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Free BCBA Practice Questions

10 free, exam-style Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) practice questions with answers and explanations. No signup required. Work through them below, then take the full free BCBA practice test to study every exam domain.

Question 1

A BCBA is treating a 9-year-old client whose hand-biting is maintained by automatic reinforcement. The BCBA provides access to a vibrating toy every 3 minutes contingent on the absence of hand-biting. If hand-biting occurs, the timer resets. After two weeks, hand-biting has decreased by 70%. Which procedure is BEST described?

  1. DRA with extinction
  2. DRO with a resetting interval
  3. DRI without extinction
  4. Noncontingent reinforcement on a fixed-time schedule
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B - DRO with a resetting interval

Question 2

A client has not had access to her preferred tablet for several hours. When the therapy room door opens and the tablet is visible on the table, she immediately runs to it. The period of restricted access BEST functions as which of the following?

  1. Discriminative stimulus for tablet-approach behavior
  2. Establishing operation that increases the value of the tablet as a reinforcer
  3. Conditioned reinforcer associated with tablet access
  4. Stimulus delta signaling the unavailability of other reinforcers
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B - Establishing operation that increases the value of the tablet as a reinforcer

Question 3

A BCBA conducts a standard functional analysis of a 7-year-old's property destruction. Results show consistently high rates in the demand condition, near-zero rates in the attention and alone conditions, and low rates in the control (play) condition. Based on these results, the behavior is MOST likely maintained by which function?

  1. Access to tangible items
  2. Social-positive reinforcement in the form of attention
  3. Social-negative reinforcement in the form of escape from demands
  4. Automatic positive reinforcement
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C - Social-negative reinforcement in the form of escape from demands

Question 4

A BCBA provides in-home services to a family in a small rural community. The client's mother mentions she is starting a baked goods business and offers the BCBA a paid contract to design her business website on weekends. No other qualified BCBA is available in the region. What is the MOST appropriate course of action?

  1. Accept the website contract because it is unrelated to the therapeutic relationship
  2. Decline the contract and continue providing behavior-analytic services without changes
  3. Accept the contract only if the client's mother signs a waiver acknowledging the dual relationship
  4. Decline the contract, document the potential multiple relationship, and discuss steps to protect the therapeutic relationship
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D - Decline the contract, document the potential multiple relationship, and discuss steps to protect the therapeutic relationship

Question 5

A BCBA uses whole interval recording with 15-second intervals to measure a preschooler's on-task behavior during circle time. The child frequently looks at the teacher for 5-8 seconds and then looks away. Compared to the child's actual on-task behavior, the data collected using this method will MOST likely:

  1. Overestimate the percentage of intervals with on-task behavior
  2. Underestimate the percentage of intervals with on-task behavior
  3. Provide an accurate estimate because the intervals are short enough
  4. Neither overestimate nor underestimate because momentary sampling controls for bias
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B - Underestimate the percentage of intervals with on-task behavior

Question 6

During a speech therapy session, a therapist holds up a picture of a fire truck and asks, 'What is this?' The child responds, 'Fire truck.' The child's response is BEST classified as which verbal operant?

  1. Mand
  2. Tact
  3. Intraverbal
  4. Echoic
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B - Tact

Question 7

A BCBA has been implementing a token economy for three weeks to reduce elopement in a 10-year-old student. Data show no meaningful decrease in elopement. Before modifying the intervention, the BCBA should FIRST:

  1. Conduct a new functional analysis to confirm the function of the behavior
  2. Add a punishment component to the existing token economy
  3. Assess whether staff are implementing the token economy with adequate procedural integrity
  4. Increase the number of tokens required for the backup reinforcer to make the program more challenging
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C - Assess whether staff are implementing the token economy with adequate procedural integrity

Question 8

A BCBA supervisor has provided written instructions and a video model to a new RBT on how to implement discrete trial training (DTT). During an in-session observation, the BCBA notices the RBT is still delivering the inter-trial interval incorrectly. What is the MOST appropriate next step according to behavioral skills training?

  1. Provide the written instructions again with the key section highlighted
  2. Have the RBT watch the video model a second time at a slower speed
  3. Have the RBT practice the DTT procedure while the BCBA provides immediate performance feedback
  4. Reassign the RBT to a different client whose program does not require DTT
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C - Have the RBT practice the DTT procedure while the BCBA provides immediate performance feedback

Question 9

A BCBA teaches a child to request a break using a communication card. After six months, the child consistently uses the break card across all environments and the challenging behavior has been eliminated. The BCBA wants to demonstrate experimentally that the intervention caused the behavior change, but withdrawing the break card would be unethical because the challenging behavior included severe head-banging. Which experimental design is MOST appropriate?

  1. ABAB reversal design
  2. Changing criterion design
  3. Multiple baseline across settings design
  4. Multielement (alternating treatments) design
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C - Multiple baseline across settings design

Question 10

A BCBA receives a referral for a 5-year-old whose parents recently immigrated from South Korea. The parents report the child eats only with a spoon and request that the BCBA target 'proper fork use' as a treatment goal. The BCBA knows the family primarily uses chopsticks and spoons at home. What should the BCBA do FIRST?

  1. Add fork use to the treatment plan because the parents made the request and client preferences should be respected
  2. Decline to target fork use because it does not represent the family's cultural mealtime practices
  3. Discuss the family's mealtime routines and cultural context to collaboratively determine whether fork use is a meaningful and appropriate goal
  4. Target chopstick use instead because it aligns more closely with the family's cultural background
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C - Discuss the family's mealtime routines and cultural context to collaboratively determine whether fork use is a meaningful and appropriate goal

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