LEED AP BD+C Practice Questions: Indoor Environmental Quality

Indoor Environmental Quality is worth 13 of the 85 scored questions on the LEED AP BD+C exam, and it rises from 11 on the Green Associate paper. There are 13 questions below, one for each scored question this domain carries. The smoking setback is measured from three things, not one — entries, air intakes and operable windows — and LEED v5 adds a vehicle idling ban that did not exist before. One question below is decided entirely by the third item in that list.

It covers Construction Management, Fundamental Air Quality, No Smoking or Vehicle Idling, Enhanced Air Quality, Occupant Experience, Accessibility and Inclusion, Resilient Spaces, and Air Quality Testing and Monitoring.

A domain of AND conditions. Several requirements list three or four things that must all be true, and the near-miss answer is always the one that satisfies most of them.

13 Indoor Environmental Quality practice questions

Attempt all of them before checking the explanations. Write your answers down — deciding in your head and then reading the explanation is how a candidate convinces themselves they knew something they did not.

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Welcome to the LEED AP BD+C  practice quiz. Enter your details, then work through all 13 questions — we'll email you the score and a full explanation for every question.

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1. A contractor operated the permanently installed air handlers during the final weeks of interior fit-out. Under the construction management prerequisite, what must happen before occupancy?

A. Testing and balancing is completed first, and the filtration media are replaced immediately afterwards.

B. The units are flushed with 100% outdoor air for a set air-volume total before the filters are changed.

C. All filtration media are replaced, and testing and balancing is completed with the new filters in place.

D. Construction-phase filters may stay in service if they are rated MERV 8 or better and are cleaned.

None

2. A reviewer finds that a project laid out both its construction-phase designated smoking area and its permanent post-occupancy designated smoking area using the same 25-foot dimension, measured in each case from the nearest building wall. Why does this satisfy only one of the two EQ prerequisites?

A. The construction-phase rule is measured from the property line, while only the operating rule is measured from the building.

B. The operating rule requires 50 feet of separation from the building rather than 25 feet.

C. The construction rule measures from the building; the operating rule measures from entries, intakes and operable windows.

D. The construction-phase rule covers only conventional tobacco, so cannabis and electronic devices need a greater separation.

None

3. Each central system serving regularly occupied spaces must meet a minimum particle filtration performance under the fundamental air quality prerequisite. Which statement of that requirement is accurate?

A. MERV 8 under ASHRAE 52.2, or ePM1 50% under ISO 16890 — either one.

B. MERV 13 under ASHRAE 52.2, or ePM1 50% under ISO 16890 — either one.

C. MERV 13 prefilters followed by ePM1 50% final filters on every system.

D. MERV 16 under ASHRAE 52.2, or ePM2.5 65% under ISO 16890 — either one.

None

4. A team is detailing a permanent walk-off grille at a project's primary exterior entrance and has drawn it 10 feet long, citing a rule remembered from an earlier project. What does the fundamental air quality prerequisite actually require?

A. Ten feet in the primary direction of travel at every exterior entrance.

B. Six feet in the primary direction of travel at primary entrances only.

C. A permanent system at every exterior door, including alarmed emergency exits.

D. A permanent system at primary exterior entrances, with no prescribed length.

None

5. A school project proposes a single designated smoking area at the far edge of its site, more than 25 feet from every entry, air intake and operable window, with signage at the area itself. Does this satisfy No Smoking or Vehicle Idling?

A. No. Schools prohibit smoking across the whole site, with no designated area, and signage goes on the property line

B. No. The separation for schools is measured from the property line rather than from building openings

C. Yes, provided the area is also more than 25 feet from any outdoor space used by students

D. Yes, and the signage may be placed wherever the team judges it most visible

None

6. What does the no smoking or vehicle idling prerequisite require of a project's vehicle idling policy?

A. Idling on site is prohibited, with the duration and exceptions defined by the project.

B. Idling is capped at three minutes for all vehicles other than emergency vehicles.

C. Idling is capped at five minutes, matching the referenced model anti-idling ordinance.

D. Idling is discouraged through prominent signage at loading areas, but no prohibition is required.

None

7. A mechanical engineer raises breathing zone outdoor airflow to 30% above the prerequisite minimum in 97% of regularly occupied spaces, and expects the enhanced air quality credit to award more for the larger increase. What is the correct advice?

A. The credit measures coverage against 100% of regularly occupied spaces, so 97% coverage fails.

B. Going beyond 15% moves the project onto the enhanced IAQ design option and its tighter compound limits.

C. An increase above 15% is only recognised where the prerequisite was met using the IAQ procedure.

D. The threshold is a 15% increase in at least 95% of spaces; 30% counts as exemplary performance.

None

8. A New Construction team documents quality views at 90% of regularly occupied floor area, integrated biophilic design, the adaptable environment option, the thermal environment option, the sound environment mapping-plus-verification path, solar glare control, quality electric lighting, and an average spatial daylight autonomy of 58%. Added up, the paths they have documented run well past what the occupant experience credit can award. What is the consequence?

A. The award stops at the credit's ceiling, and the surplus paths add nothing to the score.

B. The surplus converts into an exemplary performance award under Project Priorities.

C. The surplus is reallocated to the accessibility and inclusion credit, which shares the impact area.

D. The team must withdraw its weakest paths so the documented total lands exactly on the ceiling.

None

9. In a regularly occupied open office the glazing head height is 9 feet above the finished floor, and an interior atrium supplies views to part of the floor plate. How deep into the room may floor area be counted toward quality views, and what limit applies to the atrium?

A. 18 feet from the glazing, with the atrium supplying no more than 30% of the required area.

B. 27 feet from the glazing, with the atrium supplying no more than 50% of the required area.

C. 9 feet from the glazing, with atrium views excluded from the calculation entirely.

D. 27 feet from the glazing, with the atrium supplying no more than 30% of the required area.

None

10. A project in a region with an enforced accessibility code is pursuing accessibility and inclusion. The team submits ten strategies, three of which are already mandated by that code and are documented at code level. How should the submission be corrected?

A. Keep the three items and add ramps, 32-inch clear door widths and front-approach service counters.

B. Replace or upgrade the three code-level items, since every strategy must go beyond local code.

C. Keep the ten strategies but draw them all from a single category to demonstrate depth.

D. Reduce the list to seven, because code-mandated items are counted at half weight.

None

11. A team is modelling thermal safety during a power outage for the resilient spaces credit and has designated a 900-square-foot safety zone with access to natural ventilation. Over what period must habitable conditions be maintained without power, and how many occupants may that zone be credited with sheltering?

A. Two days at peak typical meteorological year conditions, sheltering up to 90 people.

B. Three days at peak typical meteorological year conditions, sheltering up to 45 people.

C. Two days at peak typical meteorological year conditions, sheltering up to 45 people.

D. Seven days at peak typical meteorological year conditions, sheltering up to 30 people.

None

12. A Core and Shell team plans to pursue preoccupancy air quality testing, and also expects credit for operable windows serving 78% of regularly occupied spaces. How should the LEED AP respond?

A. Both are available to Core and Shell, and the window coverage clears the higher of the two thresholds.

B. Air quality testing is unavailable to Core and Shell, but the window coverage clears the higher threshold.

C. Air quality testing is available to Core and Shell, but window coverage must reach 90% for the higher threshold.

D. Neither is available to Core and Shell, because both depend on the tenant fit-out scope.

None

13. Preoccupancy testing at a New Construction project in an area designated nonattainment for particulate matter returns PM2.5 at 28 µg/m³ and total volatile organic compounds at 620 µg/m³. What do these results mean?

A. The particulate result passes, and the TVOC figure prompts a review of individual compounds.

B. The particulate result fails, because the 12 µg/m³ limit applies regardless of attainment status.

C. The TVOC result fails, because 500 µg/m³ is a pass or fail threshold for the credit.

D. Both results fail, so corrective action and retesting at all locations are required.

None

Time's up

Recall, Application, Analysis — and why it matters here

The candidate handbook names three cognitive levels: Recall, Application and Analysis. It publishes no split between them, so nobody can tell you what share of your paper will be which. What we can tell you is that only the first is fixed by more reading. Past a point, re-reading the material stops helping and worked problems start.

Each answer in this set is tagged with the level it was written at, so you can see which kind you are losing. If your errors cluster in Recall, revise. If they cluster in Application and Analysis, do more questions — those are the only thing that moves them.

What these questions test

Where candidates lose marks in this domain

• Replacing filters after testing and balancing. The new filters must be installed before the final testing and balancing is completed.
• Using the same 25-foot datum for both smoking rules. Construction measures from the building; the operating prerequisite measures from entries, air intakes and operable windows.
• Remembering MERV 8 instead of the required filtration level. The prerequisite uses the higher filtration performance stated in the current rating system.
• Carrying the old 10-foot walk-off requirement into LEED v5. The current prerequisite requires a permanent system at primary exterior entrances without that prescribed length.
• Allowing a designated smoking area at a school. Schools prohibit smoking across the entire site.
• Treating vehicle idling as a recommendation rather than a prohibition. A project policy is required.
• Assuming more ventilation automatically earns more points. The option has a defined threshold; going further may be exemplary rather than another normal tier.
• Assuming every documented Occupant Experience path adds points indefinitely. The credit has a ceiling.
• Using two times the glazing head height for quality views. The depth rule is three times the head height.
• Letting an interior atrium satisfy too: an R-410A near 700? Atrium contribution is capped.
• Counting accessibility measures that merely satisfy local code. Every strategy must go beyond the applicable code requirement.
• Using comfort-zone assumptions instead of the resilient-space habitability criteria. The outage period and occupancy density are specific to the resilience calculation.
• Assuming Core and Shell can pursue every EQ credit available to New Construction. Air Quality Testing and Monitoring is the important exception in this set.
• Applying the attainment-area PM2.5 limit everywhere. The allowable concentration differs in nonattainment areas.
• Treating 500 µg/m³ TVOC as an automatic failure threshold. An elevated result triggers further compound review rather than an immediate pass/fail conclusion.

Where these questions came from

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