The electrical licensing exam is the same. It doesn’t test your ability to pipe or wire correctly. Instead it tests if you know what page of the codebook each issue is found on.
They don’t address the fact that code enforcement officials don’t always follow the codes, either from willful dismissal of the written codes or ignorance and an inability to comprehend English.
They also don’t address the continual improvements in the various trades and are blind to the obvious. Government drones know much more than trained engineers, donchaknow.