SFPD Written Exam: PELLETB Practice
Preparation guide for the San Francisco Police Department entry-level police officer written exam, POST's PELLETB
Where the written exam sits
The SFPD's entry-level police officer posting (job class Q002, opened on 22 June 2026 as a continuous recruitment) lists eight steps:
- Submit an application
- Written examination (PELLETB or NTN)
- Physical agility test
- Oral interview
- Background investigation
- Police academy
- Field Training Officer programme, 16 weeks
- One year of probation
You must be at least 20 when you take the written exam and at least 21 by the time you are appointed. Pass it and you are invited to the physical ability test and the oral interview.
Two ways to sit it
SFPD lets you choose the written exam. Option A is the FrontLine National Law Enforcement Examination, run by the National Testing Network, which you book and pay for yourself. It has a video-based human relations test, a reading test and a writing test, with passing scores of 60, 70 and 70. You must pass each one on its own, because "The scores are not averaged."
Option B is POST's PELLETB, the test California agencies share, and the one this page and our practice tests cover. If you meet the minimum qualifications, the City's Public Safety Team invites you to sit it. The posting describes it as measuring "reading comprehension and writing abilities". It says both options have minimum scores, but the only PELLETB figure it prints is the T-score of 42 it accepts from an earlier sitting, which is also the minimum POST recommends. The oral interview and physical ability test can be retaken after 90 days if you fail them. For the PELLETB itself the retake rule is POST's: once every 30 days, wherever you sit it.
Two ways to skip it
- An earlier PELLETB score. If you have sat the PELLETB in the last two years and scored a T-score of 42 or higher, you do not need to take the written exam again. Send the date and the score, on the testing agency's letterhead, with your application.
- A degree. Applicants with a bachelor's degree or higher may be waived from the written exam, and must send proof of it.
The first route means a good PELLETB sitting for another California agency can save you a second one here, as long as it is less than two years old.
What is on the PELLETB in 2026
POST removed the CLOZE sub-test from 1 January 2025 and in 2026 began moving the test onto the Assess.ai platform, taken in person on an agency computer. What is left is four multiple-choice sub-tests on one 1 hour 45 minute clock: clarity (pick the more clearly written of two sentences), vocabulary (the closest meaning of an underlined word), spelling (the correct spelling for a blank) and reading comprehension, 65 to 78 items in all. Nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, so leave nothing blank. POST scores writing and reading separately as T-scores, where 50 is average, and a total from the two.
Practise the PELLETB
Each of these runs at the real item types, with free navigation and no penalty for a wrong answer, as POST runs them.
- PELLETB Full Test (online format) (70 questions · 105 minutes) - The whole PELLETB on one 1 hour 45 minute clock. Sit it once early to see where you stand, and again before your SFPD date.
- PELLETB Reading Comprehension (22 questions · 55 minutes) - Reading is scored on its own and probably carries as much as the three writing sections together, so it is the drill most likely to move your total.
- PELLETB Clarity (16 questions · 12 minutes · free) - Pick the more clearly written of two sentences. A short list of faults, and the quickest section to improve.
- PELLETB Vocabulary (16 questions · 10 minutes) - Pick the closest meaning of an underlined word, from four.
- PELLETB Spelling (16 questions · 8 minutes) - Pick the correct spelling for a blank, from four near-identical versions.
Full detail on the format, the T-scores and other agencies' rules is on the PELLETB provider page. The CHP written exam is the same test, but the CHP makes you sit it again with them, whatever you scored elsewhere.