TUV Functional Safety Engineer / Professional Exam Questions

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Typical Open Question

The “open” questions on our TUV Certified 61511 Functional Safety Training course exam are designed to test your understanding of the basic rules of functional safety.

There are 50 questions on the exam, each giving 1 mark. They cover all aspects of the standard including Functional Safety Management and all of the various lifecycle stages. A typical question would be….

"How many BPCS IPL’s can be claimed as providing risk reduction against a particular initiating event?"

The question is constructed so that you have to know what the common abbreviations are (BPCS = basic process control system, IPL = independent protection layers) and the related guidance within the standard.

There are three parts to a complete answer –

Up to 2 BPCS layers are allowed (but no more)
And only if they are independent
If one of the BPCS layers is an initiating cause, then the “other” BPCS layer can be counted as providing risk reduction against that scenario, but no additional layers

Typical Case Study Question

The “case study” questions are designed to test your ability to describe how things should be done (in other words, can you apply your understanding of the “rules” of functional safety to real world examples?).

There are a total of 50 marks available for the case study questions (same as the open questions). The number of marks available for each question is given each time. Case study questions often present scenarios that you are either asked to comment on (is this approach OK?) or to do something yourself. For example …

"Write a competency specification for someone to author a proof test procedure" (3 marks).

The question is structured so that you must demonstrate that you know what the elements of competency should be – and what might be a reasonable set of requirements for each of the elements.

There are three competency elements defined in the functional safety standards, each of which need to be identified, together with typical requirements:

Formal training. Such as attending the TUV Sud certified IEC functional safety training from =Method (of course!)
Practical experience. Such as having carried out a relevant role for a defined period – such as 4 years’ experience in a control and instrumentation related discipline.
Demonstration of knowledge. Such as having previously authored a defined number of other proof test procedures where these have been formally verified by a competent person. If such verification was not done, then this activity would count toward s “Practical Experience”, but would not count towards the more rigorous “Demonstration of Knowledge”. Other activities that would count as “Demonstration of Knowledge” would be formal examinations and case studies.