Home Inspection State Practice Exam

A 3-light receptacle tester will NOT display which of the following conditions?

1. A bootleg ground

2. A proper ground connection

3. A reversed polarity

4. A neutral connection fault

The correct answer is: A bootleg ground

The statement that a 3-light receptacle tester will not display a bootleg ground condition is correct because of how these testers are designed to function. A bootleg ground occurs when a grounding conductor is improperly wired, often resulting in the ground being connected to the neutral instead of the actual grounding system. Since a bootleg ground does not alter the operation of the circuit in a conventional way, it may appear to the tester as a normal, functioning ground even though it is not safe or reliable. In contrast, a proper ground connection would create the expected display indicating that the receptacle is correctly grounded, whereas reversed polarity would show a different indication of an electrical wiring error, alerting users to the incorrect wiring of hot and neutral connections. Similarly, a neutral connection fault would also trigger specific indicators on the tester, signaling that there is a problem with the neutral wire connection. Therefore, the 3-light tester does not detect the bootleg ground because it cannot identify that the grounding system is improperly configured.