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Certified Professional Coder (CPC)®
The Certified Professional Coder (CPC) is AAPC's outpatient medical coding certification; the exam validates proficiency in applying ICD-10-CM, CPT® and HCPCS Level II codes as well as compliance, payer rules and reimbursement processes for physician and outpatient services.
Official exam siteJump to prep options ↓
Questions100 multiple-choice questions
Testing time4 hours, administered in one sitting
ScoringOverall score of 70% or higher required to pass (at least 70 of 100 questions correct)
Exam feeUSD 425 for one exam attempt, or USD 499 for two exam attempts
Prep options
Study resources for CPC
Independent prep
Courses and study resources
Exam overview
What to know before choosing your prep
- Who runs it
- AAPC
- Category
- Health Information & Coding
- Current version
- Current specification; no public version label
- Where it applies
- United States — national
- Exam languages
- English
- Score scale
- Percentage score
- Format
- Open-book, computer-based: taken online at home with a live remote proctor or at a testing center; the AMA CPT® Professional Edition plus one ICD-10-CM and one HCPCS Level II code book (current or preceding year, print or eBook) are the only permitted references
- Availability
- Year-round by appointment; at-home proctored exams offer flexible 24/7 scheduling and testing centers have hundreds of locations; registration must be completed at least three weeks before the exam date
- Results
- Results posted online in the My AAPC account dashboard within 7-10 business days after taking the exam
- Remote testing
- Available
Exam structure
100 multiple-choice questions across 17 knowledge areas: medical terminology (4), anatomy (4), compliance and regulatory (3), coding guidelines (7), ICD-10-CM (5), HCPCS Level II (3), six CPT® sections covering the 10000–60000 code series (6 questions each), radiology (6), pathology and laboratory (6), medicine (6), E/M (6), anesthesia (4), and 10 medical-record coding cases at the end (1 question each)
Where rules vary
U.S.-focused healthcare reimbursement exam built on Medicare/Medicaid/commercial payer rules and the CPT®, HCPCS Level II and ICD-10-CM code sets; AAPC also serves international students and offers testing centers worldwide, but the credential itself is a U.S. coding credential.
Eligibility
No formal eligibility requirements to sit the exam; AAPC recommends completing its CPC Training Course and a solid understanding of medical terminology, anatomy and pathophysiology
Retake policy
Retake priced via the two-attempt voucher option (USD 499 for two attempts vs USD 425 for one); unsuccessful candidates receive area sub-scores of 65% or less to guide retesting