- The AL-EC exam has 110 questions across 25 domains, with business/law content spread over 30 questions in the first 11 subjects.
- Three 10-question domains are jointly the largest single content areas on the exam.
- You get five hours, open-book access to approved references, and need a 75% passing score.
- The 2026 bulletin (dated July 22, 2026) still uses the 2023 NEC - the Board doesn't move to the 2026 NEC until January 1, 2027.
How the 25 AL-EC Domains Are Organized
The Alabama Electrical Contractors Board doesn't test electrical theory in isolation. The unrestricted Alabama Electrical Contractor (Master) exam - administered by Prov, Inc. - blends running a contracting business with the technical knowledge of installing, grounding, and protecting electrical systems. That's why the official domain list splits cleanly into two halves: eleven business and legal subjects, followed by fourteen hands-on electrical domains.
If you've read our overview of what AL-EC actually is, you already know the Board treats "electrical contractor" and "master electrician" as the same credential path. That matters here because the domain list reflects both roles at once: you're tested as someone who supervises crews and signs contracts, and as someone who understands conductors, grounding, and overcurrent protection well enough to be legally responsible for the work.
Domains 1-11: Business and Law (30 Questions)
Roughly 30 of the 110 questions come from business, financial, and legal subjects. These are the domains that trip up experienced electricians who assume the exam is purely technical:
Domain 1: Business Organization
Covers business structures, entity types, and the operational choices a contractor makes when setting up or running a company.
- Know the practical differences between common business structures used by contractors
Domain 2: Risk Management
Insurance, bonding, and liability concepts relevant to protecting a contracting business from loss.
- Understand how contractors mitigate financial and legal exposure on a job
Domain 3: Project Management
Scheduling, scope control, and coordination across a job from bid to completion.
- Be comfortable with sequencing and change-order concepts
Domain 4: Estimating
Material takeoffs, labor units, and pricing logic used to bid electrical work.
- Practice basic estimating math, not just definitions
Domains 5 through 11 round out the business/law half: Safety and Environmental, Labor Laws, Payroll and Employment Taxes, Financial Management, Contracts, Lien Laws, and Licensing Laws. These subjects lean heavily on the NASCLA Contractors Guide to Business, Law and Project Management (13th or 14th edition), which is one of the approved open-book references you'll bring into the testing room.
Key Takeaway
Don't skim the business/law domains because you "already run a company." The exam tests specific statutory and contractual concepts - lien deadlines, licensing thresholds, payroll tax responsibilities - that day-to-day field experience doesn't automatically teach.
Domains 12-25: Technical Electrical Knowledge
The second half of the exam is pure electrical content, drawn primarily from the 2023 NEC and the American Electrician's Handbook (17th edition). These fourteen domains are where most of your open-book navigation skill gets tested:
- Domain 12: General Electrical Knowledge - foundational definitions, calculations, and code organization.
- Domain 13: Grounding and Bonding - grounding electrode systems, bonding jumpers, and equipment grounding conductors.
- Domain 14: Conductors and Cables - ampacity, sizing, insulation types, and conductor applications.
- Domain 15: Raceways and Boxes - fill calculations, support requirements, and box sizing.
- Domain 16: Special Occupancies and Equipment - hazardous locations and use-specific installation rules.
- Domain 17: Electrical Power - power distribution and transformer-related concepts.
- Domain 18: Motors - motor circuit conductors, overload protection, and disconnect sizing.
- Domain 19: Low Voltage - Class 2/3 circuits and low-voltage system requirements.
- Domain 20: Lighting - branch circuit and fixture requirements for lighting systems.
- Domain 21: Illuminated Signs - sign circuit and disconnect requirements.
- Domain 22: Fire Detection and Alarm Systems - wiring and circuit integrity rules for alarm systems.
- Domain 23: Safety Information - workplace and installation safety code requirements.
- Domain 24: Overcurrent Protection - breaker and fuse sizing, series ratings, and coordination.
- Domain 25: Service, Feeders, and Branch Circuits - load calculations, service sizing, and feeder requirements.
Each of these domains draws directly on NEC article structure, so your ability to move quickly through the code book - not just memorize it - is what separates a comfortable pass from a stressful one. Our one-page review of must-know AL-EC facts is built specifically around the highest-yield items across these fourteen technical domains.
The Three 10-Question Domains
Not all 25 domains carry equal weight. According to the official question allocations, three subjects are jointly the largest single content areas on the exam, each contributing 10 questions. That's roughly 27% of the entire exam concentrated in just three domains - more than any other topic group by a wide margin.
Because Prov's bulletin doesn't publish a single ranked list broken out question-by-question in every public summary, the safest approach is to treat every domain as testable while devoting extra time to conductor sizing, grounding/bonding, and service/feeder/branch-circuit calculations - the technical areas most candidates report spending the most time locating answers for during the actual exam. For a deeper breakdown of where candidates lose points, see our full difficulty guide.
Exam Format, References, and Open-Book Rules
The AL-EC exam is 110 questions, computer-based, multiple choice, with a five-hour time limit and a 75% passing score. It's open book, but "open book" doesn't mean "open internet" - only specific references are allowed in the room:
| Reference | Edition |
|---|---|
| National Electrical Code (NEC) | 2023 (current through the 2026 bulletin) |
| American Electrician's Handbook | 17th edition |
| NASCLA Contractors Guide to Business, Law and Project Management | 13th or 14th edition |
| Alabama Supplement | 2014 edition |
Four-function calculators, highlighting, and permanent tabs are all permitted, so your references can be pre-marked before test day. Note the code-cycle detail carefully: the Board doesn't switch to the 2026 NEC until January 1, 2027, so anyone testing under the current bulletin should be studying and tabbing the 2023 NEC, not a newer edition.
Key Takeaway
Tab your 2023 NEC and NASCLA guide by domain topic before test day - grounding/bonding, service calculations, and overcurrent protection are the sections you'll flip to most often under time pressure.
On the administrative side, the exam fee is $165 paid to the Board, and credit-card payments carry a 4% service charge. Once approved, Prov scheduling eligibility runs for 90 days, while the underlying contractor application itself expires after one year if licensing requirements remain incomplete. For the complete fee picture - including the $150 initial license and $150 annual renewal - see our full pricing breakdown.
Mapping a Study Plan to the Domain List
Rather than studying "in order," build your schedule around question weight and personal weak spots. Spaced review works best when it's tied directly to these 25 domains instead of generic flashcard decks.
Business and Law Domains 1-11
- Work through licensing laws, lien laws, and contracts using the NASCLA guide
- Drill payroll/employment tax and financial management terminology
High-weight technical domains
- Focus on grounding/bonding, conductors/cables, and service/feeders/branch circuits
- Practice NEC lookup speed, not just memorization
Remaining technical domains
- Cover motors, lighting, raceways/boxes, overcurrent protection, and special occupancies
- Tab your code book by domain
Full simulated exams
- Time yourself under the five-hour limit
- Review missed questions by domain, not just by chapter
This is the only section of this guide that leans on general study methodology, and it's intentionally anchored to the exact 25 domains above. For a more detailed week-by-week breakdown and first-attempt strategy, see the complete AL-EC study guide.
Who Actually Sits for This Exam
The standard qualification route requires four years (8,000 hours) of qualifying supervisory electrical-construction experience, including documented responsibility for planning, layout, and installation. Approved education or apprenticeship credit can substitute for up to 2,000 of those hours. Current rules also allow a valid Alabama-registered professional electrical engineer to sit for the exam without the standard experience path.
This isn't an entry-level test. The 25 domains assume you've already planned jobs, managed crews, and made code-compliance decisions in the field - which is why the business/law domains sit alongside the technical ones rather than being treated as an afterthought. If you're not sure whether your experience qualifies, our detailed requirements breakdown walks through documentation expectations in full.
Once licensed, contractors renew annually for $150, due by the end of the original issuance quarter, and complete 14 approved continuing education hours every two years - with submissions directed in odd-numbered years and the first licensing year exempted. That renewal cadence is worth planning for before you even sit for the initial exam, since the domains you master now (particularly labor laws, licensing laws, and safety information) tend to resurface in CE coursework later.
Frequently Asked Questions
The official bulletin allocates specific question counts per domain, with three subjects jointly ranking as the largest at 10 questions each. Business and law content (Domains 1-11) accounts for 30 of the 110 total questions.
No - the exam is open book, and the 2023 NEC is an approved reference you bring into the testing room. You need to know where to find information quickly, not recite it from memory.
Prioritize the domains with the heaviest question counts first, particularly grounding/bonding, conductors/cables, and service/feeders/branch circuits, then work backward through the smaller business and technical domains.
The domain names and structure remain the same, but reference content will shift when the Board adopts the 2026 NEC on January 1, 2027. Until then, the July 22, 2026 bulletin is based on the 2023 NEC.
The exam requires a 75% passing score across all 110 questions. For a full breakdown of how scoring works, see our passing score guide.