API 570 Practice Questions: What to Drill and How

What a useful practice question looks like

The API 570 exam has 170 questions, 140 of them scored, split into 110 closed-book and 60 open-book. A practice set that matches it needs both kinds:

• Closed-book items you can finish in about 1.5 minutes: a calculation, a definition, a damage mechanism you should recognize on sight.
• Open-book items that make you look something up, where the skill is finding the right document and section fast.
• An explanation for every option, including why the wrong ones are wrong. The wrong options are usually the mistakes real candidates make: a unit slip, the wrong thickness in the numerator, a rule from the wrong code.

We don't use real or recalled exam items, and you shouldn't either. API's ICP Policies bind candidates to not disclose exam content, and a recalled question gives you no reasoning to build on. Our free practice guide explains what API publishes, what to avoid and why.

Three original practice items

Use your own copies of the references. Numbers are invented.

1. Corrosion rate. At a piping location, the thickness was 0.500 in. when the line was installed and is 0.420 in. after 8 years. What is the long-term corrosion rate?

• A. 0.010 in. per year
• B. 0.080 in. per year
• C. 0.053 in. per year
• D. 0.100 in. per year

Answer: A. Long-term rate is the thickness loss divided by the time: (0.500 minus 0.420) divided by 8 = 0.010 in. per year. B is the total loss with no time, C divides by 1.5 years, and D slips a decimal.

2. Remaining life. A pipe has a measured thickness of 0.285 in., a required thickness of 0.240 in. and a corrosion rate of 0.005 in. per year. What is the remaining life?

• A. 57 years
• B. 9 years
• C. 48 years
• D. 4.5 years

Answer: B. (0.285 minus 0.240) divided by 0.005 = 9 years. A divides the measured thickness by the rate, C divides the required thickness by the rate, and D halves the answer, confusing remaining life with the half-remaining-life idea that sets an interval.

3. Lookup. A candidate is given a description of a cracking pattern in a piping circuit and must name the likely damage mechanism. Which document on the effectivity sheet should the candidate open first?

• A. RP 571
• B. B16.5
• C. Section IX
• D. RP 578

Answer: A. RP 571 is the damage mechanisms document. B16.5 covers flange ratings, Section IX covers welding qualification and RP 578 covers material verification. The skill being tested is picking the right document in seconds, and the exam's open-book part rewards exactly that.

Check items 1 and 2 with the corrosion rate calculator and the remaining life calculator.

Want a full page of practice instead? The free API 570 practice test has three more explained questions and shows how the exam is set up.

A drill routine that sticks

Run this cycle three times a week.

1. Ten calculation items, timed. Write them yourself from the Body of Knowledge list or use a bank with explanations. Give yourself 1.5 minutes each.
2. Five lookup items, untimed at first. For each, name the document and section before you open anything. Then open it and confirm. Over time, add a clock of about 3 minutes.
3. One miss log. For each wrong answer, write one line: concept gap, math slip or slow lookup. After two weeks the log shows your real weakness.

Rework every missed calculation with new numbers the next day. Remembering one answer proves little. Handling a changed question proves you learned the method.

How to read a practice score

A score by topic is useful, and a single overall percentage is not. No practice score, from us or anyone else, predicts what you'll score on the day, because question sets and difficulty differ. What the score can do is point at a section: if corrosion work is at 90 percent and damage mechanisms at 50, you know where the next week goes.

Retake the same kind of set every two or three weeks and compare topic by topic. A rising weakest area is progress. A rising overall number with the same weakest area is not.

The free 10-question API 570 check is a quick way to see how you perform timed, with an explanation for every answer.

For the order to study in, read API 570 exam prep, and for a dated schedule, the API 570 study plan.

Next step

Take the free 10-question API 570 check to see exactly which topics to fix, then ask the study buddy at /study-assistant for a plan built around your exam date.

FAQ

Are there free API 570 practice questions?

API's own tutorial includes practice screens for the question formats, written on general topics. For subject practice, write items from the Body of Knowledge and use calculators that show their steps. Our comparison guide shows where 570 differs from 510.

How many practice questions should I do?

Quantity matters less than review. A few hundred items with a miss log and reworked variants beat a thousand skimmed ones. Cover every Body of Knowledge topic at least twice.

Do the questions include drag and drop?

API's tutorial shows multiple choice, multiple response, drag and drop and extended matching formats. Drag and drop and extended matching get no partial credit, so practice at least a few of each.

Can practice questions predict my result?

No. They show which topics need work. Nobody can promise a result.