The Arizona Notary Public examination is the notary competency examination instituted by the Arizona Secretary of State under A.R.S. § 41-270. Beginning July 1, 2025, all new and renewing Arizona notaries public are required to pass it. It is a 45-question, 60-minute multiple-choice examination drawn directly from the Secretary of State’s Notary Public Reference Manual — the current edition is the 2026 manual — a passing score of 80% is needed, and the examination is ‘open book’ in one exact sense only: the manual is built into the examination, and a physical copy is not allowed at testing sites or during remote testing. The examination can be taken remotely or at any of Pearson’s testing sites, and a $35 cost is assessed for every proctored examination.
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What this commission is
An Arizona notary public is a public officer commissioned by the Secretary of State to perform notarial acts. The office is an impartial-witness office: a notary witnesses signatures, verifies the identities of signers, and must have no conflict of interest in the transaction — a notary may not perform an act on a record to which the notary or the notary’s spouse is a party, or in which either has a direct beneficial interest. Arizona notaries act only within the state’s boundaries, keep a journal of their acts, and work under a fee schedule set by rule: no charge up to a maximum of $10.00 per notarial act.
Until 2025, Arizona commissioned its notaries without testing them. That era is over, and this page states the change at the top because it reorganises the whole route: beginning July 1, 2025, every new applicant and every renewing notary must first pass a competency examination — the examination comes before the application, and a Candidate ID obtained from the testing vendor is required before the application can be completed. The examination’s source is a single official book, the Secretary of State’s Notary Public Reference Manual, from which the questions are drawn directly and which the Secretary of State urges candidates to study beforehand because it covers all the content tested. The companion Arizona Notary Public Exam Guide works through the manual chapter by chapter, the route in order, and the sitting itself in detail.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Examination | Arizona notary competency examination — instituted by the Arizona Secretary of State under A.R.S. § 41-270; required beginning July 1, 2025 |
| Commission | Notary public, commissioned by the Secretary of State; a public officer who performs notarial acts within Arizona only; term 4 years |
| Who must pass | All new applicants and all renewing notaries public, beginning July 1, 2025. The statute also reaches an applicant with a suspended commission; the Reference Manual states that suspended notaries and notaries under discipline receive a different examination administered by the Secretary of State |
| Format | 45 questions, multiple choice, drawn directly from the Notary Public Reference Manual (2026 edition, October 2026) |
| Length | 60 minutes |
| Passing score | A passing score of 80% is needed, in the Secretary of State’s published form. The Reference Manual states the same standard as a score of at least 80% |
| ‘Open book’ position | The manual is built into the examination. A physical copy is NOT allowed at testing sites or during remote testing |
| Delivery | Taken remotely or at any of Pearson’s testing sites; proctored |
| Examination cost | $35 cost assessed for every proctored examination — an Arizona Secretary of State figure, paid to Pearson |
| Attempts | The examination can be taken 3 times; after the 3rd fail, a candidate is required to wait 30 days to reschedule |
| Result validity | The exam score is good for 90 days after achieving a passing score (Reference Manual) |
| Registration | Prior to completing the application, the candidate MUST contact Pearson to register for the examination and obtain a Candidate ID Number |
| Application fee | Arizona State fee: $43 application and bond filing fee, submitted with the signed application and the original notarized bond |
| Bond | A four-year $5,000 notary bond, purchased from a licensed surety — not from the Secretary of State, which does not provide bonds |
| Administrator | Arizona Secretary of State, Business Services Division. PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Secretary of State |
What the examination covers
The Secretary of State publishes no topic weights for this examination, and this page invents none. What it publishes is the source: 45 basic questions drawn directly from the Notary Public Reference Manual, which covers all the content tested. The manual is therefore the syllabus, and the areas below follow its own organisation — six chapters, from the application process to the sample certificates.
Chapter 1: Notary Application Process
Qualifications, how to apply, notary bonds, the fees schedule, and processing — including the sequence the examination itself sits inside: pass the examination before submitting the application, obtain the bond before submitting, and file application, bond, and fee together. The qualification list the manual prints (A.R.S. § 41-269.B) is examinable as written: at least eighteen years of age; a citizen or permanent legal resident of the United States; a resident of Arizona for income tax purposes, claiming Arizona as the primary residence on state and federal tax returns; able to read, write and understand English; not disqualified to receive a commission under A.R.S. § 41-271; having passed the § 41-270 examination if required; and keeping as a reference a manual approved by the Secretary of State.
Chapter 2: Notary Commissions
The commission’s life: its four-year term, renewal — which since July 1, 2025 means passing the examination again — the seal and journal the commissioned notary must maintain, name and address changes, resignation, and the discipline the Secretary of State may impose, up to suspension, revocation, or conditions on a commission. The chapter also carries the examination’s own compliance text, including the rule that a passing score is good for 90 days.
Chapter 3: Notarial Duties
The working duties: the signer’s presence, satisfactory evidence of identity and the identification forms the manual lists, the authority to refuse a notarial act, foreign-language documents and translators, the notary journal and its entries, and the notary fee schedule — no charge up to a maximum of $10.00 per notarial act. Since September 12, 2026, this chapter also carries the deed-fraud rule from Senate Bill 1479: the signer’s right thumbprint must be obtained in the notary journal when notarizing deeds, quitclaim deeds, deeds of trust, other documents affecting real property, and powers of attorney.
Chapter 4: Notarial Acts
The heart of the manual. A commissioned Arizona notary public may perform only six notarial acts (A.R.S. § 41-251(6)(b)): acknowledgments; verification on oath or affirmation (jurat); certifying or attesting a copy; taking a verification on oath or affirmation; witnessing or attesting a signature; and noting a protest of a negotiable instrument. The manual’s discipline is that the document’s own language tells the notary which act is being requested — and that pre-printed language from another jurisdiction may not be proper in Arizona. Each act carries its own checklist, and the differences between them — who must sign in the notary’s presence, when an oath must be administered, what may never contain blanks — are the examination’s natural material.
Chapter 5: Notarial Law and Rules (including E-Notary and Remote Online Notary)
The statutory text itself: the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts provisions of A.R.S. Title 41, the rules for electronic notarization and remote online notarization, prohibited acts, and penalties. Electronic and remote online authority is a second layer — it requires a current, active Arizona commission first — but its law sits in the same chapter of the same manual the examination is drawn from, so its fundamentals are examinable here.
Chapter 6: Sample Certificates
The prescribed forms: sample certificates for the notarial acts, in the wording the manual gives them. On an examination drawn directly from the manual, the certificate language — venue, the statement of the act performed, the signature and seal — is content, not appendix filler.
The route, in order
Step 1 — Confirm you are eligible, and that the examination is yours to take
The examination applies to all new and renewing notaries public beginning July 1, 2025 — there is no attorney exemption in the Secretary of State’s published qualifications, and no education course among them: the § 41-269.B list is an age, citizenship-or-residency, state tax-residency, and English standard, a disqualification check under § 41-271, the examination itself, and the duty to keep the approved manual. (The statute does allow the Secretary of State or an approved entity to offer a course of study covering the laws, rules, procedures and ethics relevant to notarial acts; offering is not requiring, and the State designates no official trainer.) Confirm the disqualification position before spending the examination cost: the Secretary of State may deny, refuse to renew, revoke, suspend, or condition a commission for an act or omission demonstrating a lack of honesty, integrity, competence, or reliability.
Step 2 — Study the Reference Manual
Obtain the current Notary Public Reference Manual from the Secretary of State — the examination is drawn from the 2026 edition, and it is free in electronic form. Study it as the examination’s stated source, in full: the Secretary of State’s position is that it covers all the content tested. Note the edition discipline this examination now imposes: material written against the January 2025 edition predates the current manual, including its September 2026 thumbprint rule.
Step 3 — Register with Pearson and obtain a Candidate ID Number
Prior to completing your application, you MUST contact Pearson to register for the Notary Exam and obtain a Candidate ID Number. The examination is taken remotely or at any of Pearson’s testing sites, proctored, at a $35 cost for every proctored examination. If you require special accommodations, the Secretary of State directs the request, with supporting documentation, to Pearson.
Step 4 — Sit the examination, inside its 90-day consequence
Forty-five multiple-choice questions in 60 minutes, drawn directly from the manual, with a passing score of 80% needed. The examination is ‘open book’ only in the built-in sense: the manual is built into the examination, and a physical copy is not allowed at a testing site or during remote testing — so the sitting rewards a candidate who already knows the manual and uses the built-in copy to verify, not to learn. You may take the examination 3 times; after the 3rd fail, you must wait 30 days to reschedule. A passing score is good for 90 days — the application must follow inside that window.
Step 5 — Obtain the bond, then file everything together
Purchase a four-year $5,000 notary bond from a licensed surety (a bonding company, an insurance company, or a notary organisation) — bonds are not purchased from the Secretary of State’s office, and errors and omissions insurance, which protects the notary rather than the public, is optional and separate. Then submit together, by mail to the Phoenix office: the original signed Notary Application, the original notarized Notary Bond, and the $43 application and bond filing fee, check or money order payable to the Arizona Secretary of State. Photocopies of an application or bond are not acceptable, and the printed name and signatures on the application must match those on the bond — mismatches are returned for revision. The commission term is four years; renewal may begin up to two months before the term expires, and renewal requires passing the examination again.
What makes this examination demanding
The demand is pace inside a book you may only consult in one place. Forty-five questions in 60 minutes is 80 seconds a question, and the ‘open book’ label misleads candidates who budget those seconds for reading: the manual is built into the examination, but searching a full manual under a clock, for a rule half-remembered, is how sittings are lost. The candidates this examination catches are the ones who studied Arizona practice as it was — before July 2025 there was no examination to study for at all, and the renewing notary who has performed thousands of acts from habit meets a paper drawn from the manual’s exact checklists, fee figures, and certificate language, where habit and the manual occasionally differ. Add the edition problem — the examination is drawn from the 2026 manual, while a shelf of preparation material still teaches the superseded January 2025 text and its retired vendor and fee — and the preparation task is precise: the current manual, at examination pace, before the sitting.
The credential at work
The Arizona commission is the working credential inside the state’s real estate closings, loan signings, banking, healthcare, and legal-services transactions, and its four-year cycle means every holder sits the examination again at each renewal. Since 2025 it also certifies something it did not before: that the notary has been tested, this cycle, on the current manual — including the journal discipline and the 2026 thumbprint rule for real-property documents. The electronic notary and remote online notary authorities build on the same commission for notaries who contract with a technology vendor and meet the Administrative Rules, with no additional fee or bond required by the Secretary of State at this time.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
Practice in the examination’s own shape. The Arizona Notary Public examination is 45 multiple-choice questions in 60 minutes, and the program in the works practises in that shape: timed sets at the real pace — 80 seconds a question — drawn across the whole Reference Manual, because the Secretary of State publishes no topic weights and the program invents none.
Built-in-manual fluency, trained deliberately. The program treats the built-in manual as a skill, not a comfort: candidates practise locating the governing rule inside the examination’s own conditions — manual available in the interface, no physical copy, no other materials — until lookup is verification of an answer already reasoned, at a cost of seconds rather than minutes.
Written from the current primary sources. The program is written from the Secretary of State’s Notary Exam Notice and the October 2026 Notary Public Reference Manual, and from A.R.S. §§ 41-269, 41-270 and 41-271 — the qualifications, the examination authority, and the disqualification grounds — and it teaches the current law, including the September 12, 2026 thumbprint requirement, rather than the superseded 2025 material still in circulation.
Both cohorts, addressed honestly. First-time applicants and renewing notaries sit the same examination. The program addresses the renewing notary’s specific risk — established habits measured against the manual’s checklists — as directly as the first-timer’s need to learn the office from the beginning.
The whole candidate, not only the test-taker. Around the item practice, the program carries the route as the Secretary of State publishes it — Pearson registration and the Candidate ID before the application, the $35 proctored-examination cost and the three-attempt / 30-day position, the 90-day life of a passing score, the $5,000 bond and the $43 filing fee submitted together, and the two-month renewal window — because on this route the sequencing failures are as fatal as the knowledge failures.
Preparation only. This is preparation for an examination instituted by the Arizona Secretary of State. PassProfessor is not affiliated with the Secretary of State or with Pearson, is not a state-designated or state-endorsed trainer — the State designates none — and nothing in the program substitutes for the examination, the bond, the application, or any commission requirement.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The Arizona Notary Public program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program.
Frequently asked questions
When did Arizona start requiring a notary examination?
Beginning July 1, 2025. Under A.R.S. § 41-270, the Secretary of State instituted a notary competency examination, and from that date all new and renewing Arizona notaries public are required to pass it.
How many questions are on the Arizona Notary Public examination, and how long is it?
Forty-five basic questions, drawn directly from the Notary Public Reference Manual — the Reference Manual describes the examination as a 45-question, 60-minute multiple-choice exam — to be completed within 60 minutes.
What score passes?
A passing score of 80% is needed, in the Secretary of State’s published form; the Reference Manual states that an applicant must receive a score of at least 80% to receive a passing score.
Is the examination really open book?
Only in the Secretary of State’s exact sense. The Secretary of State calls the examination ‘open book’ with a footnote: the manual is built into the examination, and a physical copy is NOT allowed at testing sites or during remote testing. It is not a bring-your-own-book examination.
Who administers the examination, and what does it cost?
The examination can be taken remotely or at any of Pearson’s testing sites, and a $35 cost is assessed for every proctored examination, paid to Pearson. Register with Pearson before completing your application, to obtain a Candidate ID Number.
What happens if I fail?
The examination can be taken 3 times; after the 3rd fail, you will be required to wait 30 days to reschedule. Each proctored examination carries the $35 cost.
How long is a passing score good for?
Ninety days. The Reference Manual states the exam score is good for 90 days after achieving a passing score, so the application, bond, and fee must follow inside that window.
Do renewing notaries have to take it too?
Yes. The July 1, 2025 requirement covers all new and renewing notaries public, and the renewal process — which opens up to two months before the current commission expires — requires passing the examination again.
Do I need to take a course before the examination?
No course appears among the Secretary of State’s published qualifications for the commission. A.R.S. § 41-270 allows a course of study to be offered; it does not make one a qualification, and the State designates no official trainer or endorsed training company. The tested source is the Reference Manual itself.
Are attorneys exempt from the examination?
No attorney exemption appears in the Secretary of State’s published qualifications or in the Reference Manual’s examination section: the requirement is stated for all new and renewing notaries public. Do not rely on exemptions other states publish — Arizona’s list is Arizona’s.
What does the commission itself cost, apart from the examination?
The Arizona State application and bond filing fee is $43, submitted with the signed application and the original notarized bond. The four-year $5,000 bond is purchased separately from a licensed surety; its price is set by the surety, not the Secretary of State. Errors and omissions insurance is optional.
What can an Arizona notary charge for an act?
Under the Notary Rules as the Secretary of State publishes them, notary fees are from no charge up to a maximum of $10.00 per notarial act — the same maximum for electronic and remote online acts.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Arizona Secretary of State or Pearson?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the Arizona Secretary of State or Pearson, and not a state-designated trainer. The program confers no commission and reports nothing to the Secretary of State.