Welding Procedure Qualifier (WPQ2) endorsement: is it worth it?

The Welding Procedure Qualifier, which AWS lists as WPQ2, is the procedure half of the qualifier pair. Where the Welder Performance Qualifier (WPQ) is about qualifying the welder, this endorsement is about qualifying the procedure: taking a Welding Procedure Specification through its qualification and producing the record that proves it works. It is not a code-navigation exam like D1.1 or the ASME piping endorsement; it documents a specific quality-control competency that many fabrication shops need on staff.

What the WPQ2 endorsement actually covers

The endorsement demonstrates that you can qualify a Welding Procedure Specification. In practice that spans the whole procedure-qualification workflow: determining the applicable base-metal and filler-metal combinations, evaluating which welding processes apply, overseeing the welding tests that qualify the procedure, and preparing the Procedure Qualification Record (PQR) that documents the result. A WPS tells a welder how to make a weld; the PQR is the evidence that a weld made that way meets the mechanical and soundness requirements. This endorsement says you can run that qualification and stand behind the paperwork.

Who needs it

The audience is quality-control and engineering-support staff who own welding procedures in a fabrication shop: QC leads, welding engineers’ right hands, and the inspectors who review and accept WPS and PQR packages. If your shop qualifies its own procedures rather than buying prequalified ones off the shelf, having a CWI who holds this endorsement is a clean way to show a customer or auditor that the person qualifying those procedures is credentialed for the task. It pairs naturally with the Welder Performance Qualifier: together they cover both halves of the qualification a shop has to defend.

What is the WPQ2 exam format?

The endorsement is a separate open-book written exam of 50 scorable multiple-choice questions, with 5 additional unscored pretest questions mixed in, and you must answer at least 66% correctly to pass. Because it is open book, the exam tests whether you can apply the procedure-qualification rules rather than whether you have memorized them. Knowing that the pass mark sits at 66% rather than the 72% used on the main CWI parts is a small but real planning point: the bar is set for the narrower, more applied scope of this endorsement.

Fee and the prerequisite

The fee is $540 for AWS members and $630 for non-members, the qualifier and coordination endorsement tier on the AWS 2026 price list. You must already hold a current CWI or SCWI certification to sit it, and AWS recommends familiarity with welding procedure qualification standards going in. Always confirm the live fee on the endorsement matrix and price the full path with the cost calculator before you register.

Using it as your recertification

A CWI certification is valid for nine years, and passing any endorsement exam within the eleven months before your certification expires satisfies that recertification. The Welding Procedure Qualifier counts. If you were going to add it anyway and your recert deadline is close, timing the exam inside that window folds two expenses into one, and the endorsement then stays valid as long as you keep renewing your CWI on schedule. Run your dates through the recertification calculator to see whether the timing lines up.

Who should add it, and who should skip it

Add the Welding Procedure Qualifier if you qualify welding procedures or review and accept WPS and PQR records, if a customer or auditor wants documented proof that the person qualifying those procedures is credentialed, or if you want a new endorsement to double as your recert. Reach for a different endorsement first if your work is really about qualifying welders rather than procedures, which is the Welder Performance Qualifier (WPQ), or if your day-to-day is inspecting finished welds to a specific code, where a code endorsement such as D1.1 or API 1104 fits better. Match the endorsement to the task your work is actually judged on, use the endorsement recommender if you sit across more than one, and compare every option on the endorsement matrix before you register.