Is the California, LA Permit and Written test hard?

No, not if you study and are prepared.

The same test is used everywhere in CA. There's no reason to believe it would be harder in Los Angeles than anywhere else.

If you read the book and have an IQ above room temperature you should be able to pass.

If you haven't read the manual, the test is VERY hard and you won't pass. If you have studied the manual and understand it, the test will be EASY because every question is covered in the manual.

The written test is the permit test.

Put it this way. When I moved from BC to LA I had to do the written test. I aced it first try. When my daughter wrote it in 2007, she aced both it and the road test first try. However one of her friends needed 6 tries to pass.

Whether it is hard is up to you. To me it was all common sense and my daughter actually studied.

It's not a permit test, it's a written knowledge test and there's only one, the same one for all of California. I predict that it will be hard.