Texas Electrician ExamTexas journeyman & master

Checked against primary sources 2026-08-24

Two letters on the face of a receptacle carry most of the questions

Where a receptacle goes is a branch circuit question. What it is, and whether that one may be installed here, is a different article and a different kind of item.

On this page
  1. Two questions about the same object
  2. Configuration is a fact, rating is a relationship
  3. Tamper resistant is triggered by a list, not by the room
  4. Weather resistant is triggered by where the device is
  5. Replacing one is not maintenance
  6. How these items are built
  7. What to do with the book
  8. What this page cites

Two questions about the same object

Article 210 tells you a receptacle belongs on this wall. Article 406 tells you which receptacle. Items on the second question outnumber items on the first, because the second one has more ways to go wrong.

If an item gives you a room and a dimension, you are being asked to count and place, and that is answered from the branch circuit article. If it gives you a location and a device, you are being asked what may be installed, and that is answered from the wiring device article.

Deciding which of those you are holding is the first ten seconds of the item, and it decides which tab your hand goes to.

Configuration is a fact, rating is a relationship

The configuration is stamped into the face. Slot geometry, voltage, current and whether there is a grounding contact are all physically present on the device, and a receptacle of one configuration cannot accept a plug of another. That is deliberate and it is the whole reason configurations exist.

The rating is different, because a rating only means something in relation to the circuit the receptacle sits on. A single receptacle on an individual branch circuit is tied to that circuit in one way. Two or more receptacles on a circuit are governed by a short table in the branch circuit article that pairs circuit rating with permitted receptacle rating.

That table is where a rating item is answered, so do not try to reason it out. Turn to the branch circuit article, find the pairing for the circuit the item describes, and read across.

The trap in a rating item is the word single. A single receptacle is one device on one yoke. A duplex is two, and the rule for two or more reaches it even though there is only one thing screwed to the box.

Tamper resistant is triggered by a list, not by the room

The tamper-resistant requirement attaches to named locations. Dwelling units are the first of them and the one everybody knows, and the 2026 edition runs the list out to eleven entries. Reason your way through it and you will lose items, because the list is wider than the rationale behind it.

It reaches nonlocking receptacles rated 15 and 20 amperes, and it takes in the 250 volt ones as well as the 125 volt ones. Locking receptacles sit outside it, which is a distinction worth carrying because it is stated in the first line of the section and is easy to read past.

The trap is eliminating on plausibility. A fitness center is on the list. So is part of an agricultural building, and the 2026 edition added park and recreation areas. None of those follows from asking yourself whether small children are likely to be standing in the room, which is the rationale most people carry and the reason they get caught. The entries run well past the residential ones and you have to read them.

So read the building type in the stem, then go and look. An item can describe a location that sounds industrial and still land inside a named one.

There are exceptions, and they are the reliable half of the question. They sit as a short list at the end of the section and they are worth reading once in full, in your own book, rather than carrying in outline. An item will offer you a near miss of one of them.

Weather resistant is triggered by where the device is

The weather-resistant requirement is a location rule. A receptacle in a damp or wet location is a listed weather-resistant type, and it reaches the same nonlocking receptacles the tamper-resistant rule reaches. The terms damp location and wet location are both defined in Article 100 rather than being left to judgment. In the 2026 edition the requirement is written for wiring devices generally, so it catches the switch on the same wall.

That definition is the part candidates skip. A covered porch and an open patio are not the same category, and an item that carefully describes a roof overhang is describing a definition, not scenery.

The second half of this is the cover, and it is a separate requirement from the device. A weather-resistant receptacle under a cover that is only weatherproof when the lid is closed does not answer an item about a cord plugged in and left there. In a wet location the enclosure has to stay weatherproof with a plug inserted, and the in-use cover that does that is an extra duty type. An item can hand you a compliant device and an inadequate cover, or the reverse.

Replacing one is not maintenance

This is the rule most working electricians are surprised by, and it is a favorite because being surprised in the field is what makes it a good item.

When a receptacle comes out of an existing box, the requirements in force now attach to what goes back in. The code carries replacement provisions in the wiring device article precisely so a like-for-like swap cannot preserve a condition the book has since moved past. The age of the wiring behind the device does not buy an exemption, and nothing else on the circuit has to be disturbed for the rule to reach you.

So a device replaced in a spot that would owe ground-fault protection today owes it today. The same logic runs through the tamper-resistant and weather-resistant requirements and through the grounding question.

The grounding case is the one to read properly. Where there is no equipment grounding conductor in the box, the code gives a short set of permitted replacements rather than telling you to run a new circuit. Read that passage in your own book, because the options are stated precisely and an item will offer you a near miss of one of them.

How these items are built

None of these reward memory. All of them reward turning to a named article and reading four lines, which is what an open book examination is supposed to reward.

What to do with the book

  1. Tab Article 406 as a whole, and put a second tab on its replacement provisions, because that is the passage you will want under time pressure.
  2. Tab the definitions of damp location and wet location in Article 100 and read them side by side once.
  3. Tab the branch circuit article at the receptacle rating table, and write the word single in the margin next to it.
  4. Read the tamper-resistant list and its exceptions, then the weather-resistant requirement, back to back, so the named-location trigger and the damp or wet trigger stay separate in your head.

That is one sitting, and it covers a share of the largest subject area on the outline.

What this page cites

NEC and National Electrical Code are registered trademarks of the National Fire Protection Association.

Trojan Digital Marketing is an independent company. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by NFPA, TDLR, PSI Services, or any licensing authority.

Bring your own current copy of the National Electrical Code. The Texas exam is open book.

All practice questions are original. They are not actual exam questions.

Built and maintained by Jeff Clerisier, Trojan Digital Marketing.

Every rule here is cited to the section it comes from, and corrections are logged in public with the date. This is study material rather than electrical advice, and it does not replace your own code book or your inspector.