What is on the PE Civil Construction exam?

The PE Civil Construction exam is a computer-based test of 80 questions across 11 knowledge areas. Design for Support of Construction Loads is the widest range, at 10 to 15 questions, followed by Construction Operations and Methods at 9 to 14. Three more areas run 7 to 11 questions each: Project Planning and Scheduling, Material, Production, and Execution Quality Control, and Structural Mechanics. The specification in effect since April 2024 requires you to answer every question.

Knowledge areas and question counts

Construction is one of five PE Civil modules. Every module is computer-based, offered year-round, has 80 questions, and differs from the others in knowledge areas, question ranges, and design standards. If you are choosing among them, compare the five on which PE Civil exam to take.

The Construction specification on a current exam has been in effect since April 2024, and specifications effective beginning April 2027 keep the same knowledge areas and question ranges while changing the design standards.

NCEES publishes each area as a range, and the low ends of the 11 ranges add up to 70 of the 80 questions. The first six areas, in specification order, are:

The remaining areas, still in specification order, run from Structural Mechanics through Health and Safety. Hydraulics and Hydrology and Health and Safety are the shortest ranges, at 4 to 6 questions each.

What the heaviest areas cover

Design for Support of Construction Loads covers temporary works, plus the loads construction places on the permanent structure. You check formwork, falsework, scaffolding, shores, reshores, braces, anchors, and support of excavation, along with erection and equipment loads on members and foundations that must carry ordinary dead and live load at the same time.

Construction Operations and Methods covers how the work is built. It includes lifting and rigging, such as crane stability, outrigger loads, lifting capacity, and crane type, along with dewatering, pumping, equipment selection, and deep foundation installation. Earthwork covers cut and fill, borrow volume, and haul distance.

Project Planning and Scheduling covers sequence and time. You order the activities, judge how long each one takes, read the schedule as a network, a critical path, or a linear schedule, level resources, and weigh time against cost.

Material, Production, and Execution Quality Control covers whether the work matches the specification while it is produced. You use material tests, check welds and installed bolts, and follow a quality control process. Concrete appears as placement and as early strength, including maturity, and compaction appears for soil, asphalt, and aggregate.

Structural Mechanics covers member behavior under construction conditions, with loads that include dead, live, construction, wind, and preloading. You find bending, shear, axial force, combined stress, and deflection in beams, columns, and one-way slabs, and you follow load through foundations, retaining walls, trusses, frames, two-way slabs, and slab-on-grade.

The narrower areas are still on the exam. Soil Mechanics asks how soil pushes on a wall, how consolidation produces settlement, how effective stress differs from total stress, what load a footing can carry, and whether a slope stays stable. Site Layout and Development asks you to stake line and grade from benchmarks, use the basic geometry of a horizontal or vertical curve (radius, length, chord, middle ordinate), and account for adjacent structures, property lines, and utilities. Material Properties asks you to read boring logs for classification, strength, permeability, and compressibility, to proportion concrete and choose admixtures, and to work with structural steel, reinforcement, prestressing steel, sawn wood, and engineered wood.

Estimating Quantities and Costs runs from quantity takeoff to a cost estimate, then to engineering economy used to pick a resource: break-even, net-present value, and life-cycle cost, along with productivity and earned value. Hydraulics and Hydrology is site stormwater: open channels, culverts, storm sewers, watersheds, runoff by the rational method or SCS/NRCS methods, storm frequency, time of concentration, erosion control, and detention or retention ponds. Health and Safety covers OSHA construction and industry regulations, safety management, and work zone protection of the public, including maintenance of traffic.

Design standards supplied on exam day

The exam is closed book, and the references are the electronic PE Civil Reference Handbook and the design standards named in your specification. What references you can use on the PE exam describes how those files work in the testing software.

Under the April 2024 Construction specification, the supplied standards are:

• ACI 347R (2014)
• ACI SP-4, 8th edition (2014)
• AISC Steel Construction Manual, 15th edition (2017)
• ASCE 37-14 (2015)
• CMWB bracing masonry walls (2012)
• PCA EB001, 17th edition (2021)
• MUTCD Part 6 (2009, Revisions 1 and 2, May 2012)
• CFR Title 29 Parts 1903 and 1926 (July 2020)

Beginning April 2027, several of those titles and editions change. What changes in the PE Civil design standards in April 2027 covers the other civil modules. For Construction, the differences are:

ACI SP-4 stays the 8th edition (2014), and on the April 2027 list, that document includes ACI 347R. ASCE 37-14 (2015) and PCA EB001, 17th edition (2021) stay as they are.

A question that uses a standard is scored on the edition named for that specification, and an answer based on any other edition receives no credit. In the software, standards are searchable PDF chapters, and only one chapter can be open and searched at a time. The handbook and the standards stay available for the whole exam. Publishers sell the design standards, but NCEES does not sell a printed handbook and does not provide the standards for home study.

Construction pass rate in the July 2026 update

NCEES last updated these PE Civil pass rates in July 2026, and the five modules are below. The same kind of result for other exams is on the PE exam pass rate page.

In that update, Construction has the lowest first-time pass rate and the lowest repeat pass rate of the five civil modules.

How to study with the handbook and the standards

The handbook on the exam is the PE Civil Reference Handbook, version 2.2, from the third posting in December 2025. The PDF is 502 pages, and it stays available for the whole exam, with the standards.

The appointment is 9 hours: a 2-minute nondisclosure agreement, an 8-minute tutorial, an 8-hour exam, and a 50-minute scheduled break. The PE Civil exam format puts that day in order.

We suggest you practice by searching these PDFs, and look things up in the handbook until finding a section is routine. When a problem needs a standard, work from one chapter at a time, because that is how the exam search behaves. The specification uses both SI and U.S. Customary units, so solve each problem in the units it is written in.

We suggest you give more practice to Design for Support of Construction Loads and Construction Operations and Methods, then to Project Planning and Scheduling, Material, Production, and Execution Quality Control, and Structural Mechanics. How to study for the PE exam in 12 weeks is one way to split that work. Use the April 2024 construction list until the April 2027 specification begins, then use the editions on that later list.

Frequently asked questions

How many questions are on the PE Civil Construction exam?

There are 80 questions, and you work all of them. They are split across 11 knowledge areas, each published as a range. The low ends of those ranges add up to 70 of the 80 questions. The April 2027 Construction specification keeps this total and the same ranges.

What design standards are used on the PE Civil Construction exam?

Under the April 2024 specification, NCEES supplies ACI 347R (2014), ACI SP-4, 8th edition (2014), the AISC Steel Construction Manual, 15th edition (2017), ASCE 37-14 (2015), CMWB bracing masonry walls (2012), PCA EB001, 17th edition (2021), MUTCD Part 6 (2009, Revisions 1 and 2, May 2012), and CFR Title 29 Parts 1903 and 1926 (July 2020). Beginning April 2027, the list adds ACI 318-19 (2022), keeps ACI SP-4 and notes that it includes ACI 347R, moves the AISC manual to the 16th edition (2022), drops CMWB, updates MUTCD Part 6 to the 11th edition (2023) for temporary traffic control, and updates CFR Title 29 to Parts 1903, 1904, and 1926 (2024). ASCE 37-14 (2015) and PCA EB001, 17th edition (2021) remain. Scoring uses the edition listed for your exam date.

What is the PE Civil Construction pass rate?

NCEES figures last updated in July 2026 show a 60% pass rate for first-time Construction examinees (1000 people) and a 38% pass rate for repeat examinees (417 people). In that same update, first-time rates for the other civil modules are 63% for Geotechnical, 62% for Structural, 61% for Transportation, and 71% for Water Resources and Environmental. Construction is the lowest first-time rate and the lowest repeat rate of the five modules.

Do Construction knowledge areas change in April 2027?

The areas and the question ranges stay the same as in the April 2024 specification, since NCEES has posted PE Civil specifications effective beginning April 2027 that match the earlier Construction areas and ranges. The design-standard list is what changes, so study the editions named for the specification in effect on your exam date, because an answer based on another edition receives no credit.

Is the PE Civil Construction exam open book?

It is closed book. You use the PE Civil Reference Handbook, version 2.2 (502 pages, third posting in December 2025), and the Construction design standards for your exam date, and both are electronic and stay available for the whole exam, though you can search only one standard chapter at a time.

Sources

1. NCEES PE Civil: Construction exam specifications, effective April 2024 (PDF). Retrieved October 3, 2026.
2. NCEES: PE Civil exam. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
3. NCEES: PE exam. Retrieved October 3, 2026.