Highway Code books or apps: what to buy for the theory test

For the theory test, a book is for understanding the material and an app is for practising the questions and finding out where you go wrong. They are not alternatives: the book explains the rules in order, and the app shows you what you do not know yet.

The real choice is between paying for a paper book, using a free ebook, or just practising in an app and reading the material when you get something wrong. Below we compare the three routes, with checked prices.

The three routes side by side

Checked on 26 October 2026 on each service’s public pages.

The paper book

The classic Highway Code book is a manual for the category: the rules of the road, the signs and the safety measures, organised by modules or topics, with images.

In the Segurança Rodoviária online shop, for example, O Código da Estrada for categories B and B1 has 432 pages and cost €22.49 on 26 October, with free delivery to Portugal. The same publisher sells an English edition, The Highway Code (€29.99, 424 pages), a motorcycle book (O Motociclo, €14.99), paper test books such as O Teste de Exame, and student packs that bundle several materials.

Before you buy, ask your escola de condução (driving school) whether the book is already included in the enrolment, so you do not end up with two copies.

What paper does well:

• You read straight through, with no notifications, and underline what you find hard.
• You get a logical order: the general rule first, then the exceptions.
• You do not need a network or a battery.

What it does not do:

• It does not tell you whether you understood. Reading a rule and knowing how to apply it to an exam image are different things.
• It does not update. If the law changed after printing, the book does not know. Always check the date of the edition.

The free ebook

There are free Highway Code manuals, in PDF or EPUB, that you can read on your phone or an e-reader, or print. IMT (the national transport authority, Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes) publishes the Manual do Ensino da Condução (the driving instruction manual), with study sheets on the category B material.

One example is «Código da Estrada Explicado» (Highway Code Explained), from Via Rápida: 365 pages in PDF, also in EPUB, under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, which lets you copy and print it (the images of the signs keep the licence of each file). The 2nd edition, from October 2026, follows the Highway Code as amended by Law 24/2025.

You also have the text of the law itself: the Código da Estrada consolidated in the Diário da República (the official gazette), which brings all the amendments together in a single text, free and always in the version in force. It is the right source for checking an article of the law, but it was not written to teach: it has no examples and no images of exam situations.

The ebook has the strengths and limits of paper: it explains, but it does not test you. The difference is the price and the fact that whoever publishes it can correct it without reprinting.

The test app or website

A test app does what a manual does not: it puts you in front of questions like the exam ones, with the images, tells you straight away whether you got it right and saves what you got wrong so you can go back to it. There are paper test books, but they do not mark you on the spot or record where you go wrong.

Apps use the official questions that IMT publishes on its website, and some add questions of their own. The good ones explain each answer.

There are free and paid apps. Among the paid ones, the model varies: a fixed period, a monthly subscription or a one-off purchase to remove ads. Segurança Rodoviária’s online tests cost €19.99 for 30 days (or €14.99 for 15 days), and Testes-Código Premium also costs €19.99 for 30 days. We compare the options, with what each gives for free, in apps and websites for the theory test.

The limit of apps: if you only practise questions, you risk memorising answers without understanding the rule. Some questions look alike and change in one detail of the image or in one word, and that is where people who memorised fail.

So it matters what the platform offers beyond the questions. Via Rápida adds chapters of material with simulators, tricky questions with “the detail” highlighted, a signs game (Sprint) and a 3D driving game. Testes-Código has study material by topic, with the text of the Highway Code, and, in Premium, videos of the questions, live broadcasts with an instructor and a signs quiz.

Which to choose

• Buy the paper book if you study better away from the screen, if your school does not give you one and you want to read all the material straight through before practising.
• Use a free ebook if you want the material explained without spending money, or if you need it now, without waiting for delivery.
• Stick to the app alone if you have already had the theory classes and what you lack is practice. Read the material on a topic when the explanation of a question is not enough.
• Combine a book and an app if you are still at the start: you read a topic, practise the questions on that topic, and go back to the book for what you got wrong.

If Portuguese is still a struggle, the English edition is a paper option; see the alternatives in taking the theory test in English.

Before you buy

• Ask the school what is already included in the enrolment: book, test platform, or both.
• Check the category. A category B book does not cover what is specific to motorcycles or heavy vehicles.
• Check the date of the edition and compare it with the most recent changes to the Highway Code.
• With a paid app, read what is left out of the free version and whether the purchase renews by itself.