What type of system contains series circuits?

• A. Conventional
• B. Addressable
• C. Supervisory
• D. Wireless

Answer: (C)

Supervisory circuits are built to continuously monitor the integrity of the entire monitoring loop. In a supervisory setup, devices are wired in a normally closed path so that the entire loop is effectively in series. If anything along that path changes—an open contact, a damaged conductor, or a fault somewhere—the loop is interrupted and the control panel signals a supervisory condition. This continuous, series-like supervision ensures you’re alerted to tampering or faults anywhere along the loop, not just at a single device.

Wireless systems have no wired loop to supervise, addressable systems use a digital, device-addressed bus rather than a simple series loop, and conventional systems group devices into zones rather than relying on a single series circuit for supervision. The series-loop approach is a hallmark of supervisory circuits.