South Dakota Driver's License Guide 2026

Everything below is taken from the South Dakota DPS’s own pages. Where the DPS does not publish a figure, this guide says so rather than inventing one.

Fourteen, and the test you might not have to take

To be eligible for a South Dakota instruction permit you must be fourteen years of age. You visit a Driver Licensing location in person with a certified copy of your birth certificate, your original social security card and two pieces of mail proving your physical address. You then take a knowledge test - or show that you have successfully completed a state-approved driver education course, which waives testing for one year from the date you completed it. Every visit to an exam station to take a test requires an appointment.

How long you hold the permit

The permit must be held for 275 days if you have not completed driver education, or 180 days if you have successfully completed an approved course. If you have not taken driver education you may schedule the behind-the-wheel test on the 276th day or later; if you have, you may schedule it on the 181st day or later.

Fifty hours, ten of them in bad weather

You must complete a minimum of fifty hours of parent or guardian supervised driving, including ten hours at night and ten hours in inclement weather, before upgrading to a Restricted Permit. The supervising adult must be a parent or guardian, or another adult with a valid driver license and at least one year of driving experience, seated beside you. When you return to upgrade, the parent signs a Supervised Driving Affidavit confirming the hours, and South Dakota publishes a student driving log for recording them.

The Restricted Permit, and then the license

A Restricted Permit is available from fourteen once the instruction permit conditions are met. Anyone under eighteen must hold it for six months and be conviction-free for six months before upgrading. For the first six months you may not carry any passengers outside your immediate family or household; after six months you may carry one. You may drive alone with a parent or guardian’s permission between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.; between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. a parent or legal guardian must be seated next to you, unless you are taking the most direct route to or from school, a school event, church, a church event, work, or farm-related work. The full Operator’s License comes at sixteen, after at least six months on a Restricted Permit with no traffic convictions in the previous six months.

Practising before you go

Our free South Dakota practice questions cover the same topics as the South Dakota Driver License Manual, and every question shows the correct answer. They are practice questions written to those topics - they are not the DPS’s own test questions.

• South Dakota practice tests
• South Dakota car practice test