What is on the FE Other Disciplines exam?

The FE Other Disciplines exam has 110 questions across 14 knowledge areas, under the NCEES specification that took effect with the July 2020 examinations. You have 5 hours and 20 minutes, and the exam is closed book with an electronic reference. Fluid Mechanics is the largest area, at 12 to 18 questions, while Statics, Dynamics, Strength of Materials, and Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer each run 9 to 14 questions.

What are the 14 knowledge areas?

NCEES lists 14 knowledge areas and gives each a range of questions, and the low ends of those ranges add up to 100 of the 110 questions. On a given form, some areas sit above their minimum, while every count stays inside its printed range. The tables below follow the specification order.

The first seven areas:

The remaining seven areas:

Which areas carry the most questions?

Fluid Mechanics asks you to judge how liquids and gases behave, apply the dimensionless numbers that mark laminar and turbulent flow, and find pressure in a fluid at rest. You also balance energy and momentum, estimate friction losses in pipes, ducts, valves, and fittings, handle open-channel flow, and work with pumps, turbines, fans, and compressors, including machines piped in series or parallel. Flow measurement and both ideal-gas and real-gas models sit in this area too. Pipe-flow head loss practice problems are a direct way to rehearse the loss equations with the handbook open.

Statics, Dynamics, and Strength of Materials make up the rest of the mechanics group. Statics covers force systems and couples, equilibrium and support reactions, internal forces in trusses, frames, and machines, centroids and moments of inertia, static friction, free-body diagrams, and weight versus mass, including lbm, lbf, and gc. Truss member force practice problems match that internal-force work.

Dynamics covers motion of particles and rigid bodies, the link from force to mass and acceleration, torque and inertia, impulse and momentum, work, energy, and power, dynamic friction, and vibration, including natural frequency. Strength of Materials covers normal and shear stress, superposition when loads combine, axial, bending, torsion, and transverse shear, shear and moment diagrams, and beams, trusses, frames, and columns. The same area includes deformation, principal stresses, yield and fracture checks, and failure by buckling, creep, fatigue, or brittle fracture, along with factor of safety and allowable stress.

Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer covers the thermodynamic laws, equilibrium, properties such as entropy, enthalpy, and heat capacity, and processes such as isothermal and adiabatic changes. Heat moves by conduction, convection, and radiation. Mass and energy balances, property and phase diagrams, combustion products, and moist-air quantities such as relative humidity and wet-bulb temperature round out this area.

Five areas run 6 to 9 questions each: Probability and Statistics, Safety, Health, and Environment, Engineering Economics, Materials, and Basic Electrical Engineering. Safety, Health, and Environment deals with exposure and toxicology, relief devices and personal protective equipment, gas detection, electrical safety, confined-space entry and ventilation, and hazard labeling. Materials deals with phase diagrams, mechanical, chemical, thermal, and electrical properties, and how you select a material. Basic Electrical Engineering deals with charge, current, voltage, resistance, and power, circuit laws, AC and DC circuits with impedance and power factor, meters, and three-phase power for balanced loads.

Chemistry is 5 to 8 questions on oxidation and reduction, acids, bases, and pH, and reactions, including stoichiometry and equilibrium. Engineering Ethics and Societal Impacts is 5 to 8 questions on applying a code of ethics, on public protection and licensing boards, and on societal effects such as safety, environment, sustainability, and life-cycle analysis. Instrumentation and Controls is the shortest range, at 4 to 6 questions, covering sensors, data acquisition and signal processing, analog and digital conversion, and logic diagrams.

Which topics are on every FE exam?

Mathematics, Probability and Statistics, Engineering Ethics and Societal Impacts, and Engineering Economics are the areas shared with every FE exam. Which topics are on every FE exam shows those four areas on the other specifications. On this exam they are smaller than Fluid Mechanics or the mechanics group, and the handbook still carries the formulas and the ethics language you will search.

Mathematics is 8 to 12 questions: analytic geometry and trigonometry, single-variable calculus, differential equations, matrix work in linear algebra, and numerical methods such as roots, approximations, and convergence. Probability and Statistics covers estimates and confidence intervals, expected value when you choose under uncertainty, sample size and hypothesis tests, and goodness of fit, including correlation and the scatter around a fitted line. Engineering Economics covers present, annual, and future worth, rate of return, incremental, average, and sunk cost, break-even and benefit-cost comparisons, risk, depreciation, and project choices when lives are unequal.

Which handbook chapters match this exam?

During the exam you search FE Reference Handbook 10.6 on screen. How you use the FE Reference Handbook belongs in your practice, because the largest areas have their own chapters and the handbook uses its own chapter order.

Units and Conversion Factors starts on page 1, Ethics and Professional Practice on page 4, and Safety on page 15. Mathematics starts on page 36, Engineering Probability and Statistics on page 64, and Chemistry and Biology on page 86. Materials Science starts on page 117, and Instrumentation, Measurement, and Control starts on page 225. Engineering Economics starts on page 235, and for Basic Electrical Engineering, use Electrical and Computer Engineering, which starts on page 361.

What pass rate does NCEES report?

NCEES last updated these FE pass rates in July 2026, and among first-time takers, FE Other Disciplines had 921 examinees and a 61% pass rate. That 61% is the lowest first-time rate of the seven FE disciplines in the update, and the other six run from 66% for the Civil exam to 73% for the Mechanical exam.

The same update lists first-time results by degree when a degree has more than 25 first-time examinees, and the rows report how those groups scored. The Florida board advises choosing the FE discipline that best corresponds to your undergraduate degree. Read which FE exam you should take for more on that choice.

Naval Architecture and Marine had 48 first-time examinees and a pass rate of 83%. Nuclear had 55 first-time examinees and a pass rate of 65%.

How do you turn the ranges into a study order?

We suggest an order based on the published ranges. This is a study plan, not an NCEES rule. Start with Fluid Mechanics, then Statics, Dynamics, Strength of Materials, and Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer, keeping the matching handbook chapter open while you practice. Take Mathematics next, at 8 to 12 questions.

One way to split the rest is the five areas at 6 to 9 questions, then Chemistry, Engineering Ethics and Societal Impacts, and Instrumentation and Controls. Keep all 14 areas on the plan, since even a short range still places items on the form.

A 60-day study plan is one way to put that sequence on a calendar.

Frequently asked questions

How many questions are on the FE Other Disciplines exam?

The FE Other Disciplines exam has 110 questions. You have 5 hours and 20 minutes, and the specification in effect since the July 2020 examinations splits those questions across 14 knowledge areas. Each area has a published range, and the low ends of the ranges add up to 100 of the 110 questions.

What is the hardest part of the FE Other Disciplines exam?

Question ranges are the only weighting NCEES prints for this exam. Fluid Mechanics is the largest, at 12 to 18 questions, and Statics, Dynamics, Strength of Materials, and Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer are each 9 to 14. In the July 2026 first-time results, the pass rate was 61% for 921 examinees, and reported degree groups ran from 41% (Mining/Mineral, 46 examinees) to 83% (Naval Architecture and Marine, 48 examinees).

What is the FE Other Disciplines pass rate?

For first-time takers, in the NCEES update of July 2026, FE Other Disciplines had a 61% pass rate on 921 examinees. Degree-level rates, reported when a degree has more than 25 first-time examinees, are Architectural 55%, Biological (not Bio-Medical) 68%, Engineering Physics/Engineering Science 62%, General Engineering 65%, Materials 67%, Mechanical 60%, Mining/Mineral 41%, Naval Architecture and Marine 83%, and Nuclear 65%. Among the seven FE exams in that update, this 61% is the lowest first-time rate, and the others run from 66% for Civil to 73% for Mechanical.

Which handbook chapters matter for FE Other Disciplines?

The on-screen reference is FE Reference Handbook 10.6. Fluid Mechanics starts on page 181, Heat Transfer on page 209, Thermodynamics on page 143, Mechanics of Materials on page 130, Dynamics on page 102, and Statics on page 95. Mathematics starts on page 36, Engineering Probability and Statistics on page 64, Chemistry and Biology on page 86, Materials Science on page 117, Instrumentation, Measurement, and Control on page 225, and Engineering Economics on page 235. Units and Conversion Factors starts on page 1, Ethics and Professional Practice on page 4, Safety on page 15, and Electrical and Computer Engineering on page 361.

Sources

1. NCEES FE Other Disciplines 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.