The TCEQ Landscape Irrigator exam is one six-hour sitting on a computer at a testing center (on computer since April 10, 2023, by TCEQ’s testing page of that year), scored section by section, with 70 percent needed on each. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) publishes those two numbers. It does not publish the section names, an outline or how many questions a section holds. The counts that go round trace back to a single study note from the paper exam, so this guide keeps TCEQ’s facts and the reports apart.
What TCEQ and the rules state
| Fact | What the source says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Sections | Pass all sections of the applicable examination | 30 TAC 30.120(b)(3) |
| Pass mark | 70 percent per examination (30.20(b)); 70 percent “for each section” (license page) | 30 TAC 30.20(b); TCEQ’s license page |
| Time | 6 hour time limit, where the default for a TCEQ exam is 3 | TCEQ’s computer-based testing page |
| Where | An approved computer-based testing (CBT) center | TCEQ’s exams page |
| Result | An immediate score, with a printed exam analysis | TCEQ’s computer-based testing page |
| Content | Set by TCEQ’s executive director, based on laws, rules, job duties and standards for the license | 30 TAC 30.20(a) |
Those are the published facts as of October 2026. Beyond the general application rules of Subchapter A, the license asks for two things: complete and pass the basic irrigator training course, and pass all sections of the exam (30 TAC 30.120(b)).
30 TAC 30.20(a) also makes the contents of the exam confidential: “examinees may not share them with anyone.” TCEQ publishes no sample paper, and every account of the questions comes from a candidate’s memory.
The four sections, as reported
TCEQ’s pages say “each section” and stop there. The last published list of section names is on TEEX’s Landscape Irrigator exam registration form of June 2018. The Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) proctored the paper exam under contract with TCEQ, and its form lists four sections to retest:
- Principles of Installation
- Principles of Backflow
- Principles of Hydraulics
- Landscape Irrigation Design
This site uses the short forms Installation, Backflow, Hydraulics and Design for its practice sections. That the sections stand apart is older than the computer test. In May 2019 TCEQ staff told the Irrigator Advisory Council (IAC) that pass rates were hard to report because the test had “four parts that could be taken and passed at different times” (IAC minutes, May 9, 2019, p. 1). TCEQ’s license page still sets the 70 percent “for each section”.
The Basic Irrigator course is cut differently. TCEQ’s curriculum guidance lists four course parts: an introduction to landscape irrigation, design, installation, and testing, maintenance, operation or troubleshooting. Hydraulics sits inside the design part and backflow prevention inside the installation part (curriculum guidance, pp. 1 and 2). It outlines a course; TCEQ has published no outline for the exam.
How many questions are in each section?
No TCEQ page gives a count of questions for any section. The per-section figures that circulate come from one candidate’s study note written in about 2014, while the exam was still on paper. It lists Hydraulics at 29 questions, Backflow at 20, a section it calls Principles of Design and Installation at 50, and Design at 50.
This site reads that third section as Installation, which gives the reported split in the order the TEEX form uses: Installation 50, Backflow 20, Hydraulics 29, Design 50. Treat it with care for three reasons:
- One candidate’s note. No TCEQ document gives a count to check it against.
- Written for the paper exam. It predates the move to the computer in 2023 and the revision that followed.
- No published total. The four counts add to 149, and TCEQ gives no total for the computer exam to set beside it.
TCEQ’s instructions for its computer tests show the number of questions on the screen before the clock starts (CBT instructions, p. 6), so the count you meet on the day is the one to go by.
Six hours, with no split
TCEQ publishes six hours for the whole sitting and no time per section. When the exam moved to the computer on April 10, 2023, according to TCEQ’s computer-based testing page at the time (archived copy), the time came down from the paper exam’s eight hours. TCEQ staff told the council in May 2023 that the time was the only change, and that 50 people had sat the computer version by then (IAC minutes, May 4, 2023, p. 2).
Not every testing center can seat an exam that long. TCEQ’s license page says “not all CBT centers can accommodate more than 4-hour exams” and asks candidates to confirm with the center before scheduling.
This site’s mock exam sits all four sections together, in the shares of the reported counts, and marks each section on its own. It runs the full six hours or a shorter cut of 30 minutes, 1 hour or 2 hours. Those lengths are ours, for pacing practice, and not figures TCEQ has given.
No drawing on the Design section
TCEQ’s testing page says “No additional items such as graph paper or an engineering scale is required” for the Landscape Irrigator exam. A plan or any other graphic opens from a button at the top left of the question screen and can be zoomed (CBT instructions, p. 5). In the room you may have a pen or pencil, scratch paper from the proctor and a non-programmable calculator, and nothing else.
The revised exam
In May 2023 TCEQ told the council it was preparing to revise the Landscape Irrigator exam. A job task analysis survey went by email to licensed irrigators, and subject matter experts were to be consulted to write and evaluate the test. The council’s minutes of November 2025 record an update on implementing the new exam and its pass rates so far. TCEQ has published no outline, section list or question count for it, so the 2014 note describes a paper exam that has since moved to the computer (2023) and been revised (reported to the council in November 2025).
What carries over is the published frame: six hours, 70 percent on each section, and content drawn from the laws, rules, job duties and standards of the license under 30 TAC 30.20(a). The practice sections here follow the four reported sections: Installation, Backflow, Hydraulics and Design.