What is on the FE Mechanical exam?

The FE Mechanical exam has 110 questions across 14 knowledge areas. Under the specification in effect since July 2020, each area has a question range. Four areas can each contribute 10 to 15 questions: Dynamics, Kinematics, and Vibrations; Fluid Mechanics; Thermodynamics; and Mechanical Design and Analysis. Statics and Mechanics of Materials follow at 9 to 14 each. The exam lasts 5 hours and 20 minutes and is closed book, with an electronic reference.

Knowledge areas and question counts

Each knowledge area is published as a range, so two examinees can see different counts inside the same area. On every FE specification, the low ends of the ranges add up to 100 of the 110 questions, and the remaining questions are what push a form from those floors up to 110. A wide area can sit near its low end on your form, while a narrow area can sit near its high end. The specifications for all seven FE disciplines have been in effect since the July 2020 exams.

The first seven areas mix the shared topics with statics, dynamics, and electricity:

The other seven areas are the rest of the mechanical core, from materials through machine design:

Where the larger question ranges sit

Four areas share the top band of 10 to 15 questions, which is the main reason a mechanical study plan spends more hours on dynamics, fluids, thermo, and design than on the shorter areas.

Dynamics, Kinematics, and Vibrations covers how things move and how forces change that motion, including particle paths and rigid-body motion such as mechanisms. You apply Newton’s second law, work and energy, and impulse and momentum to both particles and rigid bodies, including friction while an object is moving. Vibration questions cover a system left to oscillate on its own and a system kept in motion by a driving force.

Fluid Mechanics starts with properties and forces in a fluid at rest, then moves to energy, impulse, and momentum once the fluid is moving, covering flow inside a pipe or duct as well as flow around a body. Compressible flow problems can involve a Mach number, isentropic relations, and a normal shock. Fans, pumps, and compressors bring in power, efficiency, performance curves, and scaling. Pipe flow head loss problems are a direct drill for the internal-flow relations in the handbook.

Thermodynamics covers ideal-gas and pure-substance properties, energy transfers, and the laws applied to processes, along with component performance, power cycles, and refrigeration and heat-pump cycles. The same area includes nonreacting gas mixtures, moist-air relations, heating and cooling processes, and combustion together with the products it leaves behind. Most of the time goes into picking the right property and the right balance, then doing the arithmetic.

Mechanical Design and Analysis is stress in machine parts, theories used to judge failure, and checks on deformation and stiffness. Parts you should recognize include springs, pressure vessels and piping, bearings, power screws, and hardware that passes power from one shaft to another. Questions can ask how parts are joined, whether by welding, adhesive, or a mechanical fastener, and whether limits and fits are realistic to manufacture. Quality, reliability, and hydraulic, pneumatic, or electromechanical components can show up, and you also read drawings, including geometric dimensioning and tolerancing.

Statics and Mechanics of Materials each run from 9 to 14 questions, so they are close behind that first group.

Statics is resultants, concurrent force systems, and equilibrium of rigid bodies, frames, and trusses. Centroids, moments of inertia, and friction on a body that is not accelerating are included. The repeated task is a free-body diagram that matches the supports and the loads.

Mechanics of Materials turns those loads into stress and strain from axial force, bending, torsion, shear, and temperature change, including cases that combine them. You sketch shear and moment diagrams, transform stress (a Mohr’s circle is the usual tool), find deformations, check whether a column buckles, and deal with systems that equilibrium equations alone cannot solve.

The next range is 7 to 11 questions, shared by Material Properties and Processing and by Heat Transfer.

Material Properties and Processing is what a material does and how a part is made. Properties may be chemical, electrical, mechanical, physical, or thermal, and a stress-strain diagram is a standard way to read the mechanical ones. You compare ferrous metals, nonferrous metals, and engineered materials such as composites and polymers. Phase diagrams, phase changes, heat treating, and process choice support materials selection, and corrosion and its control belong here, as do failures from heat, fatigue, fracture, and creep.

Heat Transfer is conduction, convection, and radiation, plus temperature fields that change with time and exchangers that move heat between two streams.

Two shorter mechanical areas are still included at their low ends. Electricity and Magnetism (5 to 8 questions) covers charge, current, voltage, resistance, power, energy, and magnetic flux, with DC work built on Ohm’s law, Kirchhoff’s laws, and series and parallel connections, and AC work built on resistors, capacitors, and inductors. Motors and generators close the area.

Measurements, Instrumentation, and Controls (5 to 8 questions) covers sensors and transducers, feedback shown on a block diagram, and how a dynamic system responds. It also covers uncertainty: how error propagates, and what accuracy, precision, and significant figures mean for a reported value.

Math, statistics, ethics, and economics

Mathematics, Probability and Statistics, Ethics and Professional Practice, and Engineering Economics are on this exam and among the topics on every FE exam. Their low ends are part of the 100 questions already accounted for before any range stretches, so each of them is on the form you take.

Mathematics is the support layer for the other thirteen areas: analytic geometry, derivatives and integrals in one or more variables, ordinary differential equations (including transform methods), matrices and vectors, numerical approximations and the way error grows, and simple logic you might show as a flowchart or as pseudocode.

Probability and Statistics covers common distributions, such as normal, binomial, and other discrete or continuous cases drawn from data. You compute center and spread, including a mean, a mode, a standard deviation, and a confidence interval. Expected value enters as a weighted average when you compare choices, and fitting a line or a curve, then judging the fit, is part of the same set.

Ethics and Professional Practice includes codes of ethics such as the NCEES Model Law and society codes, and the difference between an ethical duty and a legal one. Public health, safety, and welfare are part of that area, along with copyright, trade secrets, patents, and trademarks, economic effects, sustainability, life-cycle analysis, and environmental effects.

Engineering Economics is equivalence in time: present worth, annual worth, future worth, rate of return, and annuities. You separate fixed, variable, incremental, average, and sunk costs, then compare options with cost-benefit, break-even, minimum cost, overhead, or life-cycle reasoning. Time value of money problems keep the factors familiar while this area stays at 4 to 6 questions.

Handbook chapters and starting pages

The reference during the exam is the electronic FE Reference Handbook. In version 10.6, these printed starting pages match the heavier mechanical areas. A handbook routine is learning to open the right page before you re-derive a formula that is already printed.

Materials Science starts on page 117 and is the chapter for properties, phase diagrams, and failure of materials. Instrumentation, Measurement, and Control starts on page 225, and Electrical and Computer Engineering starts on page 361, which is where the circuit and machine relations for Electricity and Magnetism are collected.

Shared topics have their own starts. Ethics and Professional Practice begins on page 4, Mathematics on page 36, Engineering Probability and Statistics on page 64, and Engineering Economics on page 235. Units and Conversion Factors opens the book on page 1, and the index starts on page 467 when you know the term and need the chapter.

Pass rate for first-time mechanical examinees

NCEES last updated the FE pass-rate table in July 2026, with the counts and rates covering first-time takers. In that table, Mechanical shows 5,153 examinees and a pass rate of 73%. The same figures, with the other disciplines, are collected on the FE exam pass rate page.

That table is a discipline result, so it gives no pass rate inside Dynamics, Fluids, Thermo, or any other knowledge area. Use it as context, and use the question ranges when you decide what to practice next.

A practical study order

The ranges are a weight, and the study calendar you build from them is a suggestion. One way to split the material is to follow the high end of each range, while still covering every area because the low ends already account for 100 questions.

We suggest this order:

1. Dynamics, Kinematics, and Vibrations; Fluid Mechanics; Thermodynamics; and Mechanical Design and Analysis.
2. Statics, then Mechanics of Materials, because equilibrium results feed the stress problems.
3. Material Properties and Processing, then Heat Transfer.
4. Mathematics, then Electricity and Magnetism, then Measurements, Instrumentation, and Controls.
5. Probability and Statistics, Ethics and Professional Practice, and Engineering Economics, kept in the rotation so the shorter areas stay sharp.

If you want that sequence set on a calendar, see how to study for the FE exam in 60 days. The Florida board advises choosing the FE discipline that best corresponds to your undergraduate degree.

Frequently asked questions

How many questions are on the FE Mechanical exam?

The exam has 110 questions, and the testing appointment is 5 hours and 20 minutes. Those questions are divided among 14 knowledge areas under the specification in effect since July 2020. The low ends of the ranges add up to 100 questions, and the rest of the form brings the total to 110.

What is the hardest part of the FE Mechanical exam?

The specification publishes question ranges and does not rank areas by difficulty. The largest ranges are still the practical focus: Dynamics, Kinematics, and Vibrations; Fluid Mechanics; Thermodynamics; and Mechanical Design and Analysis can each run from 10 to 15 questions, and Statics and Mechanics of Materials can each run from 9 to 14. Those six also chain together, because a weak free-body diagram or a missed property shows up again in design, fluids, or thermo. Start with the wide ranges, and let your own coursework decide which of the six needs the earlier work.

What is the FE Mechanical pass rate?

In the NCEES table last updated July 2026, the FE Mechanical pass rate for first-time takers is 73%, from 5,153 examinees. The same table lists a volume and a pass rate for each of the other FE disciplines. The figure is a discipline outcome, so pair it with the question ranges when you set a study order.

Which handbook chapters matter for FE Mechanical?

For the largest areas in FE Reference Handbook 10.6, use Statics (page 95), Dynamics (page 102), Mechanics of Materials (page 130), Thermodynamics (page 143), Fluid Mechanics (page 181), Heat Transfer (page 209), and Mechanical Engineering (page 436). Materials Science starts on page 117, Instrumentation, Measurement, and Control on page 225, and Electrical and Computer Engineering on page 361. Shared chapters start at Ethics and Professional Practice (page 4), Mathematics (page 36), Engineering Probability and Statistics (page 64), and Engineering Economics (page 235).

Does a mechanical degree mean you should take FE Mechanical?

The Florida board advises choosing the FE discipline that best corresponds to your undergraduate degree. For someone with a mechanical degree, that advice points toward this specification.

Sources

1. NCEES FE Mechanical CBT exam specifications (PDF). Retrieved October 3, 2026.
2. NCEES: FE exam. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
3. NCEES FE Reference Handbook 10.6 (free PDF in MyNCEES). Retrieved October 3, 2026.