The NPPE exam tests knowledge of Ethics, Law, Liability, and Professional Practice as related to the engineering and/or geoscience professions in Canada. The owners of the exam have developed a very detailed syllabus for it. The syllabus is divided into six (6) topic areas as follows:

1. Professionalism (7 – 10 questions)
2. Ethics (17 – 21 questions)
3. Professional Practice (27 – 32 questions)
4. Law for Professional Practice (23 – 28 questions)
5. Professional Law (7 – 10 questions)
6. Regulation of Members & Discipline Processes (7 – 10 questions)

The weight of each topic area in the exam can be appreciated by the number of operational questions that would be delivered for each (figures in parenthesis above.) Though the exam has 110 questions, only 100 are operational and 10 are included in it only to test them for future use.

Moreover, each topic area above contains sub-topics and even sub-sub-topics. The complete syllabus can be accessed through this link.

NOTE: Another term to refer to the NPPE syllabus is NPPE Blueprint, and the latter has been preferred since very recently.