The code books for 16-Civ-A2

The Engineers Canada syllabus for 16-Civ-A2 covers limit states design, the loads from use and occupancy, snow, wind and earthquake, and the design of members and connections in timber, steel and reinforced concrete. Its reference list names three handbooks at their current edition and two English-language textbooks, plus a French-language concrete textbook and French editions of the steel handbook and the wood manual. Each material has its own CSA standard, and each handbook is built around one of them.

Two of the handbooks trail their standards. All three CSA standards moved to 2024 editions, while the concrete handbook and the 2020 wood manual still carry the 2019 standards. Keep that gap in mind when you buy, and read the next section on what the exam expects.

Book rules are set per exam, and EGBC publishes the clearest version. Its Fall 2026 schedule, which uses the same exam codes, sets 16-Civ-A2 for November 17, 2026 with these rules:

• The exam is listed as closed book, except that handbooks and textbooks are permitted
• Notes and loose sheets are not allowed
• You write the name and model number of your calculator on the inside front cover of the exam book
• Solutions for the steel, concrete and timber standards must come from the latest manual editions

EGBC's schedule also says that its open book exams accept only printed books and notes, not digital copies. It does not say whether a digital handbook is accepted on 16-Civ-A2. If you plan to use a digital copy of any handbook, ask your regulator which format and edition it accepts before you buy.

Other regulators that set 16-Civ-A2 may print different rules for their sittings. Check the rules issued with your own exam.

CSA S16:24 is the tenth edition of the steel standard, published in 2024. It covers the design, fabrication and erection of steel structures by limit states design, including welds, bolts and steel acting with concrete. Cold-formed members are not in it; CSA points to AISI S100 for those.

The syllabus asks for steel tension members, beams and columns, and simple welded and bolted connections. The CISC Handbook carries the standard with CISC's commentary and the design tables you work from. CISC describes the 12th edition in parts that line up with the syllabus:

• Connections and tension members: bolts, eccentrically loaded bolt groups and net section checks
• Compression members: factored axial resistances for columns
• Flexural members: beam selection and beam load tables
• Properties and dimensions: the section data behind every check

As of November 2026, CISC's store lists the 13th edition, which reprints S16:24 with Update No. 1 (March 2026) and is meant for use with the 2025 National Building Code. The textbook on the syllabus list is Grondin and Kulak, Limit States Design in Structural Steel.

CSA A23.3:24 is the eighth edition of the concrete design standard, published in 2024. It covers reinforced, prestressed and plain concrete under the National Building Code of Canada, and it is meant to be used together with CSA A23.1/A23.2 and CSA A23.4.

The Cement Association of Canada publishes the Concrete Design Handbook. Its 5th edition replaced the 2016 4th edition, is based on A23.3-19 and the 2020 National Building Code, and includes the A23.3-19 standard. The association's page does not mention an edition based on A23.3:24.

On the exam, the syllabus asks for determinate reinforced concrete beams and columns. In the EGBC past papers reviewed on our 16-Civ-A2 exam page, reinforced concrete beams alone carried 30% of the marks, so this is the handbook to know best. The textbook on the syllabus list is Brzev and Pao, Reinforced Concrete Design: A Practical Approach.

CSA O86:24, Engineering design in wood, is the twelfth edition, published in 2024. It uses limit states design and covers sawn lumber, glued laminated timber, cross laminated timber, panels, shearwalls, diaphragms and structural connections. Timber bridges are outside it.

The Canadian Wood Council publishes the Wood Design Manual, which the syllabus lists at its current edition. CWC's webstore describes the 2020 edition as built on Part 4 of the 2020 National Building Code and O86:19, with a copy of that standard inside. Check cwc.ca for the edition that matches O86:24 before you buy.

The syllabus asks for timber tension members, beams and columns, and timber connections. In the past papers reviewed on our exam page, timber was a compulsory question, so plan to prepare it fully.

Loads come from Part 4 of the National Building Code of Canada. The current edition is the National Building Code of Canada 2025, the sixteenth edition, issued by the National Research Council of Canada with the Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes. The National Research Council offers its codes free in electronic form through its Publications Archive, and sells printed copies.

Neither the syllabus nor EGBC's schedule names an edition of the code for 16-Civ-A2. The concrete handbook and the 2020 wood manual were built around the 2020 code, and the 13th steel handbook around the 2025 code. Work each answer to one edition, and say which edition and clause you used so the marker can follow you.

With notes banned, the books are your only reference in the room, so how fast you find a table matters as much as knowing it exists. A few habits help:

• Tab by syllabus topic, not by chapter: loads and load combinations, steel tension, steel columns, steel beams, bolts and welds, concrete beams in flexure and shear, concrete columns, timber members, timber connections
• Keep tab labels to short topic names and leave the margins clean. EGBC's schedule says nothing about tabs, but it bans notes, so ask your regulator if you are unsure what counts
• Practise every problem from the same books you will bring, with no notes open, so you learn the page you need
• Quote the clause or table number in each solution; markers read your working
• Time yourself on EGBC's published past papers from 2013 to 2019, and remember they were written to older editions, so recheck any value that changed

Before you buy, you can read the current standards for free: CSA's store offers view access to S16:24, A23.3:24 and O86:24 for viewers in Canada with a free account. As of November 3, 2026, the store lists each of the three at $250 CAD.

CertNova Technical Exam Prep opens in January 2027 with 16-Civ-A2 in the first wave: lessons that walk through the handbook tables, original design problems for steel, concrete and timber, and timed mocks set with handbooks open and notes closed. People on the waitlist get access for $1.