Free BCBA Practice Questions
Original practice questions for every domain of the BCBA exam, each with the answer and a clear explanation. Pick a domain to see what it covers and try its questions, or take the free diagnostic for a scored readiness report.
Practice questions by domain
Numbers show how many of the 175 scored exam questions come from each domain.
Sample questions
1. A journal article describes a token economy in enough detail — token delivery rules, exchange rates, and staff scripts — that another trained practitioner could implement it exactly as written. Which dimension of applied behavior analysis does this best illustrate?
- Technological
- Analytic
- Conceptually systematic
- Generality
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Technological
Technological means procedures are described clearly and completely enough to be replicated. Conceptually systematic refers to linking procedures to basic principles; analytic refers to demonstrating a functional relation; generality refers to effects lasting over time or spreading to other settings and behaviors.
2. Every time Jordan fastens his seatbelt, the car's loud warning chime stops. Over the following weeks, Jordan begins fastening his seatbelt sooner after getting in the car. Which principle is operating?
- Positive reinforcement
- Negative punishment
- Negative reinforcement
- Positive punishment
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Negative reinforcement
A stimulus (the chime) is removed contingent on the behavior, and the behavior increases in the future — negative reinforcement. "Negative" means removal; "reinforcement" means the behavior increases. Punishment would require a decrease.
3. Compared with what actually occurred, partial-interval recording tends to:
- Provide an exact count of responses
- Overestimate the proportion of the session in which the behavior occurred
- Underestimate the proportion of the session in which the behavior occurred
- Produce the same estimate as whole-interval recording
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Overestimate the proportion of the session in which the behavior occurred
An interval is scored if the behavior occurs at any point during it, so brief occurrences make whole intervals count — partial-interval recording overestimates occurrence (and can underestimate the count of high-rate behavior). Whole-interval recording tends to underestimate.
4. A behavior analyst wants to compare the effects of two different prompting procedures on a learner's skill acquisition, rapidly alternating the procedures across sessions in random order. Which design is this?
- Reversal (A-B-A-B) design
- Changing criterion design
- Multiple probe design
- Alternating treatments design
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Alternating treatments design
An alternating treatments (multielement) design rapidly alternates two or more conditions and compares the resulting data paths. It requires no withdrawal phase and can show differences quickly.
5. At the end of the year, a client's parent offers the BCBA a $75 gift card as thanks. According to the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts, what should the BCBA do?
- Politely decline, because gifts may not exceed $10 in value
- Accept it only after services with the family have ended
- Accept it, since a one-time end-of-year gift is acceptable
- Accept it and disclose it to the BCBA's supervisor
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Politely decline, because gifts may not exceed $10 in value
Code 1.12 (Giving and Receiving Gifts): behavior analysts do not give or accept gifts with a monetary value of more than $10 US dollars from clients, stakeholders, supervisees or trainees. Disclosure doesn't make an over-limit gift acceptable.
6. In a functional analysis, problem behavior is consistently high in the demand condition and near zero in the attention, alone, and play (control) conditions. What is the most likely function?
- Social negative reinforcement (escape)
- Access to tangibles
- Social positive reinforcement (attention)
- Automatic reinforcement
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Social negative reinforcement (escape)
Elevated responding only when demands are present — and removed contingent on the behavior — indicates escape-maintained behavior (social negative reinforcement). Automatic reinforcement would typically show high responding in the alone condition.
7. To teach handwashing, the therapist completes every step for the learner except the last one (drying hands), which the learner does independently. Once that is mastered, the learner completes the last two steps. This procedure is:
- Shaping
- Forward chaining
- Total-task chaining
- Backward chaining
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Backward chaining
Backward chaining teaches the final step first, so the learner contacts the natural reinforcer of completing the chain on every trial. Forward chaining starts with the first step; total-task chaining teaches all steps every session.
8. A student's aggression is maintained by escape from difficult tasks. Which intervention is most function-based?
- Response cost, with the student losing points for each instance of aggression
- Delivering praise every five minutes regardless of the student's behavior
- Teaching the student to request a break, then gradually increasing demands
- Time-out from the classroom for two minutes after each instance of aggression
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Teaching the student to request a break, then gradually increasing demands
Functional communication training gives the student an appropriate way to access the same reinforcer (escape), and demand fading builds tolerance. Time-out removes the student from the task — for escape-maintained behavior it can actually reinforce aggression.
9. Which sequence describes behavioral skills training (BST) for teaching a supervisee to implement a new procedure?
- Rehearsal, instruction, feedback, modeling
- Feedback, instruction, rehearsal, modeling
- Modeling, feedback, instruction, rehearsal
- Instruction, modeling, rehearsal, feedback
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Instruction, modeling, rehearsal, feedback
BST consists of instructions (describe the skill), modeling (demonstrate it), rehearsal (the trainee practices), and feedback (on performance), repeated until the trainee meets a mastery criterion.
Get a scored readiness report
The free 18-question diagnostic weights your results the way the real exam does and shows which domains to fix first.
Take the free diagnostic →