Part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog: PassProfessor is building a CFP® exam practice program mapped domain-by-domain to CFP Board’s official Principal Knowledge Domains. Join the notify list and we will email you when enrollment opens.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
The CFP® Certification Examination is the exam requirement for CFP® certification, set by Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board). It is a single computer-based exam of 170 multiple-choice questions, taken in one day as two 3-hour sections — six hours of testing inside a seven-hour appointment — covering stand-alone questions and question sets built on short scenarios and longer case histories. The result is pass or fail: CFP Board scores the exam against a minimum-competency standard it sets through a formal standard-setting process, and it does not publish a percentage you need to reach. PassProfessor’s CFP® program, now in development, will prepare you against the same eight Principal Knowledge Domains and weights CFP Board publishes — from Retirement Savings and Income Planning (18%) down to Psychology of Financial Planning (7%) — so the time you spend practicing lines up with the exam CFP Board actually delivers. Our full breakdown of the real exam and the other certification requirements is in the CFP® exam guide.
What the program will cover
All eight Principal Knowledge Domains, at their real weights. The program is being built directly on CFP Board’s published blueprint — the 70 Principal Knowledge Topics grouped into eight domains. Retirement Savings and Income Planning, the largest domain at 18% of the exam, gets the largest share of practice, and the smallest domain, Psychology of Financial Planning at 7%, is not padded to look bigger than it is. The coverage table below shows the blueprint the program is built to.
Case-based practice, not just definitions. CFP Board designs this exam to test application: most questions ask you to work a client situation — a short scenario or a longer case history — and choose the course of action a competent planner would take, often across more than one domain at once. The program is being designed around that style of question, because recognizing a rule and applying it inside a fact pattern are different skills, and only the second one is tested.
Calculation fluency under the real rules. Time value of money, retirement needs, tax, and return calculations run through the exam, and on exam day you work them on an approved, battery-powered financial calculator whose memory is cleared before each section. The program will include calculation practice in that spirit — worked the way you will have to work them, with the formulas and tax tables CFP Board provides on exam day treated as the reference set, not a substitute for knowing the methods.
Timed, full-length practice. One hundred seventy questions in six hours of testing is roughly two minutes per question, and case-history sets take longer per item than stand-alone questions. The program will include full-length timed practice structured like the real sitting — two 3-hour sections, each split into two subsections — so pacing and stamina are practiced skills rather than exam-day surprises.
A study loop tied to the blueprint. Practice results will break down by CFP Board’s eight domains, so a weak area — estate planning, say, or the conduct and regulation material inside Domain A — shows up in your practice data while there is still time to fix it, not for the first time on the diagnostic report CFP Board sends candidates who do not pass.
The real exam at a glance
Current as of October 2026, per CFP Board’s official pages and its CFP® Exam Candidate Handbook (October 2026) on cfp.net. Full detail — the education, experience, and ethics requirements, registration, test day, and retakes — is in our CFP® exam guide.
| CFP® Certification Examination | |
|---|---|
| Set by | Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board) |
| Administered by | Prometric, CFP Board’s testing partner |
| Questions | 170 multiple-choice |
| Structure | Two 3-hour sections in one day, each divided into two subsections (43 + 42 questions per section) |
| Total testing time | 6 hours, inside a 7-hour appointment that includes check-in, security procedures, and a scheduled 40-minute break between sections |
| Passing standard | Pass/fail. Criterion-referenced — scored against a minimum standard set by CFP® professionals through CFP Board’s formal Standard Setting process. CFP Board does not publish a passing percentage |
| Exam windows | Three per year, in March, July, and October — each an 8-day testing window |
| Exam fee | Tiered by when you register: $825 early / $925 standard / $1,025 late (October 2026 window schedule, per the candidate handbook) |
| Results | Preliminary result shortly after you finish; official results by email approximately 4 weeks after the testing window closes |
- The exam is only one of four certification requirements. CFP Board’s “4 E’s” are Education, Exam, Experience, and Ethics. You must complete CFP Board Registered Program coursework — including the financial plan development Capstone course — before you sit the exam, hold a bachelor’s degree or higher (which you may finish up to 5 years after passing), complete 6,000 hours of professional experience or 4,000 hours of apprenticeship experience, and complete the Ethics Declaration and a CFP Board background check. Passing the exam alone does not make you a CFP® professional.
- There is no percentage to aim at. Because the passing standard is criterion-referenced and unpublished as a raw score, any source that tells you a fixed percent correct — 70% or any other figure — is guessing. Plan to practice until you are consistently strong across all eight domains, not until you cross a made-up line.
- The third window is October, not November. Many secondary sources describe the windows as March, July, and November. CFP Board’s own October 2026 candidate handbook and registration pages list them as March, July, and October — the current window runs October 29 – November 5, 2026, which is where the “November” label comes from. Trust cfp.net for dates.
- You cannot go back. Within a subsection you can move freely between questions, but once a subsection ends you cannot return to it, and the optional breaks between subsections do not stop the section’s pooled 180-minute timer. Pacing inside each 3-hour section is part of the test.
How the practice maps to the real exam
The program is being built section-by-section on CFP Board’s Principal Knowledge Domains — the blueprint from CFP Board’s 2021 Practice Analysis, in effect for exams from March 2022 onward. Weights below are CFP Board’s published domain percentages; each exam question is linked to one of the 70 topics under these headings.
| Official Principal Knowledge Domain (weight on the real exam) | What the program will drill |
|---|---|
| A. Professional Conduct and Regulation (8%) | CFP Board’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct and Procedural Rules, how financial institutions and financial-services regulation work, consumer protection laws, and the fiduciary standard and its application |
| B. General Principles of Financial Planning (15%) | The financial planning process, financial statements, cash flow management, financing and debt strategies, economic concepts, time value of money calculations, and education needs, savings vehicles, and funding |
| C. Risk Management and Insurance Planning (11%) | Principles of risk and insurance, analyzing risk exposures, health, disability, and long-term care coverage, annuities, life insurance, business-owner insurance solutions, and insurance needs analysis and policy selection |
| D. Investment Planning (17%) | Investment vehicles and their taxation, types of investment risk, market cycles, quantitative concepts and return measures, asset allocation and diversification, bond and stock valuation, portfolio development, investment strategies, and alternative investments |
| E. Tax Planning (14%) | Fundamental and current tax law, income tax fundamentals and calculations, taxation of business entities, trusts, and estates, tax reduction and management techniques, tax consequences of property transactions and special circumstances, and charitable giving |
| F. Retirement Savings and Income Planning (18%) | Retirement needs analysis, Social Security and Medicare planning, eldercare and special needs planning, types of retirement plans, qualified and non-qualified plan rules, plan selection for businesses, distribution rules and taxation, retirement income strategies, and business succession planning |
| G. Estate Planning (10%) | Property titling and beneficiary designations, strategies to transfer property, estate and incapacity documents, gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer tax compliance and calculations, estate liquidity, trusts, the marital deduction, and planning for divorce, unmarried couples, and special circumstances |
| H. Psychology of Financial Planning (7%) | Client and planner attitudes, values, and biases, behavioral finance, sources of money conflict, principles of counseling, effective communication, and crisis events with severe consequences |
How to use it
- Join the notify list today. While the program is in development, start with CFP Board’s own free material: read the Principal Knowledge Topics list on cfp.net and use it as your checklist — everything testable sits under those 70 topics.
- Confirm your coursework path first. You cannot sit the exam until CFP Board has verified your Registered Program coursework, Capstone included. If you are registering before finishing, know your window’s Education Verification Deadline — missing it triggers CFP Board’s $500 postponement fee.
- When the program opens, start with a timed full-length practice exam. Two 3-hour sections against the clock shows you both your knowledge gaps and your pacing, in the format the real exam uses — including the rule that a finished subsection cannot be revisited.
- Drill by domain, heaviest first. Retirement (18%), Investment (17%), General Principles (15%), and Tax (14%) together are 64% of the exam. Work your weakest domains until the misses stop repeating — and do not skip Domain A: the ethics and fiduciary material is 8% on its own and is woven through case questions in the other domains.
Frequently asked questions
What is the CFP® exam? It is the examination requirement for CFP® certification, set by Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board). The exam tests whether you can apply a broad range of financial planning knowledge to real-world client situations. It is one of CFP Board’s four certification requirements — Education, Exam, Experience, and Ethics — and passing it alone does not confer certification.
How many questions are on the CFP® exam, and how long does it take? 170 multiple-choice questions, in one day: two 3-hour sections, each divided into two subsections of 43 and 42 questions, with a scheduled 40-minute break between the sections. That is 6 hours of testing inside a 7-hour appointment that also covers check-in and security procedures. Questions are stand-alone items and sets tied to short scenarios or longer case histories.
What score do I need to pass the CFP® exam? CFP Board reports the result as pass or fail only. The exam is criterion-referenced: it is scored against a minimum standard — a cutoff standard score — established by CFP® professionals through a formal process CFP Board calls Standard Setting. CFP Board does not publish a passing percentage or raw cut score, so there is no honest percent-correct target to study to.
What are the eight domains on the CFP® exam? Professional Conduct and Regulation (8%), General Principles of Financial Planning (15%), Risk Management and Insurance Planning (11%), Investment Planning (17%), Tax Planning (14%), Retirement Savings and Income Planning (18%), Estate Planning (10%), and Psychology of Financial Planning (7%), per CFP Board’s Principal Knowledge Domains. The weights sum to 100%, and every question is linked to one of the 70 topics under these domains.
When is the CFP® exam offered? Three times a year, in 8-day testing windows in March, July, and October, per CFP Board. The current window runs October 29 – November 5, 2026, and CFP Board’s registration page lists the next windows as March 16–23, 2027 and July 13–20, 2027. Some secondary sources call the third window “November” because it can run into early November — CFP Board labels it October.
How much does the CFP® exam cost? CFP Board charges by registration timing. For the October 2026 window the candidate handbook lists $825 for early registration, $925 for standard registration, and $1,025 for late registration, paid to CFP Board when you register. A retake costs the exam fee again, and postponing to another window carries a $500 fee. Check cfp.net for the fee schedule for your specific window before you register.
Do I need a degree before I take the CFP® exam? You need the coursework first, not the degree. To sit the exam you must complete financial planning coursework through a CFP Board Registered Program — including the Capstone course — or qualify through CFP Board’s Accelerated Path or Transcript Review. The separate bachelor’s degree requirement (a bachelor’s or higher, in any discipline, from an accredited college or university) may be completed up to 5 years after you pass the exam.
How much experience do I need for CFP® certification? Either 6,000 hours of professional experience related to the financial planning process, or 4,000 hours of apprenticeship experience meeting CFP Board’s additional requirements — apprenticeship hours come from personally engaging with individual clients under the direct supervision of a CFP® professional. Experience may be completed before or after the exam, within CFP Board’s timeframe of 10 years before to 5 years after passing.
What happens if I fail the CFP® exam? You retake the entire exam — there are no partial retakes — in a later testing window, paying the exam fee again, and you receive a diagnostic report showing your performance across the Principal Knowledge Topics so you can rebuild your study plan around your relative weaknesses. CFP Board limits attempts to a lifetime maximum of 5, and no more than 3 attempts within any 24-month period.
Are these the actual exam questions? No. PassProfessor practice questions are written independently, from scratch, to CFP Board’s published Principal Knowledge Domains. We never use actual exam questions or another provider’s material — and CFP Board’s non-disclosure rules bar candidates from sharing exam content, which is why legitimate preparation never contains real exam questions.
When will the PassProfessor CFP® program be available? It is in development now. Join the notify list on this page and we will email you when it opens. No enrollment is being taken yet, and we are not publishing a launch date we cannot keep.
Disclaimer
PassProfessor is an independent exam-preparation provider and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) or Prometric. CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, and the CFP® (with plaque design) marks are certification marks owned by Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.; the CFP® certification is granted solely by CFP Board to individuals who complete its Education, Exam, Experience, and Ethics requirements. This program is exam preparation only and is not a CFP Board Registered Program: it provides no coursework credit toward CFP Board’s education requirement and does not satisfy the Capstone requirement. Exam details on this page are general information current as of October 2026 — CFP Board’s official publications govern if anything here differs from them.