The full 100-question exam: 25 questions on Core and 25 on each of Type I, Type II, and Type III, drawn at random from a bank of 120. Scored the way the real exam scores it — four independent verdicts, not one average — so you finish knowing exactly which section would have cost you the certification.
EPA Section 608 splits refrigerant certification by the kind of equipment you touch, not by how experienced you are. Core is the shared foundation every technician must pass. Each Type then adds one class of appliance: Type I is small factory-sealed systems holding five pounds or less, Type II is high-pressure equipment — the residential split systems, heat pumps, rooftop units, and commercial refrigeration that make up most HVAC work — and Type III is low-pressure centrifugal chillers that run under a vacuum. Pass Core plus all three and you are certified Universal, which removes every scope limit on the refrigerant work you can legally perform.
That structure has a consequence worth internalizing before you book the exam: because the Types describe different equipment rather than escalating difficulty, Universal is not a harder version of Type II. It is four separate bodies of knowledge sat in one session. Type III in particular catches technicians out, because a machine whose evaporator sits below atmospheric pressure behaves backwards compared to everything else on the exam — its leaks pull air and moisture in rather than pushing refrigerant out, which changes how you find them, how you recover, and why purge units exist at all. A technician who has spent five years on residential split systems has real Type II knowledge and often close to zero Type III exposure.
Every section needs 70% — 18 correct out of 25 — and the four scores never mix. Scoring 92% on Core does not lift a 64% on Type III, and an overall average across all 100 questions is not a number the exam ever calculates. This is the single most common misreading of the format, and it is why most free practice tests mislead you: they pool the questions, hand back one percentage, and a candidate averaging 78% walks in believing they are ready while sitting at 60% on the section they never studied.
Failing one section is not a wasted attempt. You keep every section you passed and retake only the one you failed, so a candidate who passes Core, Type I, and Type II but misses Type III leaves genuinely certified for high-pressure and small-appliance work and needs one more sitting to convert that into Universal. Practising this way turns the result into a study plan: the scoreboard tells you which of the four to spend the next week on, and the section pages below hold the full explained answer key for exactly that material.
Refrigerant fundamentals, regulations, safety, and recovery practice.
Small appliances — factory-sealed systems holding 5 pounds of refrigerant or less.
High-pressure and very high-pressure appliances — residential and commercial AC, heat pumps, and refrigeration.
Low-pressure appliances — centrifugal chillers operating below atmospheric pressure.
Key Takeaways
EPA 608 Universal certification requires passing four sections — Core, Type I, Type II, and Type III — at 70% each, 100 questions in total. The sections are scored independently, so a failed section costs you Universal even if your overall average is high. Certification never expires.
Read the full EPA 608 certification guide for testing organizations, exam costs, and the federal rules behind each section.