What's on the ICC CF Sprinkler Inspector Exam? All 9 Domains
Seventy-five questions across eight standards, and the water supply chain outweighs the sprinklers themselves nearly two to one.
Contents
What's on the ICC CF Sprinkler Inspector Exam? All 9 Domains
The format
| Questions | 75 |
| Time | 2.5 hours |
| Book policy | Open - you bring your own references |
| Delivery | ICC PRONTO remote proctoring, or a Pearson VUE test centre |
The nine domains, by weight
| Domain | Weight | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| System and Installation Requirements | 20% | NFPA 13 |
| Water Source | 15% | NFPA 24, NFPA 22, NFPA 25 |
| Acceptance Testing and Inspection | 14% | NFPA 25, NFPA 13 |
| Commodities / Hazard Class | 11% | NFPA 13 |
| Standpipes | 10% | NFPA 14, NFPA 25 |
| Fire Pumps | 9% | NFPA 20, NFPA 25 |
| Fire Sprinklers | 8% | NFPA 13 |
| Ability to Read Plans / Materials | 7% | IFC, NFPA 13 |
| Fire Department Connections | 6% | NFPA 13, NFPA 14 |
The water supply chain outweighs the sprinklers
Fire Sprinklers as its own domain is 8%. Add water source, standpipes, fire pumps and fire department connections and you get 40%, everything upstream of the sprinkler.
Candidates who study NFPA 13 exclusively are preparing for roughly half this exam. NFPA 20, 22, 24 and 25 carry the other half between them.
Eight standards, one exam
CF lists more references than any other exam in the ICC fire family: NFPA 13, 13R, 14, 20, 22, 24, 25 and the IFC. Open book helps, but only if your tabs are built before you sit down. Two and a half hours for seventy-five questions is two minutes each, including lookups.
Acceptance testing is a distinct skill
Fourteen percent covers witnessing tests, including hydrostatic, flushing, main drain and forward flow, as opposed to reading a system. If you have never stood at an acceptance test, NFPA 25 Chapter 4 and NFPA 13's acceptance sections are the ones to read twice.
Where to start
Work the heaviest domain first and check yourself against the weighting, not against how interesting the material is. The published percentages are the closest thing to an answer key you get before exam day.
Our free 10-question practice test draws from the same weighted pool, so the mix you see is the mix the exam uses.
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