IREB has stipulated an exam process for each CPRE level and provides the exam questions. These are consistent worldwide and are available in several languages.
As required by ISO/IEC 17024:2012, IREB is not involved in the certification process itself: this is under the sole responsibility of licensed certification bodies. The certification bodies conduct the exams, evaluate the results and issue certificates, on behalf of IREB, to all successful candidates.
Passing an exam is necessary to obtain the CPRE certificate at any particular level. CPRE certificates have lifetime validity.
The exam can be taken either in conventional paper-based form, on tablet PC or as a PC-based online test. In all cases the exam is a multiple choice test – the same questions, the same duration.
If you attend a classroom training course, the training provider will organize the subsequent exam with the certification body. These exams will either be performed as paper-based tests or on a tablet PC.
The certification bodies also regularly offer dates for public exams. These are displayed on the certification body's website, or can be enquired about directly at the certification bodies.
PC-based online exams have to be taken at the examination center where the exam is conducted and supervised.
Currently online exams are conducted by our partner iSQI via PEARSON VUE and by our partner Certible via PROMETRIC.
For information on public exams consult the certification bodies' websites, where you can find the times and dates of upcoming exams, as well as information about the application process.
For further information see certification bodies.
The pricing for the certification is fixed by each certification body individually and may differ for different countries. The certification bodies can provide you with precise exam costs.
This document lays out the IREB's conditions for the CPRE Foundation Level examination. It contains detailed information on duration, structure and types of questions, with some representative examples as well as special regulations.
The practice examination comprises 46 questions in the same form, structure and style as the live examination (approximately 45 questions).
The downloads also contains solutions and correction aids.
This document guides you through the registration process for CPRE Foundation Level online exams at PEARSON VUE test centers.
This document lays out the IREB's conditions for the CPRE Advanced Level examination.
The practice examination contains 24 questions in the same form, structure and style as the live examination. The download also contains solutions and correction aids.
The practice examination contains 30 questions in the same form, structure and style as the live examination. The download also contains solutions and correction aids.
The practice examination contains 18 questions in the same form, structure and style as the live examination. The download also contains solutions and correction aids.
List of all licensed Certification Bodies of IREB and which countries they serve
Aligned to the most recent edition of the book Requirements Engineering Fundamentals, the CPRE Glossary aims to collect existing knowledge on Requirements Engineering terminology and define core terminology carefully and consistently.
The CPRE glossary is available in English and Chinese (Mandarin).
The English document includes - in addition to the definition of terms in English - cross references in Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
The certification body sends the result by post to the address stated by the examinee on application. If you have passed the exam, you will receive your certificate together with the result.
If you take the exam online you get your result immediately after the examination. The certificate will be delivered to you later by post. The certificate obtained via an online exam is dispatched within the same time as the results of conventional exams.
The certification bodies offer public examinations or they provide the exam after a training course. Online exams in a test center are available as well. You register for a public examination directly at the certification body. The scheduled dates for public examinations are published on their websites.
Usually the examination subsequent to a training course is organized by the training provider. They will handle the registration for you.
You can also sit for the exam at a training provider without having attended the course. Please contact the training provider in advance in order to clarify the procedure.
Before August 2016 negative points were awarded for wrongly marked questions.
This regulation was difficult to explain to the candidates and additionally - under the pressure of the exam, particularly in online exams where incomplete answered questions are highlighted - candidates tended to check answers which they were not sure about and therefore lost many points.
During IREB’s regular quality assurance of the exams, simulations with several thousand exams have been run to investigate on the impact of changes to the negative marking and the percentage needed to pass.
Based on the results of these simulations, IREB modified the exam regulations in terms of
The type of examination and questions remained unchanged.
The following languages are available for the exams:
Foundation Level:
Advanced Level Requirements Elicitation and Consolidation:
Advanced Level Requirements Modeling:
Advanced Level Management
The CPRE exam can be taken immediately after the training, but this is not essential. If the participant of the course does not feel confident to take the exam immediately he or she should consult the trainer if it may be better to sit for the certification at a later stage. This would allow more time to become familiar with the topics where the participant still has gaps and thus only sitting the exam when fully prepared.
For this reason for the Advanced Level exam there is a period of 12 months after having passed the multiple choice exam for the submission of the homework (written assignment). This gives the candidate the opportunity to gather further practical experience in the chosen topic which may be incorporated in the written work.
REQB® will be integrated into IREB® and all REQB® members are welcome to become members of the IREB® organization. REQB® members may become members of the existing IREB® working groups and an International Development group, consisting of IR IREB® and REQB® members, will be established to further internationalize and grow certification in Requirements Engineering.
There will be a single RE certification scheme, presented under the IREB® brand, based on the current IREB® CPRE certification scheme. Contents from the REQB® certifications will be integrated where appropriate.
After October 1st, 2017 only IREB® CPRE certificates will be issued.
All REQB certificates keep their validity.
Our partner GASQ has provided a form where you can request the change of your REQB certificate .
Please contact GASQ at info@gasq.org for further information on the conversion of certificates.
Conversion of the REQB® Foundation Level certificate to an IREB® CPRE Foundation Level certificate is required in order to be eligible for IREB® CPRE Advanced Level certification (see above).
For the IREB® CPRE Expert Level, the REQB® Advanced Level certificate will be accepted as one of the required prerequisites.
The following REQB® certificates can be registered after conversion to the corresponding IREB certificate:
Registration without previous conversion:
All REQB® training providers may offer IREB® CPRE training courses and become official training providers of IREB®.
Existing contracts between training providers and REQB® will be fulfilled by IREB®.
Please send a mail to info@gasq.org
The exam in the Foundation Level is a multiple choice questionnaire. For details see the exam regulations of the Foundation Level.
The exam in the Advanced Level consists of a multiple choice questionnaire and a written assignment. For details see the exam regulations of the Advanced Level.
A rerun of the training course before repeating the exam is not necessary.
The exam can be retaken at most twice without a waiting period. If you fail the exam for the third time you may only retake it one year after the third exam date at the earliest.