov at registration; the Board’s contractor initial fee of $250 is a separate, Board-layer charge, never to be conflated into a single “cost of the exam.” Results are graded immediately and forwarded to the Board automatically.
The retake rules are unusually permissive: attempts are unlimited, with a 1-day wait after a failure, and there is no retake after passing. Rescheduling or cancelling is free at least 3 days ahead; inside that window the fee is forfeited.
One dated transition governs the books candidates may use, read as a transition with an end date, not a permanent rule. Reference books from the prior vendor’s era remain usable only through December 31, 2026; from January 1, 2027, only Prov-listed books are permitted. Preparation should be keyed to the Prov list from the start.
Tested and adopted coincide in Tennessee, and the guide states both layers separately for a reason: the State Fire Marshal’s rule adopts the International Plumbing Code 2021 as the state minimum, and the Prov bulletin tests the International Plumbing Code 2021. A candidate is examined on the same edition the state minimum adopts — but it is the bulletin’s list that governs what may be brought into the sitting.
What makes this credential demanding
The demand is doubled by design. The trade paper is a full 100-question plumbing examination whose two heaviest blocks — drain, waste, and vent work, and isometric analysis at 18 of 100 — punish candidates who studied plumbing as general knowledge rather than as sizing, layout, and code application. Isometric analysis deserves its own sentence: it is analysis inside a written, open-book examination — reading and reasoning from isometric material in questions — not a drawing examination, not a practical examination, and not a session in which the candidate produces drawings. Tennessee has no practical component in these examinations at all. Then, beside the trade paper, the Business and Law examination tests whether the Qualifying Agent understands the commercial and legal frame the entity will contract inside — because in Tennessee the license belongs to a business, and the state examines the business competence alongside the trade competence.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
The CMC-A trade examination as published. Our catalog now includes preparation built on the Prov bulletin’s CMC-A structure: the 2021 International Plumbing Code as the tested edition, the drain, waste, and vent and isometric analysis blocks at their published weight, fuel gas systems on the permitted International Fuel Gas Code editions, and the calculation work the trade paper carries. Every item is written from scratch against primary sources; no item is drawn from another provider’s material.
The Business and Law examination as a required sitting in its own right. The program treats the 50-question Tennessee Contractor Business and Law examination as half the route, because the Board does — not as an appendix to the plumbing material.
Independence, stated plainly. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors, and this program is not a Board course. Completing it confers no license and no exemption; the Board alone licenses, pre-approval runs through the Board, and examinations are scheduled through Prov. The companion guide at /tennessee-master-plumber-exam-guide/ carries the fuller account of the route, the outlines, and the monetary-limit tiers.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The Tennessee Contractor’s License, Classification CMC-A — Plumbing and Gas Piping 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.
Frequently asked questions
Does Tennessee have a master plumber license?
No. Tennessee has no state master plumber license and no state journeyman plumber license. The top state plumbing credential is the contractor’s license with classification CMC-A — Plumbing and Gas Piping, held by a business entity and earned through its Qualifying Agent’s examinations.
Who is examined for a CMC-A license?
The entity’s Qualifying Agent — the owner, partner, qualifying stockholder, manager or member, or full-time employee in the defined relationship to the business — who must obtain a successful score in the classification.
What examinations must a new CMC-A applicant pass?
Two: the CMC-A — Mechanical Plumbing trade examination (100 questions, 300 minutes, open book) and the Tennessee Contractor Business and Law examination (50 questions, 150 minutes), required of all new contractor applicants.
What score passes?
73% to pass, as published, for the CMC-A examination, the full CMC examination, and the Business and Law examination. No raw question count is published for these examinations.
Which plumbing code is tested?
The International Plumbing Code 2021. Fuel gas references permit the International Fuel Gas Code 2018 or 2021. From January 1, 2027, only Prov-listed books are permitted in the sitting.
Who administers the examinations?
Prov, Inc., the Board’s trade exam provider since July 1, 2026, by computer at six Tennessee centres or remotely via Examroom.ai. Board pre-approval is required before scheduling.
Is there a practical or drawing examination?
No. There is no practical component and no drawing-production component. Isometric analysis — 18 of the CMC-A examination’s 100 questions — is analysis inside the written, open-book examination.
How is the full CMC different from CMC-A?
The full CMC — Mechanical Contracting examination also carries 100 questions, but Plumbing is only 20 of them. CMC-A is the plumbing and gas piping classification, and its whole trade paper is the plumbing paper.
What does the Qualifying Agent need in experience?
The statutory gate is 3 years’ experience as a plumber, or an engineering degree in plumbing or a mechanical field. Neither route waives the examinations.
What work does the license authorize, and what does renewal require?
Plumbing and gas piping work at $25,000 or more in total cost, accepted statewide with local permits and inspections still applying, subject to the license’s monetary limit. Renewal is $200 per 2 years, and no continuing education is required for CMC-A renewal.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Board?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider. The Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors alone licenses contractors.
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.