Built on the BACB's RBT Test Content Outline (3rd ed.)
Free RBT Practice Test (2026)
30 questions weighted like the BACB Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) exam, built on the BACB's RBT Test Content Outline (3rd ed.), the version used for exams from 2026. Instant answers, plain explanations, and a score by domain at the end.
30
Questions
6
Domains, real weights
100%
Answers sourced
0
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How this test is weighted
Data Collection and Graphing
17.33% of the RBT
5 questions here
Behavior Assessment
10.67% of the RBT
3 questions here
Behavior Acquisition
25.33% of the RBT
8 questions here
Behavior Reduction
18.67% of the RBT
6 questions here
Documentation and Reporting
13.33% of the RBT
4 questions here
Ethics
14.67% of the RBT
4 questions here
Click an answer to check it. Each question shows why the answer is right and the public source it comes from (BACB RBT Test Content Outline (3rd ed.), RBT Handbook, RBT Ethics Code (2.0)).
Q1 · Data Collection and Graphing
A teacher says, "Time to clean up." The RBT starts a timer and stops it when the client first begins putting toys in the bin. Which measure is the RBT recording?
The answer is B. Latency is the time from a stimulus (here the clean-up instruction) to the start of the response. Duration would be how long the client spends cleaning up, which is not what the timer captures. Interresponse time is the time between two responses.
An RBT watches a client for 10 one-minute intervals. She marks an interval only if the client stays out of his seat for the entire minute. Which procedure is this, and what is its usual error?
The answer is C. Scoring only when the behavior lasts the whole interval is whole-interval recording, and it consistently underestimates behavior because many occurrences do not fill an entire interval. Partial-interval recording scores any occurrence and tends to overestimate. Momentary time sampling errs in both directions about equally.
Which description of a client's behavior is observable and measurable?
The answer is D. A good behavior description names what the person does, so two observers would agree when it happened. Frustration, defiance and dislike are inferences about feelings or motives and cannot be counted directly.
In a 25-trial session, Leo answered 18 trials correctly with no prompt, 4 correctly after a prompt, and 3 incorrectly. What percentage of trials did Leo answer correctly without a prompt?
The answer is A. Percentage of trials = trials meeting the criterion divided by total trials, times 100. Here 18 independent correct out of 25 is 72 percent. The 88 percent choice wrongly counts prompted correct responses as independent.
Source: Worked calculation, Percent correct = (independent correct trials / total trials) x 100 = 18/25 x 100; definition from TCO task A.6 and 40-hour outline section C (percentage correct)
Q5 · Data Collection and Graphing
An RBT graphs the number of independent steps Jon completes in a hand-washing routine across eight sessions: 3, 6, 4, 7, 6, 9, 8, 11. Which statement best describes the trend?
The answer is B. Trend is the overall direction of the data over time. Although some points dip, the later sessions are higher than the early ones, so the trend is increasing. The RBT would report a change like this to the supervisor.
The RBT places five toys in front of a child. The child picks one and plays with it briefly. The RBT removes that toy, does not replace it, and presents the remaining four. Which preference assessment is this?
The answer is C. In an MSWO the array is re-presented after each selection without the chosen item, which produces a ranking. A paired-stimulus assessment presents two items at a time. A free-operant observation has no selection trials at all.
A supervisor asks an RBT to help with a skills assessment for a 4-year-old. The RBT notices that the child gets several items wrong. What should the RBT do?
The answer is A. RBTs assist with skill assessments by preparing materials and collecting accurate data. Changing prompts or skipping items distorts the results the supervisor will use. Choosing the targets for the program is the supervisor's job, not the RBT's.
In a functional analysis condition, the RBT gives the client a work task. When the client hits the table, the RBT removes the task for 30 seconds. Which function is this condition testing?
The answer is D. Removing the task right after the behavior tests whether the behavior is maintained by escape from demands. Attention and tangible conditions deliver attention or an item after the behavior instead. Automatic reinforcement is tested with the client alone and without demands.
A client is just learning to ask for help. To strengthen the new skill, when should the RBT deliver reinforcement?
The answer is A. New responses are strengthened best when reinforcement follows the behavior immediately and every time (continuous reinforcement), then thins later. Delaying or spacing reinforcement early on weakens the link between the response and the consequence.
During discrete-trial teaching, which order describes one trial?
The answer is A. A discrete trial begins with a clear instruction, followed by the client's response and a consequence (reinforcement or correction), then a short pause before the next trial. The other orders put the consequence before the response it should follow.
During free play, a child reaches toward bubbles on a high shelf. The plan uses incidental teaching. What should the RBT do?
The answer is C. Incidental teaching uses the child's own interest in an item during play to prompt a slightly more advanced response, then gives access to the item as the reinforcer. Giving the item with no response teaches nothing, and a drill removes the teaching from the natural moment.
To teach shoe-tying, the RBT has the client do step 1 on her own while the RBT completes every later step. After the client masters step 1, the client will do steps 1 and 2. Which procedure is this?
The answer is D. In forward chaining the first step is taught first and the trainer completes the steps after it, adding one step at a time. Backward chaining starts with the last step. Total task presentation has the client attempt every step each time.
To teach a client to say "juice," the RBT first presents the juice and models "juice" at the same moment for five trials. In later trials the RBT waits 4 seconds before modeling, and keeps the wait at 4 seconds. Which prompting procedure is this?
The answer is B. Constant time delay uses zero-second trials first, then a fixed delay (here 4 seconds) before the prompt. Progressive time delay lengthens the wait gradually, for example 1, 2, 3 seconds. Both let the client respond before the prompt, which transfers control from the prompt to the juice.
A child names animal pictures correctly with her RBT at the clinic table. To promote generalization, what should the RBT do next, if the plan allows?
The answer is D. Generalization means the skill occurs across people, settings and stimuli. Teaching with varied people, places and materials builds that. Repeating only the original conditions risks a skill that works in one setting only.
The plan is to shape the word "water." The client now says "wa" every time. What should the RBT do next?
The answer is A. Shaping reinforces successive approximations and raises the criterion once the current one is reliable. Staying at "wa" stalls progress, and jumping straight to "water" asks for too big a step and may lose the behavior.
In a token system, a child earns a sticker for each completed step of a routine. Eight stickers can be traded for 10 minutes of a favorite game. What is the backup reinforcer?
The answer is C. Backup reinforcers are the items or activities that tokens are exchanged for. The stickers are the tokens, and the completed steps are the target responses.
Every time Kai's toy is put away at the end of play, he screams. When his mother hands the toy back, he stops. What is the most likely function of the screaming?
The answer is C. The screaming ends when the toy returns, so the toy is the reinforcer, which points to access to a tangible item. Escape would follow the removal of a task, and attention would follow a person's reaction.
A supervisor writes a plan for a student who calls out for attention. The RBT gives brief attention every 2 minutes, whether or not the student calls out. Which procedure is the RBT implementing?
The answer is B. Noncontingent reinforcement delivers the reinforcer on a time schedule, independent of behavior. DRO would deliver attention only after a period with no calling out, and DRA only after a specific replacement behavior.
The plan says to give a token whenever Ari goes 5 minutes with no hitting, no matter what else he is doing. Which procedure is this?
The answer is B. DRO delivers reinforcement when the target behavior has not occurred for a set time. DRA and DRI require a specific replacement or incompatible behavior, and DRL reinforces lower rates of a behavior rather than zero.
A student's calling out has been kept up by teacher attention, and the plan calls for extinction. What should the RBT do when the student calls out?
The answer is D. Extinction means no longer delivering the reinforcer that maintains the behavior, here attention. Reprimands or occasional attention still reinforce the call-out, and the second would make it harder to reduce.
A client stopped tantrums once he learned to request a break with a card. Later the RBT begins giving breaks only after every third card request, and tantrums return. What is this called?
The answer is B. Resurgence is the return of a previously reduced behavior when reinforcement for the replacement behavior becomes less available, for example as schedules are thinned. An extinction burst is an increase in the behavior soon after extinction begins.
During group time, a client begins hitting peers. The behavior plan has crisis steps for this, and the RBT was trained on them. What should the RBT do first?
The answer is D. When a written crisis procedure covers the situation and the RBT is trained on it, the RBT uses it right away to protect safety. Supervisor contact and documentation follow afterward, but they cannot replace acting.
At pickup, a client's father tells the RBT he is worried the new break-card system is not working and wants to stop it. What should the RBT do?
The answer is D. RBTs pass caregiver concerns to the supervisor in a timely manner and do not change the plan themselves. Dismissing the concern or telling the family to stop a procedure oversteps. Waiting a month is not timely.
A supervisor adds a new prompting procedure to a client's program, and the RBT is not sure how to run it. What should the RBT do?
The answer is C. RBTs seek direction from the supervisor on training needs and do not use unfamiliar procedures until trained. Informal help from a coworker may be wrong, and skipping the procedure goes against the plan.
A parent mentions that her child started a new medication this week and seems sleepier in sessions. What should the RBT do?
The answer is C. Medication changes are variables that may affect progress, so the RBT reports and documents them in a timely manner. RBTs do not advise on medication or judge its effects alone.
The answer is A. An objective note records what the client did and said without guessing motives or feelings. The other notes add inferences (anger, boredom, attention-seeking) or judgments.
A supervisor asks an RBT to run a new self-injury procedure tomorrow, and the RBT has not yet been trained or checked on it. What should the RBT do?
The answer is B. RBTs provide services only after the supervisor confirms they are competent, and they speak up when asked to go beyond their competence. Procedures involving self-injury require training before use.
A client's mother says she loves a video of her son saying his first words and asks the RBT to post it online. What should the RBT do?
The answer is D. The RBT Ethics Code (2.0) says plainly that RBTs do not share identifying information about clients, including photos and videos, on social media or websites. The standard has no exception for a parent's permission, a missing name or a private account, so the RBT declines and can explain why.
Source: BACB RBT Ethics Code (2.0), Standard 2.09 (no identifying client photos or videos on social media or websites)
Q29 · Ethics
A client's parent offers the RBT paid weekend babysitting for the client's sibling. What should the RBT do?
The answer is A. A babysitting job would mix a professional relationship with an employment one, which risks a conflict of interest and harm to the client. The code says to avoid multiple relationships and to inform the supervisor if one develops.
Source: BACB RBT Ethics Code (2.0), Standard 1.10 (avoid multiple relationships; inform the supervisor and document)
Q30 · Ethics
At the holidays, a client's family gives an RBT a handmade card and a $15 coffee gift card. The employer has no gift policy stricter than the ethics code. What should the RBT do?
The answer is C. The RBT Ethics Code sets a limit of $10 for gifts to or from clients, and an occasional small expression of gratitude is acceptable. The card is within that limit, and the $15 gift card is not. An employer with a stricter policy would also have to be followed.
Source: BACB RBT Ethics Code (2.0), Standard 1.11 (gifts: not more than $10 US; occasional expression of gratitude; stricter employer policy)
Every answer has a source. Each explanation names the public source it rests on (BACB RBT Test Content Outline (3rd ed.), RBT Handbook, RBT Ethics Code (2.0)), so you can check it yourself.
Every answer key is double-checked. A separate solver answered all 30 questions without seeing the key. Any disagreement was checked against the primary source before the question went live.
Original questions. Nothing here is copied from the real exam or from recalled exam questions.
Last checked October 25, 2026. Spot a mistake? Email support@certoutlook.com and we'll fix it.
The RBT at a glance
85 multiple-choice questions, 75 scored and 10 unscored, in 90 minutes. Each question has 4 answers and one is correct. The exam is pass/fail, every question counts the same, and the BACB does not publish a scaled score.
Taken in person at a Pearson VUE test center. You pay the BACB a $65 application fee and Pearson VUE $45 for every exam appointment. If you fail, you can retake after 7 days, up to 8 attempts within 12 months of your application approval, and the handbook lists no retake application fee.
Based on the RBT Test Content Outline (3rd ed.): 43 tasks in six domains, led by Behavior Acquisition (19 questions) and Behavior Reduction (14). To apply you must be 18, have a high school education, pass background and abuse registry checks, finish a 40-hour training, and pass the Initial Competency Assessment within 90 days of applying.