CQE Testing Sample
CQE Testing Sample
CQE Testing Sample
The purpose of the following sample examination is to provide an example of what is provided on exam day by ASQ,
complete with the same instructions that are provided on exam day.
The test questions that appear in this sample examination are retired from the CQE pool and have appeared in past CQE
examinations. Since they are now available to the public, they will NOT appear in future CQE examinations. This sample
examination WILL NOT be allowed into the exam room.
Appendix A contains the answers to the sample test questions. ASQ will not provide scoring and analysis for this sample
examination. Remember: These test questions will not appear on future examinations so your performance on this sample
examination may not reflect how you perform on the formal examination. A self-appraisal of how well you know the
content for the specific areas of the body of knowledge (BOK) can be completed by using the worksheet in Appendix B.
On page 2 of the instructions, it states “There are 160 questions on this 5-hour examination.” Please note that this sample
exam only contains 75 questions.
If you have any questions regarding this sample examination, please email [email protected]
© 2011 ASQ
ASQ grants permission for individuals to use this sample examination as a means to prepare for the formal
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NAME____________________________________
Please print your name above. Read all the instructions before beginning the examination. If you are unsure about any
part of the instructions, consult your proctor. In order for ASQ to be able to properly scan the Scantron answer sheet,
you must completely fill in the circle. Each circle must be filled in dark enough for the scanner to properly pick up the
answer you chose. If not, this could result in the exam not being scored correctly, or potentially delay your results.
General Instructions
All answers must be recorded on the Scantron Answer Sheet; no exam will be graded with the answers marked in the exam
booklet.
1. Using a soft lead pencil (#2 or softer) only, blacken the circle of the correct answer. Do not use ink. If you change your
answer, be sure to erase the previous answer completely.
2. Each question has ONE correct answer only.
3. This is a timed test; do not linger over difficult questions. Instead, skip the questions of which you are unsure; return to
them when you reach the end of the test.
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CQE
Sample Exam
Special Instructions
1. Please note that your answer sheet has been personalized with your name, member number, section number,
and test type.
2. Do NOT make any changes to these parts of the answer sheet. Doing so will only delay your exam results.
Notify the Proctor of any changes.
3. If you don’t have a personalized answer sheet, see your Proctor for further instructions.
4. There are 160 questions on this 5-hour examination. Please check that you have the correct number of
questions.
STOP
DO NOT CONTINUE UNTIL INSTRUCTED
CQE-SAMPLE EXAM
Directions: Each of the questions or incomplete statements below is followed by four suggested answers or completions. Select the
one that is best in each case and then fill in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.
1. A correlation table yields results similar to those of a 5. Which of the following is a barrier to the successful
performance of a quality team?
(A) check sheet
(B) control chart (A) Rating the performance of each team member
(C) Pareto diagram (B) Including people with abilities in different areas
(D) scatter diagram (C) Including people from different departments
(D) Having the team make decisions without management
approval
2. Which of the following is a typical obstacle to design
review?
6. A company incurred the following quality costs in the last
(A) Customer requirements month.
(B) Manufacturing requirements
(C) Resistance from the design department Evaluating finished product $50,000
(D) Safety regulations Quality auditor training $10,000
Manufacturability study $1,000
Repairing finished product $5,000
3. Implementing a preventive quality system will increase Process capability studies $30,000
which of the following?
How much did the company spend on prevention costs?
(A) Failure costs
(B) Inspection time (A) $11,000
(C) Quality system effectiveness (B) $41,000
(D) Corrective action effectiveness (C) $46,000
(D) $96,000
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CQE-SAMPLE EXAM
8. One purpose of a failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) 11. Given identical specification limits, which of the
is to following process distributions has the highest
Cp value?
(A) validate that the design meets the intended purpose
(B) estimate the feasibility of a manufacturing process
(C) anticipate and reduce the probability of product failures (A) LSL USL
(D) perform root cause analysis along with corrective action
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CQE-SAMPLE EXAM
12. According to ISO 9000 standards, quality records must be Questions 14 − 16 refer to the following information.
(A) written and illustrated clearly and concisely A supplier has a contract with a customer that requires semi-
(B) maintained in electronic form annual, destructive testing of sample products. According to
(C) legible, identifiable, and retrievable the contract, test results must be submitted to the customer to
(D) standardized and documented retain qualified supplier status, and the supplier must notify
the customer when any of the samples fail testing.
13. The ability to preserve the identity of a product and its During a test cycle, some of the products fail, and the quality
origins is called manager directs the quality engineer to reduce the number of
samples tested by the number that failed so that the records
(A) production control will show that all samples passed the tests. The quality
(B) traceability engineer documents the manager’s orders, changes the test
(C) bar coding records, and ships the product. A short time later, both the
(D) sequencing quality engineer and the quality manager are laid off during a
reorganization.
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CQE-SAMPLE EXAM
17. The revision table of a drawing should contain which of 22. The following information was developed by a quality
the following information? engineer.
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CQE-SAMPLE EXAM
25. A component failed 5 times during a 360-hour test and the 29. Variables data can best be described as data that are
failures follow an exponential distribution. In this
situation, what is the estimated MTBF in hours? (A) presented on a nominal measurement scale
(B) indicated by discrete counts
(A) 0.014 (C) limited by the precision of the measuring device
(B) 72.000 (D) recorded as pass/fail
(C) 500.000
(D) 1,800.000
30. A continuous improvement team uses the following steps
at each of its weekly meetings.
26. Which of the following techniques is used to qualify new or
revised manufacturing processes? 1. Amend the agenda as necessary
2. Summarize the action items from the current
(A) Benchmarking meeting
(B) Capability analysis 3. Plan for the next meeting
(C) Design failure mode and effects analysis (DFMEA) 4. Review the agenda
(D) Fault tree analysis
Rank order, from first to last, the sequence in which these
steps should be completed.
27. If the true value of a standard is 0.050, which of the
following sets of data is the best example of accuracy, (A) 1, 2, 3, 4
rather than precision? (B) 1, 3, 4, 2
(C) 4, 1, 2, 3
(A) 0.048, 0.051, 0.052, 0.049 (D) 4, 2, 3, 1
(B) 0.050, 0.047, 0.048, 0.051
(C) 0.050, 0.047, 0.050, 0.050
(D) 0.050, 0.053, 0.049, 0.053 31. A customer requires a Cp ≥ 1.33 for a specification of 15.5
± 2.0. If the supplier’s process has a mean of 15.0 and a
standard deviation of 0.5, which of the following
28. A standard with a known value of 10.200 mm is describes the process capability?
measured 8 times with a micrometer that has a resolution
of 0.001 mm. The readings of these measurements are
presented in the following table. Process Cp Product Requirements
10.208 10.212 10.206 (A) Acceptable Meets specifications
10.204 10.216 10.202 (B) Acceptable Does not meet specifications
10.197 10.196 (C) Not acceptable Meets specifications
(D) Not acceptable Does not meet specifications
On the basis of this information, what is the bias of the
measurement system?
(A) 0.002 mm
(B) 0.005 mm
(C) 10.200 mm
(D) 10.205 mm
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CQE-SAMPLE EXAM
32. Which of the following steps is most important after a Questions 35 − 37 refer to the following information.
customer has qualified a new supplier?
Soft drinks manufacturers received complaints from consumers
(A) Tour the supplier’s manufacturing facilities about the high pressure that built up when two-liter plastic
(B) Check the supplier’s reputation bottles were shaken. An industry task force determined that the
(C) Evaluate similar products bottle threads should be redesigned to safely vent the bottle
(D) Establish a good working relationship during opening. A new design was submitted for review and
testing on a soft drink with especially high pressure potentials,
and only maximum pressures were to be analyzed during the
33. Which of the following audit strategies requires the experiment. Because of disagreement on maximum exposure
auditor to follow the production flow? temperatures, the team decided to test the product at
90 °F, 120 °F, and 140 °F. The bottles were to be filled at three
(A) Element different bottling lines to examine the effects of different
(B) Department carbonation methods and capping operations.
(C) Discovery
(D) Tracing 35. Which of the following steps should be taken if one bottling
line is found to produce a main effect but filling
temperature has no effect?
34. What is the availability of a system that has a mean time
between failures (MTBF) equal to 2,500 hours and a (A) Repeat the experiment on the same bottling line
mean time to repair (MTTR) equal to 98.0 hours? (B) Conduct an analysis of variance study of the
temperature treatments
(A) 0.0377 (C) Investigate bottling line differences
(B) 0.9608 (D) Determine the interaction effects between bottling lines
(C) 0.9623
(D) 1.0390 36. Which of the following best describes the industry’s
decision to form a task force to redesign the bottle threads?
(A) Factorial
(B) Youden square
(C) Graeco-Latin square
(D) Mixture
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CQE-SAMPLE EXAM
38. Which of the following actions is most important in the 42. The following table was developed by a team.
design of a total quality system?
x P(x)
(A) Viewing major activities as production steps for the 10 0.1
next internal customer 12 0.2
(B) Understanding the requirements of interim- and end- 14 0.3
users 16 0.4
(C) Assessing warranty costs as external failures 1.0
(D) Using an activity-based costing (ABC) system
What is the expected value of the random variable x?
39. The overall reliability of a process has a mean time (A) 12.5
between failures (MTBF) of 16.5 hours. If the failures (B) 13.0
follow an exponential distribution and the total run time (C) 13.5
is 30 hours, what is the process reliability? (D) 14.0
(A) 0.1623
(B) 0.5500 43. Which of the following tools has the highest resolution?
(C) 0.5769
(D) 0.8377 (A) A steel ruler
(B) Ground flat stock
(C) A caliper
40. Rank order, from first to last, the following steps in creating (D) A micrometer
a check sheet.
1. Define the time frame for collecting the data 44. Which of the following sets of actions is key to helping
2. Clarify the events or conditions to observe and teams be effective?
count
3. Design a check sheet that is easy to use (A) Using facilitators, managing conflict, and encouraging
participation by team members
(A) 1, 2, 3 (B) Using the forming, storming, norming, and performing
(B) 1, 3, 2 cycle on team projects
(C) 2, 1, 3 (C) Identifying which team projects can benefit most from
(D) 2, 3, 1 the plan, do, check, act method
(D) Identifying root causes, corrective and preventive
actions, and follow-up techniques on team projects
41. A double sampling plan from the ANSI/ASQ Z1.4
standard has the following additional details.
45. The following data plot was created from a product sample.
Lot size = 100
AQL = 4.0
Normal general inspection level II 3 6
4 4 6 8 8 8
If one defect is found in the first sample, which of the 5 0 1 1 2 3 4 7
following would be the next step? 6 1 3 4
(A) Return the defect to the supplier and accept What is the median value of this data set?
the lot
(B) Reject the lot (A) 48
(C) Draw a second sample and reject the lot if one defect (B) 51
is found in that sample (C) 51.5
(D) Draw a second sample and reject the lot if 4 defects (D) 53.5
are found in that sample
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CQE-SAMPLE EXAM
46. A sample of 50 pieces is taken from a process that is 50. The parts in the following assembly (X) are all fully
known to be producing 0.2% nonconforming pieces. The interchangeable.
probability that nonconforming pieces will not be found
in the sample is approximately equal to X
(A) 0.09 X1 X2 X3 X4
(B) 0.36
(C) 0.64
(D) 0.91 0.750 1.000 1.500 0.250
± 0.002 ± 0.005 ± 0.003 ± 0.001
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CQE-SAMPLE EXAM
54. In a complex electronic system containing 1,000 devices 59. An acceptable quality information system (QIS)
in series, an increase in component reliability from should be
99.90% to 99.99% would improve the system reliability
by a factor of approximately (A) excluded from the audit program
(B) developed by the quality department
(A) 2.5 (C) designed so that all available data are collected
(B) 3.7 (D) designed to be flexible and capture a wide variety
(C) 5.0 of data
(D) 7.5
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CQE-SAMPLE EXAM
64. A process is in statistical control, is centered on target, 67. The following charts represent correlation studies for
and has a ± 4σ spread equal to the specification range. three sets of data: X, Y, and Z.
This process can best be described as having a
(A) Cp of 1.00
(B) Cpk of 1.33
(C) Cpk of 1.66
(D) Cr of 0.60
Subsystem Distribution
X
1 Exponential life; MTBF = 10,000 hours
2 Weibull distribution; θ = 12,000 hours
β = 0.42
3 Exponential life; MTBF = 25,000 hours
(A) 0.249
(B) 0.417
(C) 0.501
(D) 0.606 Y
X Y Z
(A) 0.8 − 0.5 1.0
(B) 0.6 1.0 −1.0
(C) − 0.8 0.9 0.0
(D) −1.0 0.5 0.0
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CQE-SAMPLE EXAM
68. Assignable causes of variation differ from common 72. When a team investigates the cause of nonconforming
causes because assignable causes product and then implements corrective action and
monitors its effectiveness, the team is using which of the
(A) can be driven by one or just a few individual causes following techniques?
(B) can be created by a series of common causes
(C) cannot be eliminated economically (A) Recurrence control
(D) result in only insignificant variation (B) Design verification
(C) Process mapping
(D) Process auditing
69. If a product characteristic will have no effect on the
customer’s perception of quality, the characteristic should
be classified as 73. One of the key responsibilities of a meeting facilitator is
70. The hardness specification for a material is 100 BHN or 74. An internet service provider logged four primary types of
greater. A process for that material has a mean of 105.0 complaints over a one-month period. A team used the
and a standard deviation of 1.0. What is the Cpk for this data to create the following incomplete table.
process?
Type Fo Fe χ2
(A) 1.00
Operating System 98 45 62.4
(B) 1.33
Proxy 90 40 62.5
(C) 1.67
Firewall 99 40
(D) 2.00
Land Line 93 45 51.2
Total 380 170
71. Typically, what type of gage is used to measure the
distance between two parallel surfaces on the outside of What test statistic should be used in a goodness-of-fit
an object or feature? analysis?
END OF TEST
IF YOU FINISH BEFORE TIME IS CALLED, YOU MAY GO BACK AND CHECK YOUR WORK ON THIS TEST.
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CQE-SAMPLE EXAM
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CQE-SAMPLE EXAM
Total You
Had Correct Total in the Total in
on Sample Sample Formal ASQ
2006 BOK Topic Area Exam Exam Exam
I. Management and Leadership
11 15
II. The Quality System
9 15
III. Product and Process Design
13 25
IV. Product and Process Control
10 32
V. Continuous Improvement
12 30
VI. Quantitative Methods and Tools
20 43
GRAND TOTAL 75 160
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