Engineering Exams

You must pass two NCEES-administered examinations on the path to licensure as a Professional Engineer in Florida.

FUNDAMENTALS OF ENGINEERING (FE) EXAM

The Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, which is developed and administered by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), is generally taken during the final year of a four-year EAC/ABET engineering program or a four-year ETAC/ABET engineering technology program, or immediately after graduation, while the course work is still fresh in your mind.

No engineering experience is required to take the exam. The FE exam covers subjects taught in a typical EAC/ABET-accredited Bachelor of Science engineering program.

Apply directly with NCEES to take the FE exam. It is administered at NCEES-approved Pearson VUE test centers during four testing windows: January-March; April-June; July-September; and October-December.

Registration and scheduling of testing appointments are made through your MyNCEES account. During the registration process, you select your exam location. Next, you are presented with a list of available exam dates. If you are not happy with the choices, you can browse through the available dates at other NCEES-approved test centers.

The exam is discipline-specific for both morning and afternoon sessions and is divided into two sections of approximately 55 questions each. You will be given five hours and 20 minutes to answer all 110 questions. You may take a 25-minute break after the first section of questions. NCEES will provide you with an online FE Reference Handbook at the exam site. You should select the discipline (options are listed at the Exams page on the NCEES website) that best corresponds to your undergraduate degree.

Exam results are typically available within 10 business days. You will receive an email notification from NCEES with instructions to view your exam results in your MyNCEES account. Results are reported as pass or fail. If you fail the examination, you will receive a diagnostic report showing your performance for each of the major topics covered on the exam. You can take the FE exam once per testing window and no more than three times during a 12-month period.

After you have earned your bachelor’s degree and passed the FE exam, you are eligible to apply for Engineer Intern (EI) certification in Florida. Please see the Engineer Interns page for details and the application. You are also eligible to take the Principles & Practice of Engineering (PE) exam.

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PRINCIPLES & PRACTICE OF ENGINEERING (PE) EXAM

The second NCEES-administered exam on your path to licensure is the Principles & Practice of Engineering (PE) exam.

Like the FE exam, the PE exam is developed and administered by NCEES. In Florida, you must have earned an ABET-accredited degree and passed the FE exam before you can take the PE exam. You apply directly with NCEES to take the PE exam.

The PE exam goes beyond testing academic knowledge and tests expertise gained in the practice of engineering. While no engineering experience is required to sit for the PE exam, NCEES statistics show that first-time examinees are more likely to pass the exam with at least four years of engineering experience.

PE exams are offered in a variety of disciplines and sub-disciplines. Because the PE exam is based on the practice of engineering, you should take the exam for the discipline that you are most knowledgeable in (which may not be in what you earned your degree).

All PE exams are now computer-based tests (CBT) and administered at NCEES-approved Pearson VUE test centers either during four testing windows during the year (January-March; April-June; July-September; and October-December) or as a single-day administration in April or October. The length of and the number of questions in the PE exams vary depending on discipline.

All PE exams, except for the PE Structural, are one-day sessions.

Beginning April 1, 2024, the PE Structural exam will consist of four sections. The exam will be offered in:

• Two breadth sections for vertical forces and lateral forces, which will be available to take year-round; and
• Two depth sections for vertical forces and lateral forces, which will be offered only in April and October.

Registration for the PE Structural exams opened Nov. 1, 2023. Administrations of the breadth sections will begin April 1, 2024. The April sittings for the depth sections will be Tuesday, April 16, 2024, for the vertical forces, and Wednesday, April 17, 2024, for the lateral forces.

Examinees must successfully complete all four sections of the exam to pass the exam.

Examinees who have passed one component of the pencil-and-paper exam before the transition to CBT will only have to pass the two sections for the remaining component.

Exam specifications for each discipline in which the PE exam is offered are available on the PE exam page at NCEES. (Civil, electrical and computer, and mechanical engineering disciplines are offered in multiple sub-disciplines.)

Results for the CBT exams are typically released by NCEES within 10 business days.

Register and schedule the PE exam through your MyNCEES account. (You do not have to apply first with FBPE.) You can take the PE exam once per testing window and no more than three times during a 12-month period.

After you have passed your PE exam, have earned the requisite hours of engineering experience, and meet other requirements, you may apply for your PE license in Florida.