SC QUALITY GUILDCertified Quality Process Analyst (CQPA)
Sits between the technician and the engineer. Data analysis, improvement technique and the customer-supplier relationship, tested at applied rather than recall level.
The paper carries 110 questions in total: 100 that are scored and 10 unscored pretest items that do not count toward your result.
The Quality Process Analyst Primer is still being written. The CQPA practice test below is free and already finished; the volumes will be linked here once they are published.
What the CQPA examination covers
The 2026 Body of Knowledge divides into 5 sections. The question count is what each section is worth on the paper, which is not the same as how long it takes to learn.
| Section | Topic | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| I | Quality Concepts and Team Dynamics | 22 |
| II | Quality Tools and Process Improvement Techniques | 29 |
| III | Data Analysis | 33 |
| IV | Customer-Supplier Relations | 10 |
| V | Corrective and Preventive Action | 6 |
Section by section
I — Quality Concepts and Team Dynamics
Quality concepts and team dynamics at applied level, plus ethics and quality audits. Charters that govern rather than document, and the repeated objection treated as an unexamined constraint rather than an obstacle. Audits are covered from the analyst's side: audit types, components and roles, why a nonconformity requires a requirement the auditee is bound by, and how to read an audit report you did not write.
II — Quality Tools and Process Improvement Techniques
The improvement tools and the defects that quietly invalidate them. Overlapping check sheet categories make every downstream count meaningless, and a flat Pareto usually means the categories are wrong rather than that no vital few exists.
III — Data Analysis
Data types, descriptive statistics and graphical analysis. The primer separates shape, centering and stability as three distinct questions that different tools answer, because collapsing them is the most common analytical error at this level.
IV — Customer-Supplier Relations
Customer and supplier relationships as a measurable system: requirements, feedback, performance rating and the corrective action loop between organizations.
V — Corrective and Preventive Action
The distinction that is always tested. Correction fixes what is in front of you, corrective action removes the cause of something that occurred, preventive action removes the cause of something that has not. Retraining with no cause statement is a correction wearing the wrong label.
Questions from the free practice test
Every item carries the reasoning, not just the answer, and none of them appears in any book. The CQPA self-assessment covers every requirement in the Body of Knowledge: choose a 20-question random sample, a quick check at half the exam's length, a full exam at its real length and section mix, or work on your weak spots.
Quality assurance differs from quality control in that assurance:
- Inspects the product
- Is done by operators
- Applies only to suppliers
- Builds confidence the requirements will be met
Assurance concerns the arrangements that give confidence beforehand; control is the operational checking. An organization strong on control and weak on assurance catches problems reliably and keeps producing them.
Attribute data differs from variable data in that attribute data is:
- Continuous
- Measured
- Counted
- More precise
Variable data says how far from target; attribute data only classifies or counts (which side of a line, or how many defects). Which is why attribute charts need much larger samples and detect a shift far later.
DMAIC places measure before analyze because:
- Measurement is easier
- Analysis requires software
- It is conventional
- The cause should be found from data rather than decided in advance
A team that analyzes before measuring confirms whatever it already believed. The sequence exists to stop the fix being chosen before the problem is understood.
The practice test is free and needs no account. The CQPA test is a full self-assessment covering all 59 requirements in the current Body of Knowledge, with the reasoning on every answer, a score for every requirement and your progress over time.