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Free CPhT (PTCB) Practice Questions (2026) — 10 Sample Q&As Explained

The Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam (PTCE) presents 90 multiple-choice questions, requires a scaled score of at least 1,400 to pass, and costs $129 to take. Those three numbers frame everything about your preparation: how long your practice sessions should run, what score target to beat before registering, and what an unprepared attempt actually costs you. The ten free practice questions below include full worked explanations — not just an answer key — so you can see why each correct choice wins and why each distractor is built to fool you.

How to use these questions

Cover the explanation, commit to an answer, then read the reasoning. You will notice two themes running through the set. Several questions drill the exam's core parameters — question count, passing score, and fee — from different angles, because those are exactly the figures that distractors are engineered to blur: a $99 here, a 1,200 there. The others test judgment, asking you to choose the action that actually protects a patient over the one that merely keeps the workflow moving. Both habits — precise recall of exact numbers and safety-first reasoning — transfer directly to test day.

Ten PTCE practice questions with worked explanations

Question 1: All three exam parameters at once

A candidate practicing self-regulation strategies wants to confirm all three key exam parameters before test day. Which option lists the correct question count, passing scaled score, and fee, in that order?

  1. A. 90 questions; 1,400 scaled; $129
  2. B. 75 questions; 1,400 scaled; $99
  3. C. 90 questions; 1,200 scaled; $149
  4. D. 100 questions; 1,400 scaled; $129

Correct answer: A. The exam has 90 questions, a passing scaled score of 1,400, and a fee of $129 — only option A states all three correctly. Look at how each distractor is constructed: option B keeps the correct passing score but corrupts the question count (75) and the fee ($99); option C keeps the correct count but lowers the score to 1,200 and raises the fee to $149; option D keeps the score and fee but inflates the count to 100. On combination questions like this, verify every element separately — one correct number inside a choice is never enough.

Question 2: Protecting physiological integrity

A pharmacy technician is reviewing a patient's profile before dispensing. Which of the following actions best supports the physiological integrity of a patient receiving a newly prescribed medication?

  1. A. Screening the profile for potential drug-drug interactions before the prescription is filled
  2. B. Placing the finished prescription in the will-call bin as quickly as possible
  3. C. Recording the patient's insurance copay in the billing system
  4. D. Restocking returned medications to their storage shelves

Correct answer: A. Physiological integrity centers on preventing physical harm. Screening for drug-drug interactions before the prescription is filled directly protects the patient from an adverse physiological event. The other three actions — will-call placement, copay entry, and restocking — are logistical or clerical: they keep the pharmacy running, but none of them safeguards the patient's physical safety. When a stem asks what best supports patient safety, favor the option that intercepts harm before the medication ever reaches the patient.

Question 3: How many questions are on the PTCE

When counting the number of items on the PTCE, how many multiple-choice questions must a candidate answer?

  1. A. 75 questions
  2. B. 90 questions
  3. C. 100 questions
  4. D. 120 questions

Correct answer: B. The PTCE consists of 90 multiple-choice questions, per the certifying body's published exam specification. The distractors here lean on round numbers — 75, 100, 120 — that feel plausible if you have only skimmed the exam details. Anchor to the exact figure rather than a general sense of "somewhere around a hundred."

Question 4: The minimum passing score

A candidate wants to know the minimum result needed to pass the PTCE. What is the passing scaled score?

  1. A. 1,200 scaled
  2. B. 1,350 scaled
  3. C. 1,400 scaled
  4. D. 1,600 scaled

Correct answer: C. The passing scaled score for the PTCE is 1,400, as stated in the certification program's official requirements. Option B (1,350) is the most dangerous distractor because it sits just below the real threshold — close enough to feel right. A scaled score is not a percentage, so you cannot reason your way to it from "how many I got right"; the cutoff is simply a number to memorize exactly.

Question 5: Budgeting for the exam fee

A pharmacy technician candidate is budgeting for their certification exam. According to the exam program's published cost, how much is the fee to sit for the exam?

  1. A. $99
  2. B. $129
  3. C. $149
  4. D. $199

Correct answer: B. The published cost to sit for the exam is $129. Only that figure is supported by the official source; $99, $149, and $199 are familiar-looking price points chosen precisely because they resemble real exam fees. If a budgeting question offers several plausible prices, the exact published amount is the only defensible pick.

Question 6: The cost to take the PTCE, retested

A student is budgeting for certification. According to the certifying body, what is the cost to take the PTCE?

  1. A. $99
  2. B. $129
  3. C. $159
  4. D. $199

Correct answer: B. The published cost of the PTCE is $129. Notice that this is the same fact as Question 5 with a slightly different distractor set — $159 replaces $149. That is how repeated testing of a single fact works: the wrong answers shift around, but the correct answer never moves. If you know the exact fee, the reshuffled distractors are irrelevant.

Question 7: Questions in a single sitting

A test-taker computes their preparation plan and asks how many questions they must work through in a single sitting of the PTCE. Which number is correct?

  1. A. 60
  2. B. 80
  3. C. 90
  4. D. 110

Correct answer: C. The PTCE is composed of 90 multiple-choice questions, so a candidate works through 90 items in the sitting. This matters for preparation planning: if your practice sessions top out at 30 or 40 questions, you have never rehearsed the concentration demands of a full-length sitting. Build up to complete 90-question sessions before test day.

Question 8: The threshold after a weak practice test

A candidate scores below the required threshold on a practice test. To pass the actual PTCE, their scaled score must reach at least which value?

  1. A. 1,300
  2. B. 1,400
  3. C. 1,500
  4. D. 1,650

Correct answer: B. A scaled score of 1,400 is the minimum required to pass the PTCE. The threshold does not move based on how your practice tests go — a rough practice score changes your study plan, not the target. Treat the gap between your current practice performance and 1,400 as a to-do list, and keep retesting until you clear the line consistently.

Question 9: Total items presented

A candidate reviewing the exam blueprint wants to confirm the total number of scored and unscored items presented. How many multiple-choice questions does the exam contain?

  1. A. 60 questions
  2. B. 75 questions
  3. C. 90 questions
  4. D. 120 questions

Correct answer: C. The exam consists of 90 multiple-choice questions per the official source; the remaining options are plausible-looking distractors not supported by the facts. However the stem frames the composition of the exam, the arithmetic you need is the total presented — and that total is 90. Answer every item as if it counts.

Question 10: The passing scaled score, one more time

During a candidate-readiness session, a technician asks what scaled score is required to pass the exam. What is the passing scaled score?

  1. A. 1,200
  2. B. 1,300
  3. C. 1,400
  4. D. 1,600

Correct answer: C. The passing scaled score is 1,400 according to the official source; the other values are distractors. If you answered Questions 4, 8, and 10 correctly without hesitation, that number is now locked in — which is exactly the point of seeing one fact tested three ways.

What this set tells you about the real exam

Three numbers did most of the work in this set: 90 questions, a 1,400 scaled passing score, and a $129 fee. Every wrong answer above was a near-miss engineered around one of them — 75 or 100 instead of 90, 1,350 or 1,200 instead of 1,400, $99 or $149 instead of $129. The lesson is that approximate knowledge fails on multiple-choice exams; exact recall is what separates the correct choice from its neighbors. The judgment question (Question 2) adds the second lesson: when patient safety is on the line, the right action is the one that prevents harm, not the one that finishes a task fastest.

Keep going with a full-length practice test

Ten questions warm you up; ninety build the stamina the real sitting demands. When you are ready to simulate the full experience, take our full free CPhT (PTCB) practice test and aim to be clearing the 1,400 scaled-score threshold consistently before you spend the $129 exam fee on the real attempt.