Switches After 2026 Practice Questions

D. Article 406

A snap switch sits on a yoke, which makes it a wiring device, and wiring devices are answered in Article 406. Article 404 is still a real article about switches and still written in the same house style, but its scope now excludes wiring devices and points the reader across. The trap is that everything visible from a tab in the middle of Article 404 says switches.

NEC 2026 404.1, 406.1

B. A motor-circuit switch

Article 404 kept the heavier apparatus: general-use switches of the enclosed disconnect kind, motor-circuit switches, isolating switches, pullout switches, molded-case switches and circuit breakers used as switches. The three wrong answers are all wiring devices, and all three moved. Pivoting on the word snap gets the snap switch right and then fails, because a dimmer is not called a snap switch and is a wiring device anyway.

NEC 2026 404.1

C. An electrical device with a yoke, or used with flexible cord or cable, that serves either as a connection point for current or as a control device in general distribution and branch circuits

The definition has two hooks and either one is enough: a yoke, or use with flexible cord or cable. That is what decides the article, so a switch hanging on a cord is a wiring device even though it never sees a device box. Sizing the answer on the box, on the ampere rating or on what the thing controls sends you to the wrong article on the cases that matter.

NEC 2026 Article 100

A. Wireless control equipment to which circuit conductors are not connected, and wiring devices

The scope splits into what is covered and what is not, and the second list has exactly two entries with an informational note pointing at the scope of Article 406. Circuit breakers used as switches and molded-case switches are on the covered list rather than the excluded one. Tabbing the scope itself rather than the front of the article is what puts that pointer where your hand lands.

NEC 2026 404.1

B. Wiring Devices

The article was renamed to match what it now holds, and reading its title is the fastest way to confirm that the book on your bench is the right edition. If the title still names receptacles, cord connectors and attachment plugs, you are holding the previous edition, which fails you on this split and on everything else that moved. Its scope covers the rating, type and installation of wiring devices.

NEC 2026 406.1

D. Wiring devices are listed, and reconditioned wiring devices are not permitted to be installed

Both rules sit near the front of the article in short sentences, and the reconditioning one is absolute rather than conditional. Article 404 handles the same subject differently for the apparatus it kept, permitting some reconditioned items such as knife switches and refusing others such as molded-case switches. Two articles, two treatments, and an item can be built on either.

NEC 2026 406.2, 406.3

A. No, unless it is installed as part of a listed tub or shower assembly

The prohibition is flat and the only way in is a switch that is part of a listed assembly for that use. Ground-fault protection and a nonmetallic faceplate answer other questions and neither one buys a location. The receptacle side of the same subject is written separately with measured zones, which is the confusion the distance option is built on.

NEC 2026 404.6(C)

C. They are of the externally operable type, installed in device boxes or on covers listed for the intended use

The rule in Article 406 keeps the externally operable requirement that Article 404 applies to the apparatus it kept, and adds the listed cover as an alternative to a device box. An exception releases pendant and surface type snap switches on open-face switchboards or panelboards. Nothing in it turns on the box being metal or on a dead-front construction, which is a separate rule about enclosures with doors.

NEC 2026 406.32

C. Not more than 6 feet 7 inches above the floor, working platform or finished grade, with an exception for switches installed adjacent to the motors, appliances or other equipment they supply

Article 406 repeats the height limit for wiring devices and carries one exception, for switches next to the equipment they supply. Article 404 states the same 6 feet 7 inches for the apparatus it kept, but its list of departures is longer and reaches busways and hookstick operable isolating switches. Reading the exception from the wrong article is how a candidate answers confidently and wrongly here.

NEC 2026 406.38

A. Not more than 300 volts between adjacent devices, unless identified barriers are securely installed between them

The limit reaches snap switches grouped or ganged with other snap switches, receptacles or similar devices, and the barrier is the way out rather than a second requirement. A 277 volt lighting switch beside a 120 volt device is inside the limit; two 277 volt switches from different phases of the same wye system are not. The barrier has to be identified and securely installed, so a scrap of insulating material does not qualify.

NEC 2026 406.38

B. Only where the switch is listed and marked as a two-circuit or three-circuit switch

The default is one circuit per multipole snap switch, and the way past it is a device built and marked for the job rather than an installation practice. A shared neutral and an internal barrier answer other rules and neither one reaches this one. The section also points at the disconnect requirements that apply where more than one circuit supplies a switch.

NEC 2026 406.38

D. Only in the ungrounded circuit conductors

Travelers and switch legs are ungrounded conductors, and the rule leaves no room for switching the grounded conductor to save wire. An exception says a switch loop does not require a grounded conductor to be run to it, which is about what has to be present rather than about what may be switched. Where the wiring between switches and outlets is in metal raceway or metal-armored cable, the conductors of the circuit stay together in the same raceway or cable.

NEC 2026 406.30

A. Where all circuit conductors are disconnected simultaneously, or where the device is arranged so the grounded conductor cannot be disconnected until the ungrounded conductors have been

The general rule refuses it and the exception describes a sequence rather than a device type. Either everything opens at once, or the arrangement guarantees the ungrounded conductors go first, so nobody is ever standing at an energized load with the return path opened. A two-pole switch that happens to open both conductors is not automatically arranged to do it in the right order.

NEC 2026 406.30

C. The grounded circuit conductor for the controlled lighting circuit

The requirement is written on the location rather than on the device, so the grounded conductor goes in whether or not the switch installed today needs it. Four conditions release it, including a raceway large enough to pull one later, lighting controlled from a remote location and a switch that controls a receptacle load. Where several switch locations control the same load and the whole floor area is visible from them, only one location needs it.

NEC 2026 406.30

D. 0.030 inch for ferrous metal and 0.040 inch for nonferrous metal

Ferrous plates are permitted thinner because the metal is stiffer, so the two figures are not interchangeable and reversing them is the error the second option collects. Insulating faceplates run to 0.100 inch unless they are formed or reinforced for adequate mechanical strength, which is where that figure belongs. All of these are minimums on the plate itself and none of them substitutes for the bonding requirement on the plate.

NEC 2026 406.40

B. The motor load may not exceed 80 percent of the ampere rating of the switch at its rated voltage

The alternating-current type carries resistive and inductive loads to its full rating and then singles out motor loads at 80 percent. The 50 percent figure belongs to the ac or dc general use type, which derates inductive loads and is a different device with different rules. Reading the figure out of the wrong subdivision is what these items are written to catch.

NEC 2026 406.46

B. The load may not exceed 50 percent of the ampere rating of the switch at the applied voltage

The ac or dc type derates inductive loads to half and carries resistive loads to the full rating, while a switch of this type marked in horsepower is suitable for motor loads inside that rating. Tungsten-filament lamp loads are permitted to its full rating only where it is T-rated. Every one of those conditions belongs to this subdivision and not to the alternating-current only type above it.

NEC 2026 406.46

D. Not rated less than 15 amperes at 347 volts, and not readily interchangeable in box mounting with the other general-use snap switches

The 347 volt device gets its own subdivision because the voltage is well above what the ordinary devices are built for, so the code sets a floor on its rating and then keeps it from fitting where a 120 volt device belongs. What it may control is a short list: noninductive loads other than tungsten-filament lamps, inductive loads inside its ratings, and lamp loads with their drivers not exceeding 20 amperes. Where the listing states particular load conditions, those hold regardless of the ampere rating of the load.

NEC 2026 406.46

C. Dimmers and electronic control switches control permanently connected loads only, unless they are listed for the control of other loads and installed accordingly

The default is a permanently connected load, and the way past it is a listing for the other load rather than an installation detail. The reason is that nobody controls what gets plugged into a receptacle later. The same subdivision covers electronic control switches such as timing switches and occupancy sensors, which is why an occupancy sensor on a receptacle circuit is worth a second look.

NEC 2026 406.46

A. Not less than the maximum permitted rating or setting of the overcurrent device protecting the receptacles

Because anything can be plugged into the receptacles, the switch is sized against the device protecting them rather than against a load somebody calculated. One exception applies where the switch controls not more than a single receptacle, and there the switch may be rated to the receptacle instead. The same rule reaches cord connectors supplied by permanently connected cord pendants, which the code treats as receptacle outlets.

NEC 2026 406.46

D. A snap switch without a connection to an equipment grounding conductor for replacement only, with a nonconducting noncombustible faceplate and nonmetallic screws unless the yoke is nonmetallic or the circuit is protected by a ground-fault circuit interrupter

The exception is written for replacement work and it buys the missing bonding with a faceplate the user cannot be shocked through. Its conditions bite where the switch is within 8 feet vertically or 5 feet horizontally of ground or exposed grounded metal, which is most of a basement or a garage. Ground-fault protection of the circuit is one of the two ways out of the faceplate requirement, and a nonmetallic yoke is the other.

NEC 2026 406.40

A. It does not introduce current on the equipment grounding conductors during normal operation

An electronic switch needs a small standby current and the code decides where that current is allowed to come from, which is the grounded conductor rather than the grounding conductor. That is the reason the grounded conductor is required at the switch location in the first place. A narrow exception covers replacement and retrofit work where the grounded conductor cannot be extended, and those devices are listed and marked for that use only.

NEC 2026 406.50

B. Only as an isolating switch, and it is not opened under load

Above 1200 amperes at 250 volts or less, and above 1000 amperes from 251 to 1000 volts, a knife switch becomes an isolating switch and nothing else. Interrupting current at those levels calls for a circuit breaker or a switch listed for the purpose. Knife switches rated below those figures are treated as general-use switches, which is the sentence the first wrong answer is borrowed from.

NEC 2026 404.13(A)

C. Chapters 1 through 4 apply generally, and Chapters 5 through 8 may supplement or modify the requirements in Chapters 1 through 8

The carve-out that kept Chapter 8 outside the stack unless something in it referenced another chapter is not in this wording, which changes how a communications question is worked. Chapter 9 is tables applicable as referenced, and the informative annexes are not requirements. Deciding which layer a question lives in is most of the work on an open book exam, and in this edition the layers themselves changed.

NEC 2026 90.3

B. Up, except that a vertically operated double-throw switch may be closed with the handle either up or down

The rule fixes the direction so nobody has to guess at a panel, and it holds for handles operated vertically rather than rotationally or horizontally. The one exception covers vertically operated double-throw switches, where both positions are closed onto something. A separate rule keeps single-throw knife switches from being placed where gravity would tend to close them, which is the sentence the second option is built on.

NEC 2026 404.9