Free Certified Quality Technician Practice Questions

Sample Practice Questions

Try these 10 sample questions from the Certified Quality Technician practice bank. Each includes the answer and explanation. Continue with the interactive practice above to review the full question set.

1. 1A machining department sends completed parts to the assembly department of the same company. What is assembly's role in this relationship?

   1. A. External customer
   2. B. Internal customer
   3. C. External supplier
   4. D. Internal supplier

   Answer: B

   Explanation: ASQ defines an internal customer as "The recipient (person or department) within an organization of another person’s or department’s output (product, service or information)." Assembly receives machining output within the company; machining is the supplier in this relationship.

   Reference: ASQ Quality Glossary — Internal customer

2. 2A study seeks conclusions about every valve produced during October. What is the population for this study?

   1. A. Only the valves selected for inspection
   2. B. Only the valves found nonconforming
   3. C. Every valve produced during October
   4. D. The average diameter of inspected valves

   Answer: C

   Explanation: ABS defines the population as "the complete set of units from which information is to be obtained and about which inferences are to be made." Here the intended inference concerns all October valves, rather than the inspected subset or a numerical summary.

   Reference: Basic Survey Design — Introduction — Definitions of basic concepts — Population

3. 3Which set of measurements can a conventional vernier caliper with outside jaws, inside jaws, and a depth bar provide?

   1. A. Outside and inside dimensions, plus depth and step measurements
   2. B. Outside and inside dimensions, but neither depth nor step measurements
   3. C. Outside and depth dimensions, but neither inside nor step measurements
   4. D. Inside and depth dimensions, but neither outside nor step measurements

   Answer: A

   Explanation: The manufacturer states: "Can measure OD, ID, depth and steps." The specified conventional caliper features provide all four dimensional capabilities. Each competing description incorrectly excludes two of those capabilities.

   Reference: Mitutoyo Small Tool Instruments — Calipers, Height Gages, Depth Gages — D-12, Series 532 Vernier Caliper — Features

4. 4What does GD&T communicate on an engineering drawing or product model?

   1. A. Only nominal dimensions, with no variation permitted in any feature
   2. B. The permissible variation of part features from design requirements
   3. C. The historical average dimensions of previously produced parts
   4. D. The exact measurements that every future part will actually have

   Answer: B

   Explanation: ASME explains that GD&T indicates "how significantly part features can deviate from the measurements listed in the design model." It communicates permitted variation, rather than past measurements or a guarantee of exact future dimensions.

   Reference: GD&T: The Language That Connects Engineering Professionals — Page 3, introductory explanation of GD&T

5. 5An organization audits its own quality system against procedures it has adopted. What party classification describes this internal audit?

   1. A. A second-party audit
   2. B. A third-party audit
   3. C. A first-party audit
   4. D. A supplier qualification audit

   Answer: C

   Explanation: ASQ states: "A first-party audit is performed within an organization". It evaluates the organization’s own system; customer-supplier and independent external-certification relationships describe other party classifications.

   Reference: What Is Auditing? — What are First-Party, Second-Party, and Third-Party Audits? — First-party

6. 6What is the principal proactive purpose of failure mode and effects analysis?

   1. A. To identify and prioritize possible failures for risk mitigation
   2. B. To accept or reject a submitted lot from its sampled actual defects
   3. C. To rank only failures already observed by their recorded frequency
   4. D. To estimate process capability from measured dimensional variation

   Answer: A

   Explanation: ASQ calls FMEA an approach "to identify and prioritize possible failures" and says its goal is to mitigate or eliminate potential failures. Lot disposition, ranking only historical failures and dimensional capability estimation do not describe that proactive potential-failure analysis.

   Reference: What Is FMEA? Failure Mode and Effects Analysis — Overview, definition and goal of FMEA

7. 7Which relationship makes a recipient an external customer of a manufacturer?

   1. A. A department receives parts from another department in the manufacturer.
   2. B. A department provides inspection data to the manufacturer's assembly line.
   3. C. A separate organization receives products from the manufacturer.
   4. D. A separate organization supplies raw material to the manufacturer.

   Answer: C

   Explanation: An external customer is "A person or organization that receives a product, service or information but is not part of the organization supplying it." Both receiving the output and being outside the supplying organization are essential.

   Reference: ASQ Quality Glossary — External customer

8. 8An inspector selects 80 items from a lot of 4,000 to obtain information about that lot. What do the 80 selected items constitute?

   1. A. The sample
   2. B. The population parameter
   3. C. The specification
   4. D. The population

   Answer: A

   Explanation: ABS states: "The sample is the set of observations which is taken from the population for the purpose of obtaining information about the population." The 80 items are the observed subset, not the whole lot or a summary measure.

   Reference: Basic Survey Design — Introduction — Definitions of basic concepts — Sample

9. 9What is the purpose of a micrometer's ratchet stop?

   1. A. To set the zero reading when the measuring faces first touch
   2. B. To limit the contact force applied during a measurement
   3. C. To lock the spindle at the measured dimension after reading
   4. D. To change spindle travel per revolution for a different scale

   Answer: B

   Explanation: Mitutoyo lists "Ratchet stop" in its "Measuring Force Limiting Device" table. The ratchet limits measuring force; it is not the zero-setting mechanism, a spindle lock, or a means of changing spindle travel per revolution.

   Reference: Quick Guide to Precision Measuring Instruments — Page 8, Micrometers — Measuring Force Limiting Device table

10. 10Which geometric characteristic belongs to the form-tolerance category?

    1. A. Position
    2. B. Parallelism
    3. C. Circular runout
    4. D. Flatness

    Answer: D

    Explanation: ASME’s fundamentals table places flatness under Form, which "Controls form (shape) of surfaces". Parallelism is orientation, position is location, and circular runout belongs to runout.

    Reference: GD&T: The Language That Connects Engineering Professionals — Page 5, The Fundamentals of GD&T, Form row