Practice questions
CRPO exam practice questions: two sample items, answered and explained
Facts checked against CRPO's and Ontario's official sources on October 22, 2026.
The CRPO Registration Examination has no stand-alone multiple-choice questions. Every "question" is a section inside a client simulation: you read the stem, then select as many options as the moment calls for, or the single best one, and each option carries a hidden weight from +3 to -3. The two practice sections below are written in that format so you can see how the weights work. They are original to this guide, not taken from the exam, and the weights are ours, set by the rules in CRPO's Resource Manual.
Where to find official sample questions
Start with the source. CRPO's Entry-to-Practice Registration Examination Resource Manual includes a sample simulation about a client named Lucia, broken into its scenario and sections with the competency each one tests, and a scored example. The manual says plainly that it "is not a complete simulation and is designed for illustrative purposes only." COMPASS, which builds the exam, also sells an optional practice exam of four simulations (about 90 minutes) to candidates booked for the upcoming sitting. It reports one score for Information Gathering and one for Decision Making, with no item-by-item results and no answer key.
Both are worth doing. Neither shows you why each option is weighted as it is, which is what the samples below are for.
Sample 1: an Information Gathering section
Scenario. Karim, 41, was referred by his family physician for low mood after losing his job four months ago. It is your first session and consent has been covered. Twenty minutes in, he says, "Some nights I wonder if my family would be better off without me."
Stem. What would you want to know now? (SELECT AS MANY as you consider indicated in this Section)
| Option | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Whether he has thought about how he would end his life, and whether he has a plan | +3 | The core of the risk assessment; leaving it out could cause serious harm |
| Whether he has ever tried to end his life before | +2 | A past attempt changes the level of risk |
| Whether he has access to means at home, such as stockpiled medication | +2 | Means shape both risk and the safety plan |
| What has kept him going on the nights he has these thoughts | +2 | Protective factors are half of the picture |
| How he has been sleeping | +1 | Useful, but not central to his safety right now |
| His relationship with his parents growing up | 0 | Real history, wrong moment |
| Whether his wife knows he is seeing a therapist | -1 | Moves attention to a third party and away from his risk |
| Which diagnostic criteria for depression he meets | -2 | Displaces the assessment and points toward a diagnosis, which an RP may not communicate |
The positives add up to 10. A candidate who takes the first four scores 9. One who takes every option scores 7, because the 0, the -1 and the -2 come along. The test is relevance to the stem's purpose, here his safety tonight, not thoroughness. Information Gathering vs Decision Making explains the sorting method.
Sample 2: a Decision Making section
Scenario. Sasha, 34, is in her third session for anxiety. She mentions that last weekend her partner shook their six-year-old son hard enough to leave finger-shaped bruises on his arm. "It was a one-off. He was exhausted."
Stem. What would you do? (CHOOSE ONLY ONE of the 4 options in this Section)
| Option | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tell Sasha you are required to report to a children's aid society, explain what will happen next, and make the report yourself today | +3 | The duty is immediate and personal, and telling her keeps her in the process |
| Telephone your clinical supervisor and report only if they agree | -1 | Consulting is fine; making the report depend on someone else's view is not |
| Encourage Sasha to call the children's aid society herself and check at the next session | -2 | The duty cannot be handed to someone else, and a week is not immediate |
| Explore what happened over the next session or two before deciding whether to report | -2 | Reasonable grounds to suspect already exist; certainty is not required |
In a choose-one section you are ranking, not filtering. All four options are things a caring therapist might do, and three of them cost points. Ontario's child protection duty is set out in the duty to report guide.
What these samples teach
- Read the stem's purpose before the options. In Karim's section the purpose is risk. Good questions about anything else score zero at best.
- Negative options look reasonable. None of the minus options above is cruel. They are well-meant acts at the wrong time, outside the RP's role, or in the wrong hands.
- The client's reaction is not a score. On the exam, choosing an option reveals a response. A warm reply does not mean you chose well.
- Skipping costs everything. A section left blank scores zero and cannot be revisited. How the CRPO exam is scored shows how section points add up to the two totals.
The library module Strategy for the Exam works through full sections the same way. To try a complete simulation, open the free practice case, where every option has its weight and reason, or take the free diagnostic to see which exam areas need work.
Common questions
Are there free CRPO exam practice questions?
Yes. The Resource Manual's sample simulation (Lucia) is free on crpo.ca, and this guide's two sections are free. The CRPO Exam Lab's free practice case and 10-minute diagnostic are also open without an account.
How many questions are on the CRPO exam?
There is no fixed number of questions. The exam has ten simulations in three hours, nine of them scored, and each simulation has about five to eight sections.
Is the COMPASS practice exam worth buying?
It is the only practice on the real platform. It has four simulations and gives an Information Gathering score and a Decision Making score, but no answer key, so pair it with practice that explains each weight.
Do the weights in these samples come from CRPO?
No. The scale and its meaning come from the Resource Manual; the cases and the weights given here are this guide's own, written to show how the scale works.