(Post edited for brevity and clarity)

Disclaimer: I'm a longtime (~50 years) wiring DIY, not a pro.

I'm not a code expert, but I don't know of any actual violation in putting that many outlets (meaning "point where electricity is used," not just receptacles) on one circuit.

However, I don't think it's the best practice. In this specific case, if you're tripping the breaker, the loads should be distributed over more circuits.

Changing the breaker wouldn't fix that problem in any way I can see, unless something in your office was causing nuisance tripping.

And by the way, IMO the breaker for this circuit should be an AFCI, not a "regular" breaker, unless that's what he meant. The code has a long list of areas that now require AFCI protection. I don't see home offices on it, but that might fall under "similar rooms and areas."

I'm pretty sure that daisy-chaining all the outdoor recepts from one GFI is still OK. I personally wouldn't have also put your office recepts downstream of the outdoor recepts, and again I don't think it's an especially good practice, but I don't see a violation there.

As an aside per current code, GFI and receptacles mounted outdoors must be listed as "weather resistant," and the covers as "extra duty."

Ron Natalie is one of our resident code experts, and he may have additions and corrections to my comments.

I'm here. DavidR expresses is pretty well.

Are you sure the original breaker foolishly removed wasn't an AFCI? There'd be little need to also place a GFCI recepatcle in place if there was downstream GFCI receptacles.

Are you sure the tripping was load and NOT the case that you had an GROUND or ARC fault (i.e.., did the breaker tripping end when they replaced the breaker). This needs to be investigated.

There's no limit on the number of lighting or receptacle outlets as far as the code is concerned for residences. Even in commercial space, it looks like the above is legal. You need to compute the actual loads. Take the watts for all the things plugged in and divide by 120. If that goes above 16 or so, then you may have too much on the circuit.

As for daisy chaining the GFCI, that's perfectly legal and common. It does, as you noted, cause a nuisance when it trips. There's a relatively easy and simple fix for that (in fact, I did this because in my last house I couldn't figure out WHICH GFCI receptacle had the fault). Replace ALL the outside receptacles with GFCI receptacles. Connect nothing to the LOAD side (i.e., stop the daisy chaining, connect the downstream stuff to the LINE side). That way when one GFCI trips it only takes out that receptacle and you'll know which one.

As DavidR says you should have weatherproof in-use covers on anything that is exposed to weathter. There is no way an exterminator spraying stuff should have tripped a properly installed outdoor receptacles, but as I've found, you often get insidious misinstallations.

What wattage are exterior lights? Are they on when breaker trips? Check electrical requirement on nameplate of printer. If there's no other loads connected at the time your office is in use you seem to either have an equipment problem or a wiring short somewhere. No matter, you're not going to like it when someone connects a string trimmer or similar to an outside receptacle while you're using your computer. Those receptacles need to be on another circuit.

We had a problem with a laser printer tripping the office circuit that was on an ARC fault breaker. The electrician said that was not uncommon and was not sure if it was the brand of printer or all laser printers as the ARC faults can be very sensitive. Replaced it with a standard breaker and the problem went away.

I have an older Samsung laser (ML-2010) here in my home office, fed from one of the relatively early Square D AFCIs. I've never had any nuisance trips.

I really doubt it's due to the load. A few lights, ceiling fans, and a few Halloween inflatables, plus maybe a computer plugged into an outlet should not exceed 20 amps.

It's probably a legitimate ground fault somewhere that is causing the tripping.

That said, it's probably a good idea to remove the outside receptacles from the office receptacles. If you have an electric lawnmower or some other powerful power tool being used outside, you don't want your breaker to trip in your office. That situation could cause an overload, but you haven't mentioned that situation so I'm assuming these breaker trips are due to a ground fault.

It could indeed be a ground fault. Or it could be the laser printer. They're surprisingly high current devices because of their fusers. Eight to 10 amps while printing isn't all that unusual, and peaks from a cold start can reach 30-40 amps for a second or so.

A laser might also produce a weird enough asymmetrical waveform to cause nuisance GFI tripping. I don't know what to suggest for that. Maybe a different brand of GFI? I wonder if a power conditioner would help. Just guessing.

Those bouncy house motors are notorious for tripping arc faults.

Ditto what Ron said about the situation:

What's code here and what's a best practice are two different things. I don't think that the bar should be set at "what's code" in this situation. You will have to push your GC, but the standard here should be "what's serviceable" above and beyond "what's code". If GFCI nuisance tripping is shutting down your office, that may not be a code violation, but it shouldn't fly.

Outside outlets have to be protected by a GFCI. Nuisance tripping of an outdoor GFCI is an easily foreseeable issue. Your office outlets should not be down stream of that (best practice). Do as suggested and make each outdoor outlet a GFCI (and don't connect anything on the "Load" side). That way one tripped GFCI doesn't take out all of the outlets AND you know which one caused the problem.

Your laser printer can use large amounts of current when it starts printing. Using 8-12 amps isn't uncommon - primarily because of the fuser.

Code requires that circuits be designed so that permanently attached loads not exceed 80% of the rated capacity of the circuit. A well designed residential electrical system takes into account likely uses for non-permanently attached loads (things plugged into outlets) and gives plenty of extra capacity (best practice). Things like a hair dryer / curling iron in a bedroom, a space heater in a room with lots of glass, electric lawn mower / hedge trimmers or holiday lights outside are all very easy to anticipate. So is electronics / laser printer / AV gear in an office or spare bedroom. Any one of these loads could put you near 60-80% of a 20 amp circuit all by themselves.

I'm an advanced DIY - but when I do residential electrical work all general outlet circuits are 20 amp (code allows 15 amp). Circuits used for outlets are limited to one just one room (Bedroom 1 outlets, Bedroom 2 outlets, Living Room outlets, etc.). Some large rooms get will get more than one circuit. Outlets in a hall may be on a circuit with the nearby room. Outside outlets get at least 2 circuits - again for decor / power tools. These are my general guidelines.

Some rooms (Kitchen, bath, for example) the minimum circuits are proscribed by code.

Jake, don't you mean one circuit per room, not one outlet?

Perhaps I wasn't saying things clearly: generally one circuit or more per room for the outlets. I generally don't run a circuit that includes outlets in several different rooms.

Everything that consumes power is an outlet. I assume you mean receptacle.

Anyhow, there are countless strategies for breaker to receptacle mapping. I like to keep any hardwired luminaires off the same circuit for receptacles in the same room. That way you won't lose the table lights and the room lights at the same time on a breaker trip.

It's actually easier, and in some ways more practical to run one circuit to each common wall. That way each room is supported by multiple circuits but you don't go crazy on the number of branch circuits.

While all of these are preferences none of these elevate to "best practices."

Ron,

Limiting a circuit to one room is not the only way to do it. It does make it much more logical for a homeowner to troubleshoot a problem though. But the larger point is that there are some ways of doing things that are lazy, stupid and cause easily foreseeable problems.

Having outlets in an office downstream of outdoor outlets connected to a GFCI breaker falls into the lazy and stupid category. It's readily foreseeable that ground faults on outdoor outlets are going to take the entire circuit out. It's also foreseeable that the OP's setup would become overloaded. Possibly the only thing worse was the repair - to put the GFCI on one of the outlets so you have to go outside and reset the GFCI to get your printer working. That solution wasn't lazy and stupid, it was f'ing lazy and stupid!

When I do things, a GFCI never shuts off unrelated outlets. A ground fault in the basement outlet shouldn't shut off the Living room, for example. Nobody ever thinks to hunt down a GFCI in another part of the house (or outside) when an outlet stops working. Best practice is that nothing is down stream of a GFCI - they are $8... there's no reason not to use one at each outlet where they are required. The only time I do is when it's in the same room, no more than 6-8 feet from the GFCI and you can readily see the GFCI from any downstream outlet. (a kitchen, bath or workbench, for example) That would never apply to an outdoor outlet because they are covered.

Again, best practice is to anticipate the loads and install enough circuits so that there isn't nuisance tripping. We know full well that certain things are likely to happen -- a hair dryer (10 amps) in a bedroom or bathroom, for example or an electric lawn mower outside (10-13 amps) Or a laser printer (8-10 amps) in an office. We know that someone will plug in an electric heater (12 amps) in areas where it's cold. A vacuum cleaner is 8-12 amps and is plugged in anywhere. We know that people are going to plug in holiday lighting and some are going to go overboard. Any of those things can overload an already moderately loaded circuit.

What the OP described shouldn't be happening in a new house.

I don't disagree, the GFCI thing is screwy and I told him how to handle that in his case retroactively way up higher in this thread.

Yes, load analysis is important and this is how residential circuits are supposed to be sized. However, claiming your personal opinion on how to delegate receptacles to circuits as a "best practice" is conceited.

Regarding limiting a circuit to one room: I spelled out how I did things and why, not that it was best practice. You have your knickers in a twist.

Reasonably anticipating non-permanently connected loads and designing circuits accordingly is a best practice . Not putting unrelated outlets downstream of a GFCI (particularly a GFCI outlet) is also best practice.

Both of those things were not done in this new house.