- What "Training" Means for This Credential
- The Mandatory Prerequisite Path
- The Official Courses Worth Taking
- How the Exam Shapes Your Training
- Training the 18 Skill Areas in Clusters
- Hands-On Drills That Mirror the Challenges
- Licensing and Workstation Setup
- Sequencing Your Training Weeks
- Practice Resources and Their Limits
- Frequently Asked Questions
- You must pass CSWP, CSWA-S, and CSWP-S before the Expert exam is open to you.
- The exam is 40 questions in 3 hours: 10 hands-on (10-20 points each) and 30 multiple-choice (2 points each).
- SOLIDWORKS publishes no official sample exam for this credential, so you must build your own practice problems.
- You need SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium 2017 or later; a CAD-only Premium license will not run the analyses.
What "Training" Means for This Credential
The Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert - Simulation credential sits at the top of SOLIDWORKS' simulation certification ladder. Unlike entry-level exams, it does not reward memorizing button locations. It tests whether you can set up, troubleshoot, and interpret finite element analyses under time pressure. That changes what good training looks like: less reading, more solving.
If you are new to the credential, start with What Is CSWE-S Certification? for context, then come back here to plan the actual preparation. This article focuses on the training itself: which courses matter, how to group the 18 published skill areas, and how to build hands-on fluency before you pay for an attempt.
The Mandatory Prerequisite Path
Before you can sit the Expert exam, you must have successfully passed all three of the following:
- CSWP (Mechanical Design): proves modeling fluency, which you need to modify geometry quickly inside simulation challenges.
- CSWA-S (Simulation Associate): the foundation for linear static setup, fixtures, loads, meshing basics, and result interpretation.
- CSWP-S (Simulation Professional): broadens into the intermediate analysis types that the Expert exam builds on.
Treat these as the first stage of your training, not hurdles to clear and forget. Candidates who rushed through CSWA-S often find the Expert-level contact and mesh problems unforgiving because the fundamentals never fully settled. The full eligibility picture is in CSWE-S Requirements: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
The Official Courses Worth Taking
SOLIDWORKS' recommended preparation list for the Expert exam includes the following. Public course-contents PDFs exist for the first two, which let you check coverage against the exam's published skill areas before committing time or money.
| Resource | What It Builds | Best Used For |
|---|---|---|
| SOLIDWORKS Simulation (instructor-led/training course) | Core linear workflow: study setup, contact, connectors, meshing, mesh control, results | Domains 1-7 and 18 |
| SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional | Thermal, thermal stress, frequency, buckling, drop test, linear dynamics topics | Domains 8-13 |
| Simulation Learning Path | Guided progression through simulation skills | Gap-filling between courses |
| Dynamics and Nonlinear courses | Nonlinear static, nonlinear dynamic, and time-dependent behavior | Domains 14-16 |
| Built-in Simulation tutorials | Short, software-guided worked examples | Quick refreshers on specific study types |
One caution: course PDFs carry edition metadata (for example a 2026 or 2024 title), but those dates describe the curriculum edition, not the exam's revision date. Do not infer an exam outline date from a course file name.
How the Exam Shapes Your Training
The format dictates your practice design. The exam gives you 40 questions in a single 3-hour sitting that cannot be paused. Ten are hands-on challenges worth 10 to 20 points each, and 30 are multiple-choice worth 2 points each. The minimum passing grade is 70%.
Because the point values vary, 70% is not a uniform "28 correct answers" rule. The multiple-choice block is worth a modest slice of the total, while the hands-on questions carry the heavy points. In practice, that means your training hours should skew toward building and solving models, not toward flashcards. The multiple-choice questions reward the conceptual precision you develop while doing the hands-on work anyway.
Also note that the 18 skill areas published by SOLIDWORKS are unweighted. They describe areas where hands-on challenges may appear. They are not a percentage blueprint, so do not assume any one topic dominates. Train breadth first, then depth in your weakest clusters. For the full breakdown, see CSWE-S Exam Domains: Complete Guide to All 18 Content Areas.
Training the 18 Skill Areas in Clusters
Eighteen separate topics is hard to schedule one by one. Grouping them by shared skills makes training far more efficient, because the same habits transfer within a cluster.
Cluster A: Structural Setup Fundamentals
Linear stress, Contact, Connectors, Shells, 2D simplification
These areas form the backbone of most hands-on problems. The Expert exam expects you to choose the right idealization, not just run a default study.
- Know when contact sets (bonded, no penetration, shrink fit) change results versus when they only add solve time.
- Practice connector types for bolts, pins, and springs, and learn how connector forces appear in results.
- Understand shell versus solid trade-offs, including composite shell layer definitions.
- Recognize when a plane stress, plane strain, or axisymmetric 2D simplification is valid and how to verify it against a solid model.
Cluster B: Mesh Quality and Trust
Resolving meshing problems, Mesh convergence
These are the skills that separate Expert candidates from Professional-level users. A result you cannot trust is not a result.
- Diagnose failed meshes: sliver faces, tiny features, bad geometry, and mixed-body issues.
- Run a genuine mesh convergence study using local mesh control and compare stress and displacement trends across refinements.
- Know why a stress singularity at a sharp load point never converges, while displacement does.
Cluster C: Thermal and Coupled Physics
Steady state and transient thermal, Thermal stress
Thermal stress is a two-step workflow: solve the temperature field, then apply it as a thermal load in a static study.
- Set convection, radiation, and heat power boundary conditions with correct units.
- Read transient thermal results at specific time steps and plot temperature versus time.
- Check which studies must be linked and in what order when carrying temperatures into a structural analysis.
Cluster D: Frequency, Buckling, and Impact
Resonance frequencies and mode shapes, Drop test, Linear buckling
These study types answer different questions, so practice naming the right one from a problem description.
- Interpret mode shapes and mass participation, and understand how fixtures shift natural frequencies.
- Configure drop test height, orientation, and the effect of gravity and target stiffness.
- Read buckling load factors and what a factor below 1 means for the applied load.
Cluster E: Linear and Nonlinear Dynamics
Linear dynamic, Nonlinear static, Nonlinear dynamic, Nonlinear buckling
The highest-effort cluster for most candidates, and the one where solver settings matter most.
- Distinguish modal time history, harmonic, random vibration, and response spectrum analyses, including what excitation each needs.
- For nonlinear studies, practice time-step control, load curves, large displacement settings, and diagnosing non-convergence.
- Understand how nonlinear buckling differs from linear buckling and why imperfections and load stepping matter.
Cluster F: Organization and Interpretation
Assembly Configurations, Results
Easy points are lost here by candidates who solve correctly but report incorrectly.
- Use configurations to compare design variants without rebuilding studies.
- Extract the exact quantity requested: stress type, displacement component, reaction force, or connector force.
- Check units and probe locations before entering any answer.
Hands-On Drills That Mirror the Challenges
Because SOLIDWORKS provides no official sample exam, you need to manufacture your own challenge-style practice. Here are drill formats that map onto the published skill areas without pretending to reproduce real exam questions.
- The "fix the broken study" drill: take a working model, deliberately introduce a fault (an unconnected contact, a missing fixture, a bad mesh control), and diagnose it from the error message and results alone.
- The convergence audit: run the same bracket at three mesh sizes, log peak stress and a displacement value at a fixed point, and write one sentence on whether each has converged.
- The idealization comparison: model one part as solid, shell, and 2D (where valid) and compare results to learn the error each simplification introduces.
- The thermal chain: solve a transient thermal study, then pass a chosen time step into a static study and confirm the thermal stress hotspot.
- The nonlinear rescue: build a nonlinear static study that fails to converge, then fix it by adjusting step size, contact, and load ramping.
- The answer-extraction sprint: given a finished study, practice pulling five different result quantities in under ten minutes.
Time every drill. The exam's 3-hour clock rewards speed in setup, and speed only comes from repetition. For a concise reference to keep beside you while you drill, see the CSWE-S Cheat Sheet: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts.
Licensing and Workstation Setup
Many candidates lose training time to licensing confusion, so settle this first. The exam requires SOLIDWORKS 2017 or later together with SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium 2017 or later, and you must be able to unzip files. The 2017 figure is a software compatibility baseline, not an exam revision date.
Testing is delivered online through SOLIDWORKS and VirtualTester. Current program instructions link the VirtualTester Web Client, while older materials still use Tangix or TesterPRO terminology, so do not be alarmed if a forum post uses the older names. The exam timer cannot be paused, so test your internet connection, machine performance, and file-unzipping workflow in advance. Cost and registration mechanics are summarized in CSWE-S Certification Cost: Complete Pricing Breakdown; the published fee for North America is USD 149 for one attempt.
Sequencing Your Training Weeks
Generic scheduling advice is less useful than a plan tied to this exam's structure. The following timeline orders the clusters by dependency: later topics reuse skills from earlier ones, so reversing the order wastes effort. Adjust the pace to your experience; this is a sequence, not a promise about how long you personally need.
Rebuild the linear foundation
- Linear stress, contact, and connectors on small assemblies
- Re-run key CSWA-S and CSWP-S style setups at speed
Idealization and mesh trust
- Shells (including composite), 2D simplification
- Meshing problem diagnosis and mesh convergence audits
Thermal, frequency, buckling, impact
- Steady state and transient thermal, then thermal stress chains
- Frequency, drop test, and linear buckling
Dynamics and nonlinear
- Modal time history, harmonic, random vibration, response spectrum
- Nonlinear static, nonlinear dynamic, nonlinear buckling
Integration under the clock
- Assembly configurations and results extraction sprints
- Full timed run mixing hands-on and conceptual questions
Nonlinear and dynamic topics come last because they assume you already handle contact, meshing, and results fluently. For a longer-form planning framework, read CSWE-S Study Guide: How to Pass on Your First Attempt.
Practice Resources and Their Limits
Be realistic about what exists. SOLIDWORKS offers no official sample exam for this credential, so any "practice exam" you find is third-party. Several training providers and communities are worth knowing as research leads, though none should be treated as an official source of exam facts:
- Reseller training providers such as GoEngineer and TriMech offer SOLIDWORKS Simulation instruction.
- CADfinity lists a timed CSWE-S mock-exam lab with a debrief; its paid contents are not official sample questions.
- Abundent Academy appears in search results as a related lead, but its full page could not be verified here.
- The r/SolidWorks community on Reddit is useful for troubleshooting stories, but anecdotes are not exam policy.
Use these to widen your problem set, then verify any exam rule against SOLIDWORKS' own certification pages. For a realistic sense of how demanding the process is, see How Hard Is the CSWE-S Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide. If you want structured question practice to complement your modeling drills, the CSWE-S practice test site offers an additional way to rehearse the conceptual side of the material.
Key Takeaway
Because no official sample exam exists, your best training asset is a personal library of self-built challenges, one per skill area, each timed and logged. Review the library weekly and retire only the problems you can solve cleanly under the clock.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Recommended preparation includes SOLIDWORKS Simulation, Simulation Professional, the Simulation Learning Path, Dynamics, Nonlinear, and the built-in tutorials, but there is no mandatory course-hour prerequisite. The mandatory requirement is passing CSWP, CSWA-S, and CSWP-S first.
No. SOLIDWORKS explicitly provides no official sample exam for the Expert credential. Build your own challenge-style drills from the 18 published skill areas and treat third-party mock exams as unofficial supplements.
SOLIDWORKS 2017 or later with SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium 2017 or later, plus the ability to unzip files. A CAD-only Premium license is not the same as Simulation Premium and will not cover the advanced analyses you need to practice.
The exam has 40 questions in one 3-hour sitting: 10 hands-on questions worth 10 to 20 points each and 30 multiple-choice questions worth 2 points each. The minimum passing grade is 70%, and the question format split does not tell you how topics are weighted.
Retakes require waiting at least 90 days and purchasing a fresh exam credit. Use that window to target your weakest skill-area clusters. Before committing, you may also want to read Is the CSWE-S Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis to weigh the investment.