An independent, unofficial guide to the CFP® Certification Examination — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by CFP Board.
Format last checked: September 2026. The CFP® Certification Examination is developed and administered by CFP Board (Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.) via computer-based testing at Prometric centers, and is offered in windows several times a year. It is one of the "4 Es" of CFP® certification — Education, Examination, Experience, and Ethics — and tests the Principal Knowledge Topics across all major areas of personal financial planning. Verify current fees, eligibility (including the Education requirement), and scheduling windows against CFP Board's own exam page before registering to sit for it.
170Multiple-choice questions
6 hrsTwo 3-hour sessions, same day
Criterion-ref.No published flat % cutoff
8Principal Knowledge domains
Professional ConductGeneral PrinciplesRisk Mgmt & InsuranceInvestment PlanningTax PlanningRetirement PlanningEstate PlanningPsychology of Fin. Planning
Domain
Questions
Weight
Professional Conduct and Regulation
40
~8%
General Financial Planning Principles, Client Communication, and Counseling
75
~15%
Risk Management and Insurance Planning
55
~11%
Investment Planning
85
~17%
Tax Planning
70
~14%
Retirement Savings and Income Planning
90
~18%
Estate Planning
50
~10%
Psychology of Financial Planning
35
~7%
Independently researched from CFP Board's publicly listed Principal Knowledge Topics — verify current figures against CFP Board's own materials before relying on them for study or scheduling. All 500 practice questions on this page are original content written for this platform, not reproduced from any official CFP Board exam, CFP Board-Registered Program curriculum, or third-party prep-vendor question bank.
Two ways to practice here
Pick a single domain below for a focused, timed testlet (up to 15 questions, paced at the exam's overall average of about 2.1 minutes per question) — good for drilling one topic at a time. Or take the Full CFP® Mock Exam: a fresh 170-question set drawn and shuffled every attempt, proportioned to match each domain's published exam weight, timed at the real exam's full 360-minute duration.
A note on scoring
CFP Board sets the passing standard using a criterion-referenced (standard-setting) method and does not publish a single universal percent-correct cutoff, and it reports no public per-domain scaled subscore. This portal reports plain accuracy (percent correct) on a fixed testlet, with a study-signal label — not an official passing determination of any kind.
Study Guide
Strategy notes for each of the 8 CFP® Principal Knowledge domains built out on this platform — general study approaches, written for this platform.
Practice Bank
Untimed, with explanations. Filter by section or topic, answer, then reveal the explanation whenever you're ready.
Mock Exams
Take the Full CFP® Mock Exam for a real-length, 170-question simulation timed at the exam's full 360 minutes, drawn fresh and shuffled each attempt in proportion to each domain's published weight — or choose a single domain below for a shorter, focused testlet.
Once you start, the clock runs continuously and auto-submits when it hits zero. Explanations are withheld until you finish. The real exam splits its 360 minutes across two 3-hour sessions with a break; this simulation runs the full time as one continuous sitting.
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14:00
Score History
Saved on this device only (browser local storage) — nothing is sent anywhere.