Sample Questions
Question 1
Easy
Under the Global Internal Audit Standards, which statement best describes professional skepticism?
Solution
B is correct. Standard 4.3 (Professional Skepticism) defines skepticism as an unbiased mental attitude in which the internal auditor questions and critically assesses the reliability of information obtained during an engagement. It sits alongside due professional care and neither presumes wrongdoing nor presumes honesty; the auditor stays alert to conditions that may indicate error, fraud, or noncompliance and corroborates information whose source or preparation is questionable.
Question 2
Medium
Which situation involving an internal auditor most clearly reflects a failure of integrity rather than an impairment to objectivity?
Solution
C is correct. Integrity fails through a deliberate choice to omit, soften, or misstate, and presenting a finding the evidence rates high as a mere improvement opportunity misstates it by label (Standard 1.1 Honesty and Professional Courage). Objectivity fails differently, through bias arising from prior work, relationships, or long familiarity, often without any conscious intent (Standard 2.1 Individual Objectivity). The other three situations each describe such a source of bias: self-review of her own design, a family relationship with the unit's manager, and unrotated tenure. Those call for disclosure and reassignment or rotation, while the recast finding calls for restoring the supported rating and escalating the pressure.
Question 3
Hard
An employee hands an auditor a coworker's personnel file, taken without authorization, and alleges payroll fraud. What should the auditor do first?
Solution
B is correct. Two obligations operate at once. Standard 1.3 (Legal and Ethical Behavior) and Standard 5.1 (Use of Information) prohibit the auditor from using information obtained improperly or in violation of privacy expectations, so the file itself cannot be treated as engagement evidence at the auditor's own discretion. At the same time, Standard 4.3 (Professional Skepticism) requires an unbiased and critical assessment of the allegation, which cannot be dismissed simply because its source is tainted. Escalating to the chief audit executive resolves both: the allegation enters the organization's established channel for suspected fraud, and decisions about handling the improperly obtained document, involving legal counsel, and pursuing the matter through authorized sources are made at the appropriate level.
