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Free ISO 42001 Lead Auditor Practice Questions

10 free, exam-style ISO/IEC 42001 Lead Auditor (ISO 42001 Lead Auditor) practice questions with answers and explanations. No signup required. Work through them below, then take the full free ISO 42001 Lead Auditor practice test to study every exam domain.

The ISO 42001 Lead Auditor exam has 80 questions and runs 3 hours.

These 10 free ISO 42001 Lead Auditor questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the ISO/IEC 42001 Lead Auditor blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.

Domain 2: AI management system requirements

Question 1

What is the PRIMARY distinction between an AI risk assessment (Clause 6.1.2) and an AI system impact assessment (Clause 6.1.4)?

  1. The risk assessment is mandatory; the impact assessment is optional
  2. The risk assessment evaluates organizational risks; the impact assessment evaluates societal consequences
  3. The risk assessment is quantitative; the impact assessment is qualitative
  4. The risk assessment covers all AI systems; the impact assessment covers only high-risk systems
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B - The risk assessment evaluates organizational risks; the impact assessment evaluates societal consequences

Question 2

NovaStar AI's SoA marks A.10.3 (Suppliers) as 'Not Applicable' with justification: 'We develop all AI systems in-house.' However, during the audit, the auditor discovers the organization uses a third-party cloud AI platform and open-source pre-trained models. The auditor should:

  1. Document this as a minor finding but allow the exclusion to remain
  2. Require the organization to transition to completely internal AI development infrastructure
  3. Accept the exclusion since the primary AI system development occurs internally
  4. Challenge the exclusion as third-party platforms and models constitute supplier relationships
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D - Challenge the exclusion as third-party platforms and models constitute supplier relationships

Domain 3: Fundamental audit concepts and principles

Question 3

An auditor asks: 'Show me evidence that your risk treatment plan from Clause 6.1.3 has been implemented.' The AIMS manager provides the risk treatment plan document. The auditor should respond:

  1. The plan is sufficient for both clauses
  2. Request a different version of the same document
  3. Explain that the plan is evidence of planning, not implementation
  4. Accept the document as evidence of implementation
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C - Explain that the plan is evidence of planning, not implementation

Domain 4: Preparing an ISO/IEC 42001 audit

Question 4

An organization discovers that its AI hiring system has been producing biased results. They immediately disable the biased feature (correction) but do not investigate why the bias occurred or take steps to prevent it from happening again. What is missing?

  1. Only the certification body can determine next steps
  2. Nothing - disabling the feature is sufficient
  3. Corrective action - root cause analysis and prevention measures
  4. The organization should re-enable the feature after a waiting period
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C - Corrective action - root cause analysis and prevention measures

Domain 5: Conducting an ISO/IEC 42001 audit

Question 5

ScanDoc AI's model passes accuracy testing (97% accuracy on test data) but no bias testing has been performed. An auditor reviewing A.6.2.4 should note:

  1. V&V under A.6.2.4 must cover all specified requirements including bias testing if fairness was required
  2. V&V under A.6.2.4 requires only accuracy testing when performance exceeds 95% threshold
  3. V&V under A.6.2.4 allows bias testing to be deferred until post-deployment monitoring phase
  4. V&V under A.6.2.4 permits substituting high accuracy scores for comprehensive bias evaluation
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A - V&V under A.6.2.4 must cover all specified requirements including bias testing if fairness was required

Question 6

During an audit, the auditor asks: 'Where did the training data for this AI model come from?' The data scientist responds: 'I'm not sure - it was collected before I joined the team and there's no record.' This indicates a gap in:

  1. A.7.6 - Data preparation
  2. A.4.3 - Data resources
  3. A.7.2 - Data requirements
  4. A.7.5 - Data provenance
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D - A.7.5 - Data provenance

Domain 6: Closing an ISO/IEC 42001 audit

Question 7

An auditor previously worked as a consultant for the auditee organization, helping them build their AIMS 6 months ago. Now the same person is assigned as the lead auditor for the certification audit. This situation:

  1. Is acceptable because the auditor knows the AIMS well
  2. Is acceptable after a 3-month cooling-off period
  3. Is only a concern if the auditee objects
  4. Compromises independence due to conflict of interest
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D - Compromises independence due to conflict of interest

Domain 7: Managing an ISO/IEC 42001 audit program

Question 8

During the audit, a data scientist informally mentions that they recently discovered and fixed a bias issue in a production AI system, but this was not recorded in the incident log or nonconformity register. The auditor should:

  1. Follow up - this informal disclosure may indicate gaps in incident reporting, event logging, and nonconformity management processes
  2. Document the finding as a minor observation since the bias issue was already resolved by the data scientist
  3. Request formal documentation of the bias fix before proceeding with any further investigation or audit actions
  4. Note the incident in audit working papers but avoid disrupting established organizational reporting hierarchies
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A - Follow up - this informal disclosure may indicate gaps in incident reporting, event logging, and nonconformity management processes

Question 9

Scenario: An organization has documented a risk treatment plan (Clause 6.1.3) specifying 12 controls. During Stage 2, the auditor finds that only 4 of 12 controls are implemented, with no implementation timeline for the remaining 8 - some of which address high-rated risks. What classification?

  1. 8 separate minor nonconformities for each unimplemented control
  2. Observation - the plan exists but implementation is incomplete
  3. Minor nonconformity - some controls are implemented showing progress
  4. Major nonconformity - significant doubt about AIMS effectiveness with only 33% implementation
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D - Major nonconformity - significant doubt about AIMS effectiveness with only 33% implementation

Question 10

Scenario: An auditor finds 5 separate minor nonconformities, all related to documented information control (Clause 7.5.3) - missing version control, no approval signatures, outdated documents, inadequate access controls, and no retention policy. Individually each is minor, but collectively they:

  1. May indicate a systemic failure requiring evaluation for elevation to a major nonconformity
  2. Should be consolidated into a single major nonconformity due to their common clause origin
  3. Must be treated as five separate minor nonconformities with individual corrective actions
  4. Should be reclassified as observations since they involve documentation rather than implementation
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A - May indicate a systemic failure requiring evaluation for elevation to a major nonconformity

The rest of the ISO 42001 Lead Auditor blueprint

The ISO 42001 Lead Auditor exam also covers these domains. Drill them in the full free practice test:

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