What Is A CSWA-E?

What a CSWA-E Actually Is

A CSWA-E is a credential holder who has passed the Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate - Electrical exam. The issuer is SOLIDWORKS, the Dassault Systèmes brand, and the current issuer-facing title for the program is "SOLIDWORKS Electrical Design Associate (CSWA-E)." The exam validates that you understand the principles behind SOLIDWORKS Electrical, the software used to draw electrical schematics, relate them to 3D layouts, and manage the data that connects the two.

Because several unrelated credentials in other industries share a similar acronym, it is worth being precise: everything on this page concerns the SOLIDWORKS Electrical certification only. If you landed here looking for a different credential, the exam, fees, and content described below will not apply to it.

The credential sits at the Associate level of the SOLIDWORKS certification program. Associate and Professional exams have no formal entry prerequisites, so you do not need a prior certificate to sit for it. For a deeper look at the formal conditions, see our guide to CSWA-E requirements, eligibility, and prerequisites.

Why It Is Not an Electrician License

The most common confusion for newcomers is assuming that any "electrical certification" relates to wiring buildings or passing a journeyman exam. The CSWA-E does not do that. It does not authorize anyone to perform installation work on site, it is not issued by a licensing board, and it does not cover local electrical code compliance as a regulated trade.

Instead, it measures whether you can think like a designer working inside a specific electrical CAD environment. The questions are about how that software models circuits, components, wiring, and documentation. A licensed electrician and a CSWA-E holder may work on the same project, but they contribute in different ways: one builds and commissions the system, the other designs and documents it.

Exam Format: A Knowledge Test, Not a Hands-On CAD Task

One of the most useful things to clear up before you study is the exam's structure. Some candidates assume a SOLIDWORKS exam means building a part or schematic against a timer, as in the practical CAD exams in other SOLIDWORKS tracks. The CSWA-E is different.

Interactive use of SOLIDWORKS Electrical is not required to take the exam. The official sample exam guide and the issuer's Lesson 13 post do permit you to run the software to help you answer questions, which can be handy if you want to verify how a command behaves, but you are not graded on producing a drawing.

You may see a stray reference to "hands-on challenges" on the general exam page and some boilerplate about drawing tools in the sample guide. Those passages conflict with the exam-specific description and with the issuer's more recent clarification, which both describe a question-based knowledge test. Treat the 50-question, 60-minute, 70% format as the working definition. To see how that scoring threshold plays out, read our breakdown of the CSWA-E passing score.

The Five Published Exam Topics

The issuer publishes five topic headings for the exam. These are exact headings rather than a weighted blueprint, so do not assume each carries 20 percent of the questions or that any one topic dominates. Plan to be comfortable across all five. A fuller walkthrough is in our complete guide to all five CSWA-E content areas.

Reading the Official Sample Exam Like a Candidate

The issuer links an undated sample document, "SOLIDWORKS Certification Exam Guide & Practice Test - CSWA-E: Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate Electrical." It contains an eight-question sample, which is a small taste rather than the full 50-question exam. Its value is in showing you the register of the questions: concise, tied to a concept, and answerable by someone who understands how the software models electrical design.

How to extract value from a short sample

1. Identify the topic first. Before reading the answer choices, decide which of the five headings the question belongs to. That tells you what kind of reasoning to apply.
2. Separate theory from software behavior. A question may be asking what a circuit does, or it may be asking how the application represents that circuit. Mixing these up is a common source of wrong answers.
3. Reason about why each wrong option is wrong. Doing this builds an understanding that transfers to questions you have never seen, which matters because the sample is only eight questions.
4. Do not memorize the sample. With only a handful of items, memorizing answers teaches you nothing about the other 40-plus questions on the real test.

To pair this with broader material, our CSWA-E study guide lays out how to build coverage beyond the sample, and the CSWA-E cheat sheet condenses the must-know facts into one page for last-minute review. You can also drill realistic questions on our CSWA-E practice test.

Fees, Delivery, Retakes, and Validity

Cost and how you pay

The published fee is USD 20 in North America for one attempt. Lesson 13 also confirms that free opportunities exist through eligible Academic Certification Providers, such as participating schools. That does not mean every attempt is free, so do not assume a retail purchase will be waived. For a cost-by-cost view, see the CSWA-E certification cost breakdown.

How the exam is delivered

Testing is online through SOLIDWORKS and its VirtualTester system. The sample guide names Tangix TesterPRO, while current program instructions direct candidates to the VirtualTester Web Client, so follow the current program instructions when you register. Proctoring language in academic contexts should not be read as a universal webcam rule for every candidate.

Software knowledge baseline

The exam page asks for familiarity with SOLIDWORKS Electrical principles from version 2015 or later. That is a knowledge baseline, not a requirement to buy or install a 2015 license. If you are studying on a newer release, the principles you need remain relevant.

Retakes and certificate lifespan

• Retakes: You must wait at least 14 days and obtain a fresh exam credit. The sample guide mentions 30 days, but the current exam page and program policy supersede that wording.
• Validity: Customer and student certificates carry no official expiration date.

Scheduling specifics are covered in our CSWA-E exam dates and scheduling guide.

Who Pursues This Credential

The CSWA-E is most relevant to people whose work touches electrical design inside the SOLIDWORKS ecosystem. Typical candidates include:

• Students in engineering or technical programs, often through an academic certification provider, who want a recognized credential on a resume.
• Electrical designers and drafters who produce schematics and panel layouts and want to document their software proficiency.
• Mechanical designers who increasingly collaborate with electrical teams on machinery and enclosures and want a shared vocabulary.
• Controls and automation technicians who read or maintain documentation produced in SOLIDWORKS Electrical.

Employers in machinery, industrial automation, panel building, and product design commonly use SOLIDWORKS tools, and a certification can help signal baseline competence. We have not verified an official pass rate or a certification-specific salary uplift, so be skeptical of any source that quotes precise figures. For a measured look at the career angle, read whether the CSWA-E certification is worth it and the discussion of CSWA-E jobs. A caution on numbers: the 70% passing score is the threshold you must reach, not a statistic about how many candidates succeed. If you want to understand how pass rates are discussed, see our pass rate analysis and the difficulty guide.

Sequencing Your Preparation by Domain

Because the exam is a knowledge test across five headings, an order of study that follows the logic of the software works well. The issuer recommends the Electrical Schematic, Electrical 3D, and Electrical Learning Path materials as preparation. These are recommended, not mandatory, and there is no training-hour eligibility rule.

Theory comes first because it makes every later topic easier to reason about, while installation comes late because it is the heading with the least defined scope. The final week's timed sets matter because you have roughly 72 seconds per question, which is generous for recall but tight if you second-guess yourself. Find additional structure in our first-attempt study guide and extra reading under CSWA-E training.

Frequently Asked Questions