Quality and Reliability

ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer Practice Test and Exam Guide

Six open-book ASQ CRE practice tests with 900 original questions mapped to the 2025 Body of Knowledge.

Published 6 September 2026 · Last updated 9 September 2026

What does the ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer assessment cover?

The preparation material covers the documented assessment facts listed below. The question bank reinforces those facts without presenting a practice product as an official exam or reproducing assessment content.

• The CRE exam delivers 165 questions, of which 150 are scored, and is open book.
• Passing is a scaled 550 out of 750 using a modified Angoff procedure.
• The current governing Body of Knowledge is the 2025 edition.
• The five current areas are Reliability Fundamentals, Risk Management, Probability and Statistics, Reliability Planning/Testing/Modeling, and Lifecycle Reliability.
• The raw number correct needed varies by form and is not published.

Which domains should you study?

Use these supplied brief-backed domains as the study map. They are coverage areas, not invented percentage predictions.

Domain	Preparation focus
Reliability Fundamentals	Review explanations after related questions and record the specific gap.
Risk Management	Review explanations after related questions and record the specific gap.
Probability and Statistics for Reliability	Review explanations after related questions and record the specific gap.
Reliability Planning, Testing, and Modeling	Review explanations after related questions and record the specific gap.
Lifecycle Reliability	Review explanations after related questions and record the specific gap.

How should you use these practice tests?

Start with the Test 1 sample, then use domain labels and explanations to choose what to review. Retake missed questions after studying the underlying objective, and reserve the final test for timed practice where the brief provides assessment timing.

1. Take the sample without looking up answers.
2. Group misses by domain, not just by score.
3. Review each explanation and the governing study material.
4. Repeat under documented assessment conditions when available.

What is a practical ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer study plan?

1. Phase 1: get exponential and Weibull behaviour secure, including the memoryless property and what a Weibull shape parameter below one, equal to one and above one each imply about the failure mode.
2. Phase 2: work system configurations until they are automatic: series multiplication, active parallel, k-out-of-n, and standby redundancy treated as genuinely different from active parallel.
3. Phase 3: keep the availability definitions distinct, particularly inherent availability against achieved and operational availability, since questions turn on which one is being asked for.
4. Phase 4: practise applying supplied table values under open-book conditions. The exam gives you the reference, so the skill being tested is method selection rather than lookup.

ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer FAQ

How many questions are on the CRE exam?

The exam delivers 165 questions, of which 150 are scored. It is computer-based.

Is the ASQ CRE open book?

Yes. Candidates bring their own references, which changes what the exam tests: you must know which method applies, because looking up a formula will not tell you that.

What is the pass mark for the CRE?

A scaled 550 out of 750, set for each exam form by a modified Angoff procedure. The raw number of correct answers required varies by form and is never published, so it should not be described as a percentage such as 73%.

Which Body of Knowledge is current?

The 2025 edition governs the current exam.

How is the 2025 Body of Knowledge structured?

Five areas: Reliability Fundamentals, Risk Management, Probability and Statistics for Reliability, Reliability Planning, Testing and Modeling, and Lifecycle Reliability.

Why do other CRE prep products show a different domain split?

Because much of the market is still on an older Body of Knowledge. The widely republished 25/25/35/35/30 split is the 2018 structure, and ASQ’s own published question bank is written to the 2009 Body of Knowledge with seven domains.

Which handbook aligns with the current Body of Knowledge?

The CRE Handbook 4th edition by Hulting and McShane-Vaughn, published in 2025. ASQ’s own reference list still points at the 3rd edition, which was written to the 2018 Body of Knowledge.

Does MTBF mean half the units have failed by that time?

No, and this catches many candidates. For an exponential distribution, reliability at the MTBF is about 0.368 rather than 0.5.