driver’s permits are not a thing. In general, it’s illegal to drive without a professional instructor (with parents, for example) before getting a driving license, though a lot of people, especially in the countryside, will still do so,
you can only drive after turning 18. You can start the course a few months earlier, but you can only take the final exam after you turn 18 (there exists a category that allows you to drive after turning 16, but it’s limited and IME extremely unpopular),
you need to go to a paid course, which includes theory classes and at least 30 hours of driving with the instructor,
most people drive in a car owned by the instructor or the driving school, as the car must have another pair of brakes for the instructor,
you need to pass a theoretical and a practical exam in one of the centers (Wojewódzki ośrodek ruchu drogowego),
the theoretical exam is just closed questions. You need to get 68 out of 74 points, but (AFAIK, this has changed over time) all the questions are known, so people will just cram them,
the practical exam is first some maneuvers on the center grounds, and then a ride around the city. The exam is rather objective and is failed if you do any big mistake or fail any exercise twice,
the exams are not easy. The data I found is for each WORD, but in general I feel like the pass rate is around 50% for the practical exam and 70% for theory. It’s not incommon for somebody to only pass their practical exam on like 5th attempt,
there were supposed to be some restrictions for new drivers, but they had been discussed for a long time, even back when I passed my license before the pandemic, and I have no idea if they ever actually came into force,
costwise, it’s apparently like 4000 zł for the course right now. Exams are paid per attempt, 50 zł for the theory and 200 zł for practice. 1 euro is 4.33 zł as of writing, but you need to take into account the difference in purchasing power and it’s probably not much cheaper than Germany even if you pass both exams the first time.
Interesting. I looked this up and I think that in Poland, the wait time in let’s say Warsaw peaked at like 2 months during pandemic, but is around 2 weeks now.
Many people living in big cities will have their exams in smaller WORDs anyway, as the pass rates tend to be higher there (not a surprise, less traffic means an easier exam). Apparently in some WORDs you can even get a new attempt the same day after failing one.
In Poland:
This is almost exactly how it works in Spain.
Though I’ll add that it takes a few months to get appointments for the practical exam. They’re usually overloaded in the larger cities.
Interesting. I looked this up and I think that in Poland, the wait time in let’s say Warsaw peaked at like 2 months during pandemic, but is around 2 weeks now.
Many people living in big cities will have their exams in smaller WORDs anyway, as the pass rates tend to be higher there (not a surprise, less traffic means an easier exam). Apparently in some WORDs you can even get a new attempt the same day after failing one.