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NCEES PE · Last updated November 2026

PE Electronics, Controls, and Communications: free practice test

This PE exam tests the competence of electrical engineers working in electronics, instrumentation, controls and communications. It is computer-based, given once a year at Pearson VUE centers, and has 85 questions in 8.5 hours of exam time. The current specification took effect with the April 2026 exam and spans 12 knowledge areas, led by circuit analysis (10 to 15 questions) and control systems (8 to 12).

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About the PE Electrical ECC Exam exam

This PE exam tests the competence of electrical engineers working in electronics, instrumentation, controls and communications. It is computer-based, given once a year at Pearson VUE centers, and has 85 questions in 8.5 hours of exam time. The current specification took effect with the April 2026 exam and spans 12 knowledge areas, led by circuit analysis (10 to 15 questions) and control systems (8 to 12).

What's on the exam

PE Electrical ECC Exam
Circuit Analysis and Design
6 key facts
Measurement, Instrumentation, Safety and Reliability
6 key facts
Signal Processing
6 key facts
Digital Systems
6 key facts
Electromagnetics and Fiber Optics
6 key facts
Electronic Components and Circuits
6 key facts
Analog and Digital Control Systems
6 key facts
Communications, Noise and Interference
6 key facts

Each branch is a topic in the official outline. Members see every key fact on the full mind map. Read the free study guide →

How to pass the PE Electrical ECC Exam exam

  • 85 questions in 8.5 hours is 6 minutes each. Bank time on short conceptual items for the long control and electronics calculations.
  • Practice with the electronic reference handbook from your MyNCEES account. Searching it quickly matters more than memorizing formulas it already contains.
  • Electronic components and electronics circuits together carry 13 to 20 questions, and circuit analysis another 10 to 15. Master these before communications topics with 4 to 6 each.
  • The exam runs once a year, so a failed attempt costs a full year. Book your seat early, since single-day exams fill.

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Create a free account after the test: your score by topic, a mistakes bank, the complete study notes for the first topic, flashcards and the RCDD Numbers & Formulas Sheet.

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What's in the premium PE Electrical ECC Exam prep

Premium PE Electrical ECC Exam prep is studied one topic at a time. Each step starts with that topic's key notes and flashcard deck, then its own question sets of 25, so you master one topic before you move to the next. When every topic is strong, the 6 full mock exams show you're ready.

3,000practice questions, every answer explained
6full-length mock exams, 85 questions each, timed
800flashcards with spaced repetition, sorted by topic
60comprehensive key notes across 8 topics

Your step-by-step study path

  1. 1
    Circuit Analysis and Design8 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
    Notes free with an account
  2. 2
    Measurement, Instrumentation, Safety and Reliability8 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
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  3. 3
    Signal Processing8 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
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  4. 4
    Digital Systems8 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
    Premium
  5. 5
    Electromagnetics and Fiber Optics7 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
    Premium
  6. 6
    Electronic Components and Circuits7 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
    Premium
  7. 7
    Analog and Digital Control Systems7 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
    Premium
  8. 8
    Communications, Noise and Interference7 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
    Premium
  9. Final step: 6 full mock exams85 questions each, timed like test day. Pass them, then book your exam.
    Premium
Free with an account

Read the complete PE Electrical ECC Exam study notes for “Circuit Analysis and Design”

Our first full set of comprehensive notes, about 15 minutes of reading: DC circuits and equivalents · AC circuits · Transient analysis · Components and batteries, a worked exam example, the traps examiners use and a one-minute recap. Create a free account to read it and see how premium notes work before you decide.

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Study tools included

3,000 practice questions

3,000 exam-style questions per exam, organized topic by topic in sets of 25. Every answer explained, with the rule it comes from.

6 full mock exams

6 full-length timed mock exams per exam, with real question counts and time limits, so test day feels like practice day.

Exam Readiness Score

One 0 to 100 number that tells you when you're ready to book. Reach 80 and you're covered by our Pass Guarantee.

800 flashcards + spaced repetition

800 flashcards per exam, in a deck for each topic, that come back right before you'd forget them. Five minutes a day keeps every number fresh.

60 comprehensive key notes

60 key notes per exam, split across its topics and each explained in full: the concepts, worked exam examples, the traps examiners use and a quick recap. Your first set is free with an account.

Mind maps

See the whole exam on one screen: every topic and the facts under it.

Sample questions with answers

These are the questions in the free test above, with answers. Try the test first. You'll learn more by getting some wrong.

1. A 24 V DC source feeds a 4 kΩ series resistor, with a 12 kΩ resistor from the output node to ground. What is the maximum power that can be delivered to a load connected across the 12 kΩ resistor?
Answer: 27 mW. The Thevenin voltage is 24 x 12 / 16 = 18 V and the Thevenin resistance is 4 kΩ in parallel with 12 kΩ, or 3 kΩ. Maximum power, with the load matched at 3 kΩ, is Vth² / 4Rth = 324 / 12,000 = 27 mW. Forgetting the factor of 4 gives 108 mW.
2. A 10 µF capacitor, initially uncharged, charges from a 12 V source through 47 kΩ. How long does it take to reach 9 V?
Answer: 0.65 s. The time constant is 47 kΩ x 10 µF = 0.47 s. Solving 9 = 12(1 - e^(-t/τ)) gives e^(-t/τ) = 0.25, so t = τ ln 4 = 0.65 s. One time constant reaches only 63%, about 7.6 V, and 5τ is effectively full charge.
3. A quarter-bridge strain gauge circuit has 10 V excitation and a gauge factor of 2.0. Under a strain of 500 microstrain, what is the approximate bridge output?
Answer: 2.5 mV. For a quarter bridge with small strain, Vout is approximately Vex x GF x strain / 4 = 10 x 2 x 0.0005 / 4 = 2.5 mV. Leaving out the divide-by-4 gives 10 mV, and dividing by 2 gives the half-bridge value. Such small outputs need an instrumentation amplifier.
4. A board has three parts in series with constant failure rates of 2 x 10^-6, 5 x 10^-6 and 3 x 10^-6 failures per hour. What is its reliability over 10,000 hours?
Answer: 0.905. Series failure rates add to 1 x 10^-5 per hour, so the MTBF is 100,000 hours. Reliability is e^(-λt) = e^(-0.1) = 0.905. The value 1 - λt = 0.900 is only a linear approximation, and 0.990 uses a single part's rate.
5. A 7 kHz tone is sampled at 10 kHz with no anti-aliasing filter. At what frequency does it appear in the sampled data?
Answer: 3 kHz. The Nyquist frequency is 5 kHz, so 7 kHz folds back to |7 - 10| = 3 kHz. A sampled signal can only show frequencies up to fs / 2, so 7 and 17 kHz cannot appear. An anti-aliasing low-pass filter below 5 kHz prevents this.
6. A 12-bit unipolar ADC has a 0 to 5 V input range. What is the size of one least significant bit?
Answer: 1.22 mV. An N-bit converter divides the range into 2^N steps: 5 V / 4096 = 1.22 mV. Using 2^11 gives 2.44 mV, and 2^8 gives 19.5 mV, an 8-bit result. Halving the LSB gives 0.61 mV, which is the maximum quantization error, not the step size.
7. Which expression is the minimal form of F = A'B + AB + AB'?
Answer: A + B. Group A'B + AB = B, then B + AB' = B + A by absorption, so F = A + B. A Karnaugh map shows three of four cells true, which is OR. Stopping after the first grouping gives B alone, and XOR would wrongly exclude the AB term.
8. In a synchronous circuit, flip-flop clock-to-Q delay is 2.0 ns, the worst-case combinational path is 6.0 ns, setup time is 1.5 ns and hold time is 1.0 ns. What is the maximum clock frequency?
Answer: About 105 MHz. The minimum period is tcq + tlogic + tsetup = 2.0 + 6.0 + 1.5 = 9.5 ns, so fmax = 1 / 9.5 ns = 105 MHz. Hold time constrains the shortest path, not the clock period, so adding it (giving 95 MHz) is wrong. Leaving out setup gives 118 MHz.
9. A 2.4 GHz link over 1 km of free space uses a 20 dBm transmitter and 15 dBi antennas at both ends. Ignoring cable and other losses, what is the received power?
Answer: -50 dBm. Free-space path loss is 20 log(d in km) + 20 log(f in MHz) + 32.44 = 0 + 67.6 + 32.44, about 100 dB. Received power = 20 + 15 + 15 - 100 = -50 dBm. Leaving out one or both antenna gains gives -65 or -80 dBm.
10. A 5.1 V Zener regulator is fed from 15 V through a 100 Ω resistor and supplies a 40 mA load. How much power does the Zener diode dissipate?
Answer: 0.30 W. Series current is (15 - 5.1) / 100 = 99 mA, so the Zener carries 99 - 40 = 59 mA and dissipates 5.1 x 0.059 = 0.30 W. Using the full 99 mA gives 0.50 W, and 0.98 W is the resistor's dissipation. Check the no-load case too, when the Zener takes all 99 mA.
11. A linear regulator drops 12 V to 5 V at 1 A. Thermal resistances are 2.0 °C/W junction to case, 0.5 °C/W case to sink and 5.0 °C/W sink to ambient, with 40 °C ambient. What is the junction temperature?
Answer: 92.5 °C. Dissipation is (12 - 5) x 1 = 7 W, and the total thermal resistance is 2.0 + 0.5 + 5.0 = 7.5 °C/W. Tj = 40 + 7 x 7.5 = 92.5 °C. Using 12 W of input power gives 130 °C, and leaving out the heat sink term gives 57.5 °C.
12. A closed-loop system has the transfer function 25 / (s² + 4s + 25). What is the percent overshoot of its step response?
Answer: About 25%. Matching to ωn² / (s² + 2ζωn s + ωn²) gives ωn = 5 rad/s and ζ = 4 / 10 = 0.4. Overshoot = e^(-ζπ / sqrt(1 - ζ²)) = e^(-1.37), about 25%. A damping ratio of 0.6 gives about 9%, and 0.2 gives about 53%.
13. A unity-feedback system has open-loop transfer function G(s) = 10 / [s(s + 2)]. What is the steady-state error to a unit ramp input?
Answer: 0.2. The system is type 1, so ramp error is finite: Kv = lim s G(s) as s goes to 0 = 10 / 2 = 5, and ess = 1 / Kv = 0.2. Zero is the step error for a type 1 system, and infinite is the ramp error for a type 0 system. Using 10 without the pole at -2 gives 0.1.
14. A receiver front end has an LNA with 20 dB gain and 2 dB noise figure, followed by a mixer with a 10 dB noise figure. What is the overall noise figure?
Answer: About 2.2 dB. Convert to linear terms: F1 = 1.585, F2 = 10, G1 = 100. Friis gives F = 1.585 + (10 - 1) / 100 = 1.675, which is 2.24 dB. Adding the dB figures gives 12 dB, which is wrong. The LNA alone gives 2.0 dB, which is close because its high gain suppresses the mixer noise.
15. A channel has 1 MHz bandwidth and a signal-to-noise ratio of 30 dB. What is its Shannon capacity?
Answer: About 10 Mbps. Convert 30 dB to 1000, then C = B log2(1 + SNR) = 10^6 x log2(1001), about 9.97 Mbps. Using log10 gives 3 Mbps, and plugging in 30 instead of 1000 gives about 5 Mbps. Capacity is the error-free upper limit; practical modems reach a fraction of it.

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PE Electrical ECC Exam exam FAQ

How many questions are on the PE Electrical ECC Exam exam?

85 questions: multiple-choice plus alternative item types (AITs). Examinees work all questions, with a time limit of 9.5-hour appointment: nondisclosure agreement (2 minutes), tutorial (8 minutes), exam (8.5 hours) and a scheduled break (50 minutes). Format: closed book with an electronic reference handbook provided on screen; no personal references. units are both si and us customary. besides multiple choice the exam uses alternative item types; practice here uses 4-option single-best-answer items.

What is the passing score for PE Electrical ECC Exam?

Reported only as pass or fail; NCEES does not publish a cut score. Failing examinees receive a diagnostic report by topic. NCEES reports 175 first-time examinees with a 63% pass rate (table updated July 2026).

How much does the PE Electrical ECC Exam exam cost?

US$400 exam fee paid to NCEES; some licensing boards add their own application fee. BICSI fees can change without notice, so confirm on bicsi.org before you apply.

Which languages is the PE Electrical ECC Exam exam offered in?

English.

Where do I take the PE Electrical ECC Exam exam?

Pearson VUE test centers, computer-based, on one testing day per year. The next date is April 14, 2027; seats can be reserved up to a year ahead once your board approves you.

Is this PE Electrical ECC Exam practice test free?

Yes. The 15-question practice test on this page is free, with an explanation for every answer and no signup. A free account also unlocks the complete study notes for the first topic. The full PE Electrical ECC Exam prep is Premium at $147 a month for this exam.

What's in the premium PE Electrical ECC Exam prep?

3,000 practice questions organized topic by topic (Circuit Analysis and Design: 375; Measurement, Instrumentation, Safety and Reliability: 375; Signal Processing: 375; Digital Systems: 375; Electromagnetics and Fiber Optics: 375; Electronic Components and Circuits: 375; Analog and Digital Control Systems: 375; Communications, Noise and Interference: 375), 6 full-length timed mock exams of 85 questions, 800 flashcards and 60 comprehensive key notes split across all 8 topics, plus a mistakes bank and the Readiness Score.

Related practice tests

Exam details are summarized from the official candidate information available in October 2026. BICSI changes formats and fees, so confirm with NCEES (National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying), with licensure granted by each state or territory licensing board before you book. RCDDQuizBank is not affiliated with BICSI or Pearson VUE.

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