North Dakota professional engineers complete 30 professional development hours during each biennial renewal period, including at least 20 technical hours and 1 ethics-oriented hour.
Authority: North Dakota State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors | Reviewed: August 3, 2026
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Quick answer for North Dakota PEs
Complete 30 PDH every two years. At least 20 hours must be technical subjects directly safeguarding public health, safety, and welfare; no more than 10 may be nontechnical professional subjects; and at least 1 nontechnical hour must be ethics-oriented. Up to 15 qualifying hours may carry forward. The Board does not preapprove courses or providers.
30 PDHRequired every two years
20 PDHTechnical HSW minimum
1 PDHEthics-oriented minimum
4 yearsRecord retention
Core Requirement
North Dakota requires 30 PDH during each biennium
Requirement
North Dakota PE rule
Total education
Complete 30 professional development hours during every two-year renewal period.
Technical subjects
At least 20 PDH must be technical subjects that directly safeguard public health, safety, and welfare and relate to the licensee’s field of practice.
Nontechnical subjects
No more than 10 PDH may be in nontechnical professional-related subjects.
Ethics
At least 1 of the nontechnical professional-development hours must be an ethics-oriented class. The Board’s guidance recognizes courses with ethics in the title and courses dealing with laws and rules.
Carryover
Up to 15 qualifying PDH may be forwarded into the immediately subsequent biennial renewal period.
Provider approval
The Board does not preapprove courses, providers, or activities. The registrant selects qualifying learning, and the Board makes the final credit determination during an audit.
Dual registrants
A person registered in both engineering and land surveying completes 30 total PDH, with at least 10 hours in each profession.
Qualifying activities should have a purpose and objective that maintains, improves, or expands the engineer’s skills and knowledge. Technical activities must relate to the field of practice and directly support public health, safety, and welfare.
Common qualifying activities
College and university courses
Technical courses and seminars
Employer-sponsored education
Interactive professional programs
Correspondence and online courses
Recorded courses with completion evidence
First-time teaching of qualifying education
Published professional work
Professional-society and licensing-board service
Qualifying patents
STEM facilitation or support
Selected credit values
Semester credit: 45 PDH
Quarter credit: 30 PDH
Contact-hour course or seminar: 1 PDH per hour
First-time teaching: twice participant credit
Qualifying publication: 10 PDH, one per period
Society participation: 2 PDH per organization, maximum 6
Engineering or surveying licensing-board service: maximum 10 PDH
Qualifying patent: 10 PDH
STEM participation: maximum 4 PDH
Technical versus nontechnical: Technical credit may include engineering topics, technical professional management such as total-quality processes, and technical engineering software training. Licensees should preserve enough course information to support the category claimed.
Likely technical HSW subjects
Building codes, structural loads, seismic or wind design
Bridge, roadway, traffic, and construction safety
Geotechnical stability, foundations, and retaining systems
Electrical codes, grounding, arc-flash protection, and system protection
Boilers, pressure vessels, machine safety, and mechanical codes
Fire protection, life-safety systems, HVAC, and indoor air quality
Drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, and environmental protection
Process safety, hazardous materials, HAZOP, and relief-system design
Reliability, failure analysis, risk assessment, and emergency planning
Technical cybersecurity for industrial or infrastructure control systems
Engineering quality-control processes and technical software application
Resilience, accessibility, and safe operation of public infrastructure
Subjects needing careful justification
General leadership or supervisory training
Generic project management without technical risk content
Accounting, finance, sales, or marketing
Business development and contract procurement
General office-productivity software
Human resources and workplace administration
Personal development or communication courses
Legal topics unrelated to engineering safety or professional duties
These subjects are more appropriately treated as nontechnical—or may be denied entirely—unless the licensee can document a direct technical and public-protection connection.
A practical HSW test: Ask whether the course teaches technical knowledge the engineer will use to reduce foreseeable harm, comply with a safety-related code or standard, improve the reliability of an engineered system, protect environmental or public health, or make infrastructure safer. The course title, objectives, outline, and certificate should make that connection clear. These examples are interpretive guidance; the Board makes the final classification during an audit.
Online and Recorded Education
Online courses qualify with evidence of achievement or completion
North Dakota accepts correspondence courses, recorded programs, and online courses when the participant demonstrates achievement through a final graded test or receives a certificate of completion. The rules do not establish a separate numerical cap on qualifying online education.
A structured online course may therefore provide all required hours when it contains relevant technical and ethics content in the required proportions, uses an appropriate completion assessment, assigns supportable hours, and issues verifiable documentation.
Provider approval is not required. The engineer remains responsible for selecting courses that meet North Dakota’s technical, nontechnical, ethics, and public-protection standards.
Online-PDH courses: Online-PDH does not need North Dakota provider approval. Its structured courses may qualify when their subjects satisfy North Dakota’s technical or professional requirements and the participant receives a passing assessment and verifiable completion certificate.
Exemptions and Special Situations
New registrants follow a prorated first-renewal requirement
New registrants
A registrant licensed before the fourth quarter of an odd-numbered year reports the full 30 hours at the next renewal. A registrant licensed before the fourth quarter of an even-numbered year reports 15 hours. Confirm individual timing with the Board when licensed during the fourth quarter.
Military service
A registrant on temporary active duty, or regular active duty with deployment exceeding 120 consecutive days in a year, is exempt from the hours required during that year.
Disability or temporary leave
The Board may approve an exemption for physical disability, illness, temporary leave from professional activity, or another extenuating circumstance when supporting documentation is provided.
Retired or voluntarily registered
Approved retired registrants are exempt. A narrowly defined exemption may also apply to certain professional engineers who are legally exempt from registration but maintain a voluntary registration based on their primary employment.
Comity: North Dakota allows CPC comity when a registrant is currently licensed in another jurisdiction with mandatory continuing professional competency and satisfies requirements meeting North Dakota’s minimum standards.
Documentation and Audit
Retain detailed records for at least four years
Registrants must keep a specific activity log and attendance verification for at least four years from the date of the last biennial renewal. Records may be stored on an electronic platform if they can be exported to a commonly used, readable file type.
The Board randomly selects 5% of engineers and 5% of land surveyors for audit every two years. An audited registrant generally has 30 days to provide detailed records. If the audit identifies a deficiency, the registrant has 60 days after written notice to reinforce the claim or obtain sufficient additional credit.
Official Sources
Confirm current North Dakota requirements before renewal
Informational notice: This summary addresses North Dakota continuing-education requirements for professional engineers. It is not legal advice or a guarantee that any particular activity will be accepted. The North Dakota Board has final authority, and requirements may change after the review date.