To answer the exam questions correctly, you need to know/master the educational objectives as defined in the Foundation Level syllabus. Taking a classroom training course is not an entry criteria for the exam, but it is recommended.
You can prepare for the exam by:
The exam must be completed within 75 minutes and covers about 45 multiple choice questions. On request non-native speakers may be granted a 15 minute extension. Depending on their difficulty questions are allocated a different number of points. The exam is closed-book: no materials - except a language dictionary - may be used during the examination, with the exception of a language dictionary. To pass the exam, you must achieve at least 70.00 % of the total possible score.
The exam can be taken in Chinese (Mandarin), Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.
Online exams at PEARSON VUE or PROMETRIC are available in different languages.
The exams will be evaluated by the certification body. The result will be sent to the contact address stated on your application.
For an online exam you receive your results immediately after the examination.
If you have passed the exam, you should receive your certificate within two weeks.
The practice examination and online self-assessment serve the purpose of simulating an actual CPRE Foundation Level exam.
If you attend a classroom training course the training provider organizes the written examination for you.
For public exams consult the certification bodies' websites, where you can find times and dates of upcoming exams as well as information about the application process.
You can also take the exam in a test center of PEARSON VUE or PROMETRIC.
For further information see certification bodies and the downloads at the bottom of this page.
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.
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
Yes, it is possible. Ideally refer to both the CPRE Foundation Level syllabus and to the book Requirements Engineering Fundamentals.
Check out the practice examination to verify whether you are sufficiently well-prepared for the exam.
The CPRE Foundation Level certificate - or an equivalent - is the prerequisite for admission to the CPRE Advanced Level examination.
The British Computer Society (BCS) offers a variety of diplomas for professional development. Within the diploma Business Analysis there is a certificate Requirements Engineering. This certificate has a large overlap with the CPRE Foundation Level certificate. Therefore BCS and IREB have closed an agreement that candidates who have completed the BCS Certificate in Requirements Engineering will be exempt from taking the IREB CPRE Foundation level to progress to the Advanced level.
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.