Professional Ethics and Conduct
What this domain tests
Ethics questions test judgment under pressure. The exam rewards integrity, transparency, and accountability, and penalizes answers that protect reputation at the expense of honesty. You should understand conflicts of interest, confidentiality, competence boundaries, and whistleblowing obligations.
Concepts to master
- Conflict of interest: disclose, recuse, document. Disclosure is the default; recusal follows when the conflict is material.
- Confidentiality: share only on a need-to-know basis and only through approved channels.
- Competence boundary: decline work outside your competence and refer onward; do not improvise.
- Whistleblowing: report through internal channels first where safe; escalate externally when internal channels fail or risk is imminent.
Traps to expect
- Loyalty trap: an option that shields a colleague or employer from a legitimate finding. Ethics favors disclosure.
- Confidentiality trap: sharing information in a casual setting, even with good intent. Channel matters.
- Competence trap: accepting a task to appear capable. Declining and referring is the ethical answer.
Worked example
A colleague asks you to omit an unfavorable result from a report. Rule of thumb: accuracy outranks comfort. The ethical answer records the result and, if pressure continues, escalates. Options that soften or delay the record fail the integrity test.