The PMP® Exam

PMI's updated exam went live on July 9, 2026. Every exam scheduled on or after that date uses the July 2026 Examination Content Outline; the January 2021 outline it replaced is retired.

Three things moved. The weights: People went from 42% to 33%, Process from 50% to 41%, and Business Environment from 8% to 26%. The clock: 230 minutes became 240. And the split between counted and uncounted questions: 175 scored and 5 pretest became 170 scored and 10 pretest, with the total still 180.

This is the quickest way to date any description of the exam, this one included. A source that gives 230 minutes, or puts Business Environment at 8%, is describing the retired exam.

The exam is for people who have already led projects, and PMI checks that before it lets anyone sit. There are four routes. In each, the experience has to fall within the last 10 years.

Every route also requires 35 hours of project management training. The requirement is waived for people who hold an active CAPM® certification.

One rule about those hours is scheduled to change. From December 1, 2026, a live instructor-led class counts toward the 35 hours only if it is delivered by a PMI Authorized Training Partner, a China Registered Education Provider or an eligible accredited academic program. Self-paced courses from any provider remain eligible, and training completed before that date still counts. PMI's site is the authority on what it will accept.

The practice questions on this site are not a training course and do not count toward the 35 hours. PMI's outline says books and practice exams alone are not accepted.

180 questions. 170 are scored; the other 10 are pretest questions that do not count toward the result and are not identified, so there is nothing to gain by guessing which they are.

Besides single-answer multiple choice, the exam uses multiple-response questions, case or scenario sets, graphic-based questions, matching, pull-down lists and point-and-click questions.

The content is split by way of working as well as by domain. PMI's outline says about 40% of questions reflect predictive approaches and about 60% adaptive, agile or hybrid ones, and that this split runs through all three domains rather than sitting in one of them.

The exam runs on one 240-minute clock with two 10-minute breaks. The breaks change how the exam has to be taken: once you take one, you cannot go back to the questions that came before it. In effect there are three blocks, and each has to be finished, flagged questions included, before you stand up.

240 minutes for 180 questions is about 80 seconds a question. The average hides a wide spread. A scenario set takes longer than that, and the time comes out of the short questions you answer quickly.

The exam is delivered by Pearson VUE in one of two ways: in person at a test center, which is the option PMI recommends, or online with remote proctoring through OnVUE.

The two are not quite the same exam. PMI's outline marks the matching, pull-down and point-and-click question types as available only at test centers.

PMI does not publish a passing score. The standard is set by psychometric analysis against defined criteria, and the result is reported as pass or fail together with diagnostic information about your performance.

It follows that any percentage quoted as the PMP pass mark is somebody's estimate. PMI publishes no pass rate either. This site quotes neither, and a score on a practice set here is a way to find weak tasks, not a forecast of your result.

We do not print a fee, because we could not confirm one on PMI's own site. PMI's Certification Handbook says prices vary by membership status and by region, so the figure that applies to you depends on both. Check pmi.org for the current price before you budget.

You have up to three attempts within your one-year eligibility period, and the exam fee is paid again for the second and third. After three unsuccessful attempts you must wait one year from the last attempt before reapplying.