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South Dakota · Knowledge test

The South Dakota driver’s manual

Its full name is the South Dakota Driver License Manual, and the Department of Public Safety (DPS) offers it as a download from its driver licensing pages. The South Dakota driver’s manual sets out the safe driving rules and practices the knowledge test asks about, and it warns that you can’t pass the test unless you know what’s in it.

  • 10Sample questions, printed with the answers
  • Nov. 2024Revision date printed near the end
  • English and SpanishLanguages you can download it in
Find the manual downloadFree practice test

Updated November 2026 · Written from official sources, listed at the bottom of this page

What’s in the South Dakota driver’s manual?

The manual has ten chapters, in order, then the Test Your Knowledge questions:

  • The Driver’s License: requirements, documents, permit and license types, tests, renewal and losing your privileges
  • Be in Shape to Drive: vision, fatigue, distractions, alcohol, other drugs and emotions
  • Before You Drive: checking the vehicle, seat, mirrors, seatbelts, air bags and child seats
  • Basic Driving: starting, stopping, steering, speed and backing up
  • Rules of the Road: right-of-way, signals, signs and pavement markings
  • General Driving: turns, roundabouts, school buses, parking and interstate driving
  • Safe Driving Tips: visual search, stopping distance, the space cushion and communicating
  • Emergency Situations and Avoiding Crashes: braking, skids, breakdowns and crashes
  • Sharing the Road: pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcycles, trucks and emergency vehicles
  • Special Driving Situations: night driving, work zones, winter and rural roads

The Test Your Knowledge questions

The Test Your Knowledge section at the end has 10 multiple-choice questions, each with three choices, and prints the correct answers on the same page. Try them once you’ve read the rest of the manual, and look back at the chapter for any you miss.

Take the practice test →

South Dakota driving laws the manual quotes

The manual quotes South Dakota Codified Laws (SDCL) in several places. Its first page sets out the move-over law, SDCL 32‑31‑6.1:

  • For a stopped emergency vehicle showing red lights, come to a complete stop before you reach it, and then you may go on with caution only once it’s safe, unless you’re directed otherwise
  • For any stopped vehicle showing amber, yellow or blue lights on a road with two or more lanes your way, move into the lane farthest from it at least 300 feet before you reach it
  • On a two-lane road, at least 300 feet before it, slow to a speed at least 20 mph under the posted limit, or 5 mph where the limit is 20 mph or less

Breaking that law is a Class 2 misdemeanor, and causing a crash with the stopped vehicle while breaking it is a Class 1 misdemeanor (SDCL 32‑31‑6.2). The manual also gives the window tint limits: film or tinted glass can’t cut the light let through the windows beside and in front of the driver below 35%, or through the rear windows below 20%, with a 9% enforcement tolerance there (SDCL 32‑15‑2.4, 2.5 and 2.9).

See the key rules by topic →

Other manuals

The Driver License Manual is for cars. For a commercial driver license (CDL), you read the Commercial Driver License Manual, and for a motorcycle, the Motorcycle Manual; the DPS testing page lists both.

Read about the CDL test →
Sources: South Dakota Department of Public Safety and 2 more. Checked November 2026.

Rules and fees can change, so check the official site before your test.

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