PE Fire Protection Exam Prep

Start your PE Fire Protection exam prep with this original, unofficial problem, written to the new NCEES specification for the April 13, 2027 exam. All 36 problems, worked solutions, and a dated study plan to exam day are free on this page.

By Castleport Test Prep Editorial Team · Exam facts last verified October 9, 2026

What changed for 2027 · 2027 topic ranges · All 36 problems · Plan to April 13

The exam at a glance

• One date: Tuesday, April 13, 2027, at Pearson VUE test centers. Fire Protection is offered once a year; NCEES encourages candidates to reserve a seat early after registration and licensing-board approval.
• 85 questions with 8.5 hours of exam time inside a 9.5-hour appointment (2-minute nondisclosure agreement, 8-minute tutorial, 50-minute scheduled break).
• $400 exam fee paid to NCEES. Your licensing board may charge its own application fee.
• References on screen: the NCEES PE Fire Protection Reference Handbook plus 10 NFPA standards at specific editions (listed below). You can't bring your own copies.
• Units: both SI and U.S. customary.
• Question types: multiple choice plus alternative item types (multiple correct, point and click, drag and drop, fill in the blank), all scored right or wrong.
• Results: pass or fail, typically 7–10 days after the exam.
• Pass rates: 85% of 262 first-time takers and 44% of 48 repeat takers, in the Fire Protection row NCEES labels "July 2025." No newer row had been posted when we checked.

Sources: NCEES PE Fire Protection exam page; PE Fire Protection specification, effective April 2027, p. 1; NCEES Examinee Guide, May 2026, pp. 3, 11, 14, and 16.

What changed for the April 2027 exam

NCEES rebuilt the topic outline into eight areas, added energy storage systems (with NFPA 855 as a supplied standard), dropped NFPA 12 and NFPA 25 from the reference list, and moved every remaining standard to a newer edition. The question count and appointment length didn't change. The current NCEES specification is explicitly effective beginning April 2027 and lists the standards that apply to that version (April 2027 specification).

Where the old topics went

Sources: specification effective April 2027, pp. 1–2; previous specification and October 2022 standards list, pp. 1–4.

NFPA editions supplied on exam day

NCEES scores code-based answers against the listed edition, and its specification says solutions based on other standards won't receive credit. Study the editions above, even if your jurisdiction or employer uses a newer one. NCEES does not provide the design standards for study, so arrange lawful access to the listed editions before you rely on code-navigation practice. (April 2027 specification, standards page)

Studying from an older book or practice exam?

Many underlying engineering methods still transfer, but code-dependent requirements, topic coverage, and reference editions can change. If your material was written before the 2027 specification:

• Add: energy storage systems and NFPA 855, fire model assumptions and limits, and smoke control inspection, testing, and commissioning.
• Drop as code study: NFPA 12 (carbon dioxide systems) and NFPA 25 (inspection, testing, and maintenance). Neither is supplied anymore.
• Redo your code lookups in the 2022 and 2024 editions listed above. Section numbers and tables move between editions.

NCEES's PE Fire Protection practice-exam listing still showed the ©2020 version when checked October 9, 2026, and says it was produced from the specification that took effect in October 2018. That means it predates the April 2027 specification. NCEES also says practice exams are normally updated about six months before revised specifications take effect, so check the current listing in MyNCEES before relying on it for 2027 coverage (NCEES practice exam listing). Corrections to current practice exams are posted on the NCEES errata page.

What to study first: the eight areas by NCEES question range

Water-based systems have the highest published question range. The other seven areas still matter, and the ranges are not a personal study-time prescription.

The ranges and topic labels above are NCEES's. Use them to understand exam breadth, then use your error log to decide where your own study time belongs. NCEES also says the listed examples are not exclusive or exhaustive. (April 2027 specification, pp. 1–2)

Use the ranges together with your own results. Spend the most time where an area is both large and weak for you. If your day job is all sprinklers, Area 5 may need a quick review while alarm, smoke control, and ESS need real hours.

Three things deserve early attention:

• Energy storage systems are new to the 2027 outline. Materials built to the pre-2027 specification may not cover them, and NFPA 855-2023 is now in the supplied standards list.
• Ten standards are supplied, so finding things counts. Unlike the PE Mechanical exams, Fire Protection gives you code text. Fast, accurate lookups are a skill to practice, not something to leave for exam day.
• Both unit systems appear. Many fire dynamics correlations are SI-only, while hydraulics and smoke control often show up in U.S. units. Problems 1–5, 7, 19, and 30–31 use SI; most of the rest use U.S. customary units.

How to study with the handbook and the 10 standards

Run every study session through four steps:

1. Learn. Review the concept and the assumptions behind each formula. Ask what each correlation is for and where it stops working.
2. Find. Locate the relation in the NCEES handbook or the provision in the supplied standard. Write down the section and the search words that worked.
3. Solve. Work fresh problems before you look at any solution.
4. Log. Record every miss and every lucky guess by cause (see the error log).

On exam day, the handbook and standards appear as searchable PDFs. You search with a box on the left side of the screen; Ctrl+F doesn't work (Examinee Guide, p. 10). NCEES posts a video on searching the on-screen references. You can download the current handbook free from your MyNCEES account.

A lookup drill. Pick 10 prompts from the week's area. Give yourself 60 to 90 seconds each to find the governing equation, table, or section. Search with one distinctive term, not the whole question. Before you use anything, read its scope and variable definitions. Log a failed lookup separately from a concept error. (The 60–90 seconds is our drill target, not an NCEES rule.)

Start with lookups like these, and record where you found each one:

36 original practice problems with worked solutions

These are original Castleport problems written to the April 2027 Fire Protection topic list. They aren't NCEES questions, they aren't a full-length exam, and they don't cover every subtopic. Every code-like value you need is given in the problem, so you can solve each one without the standards. On the real exam, you'll pull those values from the supplied editions yourself.

Most are single-answer multiple choice. Four ask you to enter a number, two are select-all-that-apply, and one is a matching item. NCEES also uses point-and-click and drag-and-drop items, which this page doesn't reproduce. On the real exam, every question is scored right or wrong, with no partial credit (Examinee Guide, p. 11).

Format clarification: The 36 problems on this page are 30 single-answer multiple-choice items, four numeric-entry items, and two select-all-that-apply items. There is no separate matching exercise in this set.

Work each problem before you open the solution. When you miss one, write down the first step that went wrong.

Fire Science (Problems 1–5)

What this area tests most often:

• Heat release rate is the master variable. Flame height, plume flow, radiation, and detector response all start from it.
• Check total versus convective HRR. Plume equations often use the convective part; radiation uses the radiative fraction.
• Correlations are empirical. Each has units it expects and a range where it applies. Ceiling jets switch equations at r/H = 0.18.
• Growth rates matter as much as peaks. A t-squared fire's time to a given size drives detection and egress timelines.

Problem 1 is at the top of this page.

Fire Protection Analysis (Problems 6–10)

What this area tests most often:

• Energy storage systems are new to this outline. Know what UL 9540A test data tell you and how NFPA 855 uses them.
• Every fire model has assumptions. Zone models assume two uniform layers; CFD needs adequate grid resolution.
• Performance-based design compares two times. Available safe egress time (ASET) must exceed required safe egress time (RSET), with margin.
• Risk math depends on independence. Common-cause failures change the answer.

Water-Based Fire Protection Systems (Problems 11–16)

What this area tests most often:

• Think of hydraulics as a pressure budget: end-head pressure, plus friction, plus elevation, compared with what the supply delivers.
• Density × area gives flow; K-factor turns flow into pressure.
• Read supply curves with pressure drops, not residual pressures.
• Add the hose stream allowance before you compare demand to supply.
• Fire pump tests check points on a curve, not just the rated point.

Human Behavior and Evacuation (Problems 17–21)

What this area tests most often:

• Occupant load and egress capacity are separate checks. One counts people; the other sizes the components.
• Effective width is narrower than clear width in flow calculations.
• Pre-movement time is often the biggest unknown in an evacuation timeline.
• Tenability uses dose, which depends on both concentration and exposure time.

Fire Alarm and Signaling Systems (Problems 22–25)

What this area tests most often:

• Battery size = standby + alarm, then the margin the design calls for.
• Voltage drop uses the round-trip conductor length.
• Sound drops about 6 dB per doubling of distance in a free field, less indoors.
• Circuit loading uses worst-case device current.

Passive and Structural Fire Protection (Problems 26–29)

What this area tests most often:

• Calculated fire resistance methods have limits. Know them before you apply the equation.
• Wood loses section to char; the effective char depth adds a weakened layer.
• Lighter steel heats faster, so it needs thicker protection.
• Firestop ratings measure different things: flame passage versus temperature rise.

Special Hazard Systems (Problems 30–33)

What this area tests most often:

• Halocarbon agents and inert gases use different flooding equations.
• Specific vapor volume depends on temperature, so read the design temperature carefully.
• Mixture flammable limits aren't simple averages.
• Ventilation design for flammable vapors works backward from a target fraction of the LFL.

Smoke Control Systems (Problems 34–36)

What this area tests most often:

• Plume mass flow sets the exhaust rate needed to hold a smoke layer at a given height.
• Convert mass to volume at smoke temperature, not ambient.
• Pressurization has a floor and a ceiling: enough pressure to hold back smoke, not so much that people can't open the doors.
• The 2027 outline adds inspection, testing, and commissioning to this area.

How to read your results

Treat your percentage as feedback on these 36 problems, not an NCEES score or a prediction of passing. Three to six problems per area can show which methods you can't yet explain, but they can't measure an area precisely.

NCEES counts correct answers, converts the count to a scaled score to adjust for differences between exam forms, and compares it with a standard set by subject-matter experts. It doesn't publish the passing score, so no practice percentage converts into an exam result (Examinee Guide, p. 14).

Your plan to April 13, 2027

Assumptions: you start the week of October 12, 2026, study about 8 focused hours a week (roughly 200 hours in all), and work full time. The plan works area by area, largest first, then switches to mixed and timed practice. This is our editorial plan, not an NCEES requirement, and no number of hours guarantees a pass.

A typical 8-hour week: two 90-minute sessions on concepts and handbook relations, two 60-minute problem sessions, two 30-minute lookup drills, one 90-minute mixed or timed set, and 30 minutes updating the error log. Move the blocks around work and family; keep the mix.

Timed blocks you can run with this page: Block A is the odd-numbered problems (1, 3, 5 … 35) and Block B the even-numbered ones (2, 4, 6 … 36). Each has 18 problems, so give it 18 × 6 = 108 minutes. You'll have seen these before, so treat them as pacing practice, not a fresh exam.

Starting later?

The same plan compresses if you hold the order and raise the weekly hours:

• Starting in mid-January (12 weeks, about 14 hours a week): Jan 18 setup and references · Jan 25 – Feb 1 water-based · Feb 8 fire science · Feb 15 analysis and ESS · Feb 22 human behavior · Mar 1 alarm · Mar 8 passive and special hazards · Mar 15 smoke control and mixed sets · Mar 22 full rehearsal · Mar 29 fix the leaks · Apr 5 taper.
• Fewer than 8 weeks: don't try to cover everything evenly. Work all 36 problems, rank your weak areas, put most hours into the biggest weak areas, and keep daily lookup drills and at least one timed mixed set. Be honest about whether April 13 is realistic for you.
• Strong in one specialty? Keep a short review there and don't skip it entirely. Move the saved hours to areas you don't touch at work.
• More time than this? Add a mixed-review week after every two areas rather than lingering in your favorite topics.

What to study next

When you're not sure where to spend the next session, use this order:

1. Stay inside the 2027 specification.
2. Rank weak areas from your error log, not from how a topic feels.
3. Break ties by the area's question range and how often the same mistake repeats.
4. Retest each fix on a fresh problem.
5. Stop polishing a strong niche while a large area is still weak.

Turn each miss into your next study task

Error log fields: problem or source · date · area · minutes spent · your answer · correct or lucky guess · first wrong step · error type (from the table) · where you found the fix (standard, edition, section, search words) · date you'll retry on a fresh problem.

If your exam is next week

Don't start anything new. Pick your two most repeated errors and your two slowest lookups, fix those, and run one timed block. Confirm your appointment, ID, and calculator. If you need to move your appointment, you must reschedule at least 48 hours ahead, and Pearson charges $50 (Examinee Guide, p. 6). Fire Protection is offered once a year, so moving off April 13, 2027 means waiting for the next annual date, which NCEES hadn't posted when we checked.

Exam-day rules that change how you practice

• About 6 minutes per question on average. That's 510 minutes ÷ 85 questions. It's a budget, not a per-question limit.
• Two sections, one clock. After roughly half the questions, you review and submit them, and you can't go back. The sections aren't timed separately, so time you save early carries forward.
• Breaks: the optional 50-minute break comes after you submit the first section. Unused break time doesn't add exam time, and unscheduled breaks come out of your exam time.
• No penalty for wrong answers, so answer everything. Some questions are unscored pretest items that look like all the others.
• One approved calculator. For 2026 exams, NCEES approved the HP 33s and HP 35s, any Casio fx-115 or fx-991 model, and any TI-30X or TI-36X model; an on-screen TI-30XS is also available. NCEES reviews the list each year, and the 2027 list hadn't been posted when we checked, so confirm it before April.
• Scratch work: you get two reusable booklets and three markers, not paper and pencil. Practice some problems on a whiteboard so it isn't new on exam day.
• Arrive 30 minutes early, and make sure the first and last names on your appointment confirmation match your ID.

Sources: NCEES Examinee Guide, May 2026, pp. 6, 8–12, and 14; NCEES 2026 calculator list, p. 1.

Quick answers

Are NFPA 12 and NFPA 25 still on the exam?

Not as supplied references. Neither appears on the standards list for exams beginning April 2027 (specification, standards page). Carbon dioxide still appears among the special hazard system types NCEES names, so know how CO₂ systems work even though NFPA 12 isn't supplied.

What's the pass rate?

In the Fire Protection row NCEES labels "July 2025," 85% of 262 first-time takers passed, as did 44% of 48 repeat takers (NCEES). Those numbers describe a past group of examinees on the old specification, not your personal odds or a readiness target.

What score do I need?

NCEES doesn't publish a passing score, and results are reported only as pass or fail. Claims that you need a specific percentage aren't based on anything official (Examinee Guide, p. 14).

I failed in April 2026. How do I use my diagnostic report?

The report compares your performance in each knowledge area, on a 0–15 scale, with the average of passing examinees (Examinee Guide, pp. 20–21). Your report uses the old four-area outline, so map each weak area onto the 2027 areas with the table above before you plan. Then confirm each weakness with fresh problems.

Do I need the FE first, or four years of experience?

Your state licensing board decides who can sit for the PE. NCEES designs the exam for engineers with at least four years of post-college experience, but whether you can test earlier is your board's rule. Find yours in the NCEES board directory. If you still need the FE, start with FE exam prep.

Does passing make me a licensed PE?

No. Your licensing board issues the license. Passing the exam is one of its requirements.

Do I need a prep course?

No course is required. Whatever you use, check that it matches the April 2027 specification and the NFPA editions listed above.

How do registration, results, retakes, and accommodations work?

You register and pay in MyNCEES after checking your board's approval process. You can attempt an exam once per testing window and no more than three times in 12 months, and some boards are stricter; for Fire Protection, the once-a-year date is the practical limit. Accommodations must be requested during registration. See NCEES exam registration, NCEES exam results, NCEES retake rules, and NCEES exam accommodations.

Comparing Fire Protection with other PE exams? See PE exam prep.

Sources

Exam facts on this page were last verified October 9, 2026, against the NCEES sources below. Every practice item was re-solved during this audit, calculation-based answers were independently recomputed, and consequential source/method mappings were rechecked against the cited material available to us. The problems have not been reviewed by NCEES or by a licensed fire protection engineer. This guide was developed with AI-assisted research and editing; see how Castleport uses sources and AI assistance.

NCEES

• PE Fire Protection exam page (date, format, fee, references, pass rates)
• PE Fire Protection specification, effective April 2027
• PE Fire Protection specification with October 2022 standards list (historical)
• NCEES Examinee Guide, May 2026
• NCEES 2026 calculator list
• NCEES PE Fire Protection practice exam listing and errata

Teaching sources for the practice problems

• Fire dynamics: NUREG-1824 Vol. 3; NISTIR 6470; CFAST 7.7.7 User's Guide and Technical Reference Guide; FDS 6.11.1 User's Guide
• Analysis and human behavior: NIST TN 1623; NIST TN 1644; Proulx (1999), NRC Canada; 2025 California Building Code §1005
• Energy storage: UL 9540A test method overview
• Water-based systems: FM Global Data Sheet 3-0; FM Global Data Sheet 3-7; City of Oxnard fire-flow test worksheet
• Fire alarm: OSHA Technical Manual, Noise
• Passive and structural: AWC Technical Report 10; FM Global Data Sheet 1-21, Fire Resistance of Building Assemblies; ASTM E814-23a summary
• Special hazards: Honeywell FK-5-1-12 manual; Honeywell IG-541 manual; Liekhus et al. (2000), NIOSH; OSHA Technical Manual, Ventilation
• Smoke control: Klote, ASHRAE AtriumCalc report; 2025 California Fire Code §909; Consulting-Specifying Engineer, smoke control design

These teaching sources explain the methods. They are not the references supplied on the exam, and the California code sections are cited only for equations and factors that match the national model codes they're based on.

Castleport Test Prep is an independent exam prep publisher. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) or the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Exam, credential, and standard names identify their subjects; trademarks belong to their respective owners. The practice problems are original and unofficial, and nothing on this page guarantees a passing result or a license.