CSCS Test Questions and Answers: Practice by Topic
The CITB HS&E test draws its 50 questions from a fixed set of knowledge topics. Practise each topic on its own (untimed, with instant feedback), then prove yourself on a full timed free CSCS practice test.
Not sure what order to work through these in? The CSCS test revision plan sets one out.
CITB groups the Operatives syllabus into five core knowledge areas, and all five are covered by the CSCS mock test for Operatives. We break those five into the 21 narrower topics below, because “occupational health” is too broad to revise in one sitting. It covers dust, noise, vibration, manual handling and welfare. The 21 are our split, not CITB's labels.
CSCS General Responsibilities & Risk Assessment questions
Your legal duties on site, risk assessments and method statements.
CSCS PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) questions
Hard hats, hi-vis, eye and hand protection: when and how PPE must be used.
CSCS Safety Signs & Signals questions
Prohibition, warning, mandatory and safe-condition signs used on site.
CSCS Fire Safety & Emergency Procedures questions
Fire prevention, extinguisher types and emergency response.
CSCS Dust, Fumes & Respiratory Risks questions
Silica dust, fumes and respiratory protective equipment.
CSCS Site Transport & Traffic Management questions
Mobile plant, vehicle movements and pedestrian routes.
CSCS Excavations & Confined Spaces questions
Trench support, inspections and confined-space entry.
CSCS Buried & Underground Services questions
Cable avoidance tools, permits and safe digging practice.
CSCS Accident Reporting (RIDDOR) & First Aid questions
What to report, near misses and first-aid arrangements.
CSCS Environmental Awareness & Waste questions
Pollution prevention, waste segregation and protected species.
CSCS Leadership & Management (MAP) questions
Managers & Professionals test: leading safe working.
Background reading
Some topics come up often enough, and are misunderstood often enough, to be worth reading properly rather than just drilling. Each of these explains what the law actually says, which is what the questions are testing.
- Types of PPE, and why PPE sits at the bottom of the hierarchy of controls rather than the top.
- Manual handling TILE, what the four letters cover, and why the Regulations list five factor groups rather than four.
- COSHH symbols, all nine of them, and why they are not really COSHH symbols at all.
- Asbestos awareness, the diseases it causes and why any building from before 2000 is suspect.
- Fire extinguisher types, the colour band on each red body, and why there is no class E.
- RIDDOR explained, what has to be reported, what only has to be recorded, and the deadlines for each.
- Working at height hierarchy of control, avoid then prevent then minimise, and why there is no two metre trigger.
- The 5 steps of risk assessment, the version you were taught and the version HSE publishes now.
- Heat, cold and weather risks on site, and why there is no maximum working temperature in law.