Based on the Red Seal Carpenter standard, the NBC, and the Ontario Building Code
Practice on the go and jump straight back to where you left off.
About the certification
In Ontario, General Carpenter is trade code 403A. The written Certificate of Qualification (C of Q) exam is administered by Skilled Trades Ontario. Carpenter is a Red Seal trade, so Ontario's certifying exam is the interprovincial Red Seal Carpenter exam — passing it earns both your C of Q and the Red Seal endorsement recognized across Canada.
The Red Seal exam has 100 multiple-choice questions with a 70% pass mark, and candidates are generally allotted up to about four hours. Questions are built from the Red Seal Occupational Standard for the trade, which also supplies the math formulas — area, rafter rise and run, and volume among them — used for the exam's calculation questions.
ExamHub's free 403A practice quiz has 180 original questions across seven topic areas that mirror the official exam weighting, with an explanation and a cited source for every answer. It is unofficial study practice — always confirm current requirements with Skilled Trades Ontario, the National Building Code, and the Ontario Building Code (O. Reg. 163/24).
What's covered
Categories map to the Red Seal exam's Major Work Activity blocks, with framing and concrete work the most heavily weighted — just as they are on the real exam.
Try a few
Five questions pulled from the full bank, with the answer shown — use the quiz above for the real timed experience.
Why: O. Reg. 213/91, s. 169 sets minimum cable strength factors: 3.5 times for a drum or sheave cable on a device other than a tower crane, 5 times on a tower crane, 3 times for pendants, and 10 times where the hoisting device is used for supporting persons. Hoisting people carries the highest factor because failure is fatal.
Why: Volume = length x width x depth: 12 x 0.6 x 0.2 = 1.44 m³. This is the basis of every concrete quantity takeoff for a footing or slab.
Why: O. Reg. 213/91, s. 234 requires the walls of an excavation to be supported by a support system, with exemptions that include an excavation less than 1.2 m deep and walls sloped to the gradient set for the soil type. Below those conditions, no worker may be in the trench, because a cave-in at even modest depth carries enough soil weight to be fatal.
Why: Using the Pythagorean theorem, a² + b² = c²: 9² + 12² = 81 + 144 = 225, and √225 = 15 m. This is the same 3-4-5 relationship scaled up by a factor of 3.
Why: OBC 9.26.5.1 requires eave protection on shingle, shake or tile roofs to extend from the edge of the roof a minimum of 900 mm up the slope, to a line not less than 300 mm inside the inner face of the exterior wall. That is far enough to stop ice-dam backup from reaching the deck over heated space. Under 9.26.5.1(2) it is not required, for example, over unheated garages, carports and porches, where the overhang exceeds 900 mm, on asphalt-shingle roofs installed under Subsection 9.26.8, on slopes of 1 in 1.5 or steeper, or in regions with 3 500 or fewer degree-days.
FAQ
The interprovincial Red Seal Carpenter exam has 100 multiple-choice questions. ExamHub's practice bank has 180 original questions, and the timed 'Test Me' mode draws a 100-question practice test to match the real exam's exact count.
The Red Seal exam pass mark is 70%. Ontario's Skilled Trades Ontario certifying exams generally use the same 70% threshold, and ExamHub's quiz uses it too.
Red Seal certifying exams are generally allotted up to about 4 hours. ExamHub's Test Me mode gives you up to 4 hours as well.
The Red Seal exam weighting is split across seven blocks: common occupational skills, planning and layout, concrete work, framing (the largest single block), exterior finishing, interior finishing, and renovations.
No. These are original questions written by ExamHub from the Red Seal Occupational Standard for Carpenter, its published exam weighting and math-formula sheet, the National Building Code of Canada, the Ontario Building Code (O. Reg. 163/24), and O. Reg. 213/91. They cover the same topics but aren't copies of any real exam. Always verify against current code before relying on any value in the field.