What is the FE Civil exam pass rate?

In NCEES's most recent published data (fiscal year 2024-25), 61% of first-time takers passed FE Civil, from 16,639 first-time examinees. Repeat takers passed at 32%. That 61% is tied with FE Other Disciplines for the lowest first-time rate of the seven FE disciplines, eight points below FE Mechanical.

Why is the FE Civil pass rate lower than the other FE exams?

NCEES does not publish a reason, so anything here is inference rather than fact. Two things are visible in the data itself. It has by far the largest and therefore most varied candidate pool (16,639 first-time takers, roughly two in five of all first-time FE takers), and its specification is unusually discipline-heavy: water resources, structural, geotechnical, transportation and construction together account for up to 57 of the 110 questions (their maxima add to 71, but the other nine areas' minimums already take 53), so less of the exam is the general engineering core shared with other disciplines.

What reference do you get in the FE Civil exam?

The NCEES FE Reference Handbook, supplied on screen as a searchable PDF. It is the only reference permitted: no personal copies, and unlike the PE Civil exams, no design codes or standards are supplied at all. Most of the formulas you need are in the handbook, but not all: NCEES says it leaves out the basic theories, conversions, formulas and definitions examinees are expected to know. So the difficulty is mostly selection, knowing which relationship applies and finding it quickly, on top of a core of basics you carry in your head.

Is the FE Civil exam harder than the PE Civil exam?

They are hard in different ways, and the pass rates are closer than most people expect. The FE is a breadth exam: 110 questions across 14 knowledge areas at under three minutes each. The PE is a depth exam in one chosen area, with longer and more involved problems, but with codes and standards supplied. Breadth is usually the harder thing to study for; depth is usually the harder thing to solve.

How hard is the FE Civil exam?

More engineers take FE Civil than any other FE discipline, and it is tied for the lowest first-time pass rate of the seven. Those two facts are related, but not in the way most people assume. Neither of them tells you the useful thing, which is what the wrong answers on this exam are made of.

Updated October 6, 2026 · by the FE → PE Prep team

61%

First-time pass

~2.9 min

Per question

Knowledge areas

FE Handbook

Only reference

Where it sits among the FE exams

NCEES publishes pass rates by discipline each year. These are from NCEES Squared 2025 (FY2024-25), first-time takers, with repeat rates and first-time volumes alongside.

FE exam pass rates and first-time examinee volumes by discipline, NCEES fiscal year 2024-25
Discipline	First time	Repeat	Volume
FE Mechanical	69%	37%	11,552
FE Chemical	68%	35%	1,873
FE Environmental	67%	37%	2,543
FE Electrical and Computer	64%	31%	5,882
FE Industrial and Systems	62%	25%	547
FE Civil	61%	32%	16,639
FE Other Disciplines	61%	29%	2,386

Read the volume column before the pass-rate column. FE Civil has more first-time candidates than FE Mechanical and FE Environmental combined, roughly two in five of all first-time FE takers. A discipline that large draws a broader range of preparation than a specialized one does, and pass rates move with the population as well as with the exam.

NCEES does not publish a reason for the gap, so treat any explanation as inference. What is visible in the specification is that FE Civil is unusually discipline-heavy: water resources, structural, geotechnical, transportation and construction can account for up to 57 of the 110 questions between them (their maxima add to 71, but the other nine areas' minimums already take 53), leaving less of the exam on the general engineering core that other FE disciplines lean on.

And note the third column. Repeat takers pass at 32%. Part of that is selection, since every repeat taker fell short once, but it is still the strongest argument there is against treating a first attempt as a free look at the exam.

What the exam actually asks of you

110 questions in 5 hours 20 minutes of testing, inside a 6-hour appointment that also holds the nondisclosure agreement, an 8-minute tutorial and a 25-minute scheduled break. About 2.9 minutes per question. Your only reference is the NCEES FE Reference Handbook, on screen as a searchable PDF. No personal copies, and unlike the PE Civil exams, no codes or standards at all.

Most of the formulas you need are supplied, Manning's equation among them, though not the basics NCEES expects you to know. The exam is not testing whether you remember Manning's equation; it is testing whether you can decide it is the right equation and substitute into it correctly, in under three minutes, on your hundredth question of the day.

FE Civil knowledge areas and question counts, per the NCEES specification effective July 2020
Knowledge area	Questions
Water Resources and Environmental EngineeringHydraulics, hydrology, water and wastewater treatment, stormwater.	10–15
Structural EngineeringDeterminate analysis, deflection, columns, loads and load paths; steel and reinforced concrete design.	10–15
Geotechnical EngineeringSoil properties and classification, stresses, bearing, slopes, retaining.	10–15
Transportation EngineeringGeometric design, traffic, pavement, curves and sight distance.	9–14
Mathematics and Statisticsshared coreShared with every FE discipline.	8–12
Staticsshared coreEquilibrium, trusses, centroids, friction.	8–12
Construction EngineeringScheduling and float, estimating, means and methods, safety.	8–12
Mechanics of Materialsshared coreStress and strain, bending, shear, deflection, combined loading.	7–11
Fluid Mechanicsshared coreFluid properties, statics, energy and momentum, flow measurement.	6–9
SurveyingAngles and distances, areas, earthwork volumes, leveling, coordinates.	6–9
Engineering Economicsshared coreTime value of money, cost types, break-even and benefit-cost, expected value.	5–8
Materialsshared coreConcrete and asphalt mix design; properties and testing of metals, concrete, aggregates, asphalt and wood.	5–8
Ethics and Professional Practiceshared coreMostly qualitative: codes of ethics, licensure, professional liability, contracts.	4–6
Dynamicsshared coreKinematics, kinetics, work and energy. Tied with ethics for the smallest block.	4–6

The four largest blocks are all civil-discipline material, and the smallest, dynamics and ethics, carry four to six questions each. If your study plan gives equal time to all fourteen areas, it gives dynamics as much time as geotechnical, which carries about two and a half times as many questions.

Three problems, one from each of the biggest areas

Difficulty is easier to judge from a question than from a percentage. These come from our free FE Civil set. Try each before opening the solution, then read the note underneath. The same pattern runs through all three, and it is worth more than any of the answers.

1. Effective stress below a water table

Geotechnical is up to 15 questions, and this is the calculation the whole area rests on. It is two lines of arithmetic, and it is missed far more often than two lines of arithmetic should be.

1
medium
A. Index properties, phase relations & effective stress
At the Memphis levee borrow area the water table is 3 m below the ground surface. The soil above it is moist, with $\gamma = 16$ kN/m³; below it the soil is saturated, with $\gamma_{sat} = 19.5$ kN/m³. The vertical effective stress at point A, 3.5 m below the water table, is most nearly:
Figure — drag or pinch to move around
1. 52.5 kPa
2. 69.7 kPa
3. 81.9 kPa
4. 116 kPa
Show the answer & worked solution
Answer: C.81.9 kPa
Effective stress (FE Reference Handbook, Civil Engineering — Geotechnical): $\sigma' = \sigma - u$ with $u = h_u\gamma_w$ . Total stress at A: $\sigma = (16\ \text{kN/m}^3)(3\ \text{m}) + (19.5\ \text{kN/m}^3)(3.5\ \text{m}) = 116.25$ kPa. A is 3.5 m below the water table, so $u = (9.81\ \text{kN/m}^3)(3.5\ \text{m}) = 34.34$ kPa. $\sigma' = 116.25 - 34.34 = 81.9$ kPa. Distractors: reported the total stress $\sigma$ (pore pressure never subtracted), 116 kPa; measured the pressure head from the ground surface ( $u = 9.81 \times 6.5$ ), as if the water table were at the surface, 52.5 kPa; and used the moist $\gamma = 16$ kN/m³ for the full 6.5 m, ignoring the change at the water table, 69.7 kPa.

What the distractors teach

Look at what 116 kPa is: it is the total stress, the right answer to a question nobody asked. Forget to subtract pore pressure and you land on it. Measure the pore pressure from the ground surface instead of the water table and you get 52.5. Use the moist unit weight all the way down, as if the water table changed nothing, and you get 69.7. Three plausible numbers, three specific slips.

2. Maximum moment on a simply supported beam

Structural is another block of up to 15. This beam carries two loads, and the handbook prints the moment formula for each, which is exactly why the distractors are built from their neighbors.

2
medium
A. Determinate analysis, internal forces, deflection & buckling
A simply supported beam of span $L=6\,\text{m}$ carries a uniformly distributed load $w=10\,\text{kN/m}$ over its full length (self-weight included) and a concentrated load $P=36\,\text{kN}$ at midspan, as shown. The maximum bending moment in the beam is most nearly:
Figure — drag or pinch to move around
1. 45 kN·m
2. 57 kN·m
3. 72 kN·m
4. 99 kN·m
Show the answer & worked solution
Answer: D.99 kN·m
Both loads are symmetric, so each one's maximum moment is at midspan and they superpose there (FE Reference Handbook, Mechanics of Materials — Simply Supported Beam Slopes and Deflections: $M_{max} = wL^2/8$ for the full uniform load and $PL/4$ for the central point load). $M_{max} = \dfrac{(10\ \text{kN/m})(6\ \text{m})^2}{8} + \dfrac{(36\ \text{kN})(6\ \text{m})}{4} = 45 + 54 = 99$ kN·m. Check by statics: each reaction is $(wL + P)/2 = 48$ kN, and at midspan $M = 48(3) - 10(3)^2/2 = 99$ kN·m. Distractors: kept only the uniform load's $wL^2/8$ and forgot the point load, 45 kN·m; gave the point load the uniform load's coefficient, $wL^2/8 + PL/8$ , 72 kN·m; and used the fixed-end moments $wL^2/12 + PL/8$ , which belong to a beam fixed at both ends, 57 kN·m.

What the distractors teach

Every wrong answer is a real coefficient used in the wrong place. 45 kN·m is wL²/8 alone: the point load forgotten. 72 kN·m gives the point load the uniform load's coefficient, PL/8 instead of PL/4. 57 kN·m uses the fixed-end moments wL²/12 and PL/8, which belong to a beam fixed at both ends. The answer is 99: each load's maximum is at midspan, so the two simple-span values add, 45 + 54. Recalling a formula is not the skill; recalling which case it belongs to is.

3. Open-channel discharge from Manning's equation

Water resources is the third of the three largest areas. Every term of Manning's equation is printed in the handbook, and people still miss it.

3
medium
A. Hydrology & open-channel hydraulics
A rectangular concrete channel 3 m wide carries water at a uniform (normal) depth of 1.2 m. Manning's roughness is $n = 0.013$ and the bed slope is $S = 0.001$ . The discharge is most nearly:
Figure — drag or pinch to move around
1. 1.86 m³/s
2. 6.68 m³/s
3. 7.15 m³/s
4. 9.89 m³/s
Show the answer & worked solution
Answer: B.6.68 m³/s
Manning's equation (FE Reference Handbook, Civil Engineering — Hydraulics): $Q = \dfrac{K}{n}A R_H^{2/3} S^{1/2}$ with $K = 1.0$ in SI and $R_H = A/P$ . Here $A = by = (3)(1.2) = 3.6$ m², $P = b + 2y = 3 + 2(1.2) = 5.4$ m and $R_H = 3.6/5.4 = 0.667$ m, so $Q = \dfrac{1.0}{0.013}(3.6)(0.667)^{2/3}(0.001)^{1/2} = 6.68$ m³/s. Distractors: the velocity $V = \tfrac{1}{n}R_H^{2/3}S^{1/2} = 1.856$ m/s reported as the discharge (the $\times A$ forgotten), 1.86 m³/s; $R_H^{1/2}$ in place of $R_H^{2/3}$ (the square root taken of $R_H$ as well as of $S$ ), 7.15 m³/s; and the depth $y = 1.2$ m used as the hydraulic radius, 9.89 m³/s.

What the distractors teach

Nothing here requires memory, only care. Use the flow depth where the hydraulic radius belongs and you get 9.89. Take the square root of R as well as of S and you get 7.15, close enough to look right. Stop at the velocity, 1.86 m/s, forget to multiply by the area, and 1.86 sits in the list looking like a discharge. Having the formula in front of you is not the same as substituting into it correctly three hours into the exam.

The pattern: in all three, the wrong answers are correct answers to slightly different problems. Total stress instead of effective stress. A fixed–fixed end moment instead of a simple-span midspan moment. Flow depth instead of hydraulic radius. This is what a breadth exam does. You switch context fourteen times in a day, and the usual failure is not forgetting the formula but bringing the neighboring one with you.

How to prepare for it

Weight your study time to the specification. Water resources, structural, geotechnical and transportation are the four largest blocks; dynamics is four to six questions. Equal time across fourteen areas is a plan that ignores the exam's own weighting.
Practice with the handbook open from day one. Most formulas are in it, so selection and lookup speed are scoreable skills, but drill the basics it leaves out (unit conversions, definitions, elementary formulas) until you know them cold.
Study the wrong answers, not just the right one. When you get a problem wrong, name the specific error: which neighboring case did you import? That is a more durable fix than re-reading the correct method.
Work under time. Breadth exams are lost on the clock. 2.9 minutes covers reading, deciding, looking up and computing.
Take the first attempt seriously. Repeat takers pass at 32%, roughly half the first-time rate.

For every FE discipline's rates side by side, see how hard is the FE exam?; for a study plan with weeks in it, how long to study for the FE; and if you have already taken it once, what actually works the second time.

Common questions

What is the FE Civil exam pass rate?: In NCEES's most recent published data (fiscal year 2024-25), 61% of first-time takers passed FE Civil, from 16,639 first-time examinees. Repeat takers passed at 32%. That 61% is tied with FE Other Disciplines for the lowest first-time rate of the seven FE disciplines, eight points below FE Mechanical.
Why is the FE Civil pass rate lower than the other FE exams?: NCEES does not publish a reason, so anything here is inference rather than fact. Two things are visible in the data itself. It has by far the largest and therefore most varied candidate pool (16,639 first-time takers, roughly two in five of all first-time FE takers), and its specification is unusually discipline-heavy: water resources, structural, geotechnical, transportation and construction together account for up to 57 of the 110 questions (their maxima add to 71, but the other nine areas' minimums already take 53), so less of the exam is the general engineering core shared with other disciplines.
How long is the FE Civil exam?: 110 questions in 5 hours 20 minutes of actual testing time, inside a 6-hour appointment that also covers the nondisclosure agreement, an 8-minute tutorial and a 25-minute scheduled break. That is roughly 2.9 minutes per question, covering reading the problem, finding the relationship in the handbook, and computing it.
What reference do you get in the FE Civil exam?: The NCEES FE Reference Handbook, supplied on screen as a searchable PDF. It is the only reference permitted: no personal copies, and unlike the PE Civil exams, no design codes or standards are supplied at all. Most of the formulas you need are in the handbook, but not all: NCEES says it leaves out the basic theories, conversions, formulas and definitions examinees are expected to know. So the difficulty is mostly selection, knowing which relationship applies and finding it quickly, on top of a core of basics you carry in your head.
Is the FE Civil exam harder than the PE Civil exam?: They are hard in different ways, and the pass rates are closer than most people expect. The FE is a breadth exam: 110 questions across 14 knowledge areas at under three minutes each. The PE is a depth exam in one chosen area, with longer and more involved problems, but with codes and standards supplied. Breadth is usually the harder thing to study for; depth is usually the harder thing to solve.

Build your study plan

Tell us how long you have. We'll budget your hours across every knowledge area using the official NCEES question weights. The heaviest areas get the most time, which is the opposite of how most people study.

Work through seven more

Ten free FE Civil problems in total (statics, surveying, construction float, curves, economics), each with a figure and the full worked solution, including what each wrong answer is the right answer to. No signup.

Try the free FE Civil set Explore FE Civil

Pass rates are from the NCEES Squared 2025 annual report (fiscal year 2024-25); format and knowledge areas from the NCEES FE Civil CBT specification effective July 2020. Specifications, fees and rates change over time; confirm current specifics at ncees.org. Independent study resource; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by NCEES.