The FE Electrical and Computer exam is the widest of the FE disciplines: seventeen knowledge areas, from Laplace transforms to software engineering, on the same 110-question paper. That breadth is the reason candidates who are strong in circuits still fail — they never budget time for the computer side — and it is also the reason the exam is beatable with a plan, because NCEES tells you in advance how many questions each area can carry.

This guide walks through the format, the published question ranges for every area, where the points concentrate, and a study order that works for people preparing around a job. Everything below comes from NCEES: the FE Electrical and Computer exam specifications (effective with the July 2020 examinations), the NCEES FE exam page and the current NCEES Examinee Guide. The reference you use during the exam is the FE Reference Handbook, supplied on screen as a searchable PDF (version 10.6 at the time of writing).

One more number before the detail. In NCEES's most recent published figures, 62% of first-time takers passed FE Electrical and Computer (64% of those holding an EAC/ABET bachelor's degree), against 68% for FE Mechanical and 60% for FE Civil. Breadth is the reason more than difficulty, and breadth is fixable.

The format in one paragraph

One session, computer-based, at a Pearson VUE center, offered year-round. 110 questions, of which a small number are unscored pretest items placed at random and not identifiable as such. The appointment is 6 hours: 2 minutes for the nondisclosure agreement, an 8-minute tutorial, 5 hours and 20 minutes of exam time, and an optional 25-minute scheduled break that is offered once you have completed, reviewed and submitted roughly the first half of the questions. Submitted questions are gone for good, and any break time you do not use is not added back to the clock. The Handbook is searchable on screen; only NCEES-approved calculators (Casio fx-115 and fx-991, HP 33s and 35s, TI-30X and TI-36X) are allowed at the desk. The fee is $225, paid to NCEES. Results are typically available within 7 to 10 business days in your MyNCEES account, and NCEES allows one attempt per testing window and no more than three in a 12-month period.

Answer types are not all multiple choice. NCEES uses alternative item types alongside the classic four options: multiple correct (select every answer that applies), point-and-click on a graphic, drag-and-drop to match, sort, rank or label, and fill-in-the-blank. Every question, including these, is scored correct or incorrect with no partial credit, so practise the formats before test day rather than meeting them for the first time under the clock.

The 17 knowledge areas and their question ranges

NCEES publishes a range of questions for every area, never a fixed count. The minimums add up to 100 questions and the maximums to 154, so a given form sits somewhere inside every range at once. Use the ranges to size your effort, not to predict an exact form.

Where the points are

Two areas, Mathematics and Circuit Analysis, can carry 11 to 17 questions each. Together they are between a fifth and a third of the exam, and they are also the two areas everything else leans on: Laplace and phasor algebra for Linear Systems and Controls, complex arithmetic for Power, matrices for Digital and Computer Systems. If your circuits are shaky, start there before anything exotic.

The next tier is Power Systems and Digital Systems, 8 to 12 questions each, followed by Electronics at 7 to 11. Those five areas alone span 45 to 69 questions. A candidate who is reliable in exactly these five, and merely competent everywhere else, is in passing territory.

The computer-side areas — Computer Networks, Computer Systems, Software Engineering — are small individually (4 to 8 each) but add up to 13 to 20 questions. They are also the ones electrical-power graduates skip, and the ones that separate a comfortable pass from a near miss. Give them two focused weeks; the material is largely definitions, procedures and simple analysis, which rewards short, repeated study.

Study first

Mathematics, Circuit Analysis, Electronics. They feed every other area, and they are a third of the exam by themselves.

Study second

Power, Digital Systems, Linear Systems, Control Systems, Signal Processing. High yield, and most of it is a handful of Handbook formulas applied carefully.

Never skip

Networks, Computer Systems, Software, Communications, Electromagnetics, Materials. Small each, 30-plus questions together. Definitions and units win here.

What the questions actually look like

FE questions are short. Most are solved in one or two Handbook formulas and under three minutes; the exam is testing whether you recognise which formula, not whether you can derive it. In Circuit Analysis that means Thévenin equivalents, node and mesh equations on three-element networks, RC and RL transients, and AC steady state with phasors: impedance, power factor, complex power. In Power it means three-phase relations, transformer ratios and per-unit quantities. Linear Systems and Controls ask for transfer functions, poles, stability from a characteristic equation and reading a Bode plot. Digital Systems is number systems, Boolean simplification, flip-flops and timing. Software Engineering and Computer Systems ask about algorithm complexity, data structures, memory hierarchy and simple pseudocode.

The mistakes that cost Electrical candidates the most: mixing rad/s and Hz in a filter or Bode question; using peak where the question gave RMS (or the reverse); dropping the sign convention on a dependent source; forgetting that unused break time is not added back to the clock; and spending eight minutes on a hard electromagnetics question that is worth exactly as much as an easy ethics question. Flag it, move on, come back.

A study order that fits around a job

Plan backwards from your exam date and be honest about hours: two focused hours on weekdays and four on one weekend day is about 14 hours a week, which covers this exam comfortably in twelve weeks and tightly in eight. Whatever the length, keep the same rhythm per area: read the topic, do a set of practice questions on it the same day, and put the facts you missed on flashcards. Take a full-length timed mock every two weeks from week four onward; the first one will be humbling, and that is the point — it shows which of the seventeen areas actually needs the time.

  1. Weeks 1–3: Mathematics, Probability, Circuit Analysis (DC, then AC), Electronics.
  2. Weeks 4–6: Linear Systems, Signal Processing, Control Systems, Power Systems. First full mock at the end of week 4.
  3. Weeks 7–9: Digital Systems, Computer Systems, Computer Networks, Software Engineering, Communications. Second mock.
  4. Weeks 10–11: Electromagnetics, Materials, Engineering Economics, Ethics. Third mock, then drill the two weakest areas from it.
  5. Week 12: Review only — flashcards, Handbook navigation, one last timed half-exam. Sleep.

If you have less time, keep the order and shorten the blocks rather than dropping areas. The how-long-to-study guide and the day-by-day planning guide cover how to size the weeks and what to do when you miss one.

Using the Handbook like an Electrical candidate

The Electrical and Computer Engineering chapter of the Handbook is long, and the search box is your friend only if you know the exact term. Spend one evening bookmarking the pages you will open most: the Laplace transform table and the phasor relations in the mathematics chapter, the AC power triangle and three-phase relations, the op-amp configurations, the Boolean identities and the logic-gate table, and the units and conversion factors at the front. Candidates who know where those live save the ten minutes that decide the last five questions.

Start with a free diagnostic

The fastest way to find your weak areas is eight timed questions across the spectrum. The free FE Electrical diagnostic takes ten minutes and ranks the areas you missed; the free practice problems above are grouped by knowledge area with worked solutions and Handbook references. When you are ready for the real thing, the FE Electrical platform has 1,200+ questions across all 17 areas, a CBT simulator that runs the real 5-hour-20-minute clock with the scheduled break, and an AI tutor that explains any problem step by step.

Ready to see where you stand?

Take the free FE Electrical diagnostic, then practise by knowledge area with worked solutions and the Handbook page for every formula. Full-length mocks run on the real clock.

Take the Free Diagnostic

Sources: NCEES, FE Electrical and Computer CBT Exam Specifications (effective July 2020); NCEES, FE exam (format, fees, results, attempt limits); NCEES, Examinee Guide (break rules, pretest items); NCEES, Computer-based testing (alternative item types); NCEES, Squared 2024 (pass rates); NCEES, calculator policy.

Conclusion

The FE Electrical and Computer exam rewards coverage, not depth. Seventeen areas sound like a lot until you notice that five of them carry up to two-thirds of the questions and that the remaining twelve are mostly definitions, units and one-formula problems. Build the circuits foundation first, give the computer side its two weeks, take timed mocks every fortnight, and the width of the specification stops being a threat and becomes your checklist.

JT

Juan Tercero, PE

Founder · PECivilClick

Juan Tercero is the founder of PECivilClick. He is a civil engineer (National University of Engineering) and a licensed Professional Engineer (PE), with a master's in construction project management from the University of Barcelona. He leads the team of engineers that writes and technically reviews the FE Civil, FE Mechanical and FE Electrical question banks, the written FE Civil courses and the exam guides published here. More about the author · how this content is reviewed.