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Assuming adolescence begins at age 10 with the onset of puberty, what age do YOU think it lasts until?
Within various perspectives (psychology, biology, history, sociology, education, and anthropology) adolescence is viewed as a transitional period between childhood and adulthood, whose cultural purpose is the preparation of children for adult roles (Larson, R., & Wilson, S.; 2004)
As peaceandlovebro said, the brain is fully developed at the age of 25 for females and 30 for males, but for physical changes the start and end of puberty varies. I'd say puberty can start between the ages of 8-14 and end between the ages of 15-20. So I don't think there's a specific age when adolescence ends; you don't turn 18 and suddenly you're an adult, it's gradual and you can't pinpoint the day or even year it happens.
It seems to me like a very arbitrary distinction between childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Even if everyone "came of age" at the same time in their lives, I think of it more as crossing an imaginary line than a wholesale change in the nature of their being.
Do you have to be fully matured to exit adolescence? I don't think so. If adolescence is a cultural idea - and I think it's better viewed as a cultural idea than a biological one - then it ends at the time we become accepted as adults in society, which in my society is 18.
The onset of adulthood doesn't naturally start at the age of ten; that's the result of chemical changes in the atmosphere of the modern world. It is a problem, one that needs to be addressed and corrected.
Personally I believe that we don't give young people nearly as much credit as is warranted, and that people should be expected to get part-time jobs at perhaps twelve or so, and become fully independent at maybe fifteen.
It could be said that it's a complicated matter, but I absolutely do reject the notion that anyone under the age of eighteen is a blameless little baby, whereupon reaching that iconic age they suddenly and perhaps magically become capable of being productive and responsible.