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Exam Review

Key Facts: New Relic Performance Engineer Exam

70

Exam Questions

New Relic

70%

Passing Score

New Relic

120 min

Exam Duration

New Relic

$350

Exam Fee

New Relic (USD)

2 years

Validity

New Relic

2+ years

Recommended Experience

New Relic

The PEP exam has approximately 70 multiple-choice and scenario-based questions in 120 minutes with a 70% passing score. Online proctored. The credential is valid for 2 years. The exam fee is approximately $350 USD. Designed for engineers with 2+ years of performance engineering experience using New Relic.

Sample New Relic Performance Engineer Practice Questions

Try these sample questions to review concepts for the New Relic Performance Engineer exam. Each question includes a detailed explanation. Start the interactive quiz above for the full 100+ question experience with AI tutoring.

1Which performance test type measures behavior under sustained typical load over hours?
A.Soak (endurance) test
B.Spike test
C.Smoke test
D.Capacity test
Explanation: Soak tests run typical load for hours/days to expose memory leaks, connection-pool drift, and slow resource exhaustion that short tests miss.
2Which test type ramps load up rapidly to detect breaking points?
A.Stress test
B.Smoke test
C.Synthetic ping
D.Browser snapshot
Explanation: Stress tests push beyond expected load to identify bottlenecks, error onset, and recovery behavior. Spike tests do similar but with sudden bursts.
3Which is the goal of a baseline test?
A.Establish current performance characteristics for future comparison
B.Break the system
C.Stress all components
D.Disable instrumentation
Explanation: A baseline run captures current p95, throughput, and resource use under known load — the reference point for regression detection in CI/CD.
4Which test type validates the system's ability to scale linearly with load?
A.Scalability test
B.Soak
C.Smoke
D.Ping
Explanation: Scalability tests increase load incrementally and measure whether throughput scales as expected — surfacing diminishing returns and saturation points.
5Which percentile best characterizes tail latency for SLOs?
A.p99 or p99.9
B.p50 (median)
C.Average
D.Minimum
Explanation: p99 captures the slowest 1% of requests — these are typically the users who complain. SLOs often target p95 or p99 because averages hide tails.
6Which phenomenon causes long queue waits even at modest utilization?
A.Head-of-line blocking on shared resources
B.Cosmic rays
C.Excess RAM
D.SSL handshake speed
Explanation: Head-of-line blocking happens when a slow request blocks subsequent requests in a queue — common in single-threaded servers, HTTP/1.1, and lock-heavy code.
7Which method analyzes per-resource Utilization, Saturation, and Errors?
A.USE method
B.RED method
C.CORE method
D.TOP method
Explanation: USE (Brendan Gregg) systematically inspects every resource (CPU, mem, disk, network) for U/S/E. It's the resource-side complement to RED.
8Which method analyzes per-service Rate, Errors, and Duration?
A.RED method
B.USE method
C.SLO method
D.Latency method
Explanation: RED (Tom Wilkie) focuses on user-facing service signals — Rate, Errors, Duration. New Relic surfaces these in APM summary and Service Map.
9Which New Relic capability provides continuous CPU profiling at low overhead?
A.Pixie continuous profiling (Auto-telemetry pipelines) and code-level metrics
B.SMTP relay
C.Pie chart
D.Manual gprof
Explanation: Pixie integrates eBPF-based profiling for Kubernetes workloads. New Relic also supports continuous profiling via OpenTelemetry/Pyroscope and language profilers.
10Which Java profiler is commonly used for in-depth CPU + allocation profiling?
A.async-profiler / JFR (Java Flight Recorder)
B.cron
C.make
D.ssh
Explanation: async-profiler (sampling, low overhead) and Java Flight Recorder are the standard JVM profilers. New Relic CodeStream surfaces hotspots in IDE.

About the New Relic Performance Engineer Exam

The New Relic Certified Performance Engineer - Professional (PEP) validates expertise in monitoring and optimizing the performance of digital products with New Relic. It covers performance test methodology, latency and bottleneck analysis (USE/RED), profiling, JVM tuning, database performance, Core Web Vitals, synthetic monitoring, Kubernetes performance, capacity planning, and CI/CD performance gates.

Exam sponsor: New Relic / Credly Verified. The requirements and fees below concern the certification or admission exam, separate from our free practice resources.

Questions

70 questions

Time Limit

120 minutes

Passing Score

70%

Exam / Certification Fees

$350

Exam sponsor website

Reported exam pass rate: ~60-70%. for well-prepared candidates with 2+ years of performance engineering experience This describes exam candidates, not OpenExamPrep users or results from using our resources. Exam sponsor website

Fees, eligibility, and exam policies can change. Confirm them with the exam sponsor before applying or paying.

Our practice resources: topics covered

We aim to reflect publicly available exam outlines and topic information in our study resources. Coverage, format, and difficulty may differ from the actual exam, and we cannot guarantee that every detail is accurate or current. Confirm exam requirements, fees, and policies with the official exam sponsor.

20-25%

Performance Testing & Methodology

Baseline, load, stress, spike, soak, capacity, and scalability tests; realistic load patterns from RUM data; performance budgets; CI/CD performance gates with k6

20-25%

Bottleneck Identification & Profiling

USE method per resource (CPU/memory/disk/network), RED per service (Rate/Errors/Duration), continuous profiling with Pixie/Pyroscope/JFR, async-profiler, code-level metrics, hot path analysis

15-20%

JVM & Server-Side Tuning

G1/ZGC/Shenandoah GC tuning, heap sizing, thread dumps, deadlocks, thread pool sizing via Little's Law, memory leak detection

10-15%

Database & External Services

EXPLAIN ANALYZE, slow queries, N+1 detection, connection pool tuning, indexes; HTTP/gRPC/Kafka external services performance

15-20%

Front-End & Mobile Performance

Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS), JavaScript bundle size, third-party script impact, RUM segmentation by region/device/browser, SPA monitoring; mobile cold start, network, battery; Synthetic monitors

10-15%

Kubernetes & Capacity Planning

HPA, VPA, Cluster Autoscaler, Pixie eBPF auto-instrumentation, container resource limits, OOMKilled, capacity planning with baseline + growth + headroom

Preparing for the New Relic Performance Engineer Exam

What You Need to Know

  • Passing score: 70%
  • Exam length: 70 questions
  • Time limit: 120 minutes
  • Exam / certification fees: $350 Official sources

Using Our Practice Resources

  • Work through all 100 available questions
  • Review every answer and explanation
  • Track weak areas and revisit them
  • Use our AI tutor for tough concepts

New Relic Performance Engineer: Suggested Study Strategy

1Master USE (per resource) and RED (per service) methods for bottleneck identification
2Practice NRQL: percentile(duration, 95) with FACET name; histogram(duration); FACET deployment.version
3Know JVM GC algorithms: G1 (default), ZGC and Shenandoah for low-pause; thread dump analysis
4Understand Core Web Vitals 2026 thresholds: LCP <2.5s, INP <200ms, CLS <0.1
5Learn k6 + New Relic OTLP integration for CI/CD performance gates
6Practice Kubernetes performance: HPA target ~60-70%, VPA right-sizing, Pixie eBPF auto-instrumentation
7Build dashboards combining APM RED, Infrastructure USE, RUM Core Web Vitals, and SLO burn rate

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the New Relic Performance Engineer Professional exam?

The PEP is a Professional-level New Relic certification validating proficiency in monitoring and optimizing application and digital product performance. It covers performance testing methodology, latency analysis with percentiles, USE/RED bottleneck identification, profiling, JVM tuning, database optimization, Core Web Vitals, synthetic monitoring, Kubernetes performance, and capacity planning.

How many questions are on the PEP exam?

The PEP exam typically has around 70 questions (multiple choice and scenario-based) to be completed in 120 minutes. The passing score is approximately 70%. The exam is delivered online with proctoring via Webassessor.

Are there prerequisites for the PEP exam?

No formal prerequisites, but New Relic recommends 2+ years of performance engineering experience using New Relic. The Verified Foundation (NVF) and APM Practitioner (APA) certifications are strongly recommended as a foundation. Completing the official PEP Exam Prep Course is highly recommended.

What is the cost of the PEP exam?

The PEP exam fee is approximately $350 USD when paid directly. New Relic occasionally offers vouchers after completing the official Exam Prep Course. Check learn.newrelic.com for current pricing and promotions.

How should I prepare for the PEP exam?

Plan for 40-60 hours of study over 4-8 weeks. Use the FREE New Relic PEP Exam Prep Course. Build hands-on experience: profile a real service with Pixie/JFR, run k6 load tests, tune JVM GC, analyze Core Web Vitals from RUM data, and right-size Kubernetes pods with VPA. Complete 100+ practice questions and aim for 80%+ before scheduling.

Does the PEP certification expire?

Yes — New Relic certifications are valid for 2 years. Re-certify by retaking the PEP exam to stay current with platform updates and new performance engineering practices.