Engineering Ethics, Codes, Standards and Professional Practice
Professional-practice questions test judgement rather than recall. You must know that the engineer's first duty is to public safety, health and welfare, and that this duty outranks loyalty to an employer or client. Related obligations include practising only within your competence, signing and sealing only work you personally prepared or directly supervised, disclosing conflicts of interest, keeping client information confidential, refusing undisclosed gifts from suppliers or bidders, reporting genuine dangers even when it is inconvenient, and maintaining competence through continuing professional development.
Know also the document hierarchy: statutes and regulations are legally enforceable; codes and standards are consensus documents given force by reference in contracts or regulations; specifications and drawings govern a particular job. A standard is a floor, not a ceiling, and "the code does not require it" is never a defence when a reasonable engineer would have foreseen harm. Negligence requires four elements: a duty of care, a breach of the standard of care (what a competent peer would do), causation, and actual damage.
Traps. Distractors exploit the conflict between a client instruction and the public interest, and public safety always wins. Other traps: sealing drawings produced by others without review, treating a gift as harmless hospitality, responding to an unsafe design by noting it in the file instead of escalating in writing, and confusing legal with ethical.
Worked example (rule of thumb). During tender evaluation a supplier offers you a paid conference trip. Declining is the minimum; you should also disclose the offer in writing, because even the perception of bias damages the profession. A useful test: if you would not be comfortable seeing the decision reported publicly, refuse or disclose, preferably both.