CALIFORNIA ALARM COMPANY QUALIFIED MANAGER (ACQM) LICENSING
EXAMINATION COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS |
COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE | UPDATED 2026/2027
Examiner/Administrator: California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services
(BSIS)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CALIFORNIA ALARM COMPANY QUALIFIED MANAGER (ACQM) LICENSING
EXAMINATION
2026/2027 EDITION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM
100+ MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
PASSING SCORE: 70%
TESTING TIME: 120 MINUTES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TABLE OF CONTENTS
California Alarm Company Act & BSIS Regulations
Licensing Requirements & Qualified Manager Responsibilities
Alarm System Design Principles
Electrical Safety & Installation Standards
Intrusion Detection Systems
Fire Alarm Fundamentals
Access Control Systems
Video Surveillance & CCTV Systems
Contracts, Consumer Protection & Business Practices
Inspection, Testing, Maintenance & Troubleshooting
,CALIFORNIA BUREAU OF SECURITY AND INVESTIGATIVE SERVICES (BSIS) || ALIGNED
WITH CURRENT LICENSING BLUEPRINTS || ALARM COMPANY REGULATIONS ||
PROFESSIONAL STUDY GUIDE || VERIFIED FOR EDUCATIONAL PREPARATION
PURPOSES || COMPREHENSIVE EXAM PREPARATION || PREPARED FOR LICENSING &
CERTIFICATION REVIEW || PROFESSIONAL EXAMINATION USE
California Alarm Company Act & BSIS Regulations
Q1. A licensed alarm company discovers that a field technician has been performing
installations without the required registration status. As the Qualified Manager, what
is the MOST appropriate immediate action?
A. Allow the technician to continue working until the next renewal cycle
B. Document the issue and continue operations as normal
C. Remove the individual from regulated duties until compliance requirements are
met
D. Delegate responsibility to the customer
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Remove the individual from regulated duties until
compliance requirements are met
Explanation: 🔹 The Qualified Manager is responsible for ensuring regulatory
compliance and proper supervision of alarm company operations. Allowing an
unqualified or improperly registered individual to continue regulated work exposes
the company to disciplinary action. Options A and B fail to address the compliance
violation, while D improperly transfers responsibility to the customer.
Q2. Which responsibility is MOST directly associated with the Alarm Company
Qualified Manager?
A. Performing every installation personally
B. Supervising operations to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations
C. Setting local building code requirements
D. Issuing state alarm licenses
,Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Supervising operations to ensure compliance with
applicable laws and regulations
Explanation: 🔹 The Qualified Manager serves as the responsible managing
individual for regulatory compliance, operational oversight, and professional
standards. The position does not require personally performing every installation,
creating codes, or issuing licenses.
Q3. During a compliance review, investigators determine that installation records are
incomplete. What is the PRIMARY risk to the company?
A. Improved operational flexibility
B. Reduced equipment costs
C. Regulatory enforcement actions and inability to demonstrate compliance
D. Increased customer satisfaction
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Regulatory enforcement actions and inability to
demonstrate compliance
Explanation: 🔹 Accurate documentation is critical for demonstrating compliance,
supporting inspections, and resolving disputes. Incomplete records can result in
citations, penalties, and operational difficulties. The remaining options do not
accurately reflect the risk involved.
Q4. A customer requests modifications that would violate applicable safety
requirements. What should the Qualified Manager do?
A. Perform the work if the customer signs a waiver
B. Follow the customer's instructions regardless of safety implications
C. Refuse noncompliant work and recommend compliant alternatives
D. Ignore applicable standards
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Refuse noncompliant work and recommend compliant
alternatives
, Explanation: 🔹 Compliance with safety requirements and professional standards
takes precedence over customer preferences. A waiver generally does not eliminate
regulatory obligations. The Qualified Manager must ensure all installations meet
applicable requirements.
Q5. Which recordkeeping practice BEST supports regulatory compliance?
A. Retaining only invoices
B. Maintaining installation, service, testing, and employee compliance records
C. Keeping records only when requested
D. Destroying records after project completion
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Maintaining installation, service, testing, and employee
compliance records
Explanation: 🔹 Comprehensive records provide evidence of compliance,
maintenance history, personnel qualifications, and customer interactions. Limiting
documentation creates regulatory and operational risks.
Q6. A Qualified Manager becomes aware of repeated violations by a supervisor.
What is the MOST appropriate response?
A. Ignore the issue if revenue remains high
B. Take corrective action and document the response
C. Allow violations to continue temporarily
D. Transfer responsibility to customers
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Take corrective action and document the response
Explanation: 🔹 Management oversight includes identifying, correcting, and
documenting compliance deficiencies. Failure to act may expose the company and
manager to liability and disciplinary action.
EXAMINATION COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS |
COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE | UPDATED 2026/2027
Examiner/Administrator: California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services
(BSIS)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CALIFORNIA ALARM COMPANY QUALIFIED MANAGER (ACQM) LICENSING
EXAMINATION
2026/2027 EDITION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM
100+ MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
PASSING SCORE: 70%
TESTING TIME: 120 MINUTES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TABLE OF CONTENTS
California Alarm Company Act & BSIS Regulations
Licensing Requirements & Qualified Manager Responsibilities
Alarm System Design Principles
Electrical Safety & Installation Standards
Intrusion Detection Systems
Fire Alarm Fundamentals
Access Control Systems
Video Surveillance & CCTV Systems
Contracts, Consumer Protection & Business Practices
Inspection, Testing, Maintenance & Troubleshooting
,CALIFORNIA BUREAU OF SECURITY AND INVESTIGATIVE SERVICES (BSIS) || ALIGNED
WITH CURRENT LICENSING BLUEPRINTS || ALARM COMPANY REGULATIONS ||
PROFESSIONAL STUDY GUIDE || VERIFIED FOR EDUCATIONAL PREPARATION
PURPOSES || COMPREHENSIVE EXAM PREPARATION || PREPARED FOR LICENSING &
CERTIFICATION REVIEW || PROFESSIONAL EXAMINATION USE
California Alarm Company Act & BSIS Regulations
Q1. A licensed alarm company discovers that a field technician has been performing
installations without the required registration status. As the Qualified Manager, what
is the MOST appropriate immediate action?
A. Allow the technician to continue working until the next renewal cycle
B. Document the issue and continue operations as normal
C. Remove the individual from regulated duties until compliance requirements are
met
D. Delegate responsibility to the customer
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Remove the individual from regulated duties until
compliance requirements are met
Explanation: 🔹 The Qualified Manager is responsible for ensuring regulatory
compliance and proper supervision of alarm company operations. Allowing an
unqualified or improperly registered individual to continue regulated work exposes
the company to disciplinary action. Options A and B fail to address the compliance
violation, while D improperly transfers responsibility to the customer.
Q2. Which responsibility is MOST directly associated with the Alarm Company
Qualified Manager?
A. Performing every installation personally
B. Supervising operations to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations
C. Setting local building code requirements
D. Issuing state alarm licenses
,Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Supervising operations to ensure compliance with
applicable laws and regulations
Explanation: 🔹 The Qualified Manager serves as the responsible managing
individual for regulatory compliance, operational oversight, and professional
standards. The position does not require personally performing every installation,
creating codes, or issuing licenses.
Q3. During a compliance review, investigators determine that installation records are
incomplete. What is the PRIMARY risk to the company?
A. Improved operational flexibility
B. Reduced equipment costs
C. Regulatory enforcement actions and inability to demonstrate compliance
D. Increased customer satisfaction
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Regulatory enforcement actions and inability to
demonstrate compliance
Explanation: 🔹 Accurate documentation is critical for demonstrating compliance,
supporting inspections, and resolving disputes. Incomplete records can result in
citations, penalties, and operational difficulties. The remaining options do not
accurately reflect the risk involved.
Q4. A customer requests modifications that would violate applicable safety
requirements. What should the Qualified Manager do?
A. Perform the work if the customer signs a waiver
B. Follow the customer's instructions regardless of safety implications
C. Refuse noncompliant work and recommend compliant alternatives
D. Ignore applicable standards
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Refuse noncompliant work and recommend compliant
alternatives
, Explanation: 🔹 Compliance with safety requirements and professional standards
takes precedence over customer preferences. A waiver generally does not eliminate
regulatory obligations. The Qualified Manager must ensure all installations meet
applicable requirements.
Q5. Which recordkeeping practice BEST supports regulatory compliance?
A. Retaining only invoices
B. Maintaining installation, service, testing, and employee compliance records
C. Keeping records only when requested
D. Destroying records after project completion
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Maintaining installation, service, testing, and employee
compliance records
Explanation: 🔹 Comprehensive records provide evidence of compliance,
maintenance history, personnel qualifications, and customer interactions. Limiting
documentation creates regulatory and operational risks.
Q6. A Qualified Manager becomes aware of repeated violations by a supervisor.
What is the MOST appropriate response?
A. Ignore the issue if revenue remains high
B. Take corrective action and document the response
C. Allow violations to continue temporarily
D. Transfer responsibility to customers
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Take corrective action and document the response
Explanation: 🔹 Management oversight includes identifying, correcting, and
documenting compliance deficiencies. Failure to act may expose the company and
manager to liability and disciplinary action.
