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: WRE prep resources ↗Exam facts & prep options
Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) Civil: Water Resources and Environmental Exam
The PE Civil: Water Resources and Environmental exam is the NCEES discipline-specific Principles and Practice of Engineering examination for civil engineers seeking licensure: a single 80-question computer-based exam taken in one 9-hour appointment (8 hours of exam time), closed book with the NCEES PE Civil Reference Handbook and supplied design standards, covering twelve water-resources and environmental knowledge areas from hydrology and hydraulics to drinking-water and wastewater treatment.
Official exam siteJump to prep options ↓
Questions80 questions (all questions are worked; no breadth/depth split in the current CBT format)
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 by topic
Exam feeUSD 400 payable directly to NCEES (U.S. administrations); state/territorial boards may require separate applications and fees, and the PE exam page lists different amounts for some international administration sites (e.g., USD 425 for the Alberta PE site)
Prep options
Study resources for PE Civil: WRE
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 Water Resources and Environmental exam, effective beginning April 2024; NCEES has posted a successor edition effective beginning April 2027 (same 80-question structure, expanded design standards list)
- Where it applies
- United States — national
- Exam languages
- English
- Testing provider
- Pearson VUE (NCEES-approved Pearson test centers)
- Format
- Computer-based (CBT), closed book with electronic references — the NCEES PE Civil Reference Handbook and the listed design standards are supplied in the exam; SI and US Customary units; multiple-choice questions plus alternative item types (AITs)
- Availability
- Administered year-round by appointment at NCEES-approved Pearson test centers
- Results
- Results typically available within 7–10 business days, notified by email and viewable in MyNCEES
- Remote testing
- Not available
Exam structure
80 questions across 12 knowledge areas with published ranges: Project Planning (4–6), Soil Mechanics (3–5), Materials (4–6), Analysis and Design (6–9), Hydraulics–Closed Conduit (7–11), Hydraulics–Open Channel (7–11), Hydrology (8–12), Groundwater and Wells (4–6), Surface Water and Groundwater Quality (5–8), Drinking Water Distribution and Treatment (6–9), Wastewater Collection and Treatment (7–11), and Project Sitework (9–14).
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 exam page carries per-board notices, e.g. that some boards require board approval before registering with NCEES); NCEES also administers at listed international sites for candidates pursuing U.S. licensure. 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 before registering with NCEES
Retake policy
One attempt per testing window and no more than three attempts in a 12-month period