Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) Entrance Exam Online Preparation & Free Practice Questions [2025]

Candidate Experience Record (CER)

Before you face any traditional test questions, you’ll complete the Candidate Experience Record (CER). This is essentially a detailed online questionnaire about your background, work experience, and achievements. Think of it as a professional self-assessment that helps CBP evaluate how your past experiences align with the competencies required for a CBP Officer.

Key things to know about the CER:

• It’s timed (about 60 minutes) and done online from home, but unproctored. You’ll receive a link via email to access the CER after your application is accepted. As mentioned earlier, you must complete it within roughly 72 hours of receiving the invite, so don’t delay.
• The CER consists of multiple-choice questions and possibly rating-scale items about your work history, skills, and situational behavior. You might be asked about your past roles (“Have you supervised others? How many people?”), your experience with certain tasks (“How often have you had to enforce a rule or procedure in your jobs?”), or how you would handle hypothetical work scenarios based on your past behavior. It’s somewhat similar to an extensive job application or a behavioral survey.
• Honesty is crucial. Provide truthful and accurate answers about your experience. The CBP hiring process includes thorough background checks, so any exaggerations or false information could be uncovered later. Moreover, the CER is designed to gauge your integrity and self-awareness as much as your experience. For example, if it asks how you handled conflicts at work, answer candidly rather than trying to guess the “perfect” answer. Many questions have no single correct response – CBP is building a profile of you as a candidate.
• Highlight relevant experiences: While being honest, you also want to put your best foot forward. This is your chance to show that you have traits of a great CBP Officer. Prior to taking the CER, it’s smart to review the CBP Officer job announcement and requirements. Note the key skills and duties (e.g. teamwork, integrity, attention to detail, dealing with the public, ability to follow procedures, etc.). When answering CER questions, keep those in mind. For instance, if a question asks about times you’ve had to enforce a policy, you might draw from an example in your past job where you upheld rules consistently – demonstrating integrity and accountability.
• Take it seriously: Some applicants mistakenly think the CER is just a quick survey or formality. In reality, it’s part of your exam score and candidate profile. Treat it as you would an exam section. Write down notes beforehand about your significant experiences and accomplishments so they’re fresh in your mind. During the CER, read each question carefully and respond thoughtfully. There may be a lot of questions (often over 100 items), so manage your time – 60 minutes can go by fast if you’re not paying attention.
• No trick questions: The CER isn’t meant to deceive you, but it may have some consistency checks. For example, it might ask similar things in different ways to see if you answer consistently. Just stick to your truthful answers and you’ll be fine. Don’t second-guess yourself or try to tailor every response to what you think CBP wants – there’s evidence that being genuine yields a more favorable outcome than trying to game the test.

In summary, the Candidate Experience Record is your first hurdle. It’s unique because it’s all about you – there’s nothing to “study” for except knowing your own work and life history. Prepare by reflecting on your past experiences that demonstrate qualities of a good officer. Then, when you take the CER, stay calm and answer every question (don’t leave anything blank). Once you submit the CER, congratulate yourself – the first part is done! Soon after, if all goes well, you’ll get an email to proceed to the next part: the actual test sections on writing and reasoning.

CBP Officer Exam Sections and Time Limits

The CBP Officer Entrance Exam includes several distinct test sections (besides the CER). Each section is timed and targets a different skill set that a CBP Officer needs. Here’s a breakdown of the three core test sections you’ll encounter (in the order you’ll take them):

Writing Skills Test (WST)

The Writing Skills Test evaluates your command of the English language – crucial for an officer who must read reports, write incident narratives, and communicate clearly. This section is a multiple-choice exam focusing on grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and basic writing ability. You will typically complete the WST online at home, right after the Experience Record (if invited to continue), and you’ll have about 63 minutes to answer all questions.

What to expect on the WST:

• Grammar and Punctuation: You’ll face questions testing your knowledge of proper grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation usage. For example, you might see a sentence with an underlined portion and be asked to choose the best correction (or “No correction needed”) from the options. You must identify errors in verb tense, subject-verb agreement, run-on sentences, comma placement, etc.
• Spelling and Word Usage: Some questions may assess whether you can recognize correct spelling or the proper word in context. You could be asked which of several sentences is free of spelling errors, or which word best completes a sentence in terms of meaning.
• Vocabulary and Word Choice: CBP Officers need a solid vocabulary to understand laws and regulations. You might get questions asking for the meaning of a word in a passage, or which synonym fits best. There could also be questions on choosing the most precise word to convey a particular meaning or tone.
• Reading Comprehension (Short Passages): You may encounter short paragraphs and then questions about them. These test your ability to extract correct information or infer meaning from text – a skill also tied to logical reasoning.
• Writing Organization: Some items might involve ordering sentences or parts of a paragraph logically. For instance, you might be given several sentences and asked to arrange them into the most coherent paragraph. This checks if you understand how ideas should flow.

Example Question: You might see a question like: “The following sentence may contain a grammatical error. If it does, choose the answer that best corrects the error. If no error, choose ‘No correction.’ — ‘CBP Officers may be required to work long shift, including nights and weekends.’” Then the answers might be:

(A) change “required” to “requires”

(B) change “shift” to “shifts”

(C) change “nights” to “night”

(D) No correction.

In this case, the error is that “long shift” should be plural “long shifts,” so the correct answer would be (B).

Test-taking tips for Writing:

• Pay close attention to details. A single missing comma or a subtle spelling difference can change an answer.
• Read the full sentence or passage before answering. Sometimes the beginning of a sentence affects the grammar at the end.
• If you’re unsure, try reading the sentence out loud in your mind (silently mouthing it). Often, your inner ear can catch an awkward phrasing or agreement issue that your eyes might miss.
• Remember that often one of the answer choices will be “No changes” or “No correction needed.” Don’t assume every sentence has an error – they deliberately include correct sentences too. If it sounds perfectly fine to you and you can’t spot a mistake, (D) might indeed be the right answer.
• Use your scratch paper if needed. For reordering sentence questions, it might help to jot down a quick order or keywords in each sentence to visualize the best sequence.

Bottom line: The WST ensures you have a baseline proficiency in English. It’s very similar to high school-level English grammar and composition tests. If English wasn’t your strongest subject, consider doing some practice quizzes on grammar rules, punctuation, and reading comprehension. The CBP study guide and other prep resources provide sample questions that mirror this section. Scoring well here is vital – you must pass the WST to even get a crack at the Logical Reasoning Test. So take the writing test seriously and aim for clarity and correctness in every answer.

Logical Reasoning Test (LRT)

The Logical Reasoning Test is often considered the toughest portion of the CBP exam. It assesses your ability to understand complex written material and draw logical conclusions from it. Essentially, it’s measuring your critical thinking and reading comprehension skills – can you analyze information the way a CBP Officer must when evaluating travelers’ stories, examining evidence, or making quick decisions with limited info?

Here’s what you need to know about the LRT:

• Format: The LRT is a computer-based test taken at a test center with an on-site proctor (after you’ve passed the at-home portions). It is computer-adaptive and typically allows up to 83 minutes to complete. You’ll face a series of passages and questions, one at a time, on the screen. Once you answer a question, you cannot return to it, and the next question’s difficulty may change based on whether you got it right.
• Question Types: Most questions are based on reading short passages or statements and then answering a question about them. The content of passages is often related to law enforcement or scenarios a CBP Officer might encounter – for example, a description of a customs declaration, or a scenario of two individuals approaching a checkpoint. You’ll then be asked something like “Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the passage?” or “What can be inferred about X from the paragraph?”
• Deductive Reasoning: Many questions will require you to apply principles of logic. You might be given a set of rules or facts and need to figure out what must be true or false as a result. For example: “All goods from Country A require inspection. Some items from Country B are banned. Given this information, which statement is correct?” The question will test if you can logically combine or separate conditions.
• Inductive Reasoning: Some questions present specific instances and ask you to generalize or identify a pattern. For example, you might read about several travelers’ behaviors and have to determine what general policy applies, or identify an outlier that doesn’t fit a stated rule.
• Drawing Conclusions: A staple of the LRT is deciding if a conclusion follows logically from the given information. You might see a premise like: “All vehicles entering through Gate 5 are searched. Tom’s car entered through Gate 5.” Conclusion: “Tom’s car was searched.” You’d have to mark whether the conclusion follows or not (in this case, it follows logically). Conversely, they might give a plausible-sounding but incorrect conclusion and test if you catch the logical flaw.
• Fact-Focused: It’s critical to base your answers only on the facts presented in the passage or question stem. Even if you have outside knowledge about the topic, don’t let that sway you. The exam isn’t testing what you already know about customs laws or border policy – it’s testing your reasoning with the given information. Treat each question like a mini self-contained puzzle: the passage is all you have, use it fully, and avoid assumptions. This is similar to the advice for any logical reasoning test: if it’s not in the text, you can’t conclude it.
• Reading Comprehension: Some questions may be more straightforward reading comprehension, asking about details or paraphrasing parts of the passage. For instance, “According to the passage, which of the following is true…”. These test your attention to detail and ability to pick out relevant points quickly.

Example Question: “All dogs who go to Doggy Daycare must wear blue collars and submit their vaccination records. Conclusion: Jax cannot go to daycare with a red collar.” You would need to determine if the conclusion logically follows from the premise. In this case, since all dogs must wear blue collars, showing up with a red collar would violate the rule, so the conclusion that “Jax cannot go with a red collar” does logically follow (assuming Jax is a dog and the rule is strict).

Tips for the Logical Reasoning Test:

• Read carefully, then re-read the question. It’s easy to misinterpret one word and get the answer wrong. Pay attention to qualifiers like “always,” “never,” “some,” “only if,” etc. These logical keywords hugely affect meaning.
• Eliminate wrong answers. There are usually four or five options, and often you can toss out one or two that are obviously unsupported or contradict the passage. Narrowing the choices increases your odds if you need to guess.
• Don’t use outside knowledge. We can’t stress this enough – even if the passage is about a topic you’re familiar with (say, travel rules or immigration), the only correct answers are those derived from the given text. Pretend you know nothing beyond what’s in front of you.
• Look for keyword connections. A question might hinge on a specific phrase matching up with a condition in the passage. For example, if the passage says “if X then Y,” an answer that says “X and not Y” would be logically impossible and thus incorrect.
• Manage your time, but don’t rush. ~83 minutes for the LRT might feel like a long time, but some passages can be dense and some logic problems complex. If a question is very tough, do your best and don’t dwell too long – answer it and move on. Remember, you can’t skip and come back later, so give it your best shot when it appears.
• Practice logic puzzles. To prepare, work on practice logical reasoning questions. CBP’s preparation guide provides sample logical reasoning questions and explanations. You can also find similar practice in law enforcement exam prep books or online (anything covering deductive reasoning, inference, and reading comprehension can help).

The Logical Reasoning Test is where analytical thinkers shine. It’s meant to predict your ability to succeed in the intellectually demanding training academy and on the job. Stay focused, break down each problem methodically, and trust the logic. With preparation and a calm approach, you can conquer this section.

Arithmetic Reasoning Test (If Applicable)

Note: As of the latest official exam updates, the CBP Officer Entrance Exam places primary emphasis on the Writing and Logical Reasoning tests, and some recent candidates report that a separate arithmetic section is no longer administered. CBP has not explicitly announced the removal of math, but the current official prep materials focus on logical and writing skills. It’s possible that basic arithmetic questions may still appear integrated within the logical reasoning test or as part of a pilot version of the exam. Thus, it’s wise to be prepared for arithmetic reasoning just in case, especially since CBP’s own study guides previously included it.

The Arithmetic Reasoning Test in the traditional CBP exam format is a section to assess your ability to solve numerical problems and apply basic math concepts under time pressure.

If the Arithmetic Reasoning section is indeed part of your exam, showing proficiency here demonstrates you can handle the quantitative aspects of training (like understanding statistics or reports) and daily work (like making change, verifying cargo counts, etc.). Even if your test invitation or recent CBP materials don’t highlight arithmetic, it won’t hurt to brush up on these math skills. You’ll feel more confident knowing you’re ready for anything – numerical or otherwise – that comes your way on the CBP exam.

CBP Practice Questions

1. Read the following statement and decide if the given conclusion follows from the premises or not.

   All dogs who go to Doggy Daycare must wear blue collars and submit their recent vaccination records.

   Conclusion: Jax cannot go to daycare with a red collar.

   1. The conclusion follows
   2. The conclusion does not follow
2. 74% of 642 is closest to which of the following numbers?
   1. 474
   2. 475
   3. 476
   4. 477
3. What is the value of x?
   5/4=  x/8
   1. 2
   2. 4
   3. 8
   4. 10
4. The following sentence may or may not have a grammatical error. If the sentence does have an error, please choose the letter below that indicates the change that would be most effective. If no error exists, please indicate that by choosing answer choice D.

   “CBP Officers may be required to work long shift, including nights and weekends.”

   1. Change “required” to “requires”
   2. Change “shift” to “shifts”
   3. Change “nights” to “night”
   4. No changes

Answers

1. A
2. B
3. D
4. B