CPA Exam Qualifications
Education Requirements
To qualify for the CPA exam, a candidate must have:- A bachelor’s degree or a higher from a degree-granting college or university accredited by a U.S.
regional or a national accrediting agency - Completed 24 semester units of Accounting Subjects
- Completed 24 semester units of Business-Related Subjects
Core Course Requirement
The core course requirement consists of 24 semester units in Accounting Subjects and 24 semester units of Business-Related Subjects. Courses over the required 24 semester units of Accounting Subjects may be counted toward the Business-Related Subjects unit requirement. Courses may be completed in any of the subjects listed below.
ACCOUNTING SUBJECTS:
Accounting, Auditing, External or Internal Reporting, Financial Reporting, Financial Statement Analysis, and Taxation
BUSINESS-RELATED SUBJECTS:
Business Administration, Business Management, Business Communications, Economics, Finance, Business Law, Marketing, Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science & Information Systems, Business Related Law Courses offered at an accredited law school, and any accounting subjects over the 24 units needed to fulfill the accounting requirement.
Transcripts detailing the completion of all required courses and conferral of the degree must be sent directly to the California Board of Accountancy from the college(s) or university.
CPA Exam Contents
The CPA Exam consists of three Core exams that all candidates must pass, which include:
- Auditing & Attestation – AUD – 4 Hours
- Financial Accounting & Reporting - FAR – 4 Hours
- Taxation and Regulation - REG – 4 Hours
Candidates must also pass one of the three Discipline sections as listed below:
- Business Analysis and Reporting - BAR – 4 Hours
- Information Systems and Control - ISC – 4 Hours
- Tax Compliance and Planning - TCP – 4 Hours
The scoring weights for multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and tasked-based simulations (TBSs) are evenly split at 50% for all sections, except for the ISC section, where MCQs accounts for 60% and TBSs for 40%. The number of MCQs ranges from 50 to 82, and each section includes 6-8 TBSs.