Written against the 2026 NEC and checked section by section, September 2026
Required Circuits Practice Questions
Four branch circuits go into a dwelling because the code says so, and three of them carry a second sentence limiting what else they may feed. These questions work the Article 100 labels that decide which rule applies, the required circuit list in 210.11(C) with its restrictions and exceptions, the two navigation changes the 2026 edition made inside Article 210, and the point where those same circuits reappear as fixed volt-amperes in a load calculation.
Pick an answer and the explanation opens with the section it comes from. These are original questions written for this site, not questions from the exam. Have your own code book open: the Texas exam is open book, and looking the section up is the skill being tested.
Read the required circuits study page first if the topic is new to you.
1. Under Article 100, the conductors of a branch circuit run between which two points?
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B. The final overcurrent protective device protecting the circuit and the outlets
Article 100 puts the beginning of a branch circuit at the final overcurrent protective device protecting it and the end at the outlets. The 2026 edition reworded that line to say overcurrent protective device rather than overcurrent device, which matches the term this edition defines. The service point is where the utility hands off, and everything between that point and a branch circuit device is service or feeder.
NEC 2026 Article 100
2. A circuit supplies three receptacle outlets that appliances plug into, and it also feeds one permanently connected luminaire that is not part of any appliance. Under the Article 100 labels, what is it?
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D. Not an appliance branch circuit, because of the luminaire
The appliance branch circuit definition ends with a condition, that the circuit carries no permanently connected luminaires which are not part of an appliance. One such luminaire takes the label away, and what is left fits the general-purpose description instead. The label matters because the required small-appliance circuits in a dwelling are written against 210.11(C)(1) rather than against the Article 100 label, so a candidate who answers from the label alone will pick the wrong sentence to read.
NEC 2026 Article 100
3. Which description matches the Article 100 definition of a general-purpose branch circuit?
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A. It supplies two or more receptacles or outlets for lighting and appliances
General-purpose is the default label and it turns on two things, more than one outlet and a mix of lighting and appliance use. One piece of utilization equipment makes the circuit individual instead. The kitchen answer is a required small-appliance circuit, which is a separate label with its own restriction.
NEC 2026 Article 100
4. Article 100 defines a multiwire branch circuit as having which of these?
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C. Two or more ungrounded conductors with a voltage between them, and a neutral with equal voltage to each of them that is connected to the neutral conductor of the system
Three conditions have to hold together, a voltage between the ungrounded conductors, equal voltage from the neutral to each of them, and the neutral tied to the system neutral. Two conductors of the same phase fail the first and the third test, which is why that arrangement overloads a shared neutral instead of cancelling on it. Counting conductors in a raceway proves nothing about the label.
NEC 2026 Article 100
5. For the receptacle outlets a dwelling kitchen area requires, Article 210 calls for at least how many small-appliance branch circuits, and at what rating?
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A. Two, each rated 20 amperes
The section says two or more 20-ampere small-appliance branch circuits, so two at 20 amperes is the floor and more is always permitted. Fifteen amperes is not an option for these circuits even though it is a perfectly ordinary branch circuit rating elsewhere. Three is a real design choice and a wrong answer to a question about a minimum.
NEC 2026 210.11(C)(1)
6. The two required small-appliance branch circuits in a dwelling may also supply which of these?
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D. Nothing else, because the section says those circuits have no other outlets
The requirement and the restriction are two sentences and the second one is the tested one. Lighting is not on these circuits, and neither is anything in a room they do not serve. Two narrow exceptions exist and each names one specific receptacle rather than a class of load, so an option naming a whole category is wrong on its face.
NEC 2026 210.11(C)(1), 210.52(B)(2)
7. What does Article 210 require for the laundry area receptacle outlets in a dwelling?
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B. At least one additional 120-volt, 20-ampere branch circuit, with no other outlets on it
The laundry entry names the voltage as well as the rating, and it closes with the same no other outlets sentence the small-appliance circuits carry. The word additional is doing work, because this circuit sits above whatever the general calculation already produced. The dryer is a separate matter entirely and is not what this circuit is for.
NEC 2026 210.11(C)(2)
8. One 20-ampere circuit is run to serve the receptacle outlets in three bathrooms of a dwelling and nothing else. Is that permitted?
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C. Yes, one or more 20-ampere circuits supply the bathroom receptacle outlets, and such circuits have no other outlets
The section says one or more circuits for the bathroom receptacle outlets, which lets a single circuit reach several bathrooms as long as nothing else lands on it. The fourth option is the trap, because the exception that allows other equipment runs only where the circuit serves a single bathroom. One circuit for several bathrooms, or one circuit for everything in one bathroom, and never both at once.
NEC 2026 210.11(C)(3)
9. A 20-ampere branch circuit supplies one bathroom and no other. What does the exception then allow?
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D. Outlets for other equipment inside that same bathroom may be supplied from it
The exception trades reach for content. Give up serving more than one bathroom and the circuit is allowed to carry the fan, the light and the heater in the room it does serve, within the permissible load rules for a 20-ampere circuit. The outdoor receptacle answer belongs to the garage circuit, which is a different entry with a different exception.
NEC 2026 210.11(C)(3), 210.23(B)
10. The required garage branch circuit in a dwelling is rated 20 amperes and has no other outlets. Which of these does an exception still let it supply?
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A. Outdoor receptacle outlets
One exception to the garage entry permits outdoor receptacle outlets on that circuit, which is the practical case of a receptacle on the outside wall of the same garage. Lighting is not receptacle outlets and is not covered. The bathroom and laundry circuits are separate requirements with their own no other outlets sentences, so nothing crosses between them.
NEC 2026 210.11(C)(4)
Ten down. If you want these timed and scored by content area, the practice exam runs thirty questions free, and the full bank of 178 plus the calculation ladder is $79 once.
11. Article 210 names four kinds of branch circuit that a dwelling gets regardless of what anybody asked for. Which of these is not one of them?
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C. A circuit dedicated to refrigeration equipment
The four entries are small-appliance, laundry, bathroom and garage. The refrigerator receptacle is served by the small-appliance circuits rather than by a required circuit of its own, and a separate individual circuit for it is a permission in 210.52(B)(1) Exception No. 2 rather than a requirement. Confusing a permission with a requirement is the whole point of this item.
NEC 2026 210.11(C), 210.52(B)(1)
12. A dwelling is wired with three 2-wire small-appliance branch circuits and one 2-wire laundry branch circuit. What do those circuits contribute to the standard load calculation?
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B. 6,000 volt-amperes
Each 2-wire small-appliance circuit goes in at 1,500 volt-amperes and so does each 2-wire laundry circuit, so three at 1,500 is 4,500 and the laundry circuit brings the total to 6,000. These are per circuit rather than per dwelling, which is why the extra small-appliance circuit costs another 1,500 even though the code only required two. Working the dwelling from floor area alone leaves this whole block out.
NEC 2026 120.52(A), 120.52(B)
13. A dwelling has 2,400 square feet of area counted for load purposes. Using the unit load the code gives for counting branch circuits, how many 20-ampere, 120-volt general lighting circuits does that load need at minimum?
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A. 3
The unit load for counting branch circuits is 3 volt-amperes per square foot, so 2,400 times 3 is 7,200 volt-amperes. At 120 volts that is 60 amperes, and 60 divided by 20 is three circuits. Running the same load at 15 amperes gives four circuits, which is why the rating in the stem has to be read before the arithmetic starts.
NEC 2026 120.13, 210.11(A)
14. A calculation based on volt-amperes per square foot calls for more circuits than the connected load needs. What does Article 210 require?
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C. The wiring system up to and including the branch-circuit panelboard serves the calculated load, and the devices with their circuits only have to serve the connected load
The subsection splits the question in two. Capacity has to be there up to and including the panelboard, and the calculated load is spread evenly among the multioutlet circuits inside it, but overcurrent devices and their circuits are only required for load that is actually connected. So a panel is sized for the calculation while the breakers follow the job.
NEC 2026 210.11(B)
15. In the 2026 edition, NEC 210.3 carries which subject?
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D. Reconditioned equipment, with ground-fault and arc-fault protective equipment barred from being reconditioned
The 2026 edition ran a template through many articles, putting listing requirements at point two and reconditioned equipment at point three, and Article 210 took it. The Other Articles table that used to live at 210.3 moved. If your memory of an address comes from an older book, the old address now holds real text about a different subject, which is worse than finding nothing there.
NEC 2026 210.3
16. You need the article that governs the branch circuit for a specific piece of equipment. Where does Article 210 send you in the 2026 edition?
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B. The table at 210.14
The Other Articles table is now Table 210.14, and the section around it says to use the table for equipment and applications outside Chapters 5, 6 and 7 that amend or supplement Article 210. Section 210.3 is reconditioned equipment in this edition, and 210.23 is the permissible load list by circuit rating.
NEC 2026 210.14, 210.3
17. Guest rooms and guest suites with permanent provisions for cooking get branch circuits meeting the dwelling unit requirements. Which occupancy is not on the list Article 210 gives?
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C. Hospitals
The list runs hotels, motels, assisted living facilities and dormitories. A hospital patient room is covered by the health care article rather than by this section, and a cooking facility there would not turn the room into a dwelling unit for Article 210 purposes. The trigger in the stem is the permanent cooking provision, not the bed.
NEC 2026 210.17
18. Branch circuits inside a dwelling unit may supply what?
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A. Only loads within that dwelling unit or loads associated only with that dwelling unit
The rule keeps a tenant's circuits inside the tenant's own space so that shutting off one unit does not darken a shared area, and so that one occupant does not pay for another's load. Common area lighting and shared laundry equipment sit on the other side of the same rule. The word associated covers a case like a receptacle on the unit's own balcony.
NEC 2026 210.25(A)
19. Where may the branch circuit for the lobby lighting of a multifamily dwelling be supplied from?
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D. Equipment other than that which supplies an individual dwelling unit or tenant space
Common area circuits for lighting, alarm, signal or communications are kept off equipment that serves one unit or one tenant. That is why a house panel exists in these buildings. Size has nothing to do with it, so the largest service option is a distractor built to sound like engineering judgment.
NEC 2026 210.25(B)
20. The small-appliance branch circuits have no other outlets. One exception names a single kind of receptacle that may still sit on them. Which?
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B. A receptacle installed solely to supply and support an electric clock
The clock exception is narrow on purpose, since the receptacle exists only to hold and feed the clock and adds almost nothing to the circuit. The other three are ordinary loads and are handled by the general rule or by the individual circuit permission. Reading a restriction to the end of its exceptions is the habit this item rewards.
NEC 2026 210.52(B)(2)
21. Besides the wall, floor and countertop receptacle outlets in the kitchen area, what else do the required small-appliance branch circuits serve?
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C. The receptacle outlets for refrigeration equipment
The section lists the wall and floor outlets, the countertop outlets and the receptacle outlets for refrigeration equipment, so the refrigerator is on a small-appliance circuit unless it is moved to its own individual circuit under the exception. Lighting and the range hood are not receptacle outlets covered by that list. The garage has a required circuit of its own.
NEC 2026 210.52(B)(1)
22. Article 210 gives the general requirements for branch circuits within which limits?
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A. Not over 1000 volts ac or 1500 volts dc, nominal
The scope sentence carries both a nominal ac limit and a nominal dc limit, and the informational note under it points at the article for circuits above those figures. Six hundred volts is the limit from editions before 2017 and it survives in a lot of study material. A scope item is answered by reading the first section of the article rather than by recall.
NEC 2026 210.1
23. A branch circuit operates at 4,160 volts. Which article carries its requirements?
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D. Article 265
Branch circuits above 1000 volts ac or 1500 volts dc were pulled into their own article, and Article 210 points at it in an informational note under the scope. Article 215 is feeders and Article 230 is services, so both are the wrong kind of circuit before the voltage is even considered. Getting the scope right first is what stops a long search in the wrong article.
NEC 2026 210.1, Article 265
24. Where does Article 210 say the branch circuits for lighting and appliances come from?
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B. From the loads calculated under the load calculation article, plus specific loads required elsewhere in the code, plus the dwelling unit circuits the section itself lists
The opening paragraph gives three sources and a candidate who stops after the first will miss the dwelling circuits, which are required whether or not the calculation produced them. Counting outlets is how you check a design after the circuits exist, not how the code arrives at the number. General lighting circuits fall out of the unit load, so their count is not fixed the way the dwelling list is.
NEC 2026 210.11
25. A dwelling has a single vehicle bay garage fed by the required 20-ampere garage branch circuit. What does the second exception allow?
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C. Other outlets within that same garage may be supplied from it under the permissible load rules
This exception mirrors the single bathroom one. A garage with one vehicle bay is treated as a single room, so the circuit may carry other outlets inside it while still meeting the requirement. Nothing in the exception touches the rating, and nothing lets the circuit follow the reader outdoors except the separate exception for outdoor receptacle outlets.
NEC 2026 210.11(C)(4), 210.23(B)
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