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SCTE · Last updated November 2026

SCTE Broadband Wireless Specialist (BWS): free practice test

BWS certifies the knowledge an entry-level technician needs to plan, install and troubleshoot Wi-Fi in homes, apartment buildings (MDUs) and small businesses. SCTE's subject areas cover network layers, 802.11 standards, RF and antenna basics, residential deployment, WLAN security, installation and troubleshooting. The online exam allows 2 hours and is open book.

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About the SCTE BWS exam

BWS certifies the knowledge an entry-level technician needs to plan, install and troubleshoot Wi-Fi in homes, apartment buildings (MDUs) and small businesses. SCTE's subject areas cover network layers, 802.11 standards, RF and antenna basics, residential deployment, WLAN security, installation and troubleshooting. The online exam allows 2 hours and is open book.

What's on the exam

SCTE BWS
Premises Wireless Networks and Network Layers
7 key facts
Wi-Fi Standards and Transmission
8 key facts
Wi-Fi RF Fundamentals
8 key facts
Antenna Theory for Wi-Fi
8 key facts
Residential and MDU Wi-Fi Planning and Deployment
8 key facts
WLAN Security and Common Threats
7 key facts
Wireless Installation and WLAN Troubleshooting
7 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 SCTE BWS exam

  • Open book only helps if your notes are fast to search. Keep one page with dBm-to-mW values, the 3 dB and 6 dB rules, 802.11 standards by band and the US 2.4 GHz channel plan.
  • Know which band each standard uses: 802.11ac is 5 GHz only, 802.11ax runs on 2.4, 5 and (as Wi-Fi 6E) 6 GHz. Questions often hide this inside a customer complaint.
  • In troubleshooting questions, prove the wired service first. A good speed at the gateway's Ethernet port moves the problem to the WLAN, not the cable plant.
  • Expect MDU questions: co-channel interference from neighbours is solved with lower power, narrower channels and good placement, not with more power.

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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 SCTE BWS prep

Premium SCTE BWS 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, 50 questions each, timed
800flashcards with spaced repetition, sorted by topic
60comprehensive key notes across 7 topics

Your step-by-step study path

  1. 1
    Premises Wireless Networks and Network Layers9 key notes, 115 flashcards, then 450 practice questions in 18 sets of 25
    Notes free with an account
  2. 2
    Wi-Fi Standards and Transmission9 key notes, 115 flashcards, then 425 practice questions in 17 sets of 25
    Premium
  3. 3
    Wi-Fi RF Fundamentals9 key notes, 115 flashcards, then 425 practice questions in 17 sets of 25
    Premium
  4. 4
    Antenna Theory for Wi-Fi9 key notes, 115 flashcards, then 425 practice questions in 17 sets of 25
    Premium
  5. 5
    Residential and MDU Wi-Fi Planning and Deployment8 key notes, 115 flashcards, then 425 practice questions in 17 sets of 25
    Premium
  6. 6
    WLAN Security and Common Threats8 key notes, 115 flashcards, then 425 practice questions in 17 sets of 25
    Premium
  7. 7
    Wireless Installation and WLAN Troubleshooting8 key notes, 110 flashcards, then 425 practice questions in 17 sets of 25
    Premium
  8. Final step: 6 full mock exams50 questions each, timed like test day. Pass them, then book your exam.
    Premium
Free with an account

Read the complete SCTE BWS study notes for “Premises Wireless Networks and Network Layers”

Our first full set of comprehensive notes, about 11 minutes of reading: What is inside a cable gateway · Network layers in practice · IP addressing behind the gateway · Extending the network, 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 customer's wired PC browses normally, but their laptop connects to the Wi-Fi network and shows an IP address of 169.254.12.40 with no internet. What is the most likely cause?
Answer: The laptop associated with the access point but did not get a DHCP lease. A 169.254.x.x address is a self-assigned (APIPA) address, which a device uses when it reaches the network but gets no DHCP reply. The wired PC working rules out a modem or plant fault, and a hidden or disabled radio would stop the laptop associating at all. Rule: 169.254 means layer 2 is up but addressing failed.
2. A customer plugs their own router into the cable gateway, which is also routing. Devices on the new router browse fine, but phones on the gateway's Wi-Fi cannot reach a printer on the new router's network. What is the best fix?
Answer: Set the added router to access point (bridge) mode. Two routers in series create double NAT and two separate subnets, so devices on one side cannot see devices on the other. Putting the added router in access point mode (or the gateway in bridge mode) leaves one router and one subnet. Matching SSIDs or changing channels does not join the two networks.
3. A customer's laptop is rated 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5), and they have set it to join only the gateway's 2.4 GHz SSID. What is the newest 802.11 standard the laptop can use on that SSID?
Answer: 802.11n. 802.11ac is defined only for the 5 GHz band, so on 2.4 GHz the laptop falls back to 802.11n. That is why a Wi-Fi 5 device forced onto 2.4 GHz runs far slower than its rating. Remember: ac = 5 GHz only; n and ax work on both 2.4 and 5 GHz.
4. A customer replaces their router so they can use the new 6 GHz channels for a gaming PC. Which Wi-Fi generation must both the router and the PC support?
Answer: Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax in 6 GHz). Wi-Fi 6E is 802.11ax extended into the 6 GHz band (5.925 to 7.125 GHz in the US). A Wi-Fi 6 device without the E cannot see 6 GHz at all, so both ends must support it. 802.11ad uses 60 GHz, which is a different, very short-range band.
5. A laptop shows a link rate of 866 Mbps to the access point, but a speed test over Wi-Fi gives about 450 Mbps with nothing else on the network. What best explains the gap?
Answer: Wi-Fi is half duplex, with contention and acknowledgement overhead. The link (PHY) rate is the raw signalling rate. Wi-Fi uses CSMA/CA on a shared, half-duplex channel, and every frame has preambles, gaps and acknowledgements, so real throughput is often about half to two-thirds of the PHY rate. Encryption is done in hardware and does not halve throughput.
6. In open space, a client 5 m from an access point reads -50 dBm. Ignoring walls and reflections, about what should it read at 10 m?
Answer: -56 dBm. Free-space path loss rises by about 6 dB each time the distance doubles (inverse square law), so -50 dBm becomes about -56 dBm. The 3 dB answer confuses distance with power doubling, and -100 dBm wrongly doubles the dBm figure. Rule: double the distance, lose 6 dB.
7. A customer's 2.4 GHz gateway is on channel 3. A Wi-Fi scan shows strong neighbouring networks on channels 1 and 11. Which channel should you choose?
Answer: Channel 6. In the US the only non-overlapping 20 MHz channels in 2.4 GHz are 1, 6 and 11. Channel 3 overlaps channel 1 (and channel 6), causing adjacent-channel interference, and channel 9 overlaps 11. Channel 13 is not permitted for normal US Wi-Fi. Sharing a clean channel is better than overlapping two.
8. In a three-storey house, a customer swaps the access point's 2 dBi omni antennas for 8 dBi omni antennas to boost coverage. The bedroom one floor above now gets a weaker signal. Why?
Answer: Higher-gain omnis have a narrower vertical beamwidth. Antenna gain does not add power; it reshapes the pattern. A high-gain omni squashes the doughnut flatter, sending more energy sideways and less up and down, so floors above and below lose signal. For multi-storey homes, low-gain omnis or more access points work better.
9. An outdoor access point has a transmit power of 17 dBm, a cable and connector loss of 2 dB and a 6 dBi antenna. What is the EIRP?
Answer: 21 dBm. EIRP = transmitter power minus cable loss plus antenna gain = 17 - 2 + 6 = 21 dBm. Forgetting the cable loss gives 23 dBm, and adding it instead of subtracting gives 25 dBm. FCC Part 15 limits are stated in terms of power and EIRP, so this calculation matters in outdoor installs.
10. In a 40-unit apartment building, every unit's gateway uses 80 MHz channels in 5 GHz at full power. Customers complain of slow Wi-Fi in the evening. Which change most improves overall performance?
Answer: Use 20 or 40 MHz channels in 5 GHz and lower transmit power. Wide channels at full power mean many neighbouring gateways share the same spectrum, so they must take turns (co-channel contention). Narrower channels give more non-overlapping channels and lower power shrinks each cell, so fewer networks hear each other. More power or wider channels makes the contention worse.
11. A customer places a mesh satellite in the far bedroom, where the gateway's signal is already -82 dBm. Speeds in that room are still poor. What should you advise?
Answer: Move the satellite nearer the gateway, where backhaul is strong. A wireless mesh satellite can only pass on the throughput its own backhaul link receives. At -82 dBm the backhaul runs at a very low data rate, so every client behind it is slow. Place satellites about halfway, typically with backhaul around -65 dBm or better, or use wired (Ethernet or MoCA) backhaul.
12. A customer's old printer only connects when the gateway is set to WPA/WPA2 mixed mode with TKIP. What is the best recommendation?
Answer: Keep AES-only WPA2 or WPA3 and connect the printer by Ethernet or USB. TKIP and WEP are deprecated and weak, and mixed TKIP mode can also limit 802.11n and newer clients to legacy data rates. Keep the WLAN on WPA2-AES (CCMP) or WPA3 and give the legacy device a wired connection or a replacement. A hidden SSID is not a security control.
13. A small cafe finds a second network with exactly the same name as its guest Wi-Fi, with a stronger signal, and customers' login details are being stolen. What type of attack is this?
Answer: Evil twin access point. An evil twin is a rogue access point that copies a legitimate SSID so clients connect to it and their traffic can be captured. A deauthentication flood may be used alongside it to push clients off the real network, but it does not capture logins by itself. Defences include WPA3 or 802.1X and teaching users to check for HTTPS.
14. A customer has a 500 Mbps plan. A speed test from a laptop over Wi-Fi gives 120 Mbps, while a wired test at the gateway's Ethernet port gives 510 Mbps. What should you do next?
Answer: Check the laptop's signal, band, channel and Wi-Fi capability. The wired test proves the plant, modem and provisioning deliver the full rate, so the bottleneck is the wireless link or the client. Check RSSI, band (2.4 versus 5 GHz), channel congestion and the laptop's Wi-Fi standard and stream count. Opening a plant ticket would waste a truck roll.
15. A customer's tablet loses its 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connection every time the kitchen microwave oven runs. What is the most effective fix?
Answer: Move the tablet to the 5 GHz band. Microwave ovens leak energy around 2.45 GHz, which overlaps most of the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band, so the cleanest fix is to use 5 GHz, which they do not affect. A wider channel is more exposed to interference, and security settings have no effect on RF noise. Channel changes help only partly.

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SCTE BWS exam FAQ

How many questions are on the SCTE BWS exam?

50 multiple-choice questions (SCTE certification brochure; the BWS exam page itself does not state the count), with a time limit of 2 hours; the exam cannot be paused and breaks are not allowed. Format: open book: scte training materials, books, printed documents, notes, tables, calculators and internet resources are allowed (digital content in a separate tab of the same browser); ai tools are not allowed.

What is the passing score for SCTE BWS?

76% (38 of 50 correct), per the SCTE certification brochure; confirm with SCTE when you buy the exam.

How much does the SCTE BWS exam cost?

US$125 for members and non-members (English exam); the Spanish exam is US$112 for non-members and US$84 for members. Each attempt needs a new fee, and the exam must be taken within one year of purchase. Certification lasts 3 years. BICSI fees can change without notice, so confirm on bicsi.org before you apply.

Which languages is the SCTE BWS exam offered in?

English and Spanish (Especialista en Banda Ancha Wireless).

Where do I take the SCTE BWS exam?

Online through the SCTE account portal, with Proctorio automated remote proctoring on Chrome or Edge (webcam, microphone and photo ID required).

Is this SCTE BWS 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 SCTE BWS prep is Premium at $147 a month for this exam.

What's in the premium SCTE BWS prep?

3,000 practice questions organized topic by topic (Premises Wireless Networks and Network Layers: 450; Wi-Fi Standards and Transmission: 425; Wi-Fi RF Fundamentals: 425; Antenna Theory for Wi-Fi: 425; Residential and MDU Wi-Fi Planning and Deployment: 425; WLAN Security and Common Threats: 425; Wireless Installation and WLAN Troubleshooting: 425), 6 full-length timed mock exams of 50 questions, 800 flashcards and 60 comprehensive key notes split across all 7 topics, plus a mistakes bank and the Readiness Score.

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Exam details are summarized from the official candidate information available in October 2026. BICSI changes formats and fees, so confirm with SCTE (Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers), a subsidiary of CableLabs before you book. RCDDQuizBank is not affiliated with BICSI or Pearson VUE.

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