Most inspectors don’t lose a tank file to a bad calculation. They lose it to a document that looked fine, a film that was missing one small marking, or a gap nobody wrote down. Set 2 is built around that.
The three questions further down this page are original and come with full explanations behind a toggle. Commit to an answer before you open one. If you want the exam structure and the code editions first, Set 1 covers them in API 653 Practice Questions (Free, With Explanations), so this page doesn’t repeat it.
What is an inspector actually checking in a weld procedure package?
Three documents, and they do different jobs. The welding procedure specification, the WPS, tells the welder what he may do: ranges for the variables, the process, the filler. The procedure qualification record, the PQR, is the evidence that one particular set of conditions produced a sound test coupon. The welder performance qualification, the WPQ, shows that a named welder can make that weld.
The body of knowledge states what you must be able to do with them. You must judge whether the procedure and qualification records comply with ASME Section IX and any extra API 653 rules. You check that the essential and non-essential variables are addressed. The mechanical tests on the PQR have to be the right ones, with acceptable results. And the welder has to be qualified to make a production weld to the WPS. And know that the WPS must reference its PQR, and that the PQR must be signed and dated.
On site this is a desk review that takes ten minutes and prevents a repair from being cut out later. The usual mistake in the field is accepting a package because the contractor’s QA stamp is on it. The stamp tells you someone read it. It doesn’t tell you the values are the ones used on the coupon, and a record reissued under a new date proves nothing new.
Why can’t a PQR show ranges?
Because it’s a record of what happened, not a permission. If the coupon was welded at one preheat and one thickness, the record has to say so, along with the test results. A range on the record erases the link between those results and the conditions that produced them.
The exam-day trap is the answer that sounds tidy: repeat the same ranges on both documents. It reads like consistency. It is the wrong way round. Another trap is mixing up the two kinds of variable. A change in a non-essential variable means the WPS gets revised. A change in an essential variable is what forces new qualification and new testing.
One boundary helps you study, and it saves hours. The exam’s weld procedure review covers only SMAW or GMAW, one process per document, one PQR supporting the WPS, and base metals limited to P-No. 1. Dissimilar metal joints, overlays, special processes, heat treatment entries and Charpy requirements are excluded. Time is better spent on the closed-book ground, where 110 of the 170 questions sit.
API 653 — Settlement, thickness, interval — one calculation, one number. Watch on YouTube · CertCrafter What does the inspector look for on a radiograph?
Section V, Article 2 is where radiography sits, and the body of knowledge points at the rules as typically applied to butt-welded tank seams: required marking, the type, selection, number and placement of image quality indicators, allowable density, control of backscatter, location markers, and records.
The wording of the exam question matters here, because the answer options are written to sound reasonable to someone who has seen a film but never reviewed one. Here is the plain version. An image quality indicator, the IQI, is the piece of wire or plaque on the film that shows the technique was sensitive enough to see what matters. Normally it sits on the source side. On a tank shell you can’t always get inside, so the IQI goes on the film side, and the film has to say so. A lead letter F next to the indicator declares it. Without that, the person reviewing the film doesn’t know which sensitivity basis applies.
Candidates mix this up with the lead letter B. That one is the backscatter check on the back of the cassette, a different test with a different purpose. Learn the pair together: F tells the reviewer where the IQI was, B tells the reviewer whether scatter from behind is fogging the film.
Which NDE articles are on the exam, and what else do they ask?
Five articles of ASME Section V, and each has a stated scope in the body of knowledge. The ultrasonic one is only the thickness-measurement standard, and the magnetic particle one is only yoke and prod techniques.
Liquid penetrant questions run on procedures, contaminants, technique, interpretation and documentation. Magnetic particle questions add calibration. Thickness questions follow the manual pulse-echo contact method. Each article also lists records among the things you must understand. That is the common thread of this set. NDE on a tank is only as good as the paper that says what was done, by whom, to which procedure.
What do you do when the tank file is thin?
Old tanks arrive with gaps. A tank built decades ago with no original drawings, no mill certificates and two recent reports is not unusual, and the question asks what the inspector should do about it.
Practice and exam agree on the direction. The owner or operator holds records for construction, inspection history and every repair or alteration, kept for the life of the tank. Where they’re missing, you don’t condemn the tank on paperwork alone and you don’t invent a grandfather clause. You rebuild the record: measure thicknesses, establish material properties by test or by documented assumption where testing isn’t practical, and write down the basis. The next inspector then has something traceable.
In practice the hard part is the discipline of writing the assumption down. A stamped nameplate with assumed data looks more complete than an honest gap, and that is exactly why it’s worse.
When is the next API 653 exam, and what does it cost?
Short version, from API’s schedule. The exam has 170 questions, of which 140 are scored, and the split is 110 closed-book and 60 open-book. For 2027:
| Exam window | Application deadline |
|---|---|
| March 12 - April 2, 2027 | January 07, 2027 |
| July 09 - 30, 2027 | May 06, 2027 |
| November 05 - 26, 2027 | September 02, 2027 |
Initial certification in 2027 is $890 for API members and $1,140 for non-members, and a late application adds $200. Check the API 653 certification page and the schedules and fees page before you book.
How should you use Set 2?
Read the explanation for all three, including the one you got right. Then log each miss by section and by what went wrong: the document, the marking, or the record. Three questions can’t measure readiness, but they show a habit, and the habit of accepting paperwork at face value is the one this set is designed to catch.
For the working side of the job, the API 653 tank calculations guide and the March 2027 changes guide are the next reads. The free API 653 quiz gives you a scored ten-question sample, and the API 653 guide lays out a phased plan. When you’re ready for timed, full-length work, the practice test bundle has six tests in real exam order.
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