Character limits for competency examples, field by field
The limits are in characters including spaces, not words. APEGA's July 2026 guide confirms 400 characters for the Situation, 1,800 for the Action and 400 for the Outcome. Ontario's February 2026 application form prints 300, 1,650 and 300 on every competency. The shared system's April 2024 guide prints none; 300, 1,200 and 300 come from its 2017 edition. Check the live box.
The limits and how sure we are
| Profile | Situation | Action | Outcome | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alberta (22 competencies) | 400 | 1,800 | 400 | Confirmed in APEGA's CBA guide, 18 July 2026 |
| Ontario (34 competencies) | 300 | 1,650 | 300 | Confirmed on PEO's CBA P.Eng. application form, February 2026; line breaks not stated |
| Shared system: BC and five other provinces (34 competencies) | 300 | 1,200 | 300 | Unverified: from the 2017 guide; the April 2024 guide prints no number |
Searches for a word limit are common, but none of these guides sets one. A character limit counts every letter, digit, space and punctuation mark, and, in most forms, every line break. As a rough guide, English technical prose runs at six or seven characters per word including the space, so an 1,800 character Action is about 250 to 300 words.
If your portal shows a different number, enter it in Settings on the competency desk. The counters then use your number and stop showing the unverified flag.
Blank lines, bullets and the visible box
APEGA's July 2026 guide adds a warning worth applying everywhere: bullets and blank lines can make text overflow the visible box even when you are inside the character limit, and staff cannot see text beyond the box or the limit. If a scroll bar appears in the field, cut text or spacing.
Line breaks are the other trap. A browser counts a line break as one character, but some forms send it to the server as two (a carriage return and a line feed). If your portal's counter runs ahead of the desk by one per line, switch on the two-character setting.
Worked example: the same words, three counts
Take a 380 character paragraph and a 15 character closing line for an Alberta Outcome with a limit of 400. Joined by a single space they count 396 characters. Separated by a blank line instead, the same words count 397, and the desk flags 1 blank line. If the portal counts each line break as two characters, that version is 399, and on a box with a tighter limit it is the blank line that tips you over.
Bullets behave the same way. Six bullet points of 60 characters each count 377 characters in total, comfortably inside a 400 limit, but they take 6 full lines of a box sized for running text. In a Situation or an Outcome, prose is usually safer.
Common mistakes
- Planning in words. Every limit here is in characters, including spaces.
- Writing in a word processor and pasting, then finding the portal counts smart quotes, tabs or double spaces you cannot see.
- Ending a box with a blank line or trailing spaces, which count and show nothing.
- Trusting a figure from an old guide or a forum post without checking the live portal.
- Using the whole Action on context and leaving the decisions for the last few lines.
Draft and check your own examples
The desk holds your experience records, validators and a Situation, Action and Outcome editor for every competency, with live counts against the limit and the rating, category and validator checks, each with its rule cited. Everything stays in this browser.
Frequently asked questions
Is the limit in words or characters?
Characters, including spaces. None of the guides we read sets a word limit.
Do spaces count?
Yes. APEGA states its limits include spaces, and the desk counts every character, spaces and line breaks included.
What happens if I go over?
Portals generally stop you at the limit, and APEGA says staff cannot see text that overflows the visible box. Cut to fit before you paste.
Sources
Last reviewed 27 September 2026 against:
- APEGA Competency-Based Assessment Guide for Professional Engineering Applicants, APEGA, V7.4, 18 July 2026. Used for: the confirmed 400, 1,800 and 400 character limits, including spaces, and the overflow warning about bullets and blank lines
- Competencies and Indicators (engineers), APEGA, web page, read 27 September 2026. Used for: the 1,800 character Action limit repeated on each competency
- Competency-Based Assessment P.Eng. Application Form, Professional Engineers Ontario, February 2026. Used for: the 300, 1,650 and 300 character maximums printed on every competency
- Applicant Guide: Navigating Competency-Based Assessment, Professional Engineers Ontario, August 2026. Used for: confirms a character limit exists without giving a number
- Competency Assessment Guide for Engineering Applicants and Trainees, Engineers and Geoscientists BC, revised April 2024. Used for: gives no character numbers in the April 2024 edition
This guide is our own summary of the published documents, not legal advice and not a finding about your application; the regulator's assessors decide. If it disagrees with the current documents, the documents win. Competency Desk is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Professional Engineers Ontario, APEGA, Engineers and Geoscientists BC, Engineers Canada or any other engineering regulator.