- The Headline Numbers From NCEES
- How to Read an 80-Person Sample
- First-Time vs. Repeat Takers
- What the Exam Actually Demands of You
- Five Domains, Equal Question Ranges
- Scoring Mechanics Behind the Percentage
- Exam-Day Conditions That Affect Outcomes
- Turning the Pass-Rate Data Into a Plan
- Frequently Asked Questions
- NCEES's dated table shows a 69% first-time pass rate (80 examinees) and 29% repeat (21 examinees) for PE Industrial and Systems.
- The sample is small, so the percentages are directional signals, not stable predictions of your own odds.
- NCEES publishes no numerical passing score; results are pass/fail against a minimum-competence standard.
- All five domains share the same 14-21 question range, so no single domain can be skipped safely.
The Headline Numbers From NCEES
If you are searching for the PE-I&S pass rate, the figures that matter come from a single source: the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), which administers the Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) Industrial and Systems exam. NCEES publishes a dated pass-rate table on its exam page, updated January 2026. For this exam, that table reports:
| Examinee Group | Pass Rate | Number of Examinees |
|---|---|---|
| First-time takers | 69% | 80 |
| Repeat takers | 29% | 21 |
Two details deserve emphasis before you build any conclusions. First, the table reflects a prior October administration, not the upcoming sitting scheduled for October 28, 2026. Second, the sample sizes are modest: 80 first-time examinees and 21 repeat examinees. That is a very different statistical picture from the large-volume exams in other engineering disciplines.
How to Read an 80-Person Sample
Industrial and systems engineering is one of the smaller PE disciplines. With only 80 first-time examinees in the reported administration, a handful of candidates passing or failing would move the percentage by several points. That has practical implications for how you use the number.
What the number can tell you
- A clear majority of first-time examinees passed in the reported administration, which suggests the exam is passable on a first attempt for prepared candidates.
- Repeat takers passed at a markedly lower rate, which is consistent with the idea that candidates who fail once often return without changing their preparation approach.
What the number cannot tell you
- It cannot predict your personal result. Your outcome depends on your preparation, your work experience, and your command of the five exam domains.
- It cannot be projected forward with confidence. A single administration with a small cohort can swing materially from year to year.
- It says nothing about which domain caused failures. NCEES does not publish domain-level pass data in this table.
For a broader look at what drives difficulty beyond the raw percentage, see our companion piece, How Hard Is the PE-I&S Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.
First-Time vs. Repeat Takers: Why the Gap Is So Wide
The 40-point difference between the 69% first-time rate and the 29% repeat rate is the most instructive feature of the table. Only 21 repeat examinees are in the sample, so you should not over-interpret it, but the direction is worth thinking through, because it points to how failure tends to happen on this exam.
A few plausible, exam-specific explanations (offered as reasoning, not as NCEES findings):
- Breadth over depth. The exam spans five distinct domains, from systems engineering to quality engineering. A candidate who is strong in the area of their daily job and thin elsewhere may fail narrowly, then retake with the same imbalance.
- Time pressure carries over. With 85 questions in 8 hours 30 minutes of testing time, pacing is manageable on paper, but multi-step calculation items can consume far more than the average per-question allotment.
- Small cohort effects. Repeat takers are a self-selected, small group; a few results shift the rate dramatically.
Key Takeaway
If you have failed once, treat the 29% repeat figure as a prompt to change your preparation, not to repeat it. Rebuild your plan around the domains where you were weakest, and work from official-style practice material rather than re-reading the same references.
What the Exam Actually Demands of You
A pass rate is only meaningful if you understand the test behind it. The PE Industrial and Systems exam is a single-day, computer-based, closed-book examination delivered at approved Pearson VUE test centers. The core format facts from NCEES:
- 85 questions, which include unidentified, unscored pretest items. You cannot tell which items do not count, so treat every question as scored.
- 8 hours 30 minutes of testing time within a 9 hour 30 minute appointment, which includes a 2-minute nondisclosure agreement, an 8-minute tutorial, and a 50-minute scheduled break.
- Item types beyond standard multiple choice: multiple-correct, point-and-click, drag-and-drop, and numerical fill-in.
- No partial credit. Scored items receive correct or incorrect credit only, and there is no deduction for wrong answers, so you should never leave an item blank.
- Reference materials: closed book, but with a supplied searchable electronic reference handbook. Personal reference materials are prohibited, and you may use one NCEES-approved calculator.
- Units: both SI and USCS appear, so unit fluency matters.
Because the handbook is searchable but not something you can study ahead in a login-free way, familiarity with how to locate formulas quickly is itself a skill. Candidates who treat the handbook as a crutch rather than a tool tend to lose time on lookup. Our PE-I&S Study Guide 2026 covers how to build that familiarity.
Five Domains, Equal Question Ranges
NCEES organizes the exam objectives into five numbered domains. Each carries an official allocation of 14 to 21 questions. NCEES does not publish fixed percentage weights for this exam, and the question-count ranges should not be converted into percentages. The practical consequence is straightforward: there is no "minor" domain you can afford to neglect.
Domain 1: Systems Engineering
Covers the engineering of whole systems rather than individual components, with an emphasis on how requirements, design, and lifecycle considerations interact.
- Expect questions that reward structured, systems-level reasoning.
- Candidates from manufacturing-heavy backgrounds sometimes underweight this area.
Domain 2: Facilities Engineering and Planning
Addresses the physical layout and planning of facilities, including how space, flow, and capacity decisions are made.
- Layout and material-flow reasoning is typically calculation-friendly.
- Strong for candidates with plant or distribution experience; weaker for those from service or healthcare settings.
Domain 3: Operations Engineering
Focuses on the analytical methods used to run and optimize operations.
- Quantitative modeling and optimization skills are central here.
- Numerical fill-in items are especially likely to appear in quantitative areas like this.
Domain 4: Work Design
Concerns how work is structured, measured, and improved at the task and workstation level.
- Combines measurement concepts with human-factors considerations.
- Often a differentiator between candidates who have done hands-on process improvement and those who have not.
Domain 5: Quality Engineering
Covers methods for controlling, assuring, and improving quality.
- Statistical reasoning is the backbone of this domain.
- Candidates whose statistics skills have faded since university should budget refresh time.
The subtopics NCEES lists beneath each domain are illustrative, not exhaustive, so treat the official specification as your boundary document rather than any course syllabus. For a deeper walk-through, read PE-I&S Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 5 Content Areas.
Scoring Mechanics Behind the Percentage
Many candidates want a magic number: how many of the 85 questions must I get right? NCEES does not provide one. The exam is scored against a minimum-competence standard and reported as pass/fail. NCEES does not publish a numerical passing score, and because unscored pretest items are mixed in without being flagged, even a raw-count target would be misleading.
What this means in practice:
- Every examinee in an administration receives the same question set, so the standard is applied to a fixed form rather than curved against other test takers in a session.
- Because there is no penalty for wrong answers, a guess always beats a blank.
- Because there is no partial credit, multiple-correct and numerical items require full accuracy to count.
Our dedicated explainer, PE-I&S Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass, goes deeper on what NCEES does and does not disclose about scoring.
Exam-Day Conditions That Affect Outcomes
Several logistical features of this exam can influence performance independent of knowledge, and they are worth planning around.
Shared clock across sections
The two sections of the exam share the testing clock, and once a section is submitted it cannot be reopened. That makes your break and pacing strategy a genuine part of the exam, not an afterthought. Decide in advance how much time you will allow for the first section so you are not forced to rush the second.
In-person, single-day delivery
The exam is offered once a year in a single-day, computer-based format at Pearson VUE test centers, with the next sitting scheduled for October 28, 2026. Because it is annual, a failed attempt means a long wait before the next opportunity, which raises the cost of an under-prepared first attempt well beyond the exam fee. Details on scheduling are in PE-I&S Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling.
Fees and eligibility
The NCEES exam fee is $400 per attempt, and separate board application fees can apply. Eligibility and any required approval are controlled by your selected licensing board, not by NCEES. A common licensure pathway is an EAC/ABET-accredited engineering bachelor's degree, the FE exam, four years of acceptable engineering experience, and then the PE exam, but this is not a universal prerequisite for sitting the exam. Confirm your own board's rules in PE-I&S Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify, and see the full cost picture in PE-I&S Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.
Turning the Pass-Rate Data Into a Plan
The most defensible use of a 69% first-time rate is as a reminder that a first-attempt pass is realistic, and that the exam is not unforgiving to prepared candidates. The 29% repeat rate is a warning about what happens when preparation does not change. Here is a domain-sequenced approach that ties your schedule directly to the exam's structure.
Diagnose Against the Specification
- Take a full-length official-style practice exam under timed conditions to expose weak domains.
- Map every miss to one of the five NCEES domains.
Rebuild the Quantitative Domains First
- Prioritize Operations Engineering and Quality Engineering, where statistics and modeling demand the most repetition.
- Practice numerical fill-in items, since there is no partial credit.
Close the Experience Gaps
- Study the domains you rarely touch at work: often Facilities Engineering and Planning or Work Design.
- Practice searching the electronic handbook for formulas under time pressure.
Simulate Test Day
- Run a second full-length timed session including a deliberate 50-minute break.
- Rehearse your pacing plan for the shared clock and the no-reopening rule.
For official practice material, NCEES sells an e-book practice exam at $59.95 with 85 questions and solutions, based on the October 2020 specifications. It shares its content with the 2020 print edition, and NCEES has posted errata for the print practice exam, so check those corrections before relying on any solution. Pair it with additional timed drills through the PE-I&S practice test site to build question volume across all five domains.
Does passing pay off?
Pass rates only matter if the credential is worth earning. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $102,440 for industrial engineers as of May 2025, but that figure covers the occupation as a whole and is not a PE-specific salary or a measured licensure premium. For a fuller treatment, see PE-I&S Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis and Is the PE-I&S Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026.
When you are ready to test your readiness against realistic items across all five domains, start with the full practice test library and track your results by domain. Prior pass-rate figures can frame your expectations, but your own timed practice scores are the better predictor of how you will perform.
Frequently Asked Questions
NCEES's table, updated January 2026, shows a 69% first-time pass rate (80 examinees) and a 29% repeat pass rate (21 examinees). It reflects a prior October administration, not the October 2026 sitting.
NCEES does not publish a numerical passing score. The exam is scored against a minimum-competence standard and reported as pass/fail. With unscored pretest items mixed in, a raw-count target would not be reliable anyway.
No. The sample is small, with 80 first-time and 21 repeat examinees, so the percentages can shift noticeably between administrations. Use them as context, and rely on timed practice results to gauge your own readiness.
NCEES does not publish domain-level pass data. All five domains carry the same official range of 14-21 questions, so difficulty depends on your background. Candidates often find domains outside their daily work the most challenging.
The exam is offered annually as a single-day computer-based test, with the next sitting scheduled for October 28, 2026. Retake limits and waiting rules can also depend on your licensing board, so confirm them with your board before registering again.