Do you have to write technical exams for a P.Eng. in Ontario? What PEO actually requires now
If your engineering degree is CEAB-accredited, you write no technical exams. If it is not, PEO requires four — and a WES report, a Canadian master's, an ICAS assessment or a US P.E. licence will not change that. Here is the decision tree, with PEO's own answers.
The short answer
In Ontario, if your bachelor's degree in engineering is from a program accredited by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB), you do not write technical exams. If it is from anywhere else, you almost certainly do. PEO's application FAQ answers it head-on: all non-CEAB candidates must pass four technical exams to apply for licensure, and that explicitly includes candidates whose degrees are already on PEO's Recognized Programs List, US graduates among them.
The rest of this page exists because the answer has four branches, and because much of what internationally-trained engineers are told about escaping them is not what PEO says.
Which branch are you in?
Branch one: a CEAB-accredited degree
Nothing further on the academic side. PEO's academic requirement is a CEAB-accredited bachelor's degree or a bachelor's degree on the Recognized Programs List plus a technical exam program. Only graduates of CEAB-accredited programs count as CEAB candidates — which matters below.
Branch two: a degree on the Recognized Programs List
The technical exam program is four exams:
Three things surprise people, and all come from PEO — its technical exam program page and its application process FAQ:
You are not confined to your own discipline. Candidates completing all four exams may select them from any engineering discipline. That is specific to PEO's current program: Engineers and Geoscientists BC and Alberta's APEGA assign exams to candidates instead, after assessing their academics. The pass mark for PEO's technical exams is 50 per cent, and attempts are unlimited. You need not re-write a failed exam; you may buy a different one later. (The NPPE is a different kind of exam — 2.5 hours, closed book, 110 multiple-choice questions — though PEO applies the same 50 per cent pass mark to all its exams.) Purchases are final. Exams are non-refundable, cannot be changed once bought, and are not transferable between sittings.
Exams run twice a year; registration opens in January for Spring/Summer and June for Fall/Winter, with Spring/Summer 2027 opening 4 January 2027 and closing 29 January 2027. Deadlines are firm. Exams are written online, including from outside Canada with high-speed internet and a webcam, and your academic documents need not be on file before you register.
Session detail is not a fixed fact about the program: which topics are set, the timetable, each paper's format and its permitted aids are decided session by session and published in PEO's current Technical Examination Schedule PDF and on EGBC's Status of Online Academic Exams page. Open those for the sitting you are writing — not this article.
Four exams can become two: the Good Performance policy
The one genuine reduction under the current process is narrow. Per PEO: register for two technical exams at your first sitting — two Group A, or one Group A and one Group B — both from the same engineering discipline. Score at least 65 per cent on both and PEO waives the remaining two.
The conditions that catch people out:
Both must be written at the same sitting, and anyone who has previously written PEO technical exams is out: the policy is for new registrants only. Already passed your CS exam? PEO says Good Performance is only open to candidates who have not yet written any of the required confirmatory exams — and both qualifying exams must be technical, so a CS exam can never be one of them. Withdrawing from an earlier sitting without writing does not disqualify you; the clock starts at the first sitting where you actually write. The waiver takes effect once PEO has your WES course-by-course verification, or your transcript for a US degree.
Branch three: your program is not on the Recognized Programs List
Do not pick the nearest-looking entry: PEO warns that selecting an RPL program that does not match your credentials can leave your application delayed or invalid. If yours is not listed, file a Program Verification Request through the portal. PEO's named alternative is the limited licence, for practice within defined fields, aimed at people with at least eight years of experience, six directly related to professional engineering practice.
Things that do not get you out of it
Every answer below is PEO's, from its application FAQ and requirements pages.
One procedural trap: you cannot mark Academic Information complete until three things are true — a program is on your application, the portal shows your academic documents as received, and, for non-CEAB candidates, your exam results are showing. PEO words that last condition as all four passed; where two were waived under Good Performance, it says the waiver is applied and confirmed in the portal.
If you applied before 15 May 2023, this is not your program
PEO split its application process on 15 May 2023 and keeps separate pages for earlier applicants — which is why so much online advice contradicts itself. Under that structure PEO assesses your academics and assigns one of two programs:
Confirmatory Exam Program (CEP) — for applicants who meet PEO's minimum academic qualifications: three technical exams plus one complementary studies exam in the assessed discipline. A CEP applicant cannot swap an assigned exam for a course, but PEO names one course-based route: completing Toronto Metropolitan University's Internationally Educated Engineers Qualification Bridging (IEEQB) program satisfies the CEP in the assessed discipline, at a minimum 60 per cent per course, in 12 of the confirmatory disciplines. Applicants with at least five years of experience since conferral may also be referred to PEO's Experience Requirements Committee, which decides whether the program is waived, reduced or stands. Specific Exam Program (SEP) — for applicants whose qualifications fall between a technology diploma and an engineering degree. This may run to up to 18 basic, technical and complementary exams plus an engineering thesis, and basic studies exams are a prerequisite that must be addressed first. University courses may replace an assigned SEP with PEO's prior approval, but never the basic studies exams. Referral for an experience assessment requires at least ten years of experience and either no assigned basic studies exams or the whole basic studies portion already completed.
Applicants who do not meet PEO's minimum academic requirements are not assigned exams at all; their applications are withdrawn.
This article is about Ontario. Other regulators work differently.
Ontario is not a template. Engineers and Geoscientists BC assigns specific examinations after a detailed assessment of your academics and tells candidates: "Do not sign up for examinations before they are officially assigned." APEGA works the same way: its Board of Examiners reviews your application and mails an assessment letter naming the exams, which can include basic studies papers PEO's current program does not contain. Both are the opposite of PEO's self-select model — EGBC will not even let you register until exams are assigned.
Details diverge: APEGA lets candidates take approved equivalent university courses instead of assigned exams; PEO's current program does not. Fees, time limits, attempt caps and deadlines are each regulator's own. PEO delivers the online sessions jointly with EGBC and APEGA, but shared delivery is not shared rules. Read your own regulator's academic examination page before you plan anything.
The experience requirement is separate
Exams clear the academic requirement only. Experience is assessed through PEO's competency-based assessment (CBA) — 34 competencies across seven categories. As of 1 July 2026 the minimum time component dropped from four years to two years of eligible, verifiable experience, counted from the conferral date of a recognised four-year bachelor of engineering degree. PEO is candid that this is a floor, not a target: applicants average three to four years to demonstrate all 34 competencies.
The same update stopped undergraduate co-op and internship time counting toward the two-year minimum, though it can still be applied to the CBA. Two further facts are worth stating plainly, because applicants often assume the opposite: PEO does not require Canadian experience, and you need not be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to be licensed.
Before you spend anything
Confirm your program is on PEO's Recognized Programs List in the application portal before you buy exams; if not, file a Program Verification Request first. Take fees from PEO's own fee schedule, never a third-party page including this one, and check the document's date before relying on a number. Outside Ontario, none of the rules above are yours: start at EGBC or APEGA.
Verified 22 September 2026 against PEO's, EGBC's and APEGA's published pages. Deadlines, fees, policies and formats change between sittings — confirm everything at source.
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Disclosure: ExamsSolutions.ca is an independent exam-preparation publisher, not affiliated with or endorsed by PEO, EGBC, APEGA or any regulator. It currently sells four courses: 11-CS-1 (23-CS-1) Engineering Economics, 16-Mec-B5 (22-Mec-B5) and 08-Mfg-B4 Product Design and Development, and 04-BS-1 Mathematics. The first three sit inside PEO's current four-exam program; 04-BS-1 is a basic studies exam, which arises only under the legacy Specific Exam Program above, or under regulators like APEGA that assign basic studies papers.