Exam format
How the CPA exam is structured
By Joey Arnold, CPA · Last updated August 24, 2026
Source: AICPA exam structure, current as of August 2026.
Every section is four hours long and built the same way: five testlets, multiple-choice first, then task-based simulations.
That much is identical across all six. What isn’t identical — and what almost nobody mentions — is how many questions get packed into those four hours. The spread is bigger than you’d guess, and it doesn’t run the direction most people assume.
The structure, every section
Four hours. Five testlets. The first two are multiple-choice; the last three are task-based simulations. A passing score is 75, on a scale that runs from 0 to 99.
After you finish testlet 3 — the first simulation testlet — there’s an optional 15-minute standardized break that doesn’t count against your exam time. There are other breaks available, but they do run the clock, which makes the standardized one the only genuinely free pause you get.
What’s actually in each section
| Section | Multiple-choice | Simulations | Score weighting |
|---|---|---|---|
| FAR | 50 | 7 | 50 / 50 |
| AUD | 78 | 7 | 50 / 50 |
| REG | 72 | 8 | 50 / 50 |
| BAR | 50 | 7 | 50 / 50 |
| ISC | 82 | 6 | 60 / 40 |
| TCP | 68 | 7 | 50 / 50 |
Two things stand out.
ISC is the only section that doesn’t weight the two halves evenly. Multiple-choice carries 60% of your ISC score rather than 50%. That changes where your practice hours should go on that section, and it’s easy to miss.
The question counts aren’t close. ISC has 82 multiple-choice questions; FAR and BAR have 50. That’s a 64% difference inside the same four hours.
The number nobody computes
Take 240 minutes, set aside about 15 for each task-based simulation — those are what really eat the clock — then divide what’s left across that section’s multiple-choice questions. That’s the number that actually sets your pace, not the one you get by dividing 240 minutes across every question and simulation as if they were equal:
| Section | Multiple-choice | Simulations | Minutes per MCQ |
|---|---|---|---|
| REG | 72 | 8 | 1.7 |
| AUD | 78 | 7 | 1.7 |
| ISC | 82 | 6 | 1.8 |
| TCP | 68 | 7 | 2.0 |
| FAR | 50 | 7 | 2.7 |
| BAR | 50 | 7 | 2.7 |
The ranking is real, and it’s the opposite of the reputation.
FAR has the most generous per-question budget of any section — about 2.7 minutes each — and FAR is the one candidates most often say they ran out of time on. Both things are true. FAR’s pressure comes from breadth and from simulations that take longer to work, not from having more to get through.
AUD and ISC are where the multiple-choice pile is genuinely deep — 78 and 82 questions to clear in four hours — and almost nobody warns you about that, because everyone is busy warning you about FAR.
The practical version: on AUD and ISC, practice under timed conditions early, because pace is a real constraint. On FAR, the constraint is knowing the material well enough not to stall.
What this means for how you practice
If pace is a section-specific problem, practice has to be section-specific too.
The only reliable way to find out whether the clock is your problem is a full-length simulated exam taken under real timing. Not a topic quiz. Four hours, in order, on material you haven’t just finished studying — which is also the only thing that tells you whether you’re ready at all. More on that →
Where to start
Whichever section you’re sitting first, the format is the same. What differs is what it demands of you.
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