Free practice for the California Backflow Prevention Assembly Tester (BPAT) certification — cross-connection theory, RP, DC, PVB and SVB assemblies, field test procedures and California's Cross-Connection Control Policy Handbook — with a written explanation on every answer.
A Backflow Prevention Assembly Tester (BPAT) is the person a California water system relies on to prove that the assembly protecting the drinking-water main still works. Certification comes from a certifying organization recognized by the State Water Resources Control Board — CA-NV AWWA is the one most California testers use — and the statewide rules come from the Cross-Connection Control Policy Handbook (CCCPH), effective July 1, 2024. Practice the material below: free, no sign-up, with a written explanation on every question.
No account needed. Pick an answer to see whether it's right and read the explanation — the same explanations you get on every question in the full course.
Every question tells you why the correct answer is correct and defines the terms it uses — so you learn the rule, not just the answer.
Questions are written from scratch against the official codes and agency publications for this exam — never copied from the real exam.
Every question and explanation is fully translated, with the English exam term kept alongside — not a shallow machine translation.
LICENA is a practice tool, not a school. We don't promise a pass — we help you understand the material and walk in prepared.
The full backflow course is 500 questions across 5 blocks, drawn from the areas of the official CA-NV AWWA Expected Range of Knowledge for Backflow Prevention Assembly Testers.
A cross-connection is any actual or potential connection between the public water system and something that is not approved drinking water — a hose left submerged in a planter, a chemical feed line teed into a supply. California's Cross-Connection Control Policy Handbook (CCCPH) defines it broadly on purpose: "potential" counts, so an arrangement that is safe today but could be misused tomorrow is still a cross-connection. The trap is treating the word as a synonym for backflow. The cross-connection is the pathway; backflow is the event that uses it.
This is the part candidates underestimate. You need the pressure vocabulary cold — absolute versus gauge pressure, vacuum as negative gauge pressure, head loss, thermal expansion, water hammer, the venturi effect — and you need to do arithmetic with it. One foot of water column is about 0.433 psi; run it backwards and one psi is about 2.31 feet of water. Expect items that hand you an elevation and ask for the pressure, or that describe a scenario — a main break, a fire-flow drawdown, a downstream booster pump — and ask which mode of backflow it produces. The distinguishing question never changes: did the supply pressure fall, or did the downstream pressure rise?
Who is responsible for what. The public water system runs the program and performs the hazard assessment, the water user owns the assembly, and the tester tests it and reports the result. Since July 1, 2024 the statewide standards live in the CCCPH rather than the old Title 17 cross-connection regulations, and its numbers are fair game: assemblies are field tested at least annually, a failed assembly must be repaired or replaced within 30 days of notification, and a tester who finds a backflow incident or an unprotected cross-connection must notify the water system as soon as possible within 24 hours. Know the difference between "approved" and "listed" too: the USC Foundation for Cross-Connection Control and Hydraulic Research publishes the list of approved assemblies, but matching one to the degree of hazard is a separate decision.
Air gap, barometric loop, AVB, PVB, SVB, DC and RP, plus the detector versions (DCDA, DCDA-II, RPDA, RPDA-II). For each you need the design, the major components, the correct application and the installation rules. Two facts carry a lot of weight: an air gap is at least twice the effective opening and never less than one inch, and a PVB or SVB protects against backsiphonage only, never backpressure. On the California side, a high hazard cross-connection at premises containment gets an air gap or an RP, a DC is limited to low hazard, and an RP sits between twelve and thirty-six inches above finished grade, with twenty-four inches of clearance on the test-cock side.
The written exam has its own troubleshooting portion, and the hands-on exam is nothing else. You field test an RP, a DC, a PVB and an SVB, with faults simulated in some of them, and you are graded on procedure as much as on the answer — a recording error on the exam form counts against you the same way a misread does. Learn the symptom-to-cause chains: what a leaking number-two shutoff does to an RP test, what a fouled first check does to a DC, why an air inlet that opens late points at a particular fault. And treat the gauge as part of the procedure — its accuracy has to be verified at least annually.
CA-NV AWWA, the American Water Works Association section that certifies most California testers, splits the exam in two settings. The general knowledge and troubleshooting portions are computer-based at a professional testing center: 100 knowledge items for initial certification (50 on recertification) plus 25 troubleshooting items, closed book, within a three-hour time frame, with an approved cut score of 70% on each. The performance exam is hands-on at a scheduled site, on four assemblies, graded pass or fail. Applications are due at least twenty days before the exam date, the exams are delivered in English, and certification runs three years before you retake all three portions. Current fees, dates and eligibility live on the CA-NV AWWA certification page. One honest caveat: which certificate your customers accept still depends on the water district and county — several California counties administer no test of their own and simply require testers to register locally, so check before you quote the job.
This course is 500 questions in five blocks, and they follow the order the material is actually learned: concepts, assemblies, test procedures, diagnostics, then California regulation and tester duties. At 30 questions a day that is about three weeks, with room for a second pass over your weakest block. Do the hands-on work separately — no question bank substitutes for putting a gauge on a real assembly, and the performance exam is where most first-timers come unstuck. If you are building a licensed trade around this work, our CSLB Law & Business and C-10 Electrical practice pages use the same format, and the free EPA 608 course covers the federal refrigerant certification many mechanical contractors also need. Treat any provider that promises a guaranteed pass as a red flag — no honest one does.
The whole 500-question backflow course is free on LICENA — all five blocks, in English, Spanish and Russian, with a written explanation on every answer. Certification itself is issued by a State Water Board–recognized certifying organization, not by us; we only give you the practice.
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