How Hard Is the FAA Part 107 Test? What to Study to Pass

Northlight Publishing · Updated September 2026

If you want to fly a drone for any kind of business purpose in the United States, whether that is real estate photos, roof inspections, wedding video, or mapping farmland, you need a Remote Pilot Certificate under Part 107 of the FAA rules. Getting one means passing a written knowledge test. The short answer to how hard it is: moderately hard for people with no aviation background, and very passable with two or three weeks of focused study. The test does not care how well you fly. It cares whether you can think like a pilot sharing airspace with airplanes.

This guide covers exactly what the test looks like, which topics cause the most trouble, and a study plan that works for busy adults.

The test format at a glance

The official name is the Unmanned Aircraft General, Small knowledge test, usually shortened to UAG. Here is what you are walking into:

• 60 multiple-choice questions, each with three answer choices (A, B, or C).
• 2 hours to finish. Most prepared candidates are done in 45 to 75 minutes.
• 70 percent to pass, which means 42 correct answers. You can miss 18.
• In person only, at an FAA-approved knowledge testing center, scheduled through the FAA's testing vendor. There is a testing fee, typically around $175.
• You must be at least 16, able to read, speak, write, and understand English, and bring government-issued photo ID.
• A testing supplement is provided. You get a printed or on-screen book of charts, figures, and legends. Many questions say something like "refer to figure X" and ask you to read a sectional chart excerpt or a weather report.

Before you can schedule, you need an FAA Tracking Number (FTN), which you get by creating an account in IACRA, the FAA's online airman certification system. Do this first; it takes a few minutes and trips up people who try to book the same day.

Why people find it harder than expected

Most drone hobbyists assume the test will be about drones: batteries, propellers, flight modes. Very little of it is. Part 107 treats you as a pilot of an aircraft, so the test borrows heavily from the same material private pilots study. Three areas account for most of the difficulty.

1. Sectional chart reading

Sectional aeronautical charts are the road maps of the sky, and they are dense. On the test you will be handed a chart excerpt and asked what class of airspace sits over a given town, the height of a tower in feet above mean sea level (MSL) versus above ground level (AGL), the floor and ceiling of a Class C shelf, what a magenta dashed line means, or the latitude and longitude of a point. None of this is intuitive until you have practiced it, and it is where unprepared candidates lose the most points.

What to master:

• Airspace classes B, C, D, E, and G, how each is drawn, and which ones require authorization before a Part 107 flight (B, C, D, and the surface area of E). Authorization usually comes through LAANC or the FAA's DroneZone.
• Reading altitude blocks like 70 over SFC or 40 over 12, where the numbers are hundreds of feet MSL.
• Obstacle symbols, with MSL height in bold and AGL height in parentheses.
• Special use airspace: prohibited, restricted, warning, alert, and military operations areas, plus the idea of temporary flight restrictions announced by NOTAM.
• Airport data blocks: tower frequency, CTAF, field elevation, and what a star or the letter C means.

2. Aviation weather reports

You will need to decode METARs (current conditions) and TAFs (forecasts), which are written in a compact code. A line like KJFK 121751Z 18012G20KT 10SM BKN025 packs in the station, date and time in Zulu, wind direction and speed with gusts, visibility, and a broken cloud layer at 2,500 feet AGL. Expect questions that ask you to pull one specific value out of a report. Beyond codes, the test covers how weather behaves: density altitude and why hot, high, humid days reduce performance, fog types, thunderstorm stages, wind shear, and stability of air masses.

3. Loading and performance

These questions are fewer but conceptual. Know that weight and center of gravity affect stability and control, and know load factor: in a level 60 degree banked turn, the aircraft experiences 2 Gs, so its effective weight doubles. The test also likes to ask how density altitude changes performance.

The regulations you should know cold

Regulation questions are the easiest points on the test if you memorize the numbers. The core operating limits under Part 107:

• Aircraft must weigh less than 55 pounds at takeoff, including payload.
• Maximum altitude of 400 feet AGL, or higher if you stay within 400 feet of a structure.
• Maximum groundspeed of 87 knots (100 mph).
• Minimum visibility of 3 statute miles from the control station.
• Stay at least 500 feet below and 2,000 feet horizontally from clouds.
• Keep the aircraft within visual line of sight of the remote pilot in command or a visual observer.
• Night and civil twilight operations require anti-collision lighting visible for 3 statute miles, plus current training.
• No flying within 8 hours of drinking alcohol or with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.04 percent or higher.
• Report an accident to the FAA within 10 days if it causes serious injury, loss of consciousness, or more than $500 in damage to property other than the drone.
• Any operation outside these rules requires a waiver, and some rules cannot be waived at all.

Also know who can do what: the remote pilot in command holds final authority and responsibility, a visual observer helps maintain sight of the aircraft, and a person manipulating the controls without a certificate may only do so under the direct supervision of a certificated remote pilot in command. Know the rules for flying over people and moving vehicles by aircraft category, and the basics of Remote ID.

Operations: the biggest section

The largest share of the test falls under operations, a broad bucket that covers:

• Airport operations and radio procedures. Standard traffic patterns use left turns, runway numbers reflect magnetic heading rounded to the nearest ten degrees, and pilots at non-towered airports self-announce on the CTAF. You will not be talking on the radio, but you are expected to understand what you hear.
• Aeronautical decision-making. Know the five hazardous attitudes and their antidotes: anti-authority ("follow the rules"), impulsivity ("not so fast, think first"), invulnerability ("it could happen to me"), macho ("taking chances is foolish"), and resignation ("I'm not helpless").
• Physiology. The IMSAFE checklist (Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, Emotion), dehydration, and how medications affect judgment.
• Crew resource management, emergency procedures, and maintenance. Preflight inspections, lithium battery hazards, and what to do on a lost link.

A two-week study plan

This plan assumes about an hour a day, which lands most people in the 15 to 25 hour range that the test rewards.

• Days 1 to 3: Regulations. Read the Part 107 rules and build a one-page sheet of every number above. Quiz yourself until you can recite it.
• Days 4 to 7: Airspace and sectional charts. This is the heavy lift. Work chart excerpts every day. Cover the answer, identify the airspace, then check. Practice converting MSL to AGL by subtracting ground elevation.
• Days 8 to 9: Weather. Decode ten METARs and five TAFs per session. Then study weather theory: density altitude, fronts, fog, thunderstorms.
• Day 10: Loading, performance, and operations. Load factor, center of gravity, hazardous attitudes, IMSAFE, airport patterns.
• Days 11 to 13: Full practice tests. Take timed 60-question practice exams using the supplement's figures. Review every miss and write down why the right answer is right.
• Day 14: Light review and schedule. If you are scoring 85 percent or better on practice tests, you are ready. Book the earliest seat you can.

A few tactics that pay off on test day: read every question twice, because the test often hinges on a single word such as MSL versus AGL. Use the supplement legend instead of guessing what a symbol means. Flag hard chart questions, finish the rest, then return with fresh eyes. And do not change an answer unless you find a specific reason.

If you want everything in one place, the FAA Part 107 Study Guide teaches sectional charts and weather codes from zero and includes practice questions with answer explanations, in a printable PDF you can mark up while you work through the chart excerpts.

After you pass

Your score report includes a 17-digit knowledge test exam ID. Log back into IACRA, start a Remote Pilot application, and enter that ID. The application goes through a TSA security check, after which you can print a temporary certificate while the permanent card is mailed to you. Your certificate itself does not expire, but to exercise its privileges you must complete the FAA's online recurrent training every 24 calendar months. Carry your certificate whenever you fly under Part 107, and register any drone you fly commercially.

So, how hard is it?

It is a real exam, not a formality, and people do fail it, almost always because they skipped sectional charts or assumed drone experience would carry them. But the material is finite and the questions are predictable. Learn the regulation numbers, practice chart reading daily, get comfortable with METARs, and take a few timed practice tests. Most people who follow that approach pass on the first attempt.

Frequently asked questions