HCDI CERTIFICATION SCHEME
Practice test
Answer each question in your head or on paper, without your notes, then open it to see the model answer and mark yourself.
Self-check, not examination items. These questions are never bank items and are never reused as bank items. Their explanations carry no Methodology Protected content. They test scheme rules, platform behaviour and governance principles only, and a correct answer here says nothing about your examination result. Nothing you mark here is sent or kept: it is a study aid, not an examination, and it gives no result and no credential.
From the HCDI Certification Study Companion, section 6. Edition 0.3 · self-paced · date not set · draft, not HCDI-approved · Methodology version 1.0.
6.1 The scheme (all levels)
Who sets the knowledge pass mark, and how?
The Scheme Committee, after a documented standard-setting study.
When are examination results released to candidates?
Not until the pass mark is adopted.
What must you hold before you can sit the examination — HCDI's training?
No. No HCDI-delivered training is required to sit the examination (interim, subject to ratification).
A candidate does not pass. Can they retake, and on what form?
Yes, after a set interval, on a different examination form.
To whom does an appeal go?
To the HCDI Scheme Committee, within a set period of issue. The marking examiner does not sit on it.
Why does no certificate print "ACTIVE"?
A certificate states facts true at issuance. Status can change; the register holds it, read live.
What does REVOKED mean for the record?
The record is never deleted and stays visibly REVOKED. Reinstatement would be a new award.
Which levels receive a Certification Card?
Levels 2, 3 and 4. Level 1 receives none.
6.2 Level 1
What question does the Index answer that financial and legal due diligence do not?
Will the people hold up?
Name the five pillars with their codes.
P1 Corporate Culture Alignment; P2 Communication & Change Management; P3 Employee Engagement & Retention; P4 Founder Attachment & Ownership Readiness; P5 Regulatory & Governance Readiness.
Who enters a score, and what does AI draft?
A person enters every score. AI drafts corrective-action text for 1–4 scores, which a human reviewer must approve before it can reach a report.
Why must a reader ask for a report's current status?
The document is frozen at issuance. Its status changes instead, and the document never prints it.
Which report issues first on each edition?
The Findings report, before the Full report.
Does a Level 1 holder have an engagement role?
No. The certificate says it "confers no engagement role".
6.3 Level 2
Name the four things the Level 2 limitation block says the holder may not do.
Resolve an evidence conflict, adjust a score, close a gate, approve a corrective action.
Why does an untagged evidence item block submission for review?
An untagged item is never read as claimed. Every linked item must carry an evidence status first.
A document was uploaded under the wrong indicator. How is it corrected?
It is uploaded again under the right indicator. There is no "move".
What happens to an indicator with no linked evidence at submission?
It is recorded not evidenced, leaves every denominator and is disclosed. It is not scored.
What does the platform read for instruction-shaped text?
The description typed at upload and Adaptive Digital Inquiry answers. Not a file's contents.
You record "not found" for a board member. What follows, and who clears it?
An evidence conflict opens; finalize is blocked; only the Internal Reviewer resolves it.
Can an Adaptive Digital Inquiry session start before the respondent consents?
No.
6.4 Level 3
Why add the Reviewer before the materiality criteria are countersigned?
The countersignature needs a second engagement member.
When are the materiality criteria fixed?
After the first score.
Name the six release conditions.
Credential valid; authorisation valid; conflict check complete; Independent Reviewer assigned; review completed; methodology version locked.
Who may not countersign a finalization?
The person who will finalize.
What happens if a score is changed while the assessment is in review?
The assessment returns to draft.
What does recording a Structural response require?
Confirming that the action is neither a workshop nor a cadence.
Who closes a Deal Workspace, and when?
A Firm Admin of the owning Firm, for an engagement that ends without a report.
A Firm is recorded as the implementer of remediation. What may it not do?
Deliver the reassessment of the findings its remediation addressed.
6.5 Level 4
State the three independence conditions in the Level 4 limitation block.
Never reviews an engagement delivered by their own firm; never selects the engagements they review; is never nominated by the delivering partner.
Who assigns an Independent Reviewer?
HCDI Compliance, on a Level 4 credential that is ACTIVE.
Name three things that make a review completion stale.
A corrective action changing after it; the assessment returning to draft; the assignment being revoked.
Why must a revocation carry a reason?
A replacement without a reason "is indistinguishable from reviewer-shopping".
Is a Founding Six engagement ever assigned an Independent Reviewer?
No. Its review is recorded by an Internal Reviewer with no role on the engagement.
Does the reviewer see the Order Form or invoices?
No. No commercial information reaches the reviewer.