FE (Fundamentals of Engineering)

The FE exam is 110 questions inside a roughly 6-hour appointment (a short nondisclosure agreement and tutorial, 5 hours and 20 minutes of actual exam time, and a scheduled break), computer-based at NCEES-approved Pearson VUE test centers, offered year-round rather than on fixed testing cycles. There isn't one single FE exam; candidates choose a discipline-specific version (Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Computer, Environmental, Industrial, Chemical, and several others) that matches their engineering major, not their eventual job title, alongside a shared set of general topics every version covers regardless of discipline: ethics and professional practice, safety, and engineering economics.

It's designed to be taken near the end of an ABET-accredited engineering degree, not after it, and definitely not after years of work experience the way some licensing exams are structured. The only reference material allowed is a digital, NCEES-supplied reference handbook provided electronically during the exam itself, not a textbook or notes brought from outside.

Results come back pass or fail only, with no numeric score shown to anyone who passes; candidates who don't pass get a diagnostic report broken down by topic area instead. The exam costs $225 (slightly more at some international testing locations), and NCEES caps attempts at one per testing window and no more than three total within any 12-month period.

Passing earns Engineer Intern (EI) status, sometimes called Engineer in Training (EIT) depending on the state, which is the formally recognized first step toward a Professional Engineer (PE) license, not the license itself. From there, the standard path is typically four years of progressive experience working under a licensed PE before becoming eligible to sit for the discipline-specific PE exam.

On this site, Civil Engineer, Structural Engineer, and MEP Engineer careers all describe this same FE-then-experience-then-PE path, just ending in a different discipline-specific PE exam. It's worth not confusing this with Surveyor licensure, which also runs through NCEES but uses a completely separate exam pair, the Fundamentals of Surveying (FS) and Principles and Practice of Surveying (PS) exams, not FE and PE at all.

The practice questions below are original, covering the exam's real structure and the engineering-licensure process around it, not any actual FE exam content, which NCEES keeps strictly confidential and which this site has no access to regardless. If becoming a licensed engineer through this path interests you, Civil Engineer, Structural Engineer, and MEP Engineer all walk through what the work and progression actually look like.