United States · Licensing examWhat types of PE exams are there?
| PE exam | Questions | Offered | Design standards supplied |
|---|---|---|---|
| Civil: Construction, Geotechnical, Structural, Transportation, Water Resources and Environmental | 80 | Year-round | Yes |
| Mechanical: HVAC and Refrigeration, Machine Design and Materials, Thermal and Fluid Systems | 80 | Year-round | No |
| Electrical and Computer: Power | 80 | Year-round | Yes |
| Chemical | 80 | Year-round | No |
| Environmental | 80 | Year-round | No |
| Electrical and Computer: Computer Engineering | 85 | Once a year | No |
| Electrical and Computer: Electronics, Controls and Communications | 85 | Once a year | No |
| Control Systems | 85 | Once a year | Yes |
| Fire Protection | 85 | Once a year | Yes |
| Nuclear | 85 | Once a year | Yes |
| Agricultural and Biological | 85 | Once a year | Yes |
| Architectural | 85 | Once a year | Yes |
| Industrial and Systems | 85 | Once a year | No |
| Metallurgical and Materials | 85 | Once a year | No |
| Mining and Mineral Processing | 85 | Once a year | No |
| Naval Architecture and Marine | 85 | Once a year | No |
| Petroleum | 85 | Once a year | No |
| Structural (4 sections) | 55 or 60 each | Breadth year-round, depth twice a year | Yes |
From NCEES’s May 2026 Examinee Guide. Every exam also has its own NCEES reference handbook.
Which PE exam should I take?
The one for the branch your board will license you in, which usually matches the work your experience is in. Boards don’t all license the same branches: California licenses some branches as practice acts and others only as titles, and Washington licenses architectural engineering as Building Systems Engineer. Check with your board before you register: switching exams later means canceling, registering again and losing $50 of the fee.
What about a software PE exam?
NCEES’s current PE list has no software engineering exam. Computer Engineering is the closest, under Electrical and Computer.
Sources: NCEES · California BPELSG · Washington BRPELS and 2 more. Checked October 2026.
- NCEES: Examinee Guide (May 2026) ↗
- NCEES: PE exam ↗
- NCEES: PE Architectural Engineering exam ↗
- California BPELSG: Professional Engineer applicants ↗
- Washington BRPELS: Professional engineer license exams ↗
Rules and fees can change, so check the official site before your test.
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