Free Practice Questions for APEGS NPPE Exam

In hiring, appropriate questions are those that are directly related to bona fide occupational requirements and job performance, while avoiding questions that intrude into protected personal grounds or could be discriminatory. For many field roles in mining, a valid driver’s licence is often a legitimate job requirement due to travel to remote sites, operation of vehicles, and safety/logistics needs. Therefore, asking whether the applicant has a valid driver’s licence (B) is appropriate. Asking when an applicant graduated high school (A) can indirectly reveal age and is generally unnecessary if the goal is to confirm education level—better asked as “Do you meet the required education/certification?” Asking about participation in public protests (C) can infringe on protected freedoms and is typically irrelevant to job competence. Asking whether the applicant initiated complaints against former employers (D) is also inappropriate and can be retaliatory or unrelated to job requirements, and may chill legitimate reporting. Thus, B is the appropriate question.

The answer is B, temporary disability. According to general employment law principles and the specific guidelines provided in various legal and ethical codes of conduct for engineers, an employer can terminate an employee without notice or severance pay for reasons like serious misconduct, habitual neglect of duty, theft, fraud, or dishonesty. Temporary disability, however, is not a valid reason for such termination without notice or severance pay as it is protected under employment standards and human rights legislations which guard against discrimination based on disability.

Construction lien statutes exist because typical secured-credit tools (like repossession or conventional security interests) are not well-suited to construction: work and materials are incorporated into land and cannot realistically be “taken back,” and many parties contribute before receiving payment (A, B). A lien is a statutory security interest that attaches to the project land/improvement to help ensure payment down the construction pyramid. Registering a lien generallyencumberstitle, making the property harder—not easier—to sell or refinance until the lien is discharged, vacated, or resolved. This pressure creates an incentive for owners to address claims so financing and transactions are not disrupted. Therefore, statement C is false because it reverses the practical effect: a registered lien typically makes the property more difficult to sell or borrow against and incentivizes settlement, not non-settlement. Statement D reflects common payment-control practices (e.g., progress payment certification, holdbacks, proof of delivery/work completion, lien waivers/statutory declarations) used by owners to reduce risk of paying for incomplete or undelivered work/materials.

A "dummy run" in the context of commercial software testing refers to a basic check on the program’s computation using nominal entries, like zeros or ones, to yield a known result. This method is used to verify that the software performs basic operations correctly and is able to handle simple inputs without errors .

Patent rights are territorial. A Canadian patent provides the patent holder with the right, in Canada, to exclude others from making, using, selling, or importing the patented invention (subject to the Patent Act and court interpretation). It does not automatically extend to the United States, Mexico, or any other country, regardless of trade agreements (A, B) or information-sharing arrangements (C). To obtain protection elsewhere, an inventor must seek patent rights in those jurisdictions (directly or via international filing mechanisms), and enforceability remains country-specific. NPPE intellectual property summaries typically highlight that patents are time-limited monopolies granted by the state, enforceable only within the granting state’s territory. Therefore, the correct scope for a Canadian patent isany part of Canada(D).

The best action for a professional in this scenario is to decline the VP's request due to its discriminatory nature and report the incident to the company's Human Resources department. This ensures compliance with ethical standards and company policies against discrimination, upholding professional integrity while addressing the issue internally through proper channels .

Avoiding unprofessional, dishonourable, or disgraceful conduct is a cornerstone of maintaining the reputation, integrity, and trustworthiness of the profession. NPPE ethics discussions commonly group duties into obligations to the public, clients/employers, colleagues, oneself, and the profession. Conduct described as “dishonourable” or “disgraceful” is typically framed as professional misconduct because it undermines public confidence in regulated practice and damages the standing of engineers/geoscientists collectively. While such behaviour can also harm clients or colleagues in particular cases, the ethical duty most directly engaged is the duty to the profession: upholding the dignity, honour, and integrity of professional practice; complying with the Code of Ethics; and behaving in a manner that sustains trust in the self-regulating system. Thus, option D is the closest match.

NPPE professional practice principles emphasize that responsibility for engineering/geoscience work rests with the licensed professional who applies professional judgment, signs/seals work, and relies on the results. Commercial software is a tool; it does not transfer accountability to the vendor or to a disclaimer. The professional must ensure the software is suitable for the task, inputs and assumptions are correct, limitations are understood, and outputs are validated using checks (hand calculations, benchmark problems, sensitivity analyses, or alternative methods). Even if the employer owns the project and carries organizational liability, the professional remains professionally accountable for the technical validity of results they use and for decisions based on those results. Therefore, the responsibility for accuracy and validity lies with the professional (C), not the software developer (B), not merely the employer (A), and not in any disclaimer (D).

The special form of contract where one party guarantees the performance by a second party of certain obligations is called a bond, and the first party in this arrangement is referred to as the surety (Option B). The surety provides a guarantee to the oblige (the party requiring the guarantee) that the principal (the party obligated to perform) will fulfill their contractual obligations. This arrangement is commonly used in construction contracts and other scenarios requiring performance guarantees.

In cases of witnessing harassment, the appropriate response is to follow established company policies or report the incident to a manager if no specific policy exists. This approach is advocated to ensure proper procedural handling of the situation, safeguarding both the reporter and the victim while addressing the misconduct effectively. This answer aligns with the common standards and guidelines laid out for handling workplace harassment, which emphasize the importance of procedural adherence to ensure a fair and effective resolution .