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Practice questions: general requirements

Compiled by the Sitonce editorial team from the PSI Candidate Information Bulletin, NASCLA's own published material and the federal standards named belowUpdated 2 min readFacts verified 4 September 2026
The short answer

General Requirements is 25 of 115 scored questions and is largely OSHA. These four cover fall protection triggers, scaffold capacity, reporting deadlines and the competent person definition.

Twenty-five questions, mostly numbers, and mostly answerable by lookup if your standards are tabbed.

Question 1

An ironworker is connecting steel at 12 feet above a lower level during steel erection. Is fall protection required under Subpart R?

  1. Yes, the trigger is 6 feet
  2. Yes, the trigger is 10 feet
  3. No, the trigger in steel erection is 15 feet
  4. Only if a guardrail is impracticable
Answer: C. Steel erection has its own trigger at 15 feet under 29 CFR 1926.760. Option A is the general construction trigger and option B is the scaffold trigger, both correct figures for different activities.
Question 2

A supported scaffold will carry a maximum intended load of 500 pounds. What must it be capable of supporting?

  1. 500 pounds
  2. 1,000 pounds
  3. 2,000 pounds
  4. 3,000 pounds
Answer: C. Four times the maximum intended load, at 29 CFR 1926.451(a)(1), so 2,000 pounds. Option D would be right for a suspension rope, which is six times, and that is the distractor being offered.
Question 3

An employee suffers an amputation on site. Within what period must it be reported to OSHA?

  1. 8 hours
  2. 24 hours
  3. 72 hours
  4. On the next OSHA 300 log entry
Answer: B. 24 hours for an inpatient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye. Option A is the fatality deadline, and swapping the two is the commonest error in this area.
Question 4

Who must inspect an excavation daily and is authorized to order work stopped?

  1. A qualified person
  2. A competent person
  3. A registered professional engineer
  4. The site superintendent
Answer: B. A competent person - capable of identifying hazards AND authorized to take prompt corrective action. A qualified person has expertise but the definition says nothing about authority, which is what this question is testing.

The pattern

Every wrong option here is a correct figure or term from a neighboring rule. That is how this category is written throughout.

Establish the activity before reaching for a number.

Common questions

What is the steel erection fall protection trigger?

15 feet, against 6 feet in general construction and 10 feet on a scaffold.

What load must a scaffold support?

Four times the maximum intended load, and six times for suspension ropes.

How soon must an amputation be reported?

24 hours. Only a fatality is 8 hours.

Who inspects an excavation daily?

A competent person, who can both identify hazards and order work stopped.

How are wrong options built in this category?

From correct figures belonging to a neighboring rule or a different activity.

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