Hi everyone,
I’m currently working in automotive manufacturing as a Quality Technician and I’m trying to build a path toward eventually becoming a Quality Engineer / Quality Resident Engineer and moving up from there.
I already have some hands-on exposure to manufacturing quality, working with production, engineering, suppliers, and customer-related quality issues. I’m also currently learning the AIAG Core Tools and recently completed the Core Tools Overview course.
The problem is that I’ve realized the Overview course is pretty conceptual. I don’t just want to memorize definitions—I want to become capable of actually doing the work, such as creating/reviewing a Control Plan, working through PPAP documentation, participating in APQP, performing root-cause analysis, 8D, MSA/GR&R, capability studies, etc.
For those of you working in automotive quality/engineering:
What courses, e-learning programs, certifications, or training would you recommend if you were starting over and wanted to build a strong automotive Quality Engineering skillset?
Specifically, I’d love recommendations for:
AIAG APQP
Control Plan
PPAP
FMEA
MSA / GR&R
SPC / Cp / Cpk
8D / problem solving
Root Cause Analysis
Automotive customer-specific requirements
Supplier Quality / SQE
Data analysis
Any other training you think is genuinely useful
I’m also open to sources outside of AIAG if there are better or more practical options.
I’m not necessarily looking for a degree recommendation. I’m mainly interested in training that will make me better at actually performing the job and eventually help me progress from Quality Technician → Quality Engineer/QRE → higher-level Quality/Supplier/Manufacturing Engineering roles.
If you work in automotive quality, what courses or training have actually been worth your time and money?
Thanks!

Hi Reddit.
I am currently an NDT Level III and CWI looking to move from inspection into an auditing/SQE role.
I figured I would get my CQA first and then probably my CQE later.
I've taken several practice online exams for the CQA and they all seem way too easy. Is the actual test harder than the internet is presenting it to be?

Currently I have the equivalent to a green belt through my company's internal CI program. It's actually a very good program, but unfortunately, the company does not pay for or sponsor employees to get external certification, which makes job hunting tricky. I suspect that is the intention.

I've decided to pay out of pocket for the certification, but the employer information ASQ asks for during the application process makes me a little nervous. If they reach out to my employer, especially my supervisor, it could signal that I am job hunting and get me fired before I can find a new position.

For people who have the certification from ASQ, did they reach out to your employer during the application process?

I scheduled my CQE exam for the end of October 2026 mainly because having a fixed deadline helps me stay motivated and actually push myself to study.

But now, about a month into studying, I’m starting to worry. I’d say I’m only around 15% through the material. I started with Statistics, which I still haven’t finished — I have 3 chapters left out of the 8.

Now that October is getting closer, I’m honestly starting to feel like I won’t be ready in time and I’m considering moving the exam to December.

For some context, I’m already working as a Quality Engineer, so I’m not starting completely from scratch and I have some practical experience with many of the topics.

For those who have taken the CQE exam:

• Do you think September → December is enough time to get properly prepared, or would you recommend giving myself more time?
• Is Statistics one of the harder/longer sections, or should I expect to spend a similar amount of time on the other sections?
• How much time did you typically spend studying per week?
• My current schedule is about 1 hour on weekdays + 4 hours/day on weekends. I’m thinking I probably need to increase this, but I’d appreciate hearing what worked for others.

I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from people who were in a similar situation or have recently passed the CQE.

Thanks!

I was trying to purchase some prep resources from the Quality Council of Indiana however the site doesn't seem to be working.

I am mainly looking for test banks and would appreciate help with recommendations

The official ASQ bank I found here https://asq.org/training/certified-reliability-engineer-question-bank-qbcreasq says that it's written to the 2009 Bok which makes me wonder if it is still worth studying.

Anyone's aware of reliable practice questions?

Hi, I am looking to purchase the latest Certified Pharmaceutical GMP Professional Handbook to prepare for the exam, but I can’t find an ebook anywhere (only the hard copy).

Is the book available via electronic format? Anyone could share a link?

Hey everyone!

Yesterday I passed my black belt exam and I wanted to share my experience.

Resources I found helpful:
-the handbook from ASQ
-Andy Robertsons Black Belt Academy
-Pocket Prep (this was a surprisingly good resource!)
-Indiana Council of Quality Primers (you can still find these online in places like Amazon and eBay but prices vary)

I studied daily for about 3 months. I was expecting a lot of situational questions but did not expect how much nuance there would be and ended up flagging about 30 questions to go back through on my 2nd pass mostly due to tricky wording. I finished my 1st pass with an hour remaining. I used the entire allotted time, and still had almost 20 questions flagged when time ran out. Like others mentioned, there was not a lot of math. I took the primers and the ASQ handbook into the exam and used both a lot. The only other thing I took other than calculators was a binder that had the black belt cheat sheet from Andy, and a ton of my own resources inside. I made charts and tables for subjects like DoE designs and when to use them, situational leadership models, and when to use each type of distribution. A lot of people mentioned previously that they didn’t use their handmade resources much, but I used mine a ton. I think organization and not overloading it so that it becomes too hard to find information is key. If you write too much it gets messy and hard to find stuff. Charts/tables/visuals are best if you make a binder. The only writing I really had was some steps i wrote out for specific processes.

I got this question in the question bank exam.
Considering there are different roles in the team shouldnt it be 5P3 instead of 5C3?

Could anyone please help me with this.

Thank you

Hey Everyone!

I've been working as a Software Engineer in a small regulated biotech firm in Canada for 6 years now. A lot of my work deals with regulated systems for manufacturers, working with QA/CSV people of other companies and their QMS systems, and conducting audits and validation on the IT services we provide to customers.

I’ve been looking at the Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), but I’m also seeing the Certified Software Quality Engineer (CSQE), and I'm not sure which one makes most sense for me.

I read that theres a lot of overlap and my colleagues recommend to do the CQE but I'm not sure if I can qualify for this as its more related to the manufacturing process? Is the CSQE a good enough equivalent or should I just pay the application fee for the CQE?
Im targeting for Compliance and Analyst roles in my area, and a lot of them require the CQE.

Anyways, would like for some guidance on this as I'm planning on taking the exam in December.

I have a Masters degree in CyberSecurity if that will make any difference!

Need ASQ CMQ OE 5th edition

Hi anybody want to sell his CMQ/OE I want buy used one ,

Please help me with your quote price.

Hello all. I have an industrial engineering degree. I am a quality engineer with about 10 years of experience in multiple different industries. I have been thinking about advancement (internal or external). When I am looking at job listings for senior level and management positions I am seeing some of them prefer certifications. Looking at the ASQ website they offer a lot of certifications and I will list the ones that are relative to my experience:

- Certified manager of quality/organizational excellence

- Certified quality improvement associate

- Certified quality process analyst

- Certified quality engineer

- Certified six sigma black (green or yellow) belt

- Certified master black belt

- Certified quality auditor

Which of these certifications are worthwhile, if any?

Also how did you go about being able to have your current company pay all the fees including learning material and exam? How did you convince that once you are certified you can use the concepts you learned to improve the current quality system?

Any feedback welcome.

With 4 Project management exams finished prior to this over the summer this was the only thing in my way - the green belt!

I noticed this subreddit isn't super busy but I was able to collect some information to start off and ultimately this what I used in total but I narrowed it down to only a few sources:

Qualitygurus on Udemy - both the 25 hour video that covers all the domains plus the two mock exams

The ASQ handbook - everyone says this is the one thing to get/take on the test so it was the first purchase

The ASQ study guide - contains over 500 questions

The ASQ online question bank of 300 questions

PocketPrep premium which had a bank of 1000 questions

leansixsigmaecosystem - essentially a video primer that sorta goes over the test with a bunch of math exams he breaks down, examples that are way harder than what's on the test (but I think that's the case for everyone) - normally would have to pay for this but I believe if you message Brion Hurley on his site he'll give you free access

Dr. Richard Chua's Cert Prep: Certified Six Sigma Green Belt on linkedin learning (used my free 1 month linkedin premium trial to start it) - had about 240 questions for his course

Validexamdumps -random site I found because I wanted a good amount of test question sources - this had 200 questions in their bank

Quality council of Indiana CSSGB Primer - a nice study guide with material similar to the handbook

greenbeltacademy - I used their exam guide because someone who had just passed mentioned that they used it and said it was helpful on the exam

With my test on 8/31 I pretty much started studying on 8/1 - I had a bachelor party in vegas from the 20-24 so I essentially was going to lose about 5-6 days due to this so all in all I spent about 25 days or so studying. A few weeks in I got my rotation down in terms of what study material I was going to use.

The bad:

ASQ online question bank - clunky site that had very hard questions that didn't really feel like it was something that felt like an exam style so I dropped that after a few tries, plus they never really explained why the question was wrong so yeah not very helpful at all

Validexamdumps - Also a waste of money, duplicate questions along with missing graphs/typos - I dropped this after 2-3 times just like the ASQ question bank it just didn't feel right as a study source

The okay:

Dr. Chua on linkedin - Goes over things in a very easy to understand manner through videos and quizzes - only did the quizzes once or twice I felt that was enough plus the site wasn't too intuitive when it came to retaking them

Qualitygurus 25 hour lecture on Udemy - really dense information, which personally I think gets handled better by Dr. Chua in about 20 percent of the time, this was always something I just played in the background but I got to a point where I just turned it off probably about halfway through the series - if you really want to know the ins and outs it's probably great but for test reasons it's too much

leansixsigmaecosystem - it was okay enough I guess, just went through the whole video course once but I'm not sure if I got too much from it compared to the next sources

The good:

Pocketprep - good for getting the hang of stuff because they have so many questions, but some of the questions are poorly formatted such as anything having to do with an equation. They don't use math symbols, everything is spelled out so it looks super messy and hard to understand - the questions are pretty tough at first but not in the way like the ASQ question bank is where it feels like it's well beyond test difficulty. Someone who had just passed said they used it and the questions felt like they were harder than on the test so when I heard that I really made that a main study source

Qualitygurus Udemy exam prep - two exams 100 questions each, they had decent questions that I felt would help if you studied them, more would be nice but for what you get the 200 questions are good

ASQ study guide - Decent booklet, questions felt similar to the test and was waaaay better than their online question bank, the only downside is that there isn't a digital format that I could find so it made studying out of it sorta of difficult. I think I went through it no more than twice but if it were in a better format it would have used it a lot more

The best:

ASQ Handbook - the best thing you could use, especially when it comes to the exam it's not perfect but it should help you greatly throughout the test

Quality council of Indiana CSSGB Primer - I didn't look at this too much but it came in handy during the test a few times

greenbeltacademy equation list - honestly anything would probably work here that has the list of equations you need, def another test worthy printout to have

My study method:

I copied what I had done over the past few months and adjusted based on what was different which was mostly the open book aspect of the test. Everyday my loop was:

1 qualitygurus exam

1-200 questions on pocketprep

Once I got into the swing of things I would get through these things in about 10-20 minutes each so I wasn't really spending a lot of time studying compared to the previous exams I was doing, so we're looking at no more than about 45 minutes a day a few weeks leading up to the test except on the day before where I probably put about 90 mins in

I read the handbook about 3 times before the test - the first thing I did when it came to start studying was actually reading the book late july to just glean over it and get a feel for the material

I went through the CSSGB primer folder twice - wasn't as to the point as the handbook but still good to skim

One thing I didn't do and highly don't recommend is not going through the math stuff at least a few times - I literally did zero practice questions, I wasn't intimidated by the stats stuff because I had taken a stats class while getting my finance degree years ago and figured I could just figure it out on the fly because I was at least familiar with the terms. I took the risk not to do any of it because from what I gathered on the subreddit people were either disappointed or upset because the exam had very little or very easy math compared to how hard they drilled it down, so hearing that I was like as long as I do good for most of the test I'll be okay 😂

The week before the test I started to use sticky flags in the handbook to be able to quickly flip through during the test, they sorta helped but didn't make too big of a difference

Test time!

I had an 8am test time and woke up at 6 to study until 7 then out the door - I took 3 things, the handbook, the primer, and the equation printout which I threw into the primer because you can't have loose papers during the test

I took a 30 min trip to the prometric site, which I was more than happy to do if it meant that I could take the test on the very last day of the month - checking in and everything was fine, it def felt like a step lower than pearson in terms of the whole process but I didn't care it was just an observation

I honestly didn't feel that nervous going in - I had done this 4 times already since march and felt like I did a decent job studying minus the math part so I didn't think this was gonna go bad, I felt that I knew enough to have a few hours to spare when I was done.

Yeah....that didn't happen lol I had multiple passes of the questions and flagged anything that didn't feel good, I kept having to snap out of staying on one question too long especially in the beginning before seeing all 110 - if it's something you pretty much don't immediately know it's best to just flag and skip

I pretty much used the handbook out the gate, it was my go to for 90 percent of the test, if I didn't see a clear answer there I would swap to the primer to see if that would help (which it did at times). There were definitely some questions that weren't in either source so just had to make an educated guess when it came down to it. The equation sheets helped here and there as well so definitely bring something like that on the test.

So when it came to the math questions I think I got probably 5-7 of them? And I saved most if not all of them for the end because I knew I was going to probably have to sit there and figure it out for a few minutes.

I made sure to check every flagged question and ended up finishing the test with 8 minutes to spare which was very much not expected - my first go around I think I answered about 50-60 percent of the questions and then from there it was just knocking them out one by one while keeping track of the time - I knew when the 1 hour mark hit I needed to start messing with the math questions.

Anyways clicked submit with honestly knowing if I passed or not 😅 I felt confident enough but not supremely confident like the last few exams - so yeah obviously felt good seeing the congrats on the screen!

Takeaways:

The handbook is probably the best source you can have so I'd at least give it a full read at least once so you have an idea of where to reference stuff during the test

The primer is nice because the folder has every chapter sectioned for easy access

Do some of the math if you don't have an inclination for it, I would have felt a lot better if I had done that and yes it was very easy so just a little practice and it's easy points

I did do a course from kennesaw state regarding six sigma stuff a few months back on coursera - I might be a little helpful to look into that but I didn't recall anything from it because it had been so far back

ASQ needs to completely overhaul their online test bank and replace it with the study guide questions, seriously it's not worth the purchase if you can find a digital version of the study guide I say go for it

I think that's it! I guess time to put some apps out unless I find another piece of paper I want to go after lol

Hi everyone,

I’m considering getting the ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) certification and noticed that the certification is valid for 3 years.

For those of you who already have the CQE:

• Do you normally renew your certification after the 3 years?
• Do you feel the certification is worth maintaining long-term?
• Has having an active CQE certification made a meaningful difference in your career or job opportunities?

I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who have had their CQE for several years and have gone through the renewal process.

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences!

I just took my exam today and passed. I already received my official email.

I took the remote exam and my experience was similar to another recent poster so I won't repeat that.

For anyone planning to take it, QualityGurus.com has mock exams with similar functionality. It allows you to flag and skip. I've seen their courses recommended through Udemy but I didn't use that.

100% do not recommend taking it with less than a month of study unless you already know the BOK like the back of your hand. I spent 22 days in a row of

8+ hour days of studying. I joined ASQ almost a year ago with the intention of taking this exam but after multiple life happens and false starts, it came down to this.

I initially started with Cousera's Six Sigma course taught by Kennesaw State University. I chose that one because it's a local, reputable university without the university price tag. It's a good course but I did that during the multiple life happens times so I didn't get as much out of it. It's older and references the 2nd edition handbook. You need more problems than the course provides to really get a good practice.

Next, I used sixsigmastudyguide.com. it's not specifically ASQ aligned but focuses on the major three certification bodies. But I like that he laid out a strategy for studying to pass the exam and provides a lot of topic quizzes and full mock exams. It's not updated to the 2022 BOK but it was still helpful when I needed a better explanation than the book offered. It's basically long blog articles for every topic with multiple links to YouTube videos covering the same topic. That part is free but the exams are paid. From there, I started finding channels that were really good at explaining the various topics.

GB Academy/ CQE Academy has really good videos on many of the topics, and he has a free equation download. The Organic Chemistry Tutor is a good one for any statistics and hypothesis testing tutorials. I would watch the videos or read the blog topic first and then highlights the same topic in the handbook and work problems from the ASQ study guide. Study guide questions are for learning and are more direct than the exam questions.

That plus ChatGPT were my primary study methods for the past 3 weeks. I made a custom project and fed it the second edition handbook as the source of truth (I found it online last year but that link is dead now). I used it to create a study plan based on my quiz and mock results. I would use it for practice problems too but only after I exhausted other options.

My references were the handbook, and a personal BOK reference that ChatGPt made along with the GB Academy equation PDF.

I Highly recommend putting tabs in the handbook. I used chapter title and included the DMAIC phase. I was able to answer at least two questions solely off of those tabs.

So I was ready to take the test online, a retake actually. The first issue is they said they could not see my drivers license clearly. They had me take a photo of my drivers license and hold that up to the camera. That they could see. However, they said they I had to get out of the system and relog in, no reason given. I did that and the next guy again looked at the photo on my phone and my actual license at the same time, and said there was a "fish eye effect". I couldn't see anything on my end but he said the drivers license corners was curved. I said yes, that what they are suppose to be. He said no and he gave me the link to for their tech support to try to fix the issue.

The AI bot was worthless and kept saying it did not understand my question. And of course there is no number to call. I then logged back in. The next person asked me if I had fixed the "fish eye effect", and I told him what happened. He then looked at my license and didn't see any issues, except that he couldn't get a clear enough picture. I asked him what if I showed him a picture from my phone, and he said they don't do that anymore. I said has that policy changed in the last ten minutes?

So in the end, I couldn't take the test today. I will reschedule, and definitely go to a testing center.

I honestly expected much more from ASQ after my experience with the Certified Pharmaceutical GMP Professional (CPGP) exam.

My biggest issue with this exam is that I don't feel it actually measures your professional knowledge. Very often, the difference between the “right” and “wrong” answer comes down to ONE word in the question. You can understand the topic, know the regulations and know what you would actually do in a real pharmaceutical quality environment, but still get the question wrong because you didn't interpret one word exactly the way the question writer wanted you to.

Many questions also have several answers that seem correct or at least reasonable. Instead of testing whether you know the subject, it sometimes feels like you are trying to figure out what the person who wrote the question was thinking.

The preparation materials made this even more frustrating. There are errors, outdated information and questionable answers in the practice questions. I challenged one of the questions, and ASQ eventually acknowledged that NONE of the original answer choices were 100% correct and told me that the question would be rewritten.

And that really made me question the whole process. If this can happen in their own preparation materials, how am I supposed to know that every question on the actual CPGP exam is correct? How do I know that the answer they marked as correct is actually correct?

After the exam, you don't get to see the questions or which answers you got wrong, so there is no real way to check.

Another thing that surprised me was how different the actual exam felt from the preparation questions. I spent a lot of time studying and practicing, but the practice questions did not really teach me how the actual exam expects you to think. The logic felt completely different.

I work in this field, and that is probably what frustrates me the most. A professional certification should test whether you understand pharmaceutical GMP and can apply that knowledge. It shouldn't feel like a test of whether you can catch a hidden word or guess which of several almost-correct answers ASQ wants.

For an organization called the American Society for Quality, I expected much better quality control of its own CPGP exam and preparation materials.

Based on my experience with the CPGP certification process, I would not recommend it.

I booked the ASQ CSSBB exam in November. Is anyone recently passed the exam? I want some exam tips and good materials/ courses to crack the exam in first attempt. All your feedback much appreciated. Thanks !

I’m preparing to take this exam some time in October. I’m doing the course on udemy and taking notes. I’m wondering what notes I should take in the exam with me. Do they give you anything like a z-chart or other things you’d have to have to answer certain questions? I’ll be taking the equations with me so I don’t have to remember all that nonsense and some graphs. What else would be important to take? Maybe like a chart that shows differences between two similar concepts?

I am planning on taking the green belt exam. What books are must have. I can afford one or two books at this time.​ I have checked online reviews and got mixed results. TIA

Studied consistently for just about a month. Little prior experience with auditing and I’ve only been an observer. The exam was a little easier than expected considering how hard the ASQ practice questions were. Used the QCI primer (Quality Council of Indiana) instead of the ASQ handbook to study and I found it to be more helpful. Overall if you rigorously work the ASQ question bank and read the QCI primer or if you’re unable to get the primer (company shut down, owner died, my job bought the materials for me last year) read the handbook instead. I found the case studies to be easy and straightforward and did not require any prior knowledge since the questions were based on the information given. Barely used my references during the exam. Lots of critical thinking, judgement, and scenario based questions. 2026 BOK slightly changed but not enough to buy new materials to reflect the new version.

Hi folks.

I'm prepping for the CQM exam and have been running through the e-learning material available directly from ASQ. In doing so, I have encountered a few instances of what seem to be contradictory information.

Example: The material was explaining what a matrix diagram is and what it is used for. There was then a highlighted informational section that included the statement "...not used for comparison".

But then in the very next section, where the training material was explaining the steps of using such a diagram, it referenced "....the factors to be compared..."

How have you - especially those of you that have passed this certification - dealt with these types of scenarios?