Completely free
No account walls, no upsell
Free exam prep for every test — 20,000+ exam pages and 2.4M+ practice questions.
Open free PE Civil: Structural prep resources ↗Exam facts & prep options
Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) Civil: Structural Exam
The PE Civil: Structural exam is the NCEES discipline-specific Principles and Practice of Engineering examination for civil engineers in structural practice seeking licensure: a single 80-question computer-based exam taken in one 9-hour appointment (8 hours of exam time) with multiple-choice questions and alternative item types, closed book with the NCEES-provided electronic PE Civil reference handbook and specified design standards, administered year-round at NCEES-approved Pearson test centers for a USD 400 fee payable to NCEES.
Official exam siteJump to prep options ↓
Questions80 questions
Testing time9-hour appointment: 8 hours of exam time, plus 2-minute nondisclosure agreement, 8-minute tutorial, and 50-minute scheduled break
ScoringPass/fail only — no numeric score published; failing examinees receive a diagnostic report showing performance for each major topic covered on the exam
Exam feeUSD 400 payable directly to NCEES (U.S. administrations); some licensing boards require a separate application and fee before registering with NCEES, and the PE exam page lists different amounts for some international administration sites (e.g., USD 425 for the Alberta PE site; USD 250 for several other international sites)
Prep options
Study resources for PE Civil: Structural
Independent prep
Courses and study resources
Exam overview
What to know before choosing your prep
- Who runs it
- NCEES
- Category
- Engineering Licensure
- Current version
- PE Civil CBT exam specifications for the Structural exam, April 2024 edition (posted on the PE Civil page under 'Effective before April 2027' as Civ-Str-April-202441.pdf); NCEES has posted a successor Structural specification under 'Effective beginning April 2027' (PE-Civil-STR-2027-Specs.pdf). As of September 2026 the April 2024 edition governs; specs change once every 5–7 years and are posted 6 months before their effective date.
- Where it applies
- United States — national
- Exam languages
- English
- Testing provider
- Pearson VUE (NCEES-approved Pearson test centers)
- Format
- Computer-based (CBT), closed book — NCEES provides an electronic reference handbook and all specified design standards during the exam (searchable PDFs with linked chapters); no personal reference materials allowed in the exam room
- Availability
- Administered year-round by appointment at NCEES-approved Pearson test centers (listed as Year Round availability)
- Results
- Results typically available 7–10 days after the exam; email notification with instructions to view results in MyNCEES (PE exam page states 'within 7–10 business days')
- Remote testing
- Not available
Exam structure
Single 80-question computer-based exam including multiple-choice questions and alternative item types (AITs); the detailed knowledge-area/topic breakdown is published in the downloadable exam specifications
Where rules vary
The PE exam is the uniform nationwide second step in U.S. professional engineer licensure, administered by NCEES for U.S. state and territorial licensing boards; the PE Civil page advises checking each board's registration procedures because some boards require board approval or a separate application and fee before registering with NCEES, and the PE exam page lists different fees for some international administration sites — the exam itself is identical nationwide.
Eligibility
Designed for engineers with a minimum of four years of post-college work experience in the discipline; state and territorial licensing boards set final eligibility, and some boards require board approval or a separate application and fee before registering with NCEES
Retake policy
One attempt per testing window and no more than three attempts in a 12-month period