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The Chemical PE exam

Plant design and operation is the biggest area on the chemical PE exam, at 15‑23 questions, followed by mass and energy balances at 12‑18. It’s 80 questions in 8 hours, offered year-round at Pearson test centers for $400, on specifications in force since January 2020.

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Updated October 2026 · Written from official sources, listed at the bottom of this page

Chemical PE exam topics

Knowledge areaQuestions
Plant design and operation15‑23
Mass/energy balances12‑18
Thermodynamics11‑17
Fluids10‑16
Heat transfer9‑14
Mass transfer7‑11
Chemical reaction engineering6‑10

From the specifications effective January 1, 2020.

What references does the chemical PE exam supply?

You get the NCEES PE Chemical Reference Handbook on screen, and NCEES’s guide lists no design standards for it. The exam uses SI and US units.

Chemical PE pass rate

It had the lowest first-time pass rate of the year-round PE exams in NCEES’s July 2026 update: 55% of 225 first-time takers passed, and 32% of repeat takers.

Pass rates for every exam →Other PE exams →
Sources: NCEES and 2 more. Checked October 2026.

Rules and fees can change, so check the official site before your test.

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