Research Skill Builder

FAR Research Tool

Master the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul structure. Flashcards, scenario quizzes, and a printable reference, built for week-one COs.

Where to start

How to actually learn FAR research

The biggest piece of advice on FAR research: memorize the FAR Parts. Sit with the list of all 53 and learn what each one covers at a topical level. Doesn't matter how. The Flashcards tab on this page is built for that drill. The Cheat Sheet tab gives you a printable one-pager. Use either one, use both, write them on index cards, quiz a coworker, whatever works. It shouldn't take longer than a week or two. A group of friends and I learned them on a road trip to a CON class back in the day.

By the end of that week or two, you should be able to read "Part 16" and think "contract types: indefinite-delivery / indefinite-quantity (IDIQ), requirements, time-and-materials" without looking it up. Quick Quiz on this page is a way to spot-check that you've got it.

Everything else follows from exposure. Once the part-level map is in your head, you stop having to look up where things live. A pricing question routes you to Part 15. Options live in Part 17. Subcontracting policies sit in Part 19. The mental map fills in over time, and you do not have to read the FAR cover to cover for it to happen.

Memorize the Parts. Let exposure do the rest.

The FAR has a built-in search function on acquisition.gov. It works. Not beautifully, but it works. Use it when you remember a term but not where it lives.

KTHQ training is built around competency-based contracting: the goal is to execute well, not to memorize clause text. Most pages on this site name the FAR Part where a rule lives but stop short of giving you the exact subsection citation in every case. Looking up the citation is part of how you build the muscle. The first time you go hunting for a citation in Part 15, it takes ten minutes. The fifth time, it takes thirty seconds. The fiftieth time, you remember where it lives without looking. The Research Quiz tab on this page is the fill-in-the-blank drill that pushes you into the FAR to find the language. (A citation-picking stage is on the way once the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul stabilizes; right now too many section numbers are still moving.)

Ctrl+F is your best friend. When you learn a new term, find the FAR Part it lives in, open the part on acquisition.gov, and Ctrl+F every instance. Reading every appearance of a term in context is one of the fastest ways to internalize how the FAR uses it.

Beyond that, good luck on your career.

All 53 RFO Parts

Know Your FAR Parts Cold

Click the card to flip it. Know the part number? Guess the title. Know the title? Recall the number. Shuffle anytime.

Card 1 of 53

FAR Part
1
Click to reveal title →
Title
Federal Acquisition Regulations System
The rules about the rules — how the FAR is issued, maintained, and followed.
Part Identification

Quick Quiz — Which FAR Part?

Read the scenario. Pick the FAR Part where you'd look first. Some are trickier than they seem.

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50 RFO-Based Questions

Research Quiz — Fill in the Blank

Each question pulls verbatim text from the RFO. Select the missing word or phrase. Filter by part or go all-in.

How it works: Read the blanked regulation text, pick the correct answer, see the feedback, move to the next. When stuck, open acquisition.gov and Ctrl+F. That's the whole point.
Coming soon: citation drill. Once the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul stabilizes, we'll add a citation-pick stage modeled on the Contracting Officer Test. Right now, FAR section numbers are still moving (FAR 6.303, for example, no longer exists), so we won't ship a drill that risks teaching you a citation that's about to be gone.
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Printable Reference

All 53 FAR Parts — RFO Edition

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PartTitleWhat's Here

Source: Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) — FAR Part Deviation Guidance, acquisition.gov. Parts 20, 21, 38, and 51 are reserved with no active regulatory content. ContractingHQ is not affiliated with the U.S. government.