If you are preparing for the BCBA exam, you have probably heard that it is getting harder to pass. The Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) publishes the numbers every year, so there is no need to rely on rumor. This article sets out what those numbers say, what they do not say, and what a sensible study plan looks like in light of them.
What the BACB data show
The BACB reports, for each calendar year, how many people took the BCBA exam and what share of them passed. Looking only at people taking it for the first time:
Figure — First-time pass rate, BCBA® exam
Share of first-time candidates who passed, by calendar year. Retakes are not included.
From 60% in 2021 the first-time pass rate went to 55% in 2022, 56% in 2023, 54% in 2024 and 51% in 2025, when 9,955 people sat the exam for the first time. Roughly one first-time candidate in two did not pass. Source: BACB annual certificant data.
The picture for second and later attempts is harder: in 2025, 23% of retake candidates passed. With about half of each first-time cohort not passing, a large number of people end up taking the exam more than once, each time with a new exam fee and more months of study.
What these numbers do not tell you
An annual pass rate describes a whole cohort, not you. It does not say why the rate fell, and the BACB’s tables do not offer an explanation. Your own odds depend on your preparation, not on the year’s average.
The BACB also publishes first-time pass rates for each university training program, leaving out programs with fewer than 6 first-time candidates in a year. Those reports vary widely between programs. One independent analysis of the 2025 report by BreakingNewsABA found that candidates from online programs passed at about 48% and those from on-campus programs at about 74%, and the article itself notes that such comparisons are observational: they do not show that the format of a program causes the difference.
What the exam asks of you
According to the BCBA Handbook and the examination information page, the exam has 185 multiple-choice questions in 4 hours. 175 of them are scored and 10 are unscored; you cannot tell which is which. Each question has four options and one correct answer. It is based on the BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed.), which groups 104 tasks into nine content areas:
| Content area | Scored questions |
|---|---|
| A. Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations | 8 |
| B. Concepts and Principles | 24 |
| C. Measurement, Data Display, and Interpretation | 21 |
| D. Experimental Design | 13 |
| E. Ethical and Professional Issues | 22 |
| F. Behavior Assessment | 23 |
| G. Behavior-Change Procedures | 25 |
| H. Selecting and Implementing Interventions | 20 |
| I. Personnel Supervision and Management | 19 |
Two details matter for planning. First, your result is based on your overall performance, not on each area separately, so a weak area costs points rather than failing you on its own. Second, no area is small enough to skip: even the smallest carries 8 scored questions, and the three largest (B, F and G) carry 72 between them.
How to prepare: what the evidence supports
Decades of research on learning point in the same direction, and the findings are among the most replicated in psychology. A widely cited review by Dunlosky and colleagues (2013) rated ten common study techniques; practice testing and distributed practice came out on top, while rereading and highlighting were rated low. Three principles follow from that body of work.
Retrieval practice. Recalling an answer from memory strengthens it more than reading it again. A question you answer, and sometimes miss, teaches you more than a page you reread and recognize. Recognition feels like knowledge; it is not the same thing the exam measures.
Spacing. The same amount of study spread over several days or weeks is remembered longer than the same amount packed into one sitting. A topic you got right today needs to come back in a few days, and then later again.
Feedback. An answer without an explanation leaves you guessing why you were wrong, and you may repeat the same confusion next time. The useful part of a practice question is often the explanation: why the right answer fits, and why yours does not.
The BACB itself recommends preparing from the Test Content Outline, the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts and your training materials, and notes that it cannot endorse any study materials and that buying them does not guarantee a pass. That applies to everything below too.
One option: Interlaza Prep
We built Interlaza Prep as a course that follows the principles above. It is one option among several ways to practice. You can try a sample of the questions free, without an account. The full course is free with an Interlaza account until 30 November 2026; from 1 December it costs €9 a month with a 14-day free trial, or is included in the Professional, Researcher and Institution plans.
- Original questions across all 9 areas of the BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed.). None is a real exam question or a “recalled” one.
- Practice by area, or by a single topic, ten questions at a time, with your pending mistakes and weakest topics first.
- Timed mock exams of 50 or 175 questions, corrected at the end.
- An explanation after every answer: why the correct option fits, and why yours does not. Questions are in English; the interface and the explanations are available in English and Spanish.
- Progress per topic, so you can see which areas need more time. Topics you miss come back later, spaced out, with new questions.
- The same course also covers the RBT® exam (RBT Test Content Outline, 3rd ed.), with practice by area and a timed 85-question mock.
Two things to be clear about. Practice results do not predict or guarantee passing the exam; use them to decide what to study next. And Interlaza Prep is independent: it is not affiliated with or endorsed by the BACB.
Two free resources on this site work well alongside it: the BCBA® study guide, which explains the nine areas with examples, and the ABA glossary, with definitions and common confusions. To try the question style without an account, there is a 15-question practice quiz.
After the exam, the same principles carry over to the work itself. Interlaza’s main product is an app for Instructors teaching young autistic children, where help fades as the child answers correctly and mastered skills come back for spaced review.
Sources
- Behavior Analyst Certification Board. BACB certificant annual report data. bacb.com (accessed October 2026). First-time and retake pass rates by year.
- Behavior Analyst Certification Board. University examination pass rates. bacb.com (accessed October 2026).
- Behavior Analyst Certification Board. BCBA Handbook and Examination information. bacb.com/bcba-handbook, bacb.com/examination-information (accessed October 2026). Exam length, scored questions and content areas.
- BreakingNewsABA (2026, October 13). Industry analysis of the BACB’s 2025 university pass-rate report. breakingnewsaba.com. Observational; cited for one figure only.
- Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58.
BCBA® and RBT® are registered trademarks of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, Inc. Interlaza is not affiliated with or endorsed by the BACB.