ServSafe Manager Practice Test
This is a free 15-question sampler at food safety manager level, written by the StudyPDF team from the public objectives in the FDA Food Code. It covers the Big 6 pathogens and employee exclusion, the temperature danger zone, cooking, cooling and reheating numbers, receiving and cold storage order, allergen cross contact, sanitizing, HACCP, variances, imminent health hazards and outbreak response, mixing multiple choice, select all that apply and fill in the blank. Answer all 15 questions, then check your score and read the explanation for every question.
The FDA Food Code singles out a short list of pathogens that spread so easily from an infected food worker that a diagnosis means the worker is kept out of the operation. Which list is it?
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All 15 questions at a glance
Prefer to read before you play? Every question in the sampler is listed below. Answers and explanations stay collapsed until you open them.
1. The FDA Food Code singles out a short list of pathogens that spread so easily from an infected food worker that a diagnosis means the worker is kept out of the operation. Which list is it?
- A. Clostridium botulinum, Bacillus cereus, Listeria, Staphylococcus aureus, Campylobacter and Vibrio
- B. Salmonella Typhi, Clostridium perfringens, norovirus, Listeria, Giardia and Vibrio
- C. Norovirus, hepatitis A, Salmonella Typhi, nontyphoidal Salmonella, Shigella and Shiga toxin producing E. coli
- D. E. coli, Listeria, Campylobacter, hepatitis A, rotavirus and Cyclospora
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Norovirus, hepatitis A, Salmonella Typhi, nontyphoidal Salmonella, Shigella and Shiga toxin producing E. coli
These six are commonly called the Big 6. What they share is a very low infectious dose and easy transmission by hand from a sick person to ready to eat food, which is why the Food Code treats a diagnosis as an exclusion rather than something to manage on the schedule. The other pathogens listed are real problems, but they are controlled mainly through cooking, cooling and holding rather than through employee health policy.
2. In a restaurant that does not serve a highly susceptible population, which of these situations require you to exclude the employee from the operation rather than simply restrict what they can do?
Select all that apply.
- A. A prep cook who started vomiting during the shift
- B. A server with a sore throat and a fever
- C. A dishwasher whose doctor has diagnosed hepatitis A
- D. A line cook with a small cut on one finger, covered with a bandage and a single use glove
- E. A baker whose eyes and skin have turned yellow since yesterday
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. A prep cook who started vomiting during the shift, C. A dishwasher whose doctor has diagnosed hepatitis A, E. A baker whose eyes and skin have turned yellow since yesterday
Exclusion means the person does not come into the establishment at all. Vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice and a diagnosis with one of the Big 6 all trigger exclusion. Restriction is the lighter step, where the person may stay but cannot work with food or clean equipment, and a sore throat with fever is the classic restriction case in a normal operation. It becomes an exclusion if you serve a highly susceptible population such as a hospital or a nursing home. A properly covered cut is neither, since the bandage and glove are the control.
3. Complete the sentence.
Pathogens grow fastest in TCS food held between _____ and _____, which is why that range is called the temperature danger zone.
Options for blank 1: 32F, 41F, 50F, 60F
Options for blank 2: 100F, 120F, 135F, 165F
Show answer and explanation
Answer: 41F, 135F
Cold holding keeps TCS food at 41F or lower and hot holding keeps it at 135F or higher, so the danger zone is simply the gap between those two rules. Growth is fastest in the middle of that range, roughly 70F to 125F, which is why food left on a counter is far riskier than food sitting slightly warm in a cooler. Time in the zone is cumulative across the whole flow of food, not reset each time you move the pan.
4. A cook is making a chicken and rice casserole using chicken that was cooked yesterday. What is the minimum internal cooking temperature for the finished casserole?
- A. 135F, held for 15 seconds
- B. 145F for 15 seconds
- C. 155F for 17 seconds
- D. 165F for less than one second
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. 165F for less than one second
Dishes that combine cooked TCS ingredients, along with stuffed foods, stuffing and all poultry, go to 165F. The rest of the chart is 155F for 17 seconds for ground meat, ground fish, injected meat and eggs held for service, 145F for 15 seconds for seafood, whole cuts of beef, pork, veal and lamb and eggs cooked to order, and 135F for plant foods such as rice or vegetables that will be hot held. The temperature is measured in the thickest part with a cleaned and sanitized thermometer, not at the surface.
5. During service a manager finds a hose attached to the mop sink faucet with its loose end lying in standing dirty water. What is the hazard, and what is the strongest protection against it?
- A. A grease trap failure, best prevented by cleaning the trap more often
- B. A cross connection, best prevented by an air gap between the faucet and the flood rim of the sink
- C. A cross connection, best prevented by turning the faucet off between uses
- D. Nothing serious, because water only ever flows out of a faucet
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. A cross connection, best prevented by an air gap between the faucet and the flood rim of the sink
A hose sitting in dirty water is a cross connection between the drinking water supply and contaminated water. If pressure in the line drops, backsiphonage can pull that water into the potable system. An air gap is the only protection with no moving parts to fail, and the Food Code sets it at least twice the diameter of the water supply inlet and never less than one inch. A vacuum breaker is an acceptable mechanical alternative on a hose bibb, but the fastest fix here is to lift the hose out and keep it above the rim.
6. Complete the sentence.
Cooked TCS food must be cooled from 135F to 70F within _____ hours, and must reach 41F or lower within a total of _____ hours.
Options for blank 1: 1, 2, 4, 6
Options for blank 2: 4, 5, 6, 8
Show answer and explanation
Answer: 2, 6
The first stage is tight on purpose, because the upper part of the danger zone is where bacteria multiply fastest. If the food has not reached 70F in the first two hours, you cannot simply carry on, you must reheat it to 165F and start the cooling over, or throw it out. The second stage gives you the remaining four hours to get from 70F down to 41F. Shallow pans, smaller portions, ice paddles, ice water baths and blast chillers all exist to make that first two hours achievable.
7. A soup was cooked yesterday, cooled correctly and refrigerated. It is going on the steam table for lunch. What has to happen first?
- A. It must reach 165F for at least 15 seconds, and it must get there within 2 hours
- B. It must reach 135F, since it was already cooked to a safe temperature once
- C. It must reach 155F at some point during the lunch service
- D. It only needs to be steaming before it goes on the line
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. It must reach 165F for at least 15 seconds, and it must get there within 2 hours
Food that is reheated for hot holding goes to 165F for 15 seconds, and the whole reheat has to be finished within two hours so the food is not crawling through the danger zone. Use a stove, an oven or a steamer for the reheat, not the steam table, because hot holding equipment is built to keep food hot rather than to bring it up fast. Once it is up to temperature, holding at 135F or above is enough.
8. A delivery arrives. Which of these items must be rejected?
Select all that apply.
- A. Fresh chicken with an internal temperature of 50F
- B. A case of frozen shrimp with large ice crystals inside the bag and a dried liquid stain on the box
- C. Live oysters at 45F with the shellstock tag attached
- D. Canned tomatoes in a can with a deep dent across the side seam
- E. Shell eggs delivered in a truck with an air temperature of 45F
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Fresh chicken with an internal temperature of 50F, B. A case of frozen shrimp with large ice crystals inside the bag and a dried liquid stain on the box, D. Canned tomatoes in a can with a deep dent across the side seam
Cold TCS food is received at 41F or lower, so chicken at 50F goes back. Large ice crystals and a liquid stain say the shrimp thawed and was refrozen, which you cannot undo. A dent on a side seam or a rim can break the seal, so that can is rejected while a shallow dent on the body of a can is usually fine. The last two are the exceptions worth memorizing: live molluscan shellfish may be received at 45F and shell eggs may be received at an air temperature of 45F, and shellstock tags must be kept on file for 90 days after the last shellfish from that container is used.
9. You are loading one cooler with prepared salad, salmon fillets, ground beef and whole chickens. What is the correct order of shelves, from the top shelf down?
- A. Ground beef, whole chickens, salmon fillets, prepared salad
- B. Whole chickens, ground beef, salmon fillets, prepared salad
- C. Prepared salad, salmon fillets, ground beef, whole chickens
- D. Salmon fillets, prepared salad, whole chickens, ground beef
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Prepared salad, salmon fillets, ground beef, whole chickens
Storage order follows minimum internal cooking temperature, lowest at the top and highest at the bottom, so that anything that drips lands on food that will be cooked hotter. Ready to eat food such as the salad goes above everything raw. Salmon is a 145F food, ground beef is 155F and whole chicken is 165F, which puts poultry on the bottom shelf. If separate coolers are available, that is better still, and nothing gets stored on the floor or under exposed sewer lines.
10. A guest tells the server she has a severe sesame allergy. The kitchen fries chicken in the same oil it uses for sesame crusted shrimp. What should happen?
- A. Serve the chicken, because frying oil gets hot enough to destroy the allergen
- B. Tell the guest the fryer is shared, and either cook her food in clean equipment with clean utensils or steer her to a dish the kitchen can make safely
- C. Rinse the fried chicken under hot water before plating it
- D. Serve it and ask the guest to let the server know if she starts reacting
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Tell the guest the fryer is shared, and either cook her food in clean equipment with clean utensils or steer her to a dish the kitchen can make safely
Cooking does not destroy food allergens, so shared oil is a real cross contact route and heat is no defense. The staff answer is honesty plus clean equipment: a clean fryer or a different cooking method, clean utensils, clean surfaces and washed hands. Sesame became the ninth major allergen in the United States on January 1, 2023, joining milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat and soybeans, and it hides in bread, spice blends and oils, so it is worth checking labels rather than guessing.
11. A manager is checking the sanitizing step at the three compartment sink. Which set of factors determines whether the sanitizer actually works?
- A. The brand of sanitizer and the size of the sink
- B. How hard the staff scrub and how hot the wash water is
- C. How the items are stacked and how long they take to dry
- D. Concentration, water temperature, contact time, water hardness and pH
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Concentration, water temperature, contact time, water hardness and pH
Cleaning removes soil and sanitizing reduces the pathogens left behind, and the second step only works if the solution is mixed and used the way the manufacturer's label says. The Food Code requires you to measure the concentration with a test kit rather than judge it by eye, and to give the solution its full contact time. Wash water in the first compartment is at least 110F, the order is wash, rinse, sanitize, and items are always air dried, because towel drying puts contamination straight back on a clean surface.
12. Which of these processes normally require a variance from your regulatory authority before you can run them?
Select all that apply.
- A. Cooking a hamburger to a guest's requested doneness below 155F
- B. Smoking food as a method of preservation rather than for flavor
- C. Curing meat on site
- D. Reheating a cooked soup to 165F before hot holding
- E. Sprouting seeds or beans on site
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Smoking food as a method of preservation rather than for flavor, C. Curing meat on site, E. Sprouting seeds or beans on site
A variance is written permission from your regulatory authority to run a specialized process, and it usually comes with a HACCP plan showing how you will control the hazard. Smoking or curing for preservation, sprouting seeds, reduced oxygen packaging, using additives to make a food no longer TCS, custom processing animals and running a live shellfish tank are the usual triggers. Cooking to order below the required temperature needs a consumer advisory rather than a variance, and reheating to 165F is just a standard process done correctly.
13. Complete the sentence.
In HACCP, once you have conducted a hazard analysis and identified your critical control points, the next principle is to establish _____. The principle that says what staff must do when a limit is not met is _____.
Options for blank 1: critical limits, monitoring procedures, verification procedures, record keeping procedures
Options for blank 2: hazard analysis, corrective actions, verification, record keeping
Show answer and explanation
Answer: critical limits, corrective actions
The seven principles run in order: conduct a hazard analysis, determine the critical control points, establish critical limits, establish monitoring procedures, identify corrective actions, verify that the system works, and keep records. The order matters because each step depends on the one before it. You cannot monitor a limit you have not set, and you cannot set a limit at a point you have not identified as critical. Corrective action is the step that turns a HACCP plan from paperwork into control, since it tells a cook at two in the morning exactly what to do with the pan that failed.
14. A sewage line backs up into the kitchen in the middle of dinner service. What should the manager do?
- A. Stop service immediately, close the affected area or the whole operation, correct the problem and clean up, and notify the regulatory authority
- B. Move all food preparation into the dining room and finish the shift
- C. Mop the area with a strong sanitizer and carry on serving
- D. Note it and mention it to the health inspector at the next routine visit
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Stop service immediately, close the affected area or the whole operation, correct the problem and clean up, and notify the regulatory authority
A sewage backup is an imminent health hazard, and so are a loss of drinking water, an extended power failure, a fire, a flood, a chemical spill and a suspected outbreak linked to your food. In every one of those cases you stop, close the affected area, fix and clean, and tell the regulatory authority. You do not reopen until they say you can. Trying to work around an imminent health hazard is the decision that turns a bad night into a closure and a lawsuit.
15. Three separate guests call in one evening. All ate the same dish two days ago and all are now ill. What is the manager's right first move?
- A. Wait for a fourth call before treating it as a pattern
- B. Throw out everything in the kitchen and reopen tomorrow
- C. Take down each caller's details and what they ate, set the suspect food aside labeled do not use, and contact the local regulatory authority
- D. Post an apology online and offer refunds to the callers
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Take down each caller's details and what they ate, set the suspect food aside labeled do not use, and contact the local regulatory authority
The first job is to preserve information and evidence, not to clean up. Record who called, what they ate, when they ate it and when symptoms started, then segregate and label the suspect food so it can be tested rather than binned. Contact the regulatory authority, because they can connect your reports to cases from other places and they decide what happens next. After that comes the internal review of what actually went wrong, retraining and any corrections, and if you have a crisis plan written before the phone rings, all of this goes much better.
What a food safety manager exam actually covers
Food safety manager certification is not a single exam. ServSafe Manager, run by the National Restaurant Association, is the best known one, but several other exams are accredited to the same standard, including exams from the National Registry of Food Safety Professionals, Prometric and 360training. Most health departments accept any exam accredited by ANAB to the Conference for Food Protection standard, which is why the content looks almost identical whichever one you sit. The number of questions, the time limit, the passing score and how long your certificate stays valid are set by the exam provider and by your jurisdiction, so the only numbers worth trusting are the ones in your own candidate handbook and on your local health department's website.
One thing to be clear about before you start. Every question and explanation on this page was written by the StudyPDF team from the publicly known food safety objectives in the FDA Food Code. These are our own questions written to the same objectives. They are not ServSafe's questions, nothing here is copied from any test bank or study guide, and StudyPDF is not affiliated with the National Restaurant Association, ServSafe or any certifying body. The Food Code itself is a free public document on fda.gov, and it is the source all of these exams are built on.
Manager level content goes well past the food handler basics. You are expected to run the system rather than follow it: employee health policy, the flow of food, HACCP and when a process needs a variance, active managerial control, supplier approval, facilities, water and plumbing, pest management, food defense, the health inspection and what to do in a crisis. A warning about the numbers, though. The FDA Food Code is a model code, not law. States, counties and tribes adopt different editions of it and sometimes change values. The temperatures on this page follow the current Food Code, but the rules you are inspected against are your own health department's, so check them.
How to use this sampler
These 15 questions sit at manager level on purpose. Instead of asking how long to wash your hands, they ask what you do when a cook calls in with jaundice, which shipment you send back at the dock, which process needs a variance before you can run it, and what closes the kitchen. That is the difference the exam tests. A manager is accountable for the numbers and for the decision that follows when a number is missed.
Take it in one sitting with no notes, then read the explanation for every question, including the ones you got right. Treat a wrong answer as a whole topic rather than a single fact. If you missed the cooling question and the reheating question, go back and learn the time and temperature chart as one thing, because the exam moves between cooking, holding, cooling and reheating in a single scenario and expects you to keep them straight.
The temperatures are the part people lose points on, so learn them cold rather than approximately. Say the cooking temperatures out loud by food group, then the danger zone, then the two cooling stages with both time limits, then reheating. Once those are automatic, the scenario questions get much easier, because most of them are really asking whether a number was met and what corrective action follows. The food handler sampler linked below covers the same material at line staff level, which makes it a fast warm up.
How StudyPDF builds full practice tests from your own materials
Fifteen questions can show you where you are shaky. They cannot get you ready on their own, and a generic bank rarely matches the emphasis of the coursebook you were given or the code edition your county adopted.
StudyPDF works from your material instead. You upload your manager coursebook, your class handouts, your operation's HACCP plan or your local health department's food code, and Bo, the study agent, builds full-length practice tests from those exact pages. Every question is grounded in your material, and every explanation cites where the answer came from, so when a temperature on this page does not match your jurisdiction you can see straight away which one your test is going to use. You can regenerate fresh tests as often as you like, narrow them to one area such as cooling and reheating or HACCP, and track which concepts you keep missing.
You do not have to upload anything to start. If you have no file at hand, just name a topic instead, for example two stage cooling, employee exclusion and restriction, or the seven HACCP principles, and Bo writes a practice test from that. Starting is free.
Written by the StudyPDF team. Last updated 2026-08-19.