Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination

Exam

The Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination (CPA Exam) is the examination administered to people who wish to become U. S. Certified Public Accountants. The CPA Exam is used by the regulatory bodies of all fifty states plus the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U. S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands. The CPA Exam is developed, maintained and scored by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and administered at Prometric test centers in partnership with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA).

The CPA exam is a sixteen hour exam tested in four separate sections. All candidates are required to take the same three core sections and a discipline section of their choice. As many as two sections can be taken in a given day or each section can be taken on separate days. A detailed overview of each exam is as follows:

With the exception of ISC, each section's score is weighted evenly between multiple choice questions (MCQs) and tasked based simulations (TBSs). ISC is instead weighted 60% on MCQs and 40% on TBSs. The exam is scored between 0 and 99 with a minimum of 75 being required to pass each section. Score calculation is based on if a question was answered correctly and the relative difficulty of the question.

Due to the nature of the exam, the AICPA prohibits any exam candidate, former or current, from engaging in "irregular behavior" which the AICPA defines as disclosing exam content through means such as photography, writing, or memorization.

In order to sit for the Uniform CPA Exam, a person must be declared eligible to do so by one of the 55 state boards of accountancy in the United States. Requirements of state boards vary, but almost always include a U. S. bachelor's degree and a certain amount of accounting course credits. Additionally, some states require that candidates have completed an additional year of study (which can be either at an undergraduate or graduate level) before sitting for the exam and almost every state requires that the additional year of study be completed before awarding certification. The educational requirement equivalent to five years of full time study is known as the "150 hour rule" (150 college semester units or the equivalent).

The AICPA and NASBA mandate that exam candidates submit to a fingerprinting prior to each exam for identification purposes. According to published AICPA and NASBA reports, all fingerprints collected are immediately transmitted over the Internet to ChoicePoint/Reed Elsevier (Identico Systems) for storage.

Fees to sit for the Uniform CPA Exam vary by state.

As of July 1, 2020, Continuous Testing for the CPA Exam has been implemented, which means there are no longer any blackout periods where testing is not available. As of January 1st, 2024, this remains true only for core sections of the CPA exam. Discipline sections are only available for roughly the first month of each quarter.

Where a candidate fails a section, it may be re taken without any penalty other than a re examination fee and the risk of credits for other sections expiring under the "30 month rule". Re sitting for a failed section in the same testing window is not permitted. As of July 1, 2020, the AICPA has changed the rules and is now allowing for continuous testing, candidates can now re test for the same section within the same quarter after receiving their failed score. The 30 month clock starts on the date the first examination section passed was taken. If the remaining sections are not passed within the next 18 months, you lose the credit for the first section and the next section passed becomes the target date. Example: If the grade release date for your passing Audit section was February 5, 2010 and Business Environments Concepts' section date was April 8, 2010, this means in order to retain credit for Audit you must pass the remaining sections on or before August 5, 2011, otherwise exam credit for this section expires and the remaining sections, including Audit, must be passed on or before October 8, 2011. The date you sat for the last exam is used to define the date you passed the exam under the 18 month.

Since 1996, the Uniform CPA Exam has been a confidential examination. All persons involved with the Uniform CPA Exam, including candidates, must sign a confidentiality agreement not to disclose the contents of specific questions asked.

Certain overseas qualified accountants may sit for the International Qualification Examination (IQEX). This is an alternative to the Uniform CPA Exam. As of 2018 this eligibility extends to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA), Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada), Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI), Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), Instituto Mexicano de Contadores Publicos (IMCP), Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA), New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA), and CPA Australia.

There is no specific bar to non U. S. candidates sitting for the Uniform CPA Examination, however:

It is possible to sit for the CPA Exam outside the USA but only in select country locations, which currently include Bahrain, Brazil, England, Ireland, Germany, Japan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Scotland, and the United Arab Emirates. Most states will accept non U. S. education credentials, however they must normally be evaluated by a member of the National Association of Credential Evaluators. Some states prefer specific evaluators, such as Foreign Academic Credential Services or World Education Services, while the Illinois State Board of Accountancy prefers to conduct credential evaluations itself. Approximately one third of the state boards require a candidate for the Uniform CPA Exam to be living or working in that state. However, the majority have no residence requirement. A few U. S. states (such as the Alabama State Board of Public Accountancy) require the candidate to be a U. S. citizen or Permanent resident (Green card holder), and at least 19 years of age. As of October 1, 2018, testing sites in select cities of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Germany began offering the CPA Exam to eligible candidates.

There are a variety of ways to prepare for the CPA exam. Many candidates use a CPA Review course that includes AICPA released multiple choice questions and task based simulations. It is completely up to the candidate as to how they prepare for the CPA exam.