SCE PE Exam Common Part Content: 7 Areas, Weights and Rules

Last checked: 10 November 2026. The source is the Professional Engineers Exam Instruction Manual, Common Part from the National Center for Assessment with the Saudi Council of Engineers (May 2019 edition, the latest we found), and the PE exam page on the SCE website. This is an independent guide, not affiliated with the Saudi Council of Engineers, the Education and Training Evaluation Commission or any government body.

In short: the common part is the first session of the Professional Engineer exam and is taken by candidates from every discipline. It lasts 2.5 hours, with 30 multiple-choice questions (60% of the part's mark) and two compulsory essays (40%). Each MCQ has 4 options and there is no negative marking. The largest area is Ethics with 8 questions, then Professionalism with 7, and each of the other five areas has 3.

The seven areas and their weights

Professionalism and Laws share the second essay, according to the table of specifications in the manual (p. 7). The detailed indicators for each standard are on pages 8 to 16.

What each area tests

• Ethics (CMP-T1): the SCE code of ethics, public health and welfare, confidentiality and conflicts of interest, reporting corruption, and resolving ethical dilemmas.
• Professionalism (CMP-T2): honesty and impartiality, risk disclosure, practising within competence, the legal framework, teamwork, leadership and lifelong learning.
• Laws (CMP-T3): social values and heritage, Saudi Vision 2030, and laws including engineering practice, government tenders and procurement, environment, patents, trade names, copyright, labour, competition and engineering arbitration, plus the rules on seals and complaints.
• Environment and Natural Resources (CMP-T4): the Environmental Law, environmental management systems, best available technology, ESIA and life-cycle analysis.
• Engineering Management (CMP-T5): management functions, KPIs and SPC, project management from charter to closure, contract forms, Six Sigma, Agile and RAMS.
• Engineering Economics (CMP-T6): time value of money, depreciation, CAPEX, OPEX and BOTEX, financial statements, comparing alternatives and sensitivity analysis.
• Health, Safety and Security (CMP-T7): laws and standards, hazard identification and risk assessment, health impact assessment, the hierarchy of controls, emergency plans and data security.

Pass mark and retakes

The exam has a common part and a discipline part, each marked out of 100. The pass mark is 60% in each part. A candidate who fails both parts retakes both after one full year. A candidate who fails one part retakes only that part and must pass it within a year, or else retakes both (manual, p. 6).

The discipline part

The second session lasts 4 hours, with 30 multiple-choice questions and a number of essays in your discipline. The manual lists ten disciplines: structural, geotechnical, transportation, water resources and environmental, power, HVAC and refrigeration, thermal and fluid systems, chemical, architecture and fire protection. SCE pages differ on which disciplines are open for registration now, so check the exam page before you apply.

Exam-day rules

• No printed or electronic material is allowed; the centre provides the reference material needed.
• Calculators approved by the centre are allowed.

What our practice covers

Our practice questions cover the multiple-choice part of the common part (60% of its mark), across all seven areas and their weights. Essays (40%) cannot be marked automatically, so a full mock exam score reflects the multiple-choice part only.

References suggested by the manual

• The SCE code of ethics and other codes such as the NSPE code.
• The Engineering Professions Practice Law.
• The Environmental Law.
• The Government Tenders and Procurement Law.
• The Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties and Industrial Designs.
• The national occupational safety and health programme.