CRE REVIEW – PRACTICE EXAM

9/25/0210/1/0305

1) If a Duane growth model with a growth rate of  = 0.3 and cumulative

 ( MTBF ) = 26,000 is used, what is the value for the instantaneous MTBF ?

a) 86, 667 b) 33,800

c) 37,143 d) 44,200

2) A test procedure that is insensitive to deviation from its underlying assumptions is described as

a) unbiased b) robust
c) efficient d) statistically valid

3) A designer has derated a component. This means he has assigned the component to operate at

a) reduced stress conditions b) higher stress levels than normal

c) normal operating conditions d) lower stress levels than normal

4) In the space below, write the formula for Inherent Availability:

5) A life test is run on 5 power supplies. The total exposure is 50,000 hours. All failed items were replaced immediately
with new items. Failures are  distributed. If 4 failures occur during the testing, what is the 90% lower confidence limit
on the MTTF ?

a) 7,465 b) 5,465
c) 6,452 d) 6,255

6) Data showing failures is analyzed and a proportion of the units tested survive the entire test cycle. Data on these
types of samples are called

a) control test data b) parametric data

c) censored data d) FARCAS Data

7) The reliability of A unit in the diagram below is 0.990. The other four units ( B ) have equal reliability values. The
system reliability goal is 0.9896. Find the minimum reliability for each of the B units in order to attain this reliability goal.

B B a. 0.980

b. 0.985
A
c. 0.995
d. 0.990
B B

8) A hazard is defined as

a) the probability of injury b) an event leading to system failure

c) a condition that may result in d) the probability of a design related malfunction
an accident or near tragedy

9) Which of the following best describes a sneak circuit ?

a) An invalid, executable path b) A closed loop

c) A dead code d) An electrical surge escape

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10) A certain aircraft fuel line has a normally distributed failure rate ( due to corrosion ) with a mean of 15 years and a
standard deviation of 3.5 years. Find the probability that the fuel lines will survive a 10 year period.

a) 0.92 b) 0.42 c) 0.58 d) 0.08

11) A typical use of the Duane method is to assess the amount of test time required to attain a

a) Weibull location parameter b) Weibull shape parameter

c) target MTBF d) present MTBF

12) An automotive bracket has a mean strength of 2,800 N and a standard deviation of 370 N, and is . The applied load
is also  with a mean of 1,600 N and a standard deviation of 180N. Find the reliability of the bracket.

a) 0.9999 b) 0.9854 c) 0.9983 d) 0.9995

13) 15 power transformers were tested for 1200 cumulative hours, with 4 failures. The test was then failure truncated.
If the failure rate is constant, what is the 95% lower confidence limit for the MTBF ?

14) A study of repair times is being conducted at a FAA Repair Station. Data reduction resulted in a mean of natural
logarithms of 5 with a standard deviation of 0.4. Find the maintainability for a time of T = 248 minutes.

a) 0.94 b) 0.81 c) 0.90 d) 0.86

15) Reliability requirements are a function of all of the following EXCEPT

a) anticipated product cycle b) type of product

c) operating environment d) manufacturing process

16) Which method should NOT be used for screening failures in a new product early in the development process ?

a) Shake out testing b) Debugging

c) Burn – In testing d) Durability testing

17) Reliability –centered maintenance (RCM) is a method used to

a) preserve system function b) characterize the downtime distribution

c) obtain maintainability data d) track maintenance training

18) Find the lowest mission reliability that will give a system effectiveness value of 0.90 if OR is 0.975, and DA is 0.965.

a) 0.927 b) 0.967 c) 0.957 d) 0.978 e) 0.96

19) Reliability growth methods are used to

a) estimate the effect of reducing the mission time on reliability.

b) estimate the change in reliability resulting from additional testing
c) estimate the effect of decreasing stress on reliability
d) estimate the effect that changes in the design of a unit have on its reliability

20) 1000 electrical components are tested until 15 fail. The 15 that failed had an average life of 50 hours to failure. The
largest failure time was 80 hours. No failed parts were replaced. With 90% confidence, the true MTBF is  what value ?
( Assume a  ).

a) 6593 b) 8436 c) 4537 d) 4933 e) 3952

21) Complete data is best described by

a) Right censored b) Left censored c) Truncated d) Exact life

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22) PM programs are most effective when

a) random failures occur b) the hazard rate is constant

c) the hazard rate is decreasing d) the hazard rate is increasing

23) Human error risks are quantified using which analysis method ?

a) FMEA b) Risk analysis c) Worst case analysis d) Auditing

24) During burn in – electrical components typically exhibit a ______________ hazard rate.

a) Increasing b) decreasing c) constant d) normal

25) A complex cargo door lock system has a reliability goal of 0.995. The predicted reliability is 0.999 when
one of the subsystems is functioning, and 0.90 when that subsystem is not functioning. Find the minimum reliability
for the subsystem to meet the system reliability goal.

a) 0.960 b) 0.899 c) 0.929 d) 0.998

26) A four way switch has a reliability of 0.92 for 10,000 hours. If five switches are tested, what is the probability that 4
will survive ?

a) 0.1563 b) 0.0177 c) 0.2866 d) 0.9999

27) When is data censored ?

a) When questionable methods of data collection are employed

b) When data is known to be biased
c) When product data are sequenced and questionable
d) When data collection is time truncated

28) The goal of accelerated testing is

a) increased reliability b) higher levels of quality

c) reduced development cost d) reduced development time

29) Find the inherent availability for a robot having a MTBF of 2000 hours and a MTTR of 2 hours:

30) When a Weibull distribution has a  = 2 , distribution closely resembles a _______________ distribution.

a) Exponential b) Normal c) Rayleigh d) Lognormal

31) The best phase ( in terms of cost effectiveness ) to eliminate a potential hazard is in the ______________ phase.

a) burn – in b) production c) design d) field failure analysis

32) Which type of control can quickly detect slight shifts in the degradation phenomena ?

a) p b) EWMA c) Xbar – s d) Xbar – r

33) Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of testability ?

a) Fault isolation b) Fault detection c) False alarm rate d) Fault repair rate

34) Environmental testing should be performed under which conditions ?

a) Combined conditions b) Accelerated conditions c) Induced conditions d) stress – corrosion

35) The potential loss of property or critical human safety may be analyzed using which method ?

a) SPC b) Cause & Effect c) Probabilistic Risk Assessment d) DOE

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36) PM is performed for all of the following reasons EXCEPT to

a) prevent malfunctions b) track the result of a failure

c) prevent poor performance d) reduce machine downtimes

37) A life test is performed in an accelerated manner with an acceleration factor of 4. The MTTF under accelerated
conditions is found to be 800 hours. If the TTF is , find the reliability at 2K hours.

a) 0.50  R  0.60 b) R < 0.42 c) R < 0.60 d) 0.40  R  0.50

38) Often, standard store purchased electronic components are used in place of custom components in assemblies.
Which of the following is true regarding this situation ?

a) The components represent a higher cost

b) Reliability data is more readily available
c) The custom built components are more reliable
d) The lead time is longer

39) An automated test / measuring system provides which of the following advantages ?

a) The need for burn-in is eliminated

b) The reliability of the system may be determined faster
c) SPC charts may be generated and manually updated
d) Data on Parametrics can be obtained real time, summarized, and analyzed quickly

40) Which of the following reports is of most value when concerning reliability activities ?

a) SPC Reports b) Weibull analysis reports c) Financial reports d) Corrective Action Reports

41) Electronic components in the burn – in phase will exhibit a _____________ failure rate.

a) decreasing b) increasing c) constant d) constantly increasing

42) Which failure type is NOT used for constructing a fault tree ?

a) System b) Unanticipated c) Catastrophic d) Common caused

43) A power supply has a failure free life of 200 hours with an increasing hazard rate following. If the Reliability engineer
recommends a scheduled replacement every 300 hours – this will result in which of the following ?

a) Increased MTTR b) Increased MTBF c) Reduced MTTR d) No effect on reliability

44) Which tool is most often used in the design phase for manufacturing of electronic components ?

a) Step stress b) Thermal analysisc) Burn in d) Fatigue testing

45) Which theory states that energy absorption is proportional to operating time at different levels ?

a) Arrhenius law b) Miner’s rule c) Duane’s law d) Inverse power law

46) Which item should NOT be included in a FRACAS report ?

a) Details of Failures b) Names of individuals at fault c) Repair actions d) Timelines

47) A reliability of 0.99 is required. Find the sample size that will provide a confidence level of 95% that there will be no
failures ?

a) 89 b ) 298 c) 71 d) 367

48) ESS is used for the primary purpose of

a) meeting regulatory requirements b) cause latent defects to surface as early failures

c) assuring that failures do not effect the environment d) providing early reliability data

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49) The FMEA and FTA differ in the fact that FTA

a) begins with system failure effects or top events first b) is used along with a Fishbone

c) begins with individual or combined lower level failures first d) does not address human factors

50) Which data source is most reliable for actual failure modes and mechanisms ?

a) Field data b) Qual – Test data c) FMEA data d) Functional Test data

51) Time based life data is categorized as Right censored when its failures are known to be

a) beyond the present time b) at an exact time

c) before a specified time d) at random times

52) 10 units have a Weibull scale parameter of 6.2 days with a shape parameter of 0.7.
Predict the reliability of these units after 10 days of testing.

a) 0.632 b) 0.198
c) 0.368 d) 0.247

53) ) A lot of 300,000 resistors is to be sampled prior to acceptance. Failure of a sampled resistor to pass the ATP will
reject the entire lot. Find the minimum sample size in order to achieve 90% confidence that atleast 85% of the untested
resistors are acceptable.

a) 32 b) 15
c) 19 d) 37

54) Assume the number of equipment breakdowns during a given time period follow a Poisson distribution with the
expected number of failures per hour = 0.40. Find the probability of having two breakdowns in an 8 hour period.

a) 0.21 b) 0.05
c) 0.30 d) 0.025

55) An Water Filtration system has the following reliability parameters

MTBF = 1k hours MTTR = 2 hours

MTBMA = 800 hours MMT = 3 hours

What is the inherent availability of the system ?

a) 0.999 b) 0.997
c) 0.996 d) 0.998

56) Find the achieved availability for the above system ?

a) 0.995 b) 0.997
c) 0.996 d) 0.998

57) Find the lowest mission reliability value which will give a system effectiveness value of 0.90 if operational readiness is
0.975 and design adequacy is 0.965.

a) 0.957 b) 0.920
c) 0.967 d) 0.968

58) A security camera system has a system  = 0.02 /hr. An identical unit can be switched on if the first camera fails to
record. Assuming 100% reliable switching, find the reliability for any random day.

a) 0.9158 b) 0.6187 c) 0.6310 d) 0.9404

59) An electronic system has four components in series with ’s = 5k, 6k, 4.5k, and 2k hours respectively.
Find the 200 hour system reliability. ( ’s are  distributed ).

a) 0.989 b) 0.898
c) 0.832 d) 0.804

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60) A flight system contains two units, both must function to enable the system to work. The system reliability / availability
goal is 0.975. The first unit is non-repairable, having an availability of 0.99. The second unit is repairable, with a constant
failure rate of 1.5E-4. Find the minimum MTTR to meet the required availability goal.

a) 171 b) 69 c) 101 d) 101

61) The primary advantage of step-stress testing is that it

a) screens / segregates discrepant hardware b) runs on constant stress

c) yields failures immediately d) guarantees accurate estimates

62) Which tool can reduce time-to-market significantly

a) Field testing / Evaluation b) Integrated Product Development

c) HASS d) RCM

63) Which tool is used to determine the amount of additional testing needed to reach a reliability goal ?

a) Weibull analysis b) Poka Yoke c) Hypothesis Testing d) Reliability Growth

64) Components are situated in series. Which tool is used to determine the overall tolerance needed for the serial combination ?

a) Min / Max tolerances b) Root Sum of Squares of the tolerances

c) Average of the tolerances d) Sum of the tolerances

65) A PRAT plan is employed in an assembly area. The design / discrimination ratio is expressed as the ratio of

a) Alpha / Beta risk b) lower test MTBF/ upper test MTBF

c) consumer’s risk / producer’s risk d) upper test MTBF / lower test MTBF

66) Refer to the following diagram:

What % of the material is expected to fail ?

a) 8.1 % b) 2.0 %

c) 2.3 % d) 1.4 %

x = 150 y = 160

x = 3 y = 4
67) Find the Factor of Safety for the material shown above.

a) 1.50 b) 0.66 c) 1.33 d) 0.75 e) Other ___________

68) Improving the maintainability requires which method ?

a) increasing the test rate b) reduce the hazard rate

c) reduce the wear out rate d) increase the repair rate

69) Which method is used to develop a robust product by optimizing processes ?

a) IPD b) QFD c) DOE d) FRACAS

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70) A new scanner has a constant failure rate of 1 error every 17 days of constant usage. Find the probability that the
scanner can operate failure free for 5 hours.

a) 0.99 b) 0.01 c) 0.06 d) 0.94

71) Thirty Fuel Control Valve are tested for 50 hours each, and two fail the functional test. Find the reliability at the 95%
lower one-sided confidence level.

a) 0.85 b) 0.92 c) 0.86 d) 0.81

72) Two components and a switch are shown below:

( Switch reliability = 0.990 )

Switch What is the system reliability at 1,000 hours ?
1 = 10,000 hours a) 0.9944
b) 0.8958
c) 0.9854
2 = 10,000 hours d) 0.8998

73) Pre production and final product data differ. Which tool is best used for evaluating the reliability in this case ?

a) Accelerated testing b) Field use c) Monte Carlo modeling d) Force field analysis

74) A system consists of 500 solar cells. The failure rate for the system is 0.003 failures per hour. The solar panel
system is in use for 20 hours per day. Find the spare systems requirement for a 30 day period with 99% confidence.

a) 9 b) 8 c) 4 d) 5

75) A reliability plan should contain which element as its first element in the plan ?

a) Sample size b) Product life target c) Test equipment d) Cost estimate for testing

76) Assuming perfect switching and perfect start ups. Which of the following systems will exhibit the longest mean
life if each system consists of n units with identical reliability ?

a) cold standby system b) A k out of n system c) a parallel system d) a series system

77) ) Find the sample size required to demonstrate a reliability of 0.99 with a 95% confidence level with no failures:

a) 298 b) 72 c) just take a sample d) 90 e) 368

78) A component has an  . Find the minimum number of units that must survive a 1k hour, failure-free test to attain a
5 year  with 99% confidence.

a) 232 b) 171 c) 202 d) 89

79) Find the 95% lcl on the MTBF for the following component:

n = 15 generators, total cumulative test time = 1200 hours

4 failures
Test was failure – truncated
 = constant

a) 610 hours b) 131 hours c) 155 hours d) 879 hours

80) Find the required MTBF for a 4 hour mission having a reliability goal of 0.9999

81) An electric guard gate has a system  = 0.02 /hr. An identical unit can be switched on if the first gate fails to close.
Assuming 100% reliable switching, find the reliability for any random day.

a) 0.9158 b) 0.6187 c) 0.6310 d) 0.9404

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82) In 1000 independent trials, with the same probability of failure at each trial, 50 failures were observed. Assume a
Poisson distribution. Upper and lower 90% ( symmetrical 80%) confidence limits on the liability:

a) 0.96 – 0.94 b) 0.98 – 0.92 c) 0.99 – 0.96 d) 1.00 – 0.95

83) A series system requires a reliability of 0.99 at 1000 hours. What is the approximate subsystem MTBF that must be
achieved to meet this system objective in three identical components are used ?

a) 303,000 b) 331,000 hours c) 427,000 hours d) 298,000 hours

84) An item was removed from testing after 25 hours without failing. The unit was:

I Right censored
II Suspended
III Truncated

a) I & II b) I & III only c) II & III only d) I, II & III

85) Name the four specific failure types:

I
II
III
IV

86) If time to fail data were to be collected and analyzed for 4 months, the data would be:

I Left censored
II Right censored
III. Single censored
IV. Annually correlated

a) I b) II & III c) I & III d) I, II & IV

87) You are the chief engineer for a revamped internet interface card, which is easy to install and will allow user
modification through software. The initial qualification tests generated 5 failures in 3000 hours. The goals is for an MTBF
of atleast 2000 hours of service. If the  value is 0.4, how much total testing is required ?

a) 17,000 hours b) 7500 hours c) 1200 hours d) 25,000 hours

88) An accelerated test plan is used with an exponential distribution. Given that the acceleration factor is 2.4, a test
provides a MTBF of 80 hours. Determine the reliability under normal operating conditions for a time equal to 200 hours.

a) 8.2% b) 19.7% c)35.3% d) 45.7%

89) An electronic device can either succeed or fail on a test. The number of independent trials needed to demonstrate a
0.90 reliability with 0.95 confidence when only one failure is allowed is :

a) 22 b) 45 c) 56 d) 68

90) Define a catastrophic failure:

91) A series system is made up of 5 subsystems and has a reliability of .95. Four of the subsystems have the following
reliabilities:

Rss1 = 0.98 Rss2 = 0.99 Rss3 = 0.998 Rss4 = 0.997

Determine the reliability of the 5th sub-system component

a) .9226 b) .9841 c) .9654 d) .9515

92) A life test for a sample of 300 batteries produces 15 failed batteries. Find the 95% confidence interval for the
probability P of a given component surviving the test.

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93) A system contains 4 identical sensors of which 3 of them are in standby redundancy. A standby sensor is switched in
by failure of the preceding sensor. Assume the switching device has a perfect reliability of 1.0 and the sensors have a
constant hazard rate of 0.08 and sensors cannot fail while on standby. The reliability of the system at one unit of time is
approximately

a) 0.96123 b) 0.99644 c) 0.99999 d) 0.98929

94) A reliability test is being performed. The results will be reported as proportional failing. Which distribution is the best
prior Bayesian distribution when examining this data ?
a) Binomial b) Beta c) Poisson d) Gamma

95) Which of the following is the primary goal of accelerated testing ?

a) Higher quality b) Increased reliability

c) Reduced development cost d) Reduced development time

96) Which of the following is used to show the relationship of failure rate to temperature ?

a) Arrhenius model b) Exponential model

c) ARINC apportionment technique d) Bayes Theorem

97) Which of the following is used to predict the future performance of hardware from testing and early
field data sources ?

a) Reliability growth modeling b) Monte Carlo simulation

c) Makov Analysis d) Reliability physics

98) The average of the natural logarithms of the repair time is 4.3 hours with a st. dev. Of 0.7 hour. What is the
maintainability for an allowed repair time of 120 hours ?

a) 0.757 b) 0.243 c) 0.976 d) 0.187

99) With a beta shape parameter equal to 1, the ordinate (y value ) of the Weibul distribution will

a) decrease steadily from t = 0 b) remain constant with a value = 1/100

c) increase steadily from t = 0. d) first increase, then decrease from t = 0

100) A two level five factor experiment is conducted to optimize the reliability of an electronic control module. A half
replicate of the standard full factorial experiment is used. The number of treatment combinations will be

a) 32 b) 25 c) 16 d) 10 e) 5

101) A system contains many identical parts with varying ages. The failure rates are U distributed. Which of the following
is true concerning the reliability of these parts ?

a) The lambda of the system is given by the product of the individual part failure rates.
b) The oldest part is expected to fail first.
c) The lambda of the system is the product of the individual part reliabilities.
d) Each separate part has the same probability of failure during a given time period.

102) In a PRAT plan, the deign/discrimination ratio is shown by the ratio of:

a) consumer’s risk / producer’s risk

b) lower test MTBF / Upper test MTBF
c) alpha risk / beta risk
d) upper test MTBF / lower test MTBF

103) System maintainability is based on:

a) total repair time b) operating time

c) total PM time d) time to start up redundant system

104) Orthogonal Defect Classification ( ODC ) is used to

a) determining which type of defect data to collect at various phases of development

b) develop a matrix of support identifying an efficient set of test cases
c) determine root causes of software defects
d) develop sampling plans for inspection
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© DeSimone Engineering – 2003 – All Rights Reserved – No Part of This Document may be Copied or Reproduced
105) The OC curve for a test plan will show:

a) Probability of survival for a given time

b) Effects of temperature and humidity
c) Expected test time
d) Probability of acceptance for various values of MTBF

106) The reliability of a 4 way switch in relation to surviving a 10,000 cycle test in a corrosive environment is .92. If
5 switches are tested, what is the probability that 4 will survive ?

a) 0.9999 b) 0.0177 c) 0.2866 d) 0.1563

107) The best source of mechanical parts reliability is

a) RAC b) NIST d) Telcordia ( Bellcore ) d) ISO Standards

108) Define system availability:

109) Define the difference between Ai and Ao :

110) A parts count reliability prediction is calculated by summing the

a) variances of part failure rates

b) parts failure rates
c) number of parts in the system
d) parts lambdas with applied stresses

111) Define derating:

112) Define the formula used for three subsystems in active parallel, non load sharing where, atleast 2 of the 3 must
work in order for the system to function.

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