Boating Licence Practice Test (PCOC)

This boating licence practice test is built for one job: getting you through the Pleasure Craft Operator Card (PCOC) test on your first try, without paying for extra prep. Everything on the PCOC side of this site is free: ten full 50-question mocks, a 15-question diagnostic, quick practice and practice by topic, drawn from a bank of 801 questions with an explanation for every answer.

We are an independent study aid. We don't sell the card and we are not Transport Canada or an accredited provider. That means we can give you the practice without the sales funnel, and tell you plainly what the real test looks like in 2026.

Start with the free 15-question diagnostic if you want to know where you stand in under 15 minutes, or jump straight into PCOC mock 1.

PCOC test format in 2026

The PCOC test is run by Transport Canada-accredited course providers, not by Transport Canada itself. Each provider draws questions at random from the Transport Canada question bank and must follow Transport Canada's testing standards. Here is what you can expect.

Item	What to expect
Number of questions	50 multiple-choice questions
Pass mark	75%, which is 38 out of 50
Questions you can miss	12
Time limit	None set by Transport Canada; some providers set their own (often 75 minutes)
Open book	Yes, for online tests
Retakes	Allowed, but only once every 24 hours
Languages	English and French
Card validity	For life, no renewal

The 75% pass mark is written into the Competency of Operators of Pleasure Craft Regulations. The online testing rules come from Transport Canada's standard for PCOC testing over the internet (TP 15080).

The old 36-question figure is outdated

If you search for the PCOC test, you will still find pages that say it has 36 questions. That number comes from an older version of the test. Accredited providers now give 50 questions, and our mocks use the same 50-question, 75% format. If a study site still quotes 36 questions, treat the rest of its facts with caution too.

Key fact: 50 questions, 38 to pass. Every mock on this site uses that exact format, with a 75-minute timer so you get used to working at a steady pace.

What the boating licence practice test covers: the 10 TP 14932 domains

Transport Canada's syllabus for boating safety courses and the test is called TP 14932, Boating Safety Course and Test Syllabus. It splits the material into 10 domains. Below are the facts from each domain that turn up most often, with links to the matching topic drill so you can practise each one on its own.

1. Common causes of boating incidents and deaths

Questions here test whether you understand why people die on the water, not just the rules. The main factors are not wearing a lifejacket or PFD, alcohol, cold water, capsizing and falls overboard (often from small open boats), and boating in bad weather or beyond your skill. Most drownings happen close to shore, in calm water, to people who never expected to go in.

When a question asks for the single most effective way to survive an accident on the water, the answer is almost always to wear your lifejacket, not just carry it.

2. Boating terminology

You need the basic vocabulary because other questions assume it.

• Bow / stern: front and back of the boat.
• Port / starboard: left and right when you face the bow.
• Power-driven vessel: anything moved by an engine, including a sailboat using its motor.
• Sailing vessel: under sail only, engine not running.
• Give-way / stand-on vessel: the boat that must keep clear, and the boat that holds its course and speed.
• Underway: not anchored, tied up or aground.

A common trap: a sailboat with its engine running counts as a power-driven vessel, even if its sails are up.

3. Acts and regulations for pleasure craft

This domain is the legal core of the test. Practise it with the regulations topic drill.

• Anyone operating a motorized pleasure craft for recreation needs proof of competency. That includes electric trolling motors and sailboats fitted with a motor. It does not apply in the Northwest Territories or Nunavut.
• Proof of competency can be a PCOC, proof of a boating safety course passed in Canada before 1 April 1999, a completed rental boat safety checklist (for the rental period only), or certain marine certificates.
• Age and power limits without direct supervision: under 12, up to 7.5 kW (10 hp); ages 12 to 15, up to 30 kW (40 hp); under 16, no personal watercraft at all. Direct supervision means a person aged 16 or older in the boat.
• A pleasure craft licence (for the boat, not the person) is required for craft with engines totalling 7.5 kW (10 hp) or more. It is valid for 5 years and a copy must be on board.
• The hull serial number is marked on the upper starboard corner of the transom.
• The capacity plate (compliance notice) shows the maximum recommended load, number of people and engine power for boats up to 6 m.
• In Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the inland waters of BC and Nova Scotia, the speed limit within 30 m of shore is 10 km/h, whether posted or not.

Our free PCOC regulations note has the full rules and the fine amounts.

4. Criminal offences

The Criminal Code treats a vessel as a conveyance, the same as a car. Offences include operating while impaired by alcohol or drugs, operating with a blood alcohol concentration of 80 mg per 100 mL or more, dangerous operation, failing to stop and help at an accident, and operating while prohibited. Penalties include fines, jail and a ban from operating vessels, and in some provinces an impaired-boating conviction can affect your driver's licence.

Remember the distinction the test likes: impaired operation is a criminal offence; careless operation without due care and attention is a separate offence with a fine (listed at $350 in Transport Canada's table of fines).

5. Planning and preparing a trip

Expect questions on what to do before you leave the dock. Practise with the safe operation drill.

1. Check the marine weather forecast and watch for changing conditions.
2. Leave a trip plan with a responsible person: boat description, people on board, route, and when to call for help.
3. Check the boat: hull, drain plug, steering, engine, fuel, battery, lights, horn.
4. Check the safety equipment required for your boat's length.
5. Use the rule of thirds for fuel: one third out, one third back, one third in reserve.
6. Brief passengers on lifejackets, equipment and emergencies.

Loading questions focus on the capacity plate: never exceed it, keep weight low and even, and keep passengers seated.

6. Mandatory safety equipment

This is the biggest domain in TP 14932 (57 of its 257 requirements), and the one where most points are lost. The equipment you must carry depends on your boat's length and type, under the Small Vessel Regulations. Drill it with the required equipment topic.

For a powerboat up to 6 m, the core list is:

• one Canadian-approved lifejacket or PFD of the right size for each person;
• a buoyant heaving line at least 15 m long;
• a reboarding device if the climb back aboard is more than 0.5 m;
• a watertight flashlight or 3 pyrotechnic flares;
• a paddle or an anchor with at least 15 m of line;
• a bailer or manual bilge pump;
• a sound-signalling device such as a whistle or horn;
• navigation lights if you operate between sunset and sunrise or in restricted visibility;
• a magnetic compass (unless the boat is 8 m or under and stays within sight of seamarks);
• a 5B:C fire extinguisher only if the boat has an inboard engine, a fixed fuel tank or a fuel-burning appliance.

Inflatable PFDs are approved only for people 16 and older, and are not allowed on a PWC. Flares expire 4 years after manufacture. The full table by length is in our Safe Boating Guide notes.

7. Sharing the waterways

The second-biggest domain (40 requirements): rules of the road, navigation lights and sound signals from the Collision Regulations. Practise it with the navigation rules drill.

• Head-on: both power boats turn to starboard and pass port to port.
• Crossing: the boat that has the other on its own starboard (right) side gives way.
• Overtaking: the overtaking boat always keeps clear, whatever type it is.
• A power-driven vessel gives way to a sailing vessel, a vessel engaged in fishing with nets, a vessel restricted in its ability to manoeuvre and a vessel not under command.
• No boat ever has an absolute right of way. Everyone must act to avoid a collision.

Sound signals: 1 short blast means turning to starboard, 2 short means turning to port, 3 short means operating astern (reversing), and 5 or more short means danger or doubt. At night, if you see only a red light, you are looking at the other boat's port side and you give way.

8. Canadian Aids to Navigation System

Buoy questions are visual, which is why so many people find them hard. The basic rule is "red, right, returning": going upstream or returning to harbour, keep red buoys on your starboard (right) side and green buoys on your port (left) side. Red starboard-hand buoys have pointed tops and even numbers. Green port-hand buoys have flat tops and odd numbers.

Cardinal buoys are yellow and black and tell you which compass direction holds safe water. The two cone topmarks point toward the black bands: both up for north, both down for south. Special-purpose buoys use orange shapes on white: a diamond for a hazard, a circle for a control such as a speed limit, a square for information, and a diamond with a cross for keep out. Study the buoys note with its chart before you drill this topic.

9. Preventing emergencies

This domain covers fuelling, carbon monoxide and the environment. Practise with the environment and fuelling drill.

• Before fuelling: engines and electrics off, no smoking, passengers off the boat, hatches and windows closed, portable tanks filled on the dock.
• After fuelling: wipe spills, open hatches, run the blower for at least 4 minutes and sniff the bilge before starting a gasoline inboard.
• Carbon monoxide is colourless and odourless. It collects at the stern and swim platform while engines run, and in enclosed cabins.
• Clean, drain and dry your boat and trailer before moving to another waterway, to stop aquatic invasive species.

10. Responding to emergencies

Practise with the emergencies drill.

• Cold water, 1-10-1: about 1 minute of cold shock, about 10 minutes of useful movement, about 1 hour before hypothermia makes you unconscious.
• Capsized: stay with the boat and get as much of your body out of the water as you can.
• Person overboard: shout, point, throw something that floats, turn back slowly and stop the engine when close.
• Fire: stop, cut the fuel, put the fire downwind and aim the extinguisher at the base.
• Distress: red flares, orange smoke (daytime only), MAYDAY on VHF channel 16, continuous horn, and slowly raising and lowering your outstretched arms.

Exam tip: Domains 6, 7 and 8 (equipment, rules of the road, buoys) make up a large share of the test and are full of exact numbers and patterns. If you only have one evening, spend it there.

How our free PCOC practice tests work

Every PCOC test on this site uses questions written independently from TP 14932, the Safe Boating Guide (TP 511E) and the federal regulations. Each answer comes with a short explanation and the rule behind it, so a wrong answer teaches you something.

Practice mode	Questions	What it's for
Diagnostic	15, 15-minute timer	Find your weak topics fast
Quick practice	25	Short, untimed warm-up
Mocks 1 to 10	50 each, 75-minute timer, 38 to pass	Full test simulation
Topic drills	Varies by topic	Fix one weak area at a time

Our mocks weight topics roughly the way the syllabus does: regulations and licences, safe operation, navigation rules (right of way, buoys, lights, sound signals), emergencies, required equipment, and environment and fuelling. You can move through mock 2, mock 3 and on up to mock 10 without paying or signing up.

If you prefer to study away from the screen, the printable PCOC question set can be printed or saved as a PDF. The mobile app carries the same PCOC bank with audio and French explanations, which helps if French is your first language or you learn better by listening.

Why practise if the real test is open book?

Because open book is slower than it sounds. Looking up every equipment rule or buoy pattern under time pressure is how people run out of patience and start guessing. If you already know the core facts, you only need the book to double-check one or two questions. Practice tests also show you how questions are worded, which is half the challenge on any multiple-choice exam.

Where people lose marks

From the patterns in our question bank, these are the mistakes that cost candidates most often:

1. Mixing up length bands. Equipment rules change at 6 m, 9 m and 12 m. Read the boat's length in the question first.
2. "Or" versus "and". A boat up to 6 m needs a flashlight or 3 flares; a boat over 6 m to 9 m needs a flashlight and 6 flares.
3. Crossing situations. Picture yourself at the wheel. If the other boat is on your right, you give way.
4. Cardinal buoys. Remember the topmarks point to the black bands, and the buoy's name tells you where the safe water is.
5. Age limits. Under 16 can never operate a PWC, even with a parent on board. Direct supervision means in the boat, not on the dock.
6. Overthinking. If a question asks about the safest choice, it's usually the most cautious, most seamanlike answer.

Study guides for the PCOC

• PCOC test questions and answers: how the question bank works, the question types and a printable set.
• How to get a boating licence in Canada: accredited providers, cost, age and horsepower limits, and rental boats.
• Safe Boating Guide study notes: equipment by length, buoys, lights, sound signals and cold water on one page.
• PCOC exam guide: the format, the 10 domains and booking steps in one short note.
• All boating prep: the full boating section.

Your study plan

1. Today, 15 minutes: take the free diagnostic and note your two weakest topics.
2. Evening 1: read the Safe Boating Guide notes, then drill your weakest topic, starting with required equipment or navigation rules.
3. Evening 2: sit mock 1 under the timer. Read every explanation, including the ones you got right.
4. Evening 3: take mocks 2 and 3. Aim for 90% or better, comfortably above the 38/50 pass line.
5. When you score 90% on two mocks in a row, choose an accredited provider and take the real test. Our guide on how to get your boating licence walks you through it.

Keep the Safe Boating Guide open during the real online test, but don't rely on it. The practice you do here is what makes the test feel easy.