How many questions are on the CNA exam?

The NNAAP nurse aide written examination has 70 multiple choice questions, and 10 of those are unscored pretest items, so your result comes from 60 scored questions. The oral version swaps the format: 60 multiple choice items plus 10 reading comprehension word recognition items. Both versions allow 2 hours. States that test through Prometric or another vendor use a different count, so check your state candidate handbook.

How many questions can you miss on the CNA written exam?

There is no single national answer, and any site that gives you one number is guessing. The NNAAP exam is scored against a cut score that each state board sets, and only the 60 scored items count toward it. Your state candidate handbook is the only authoritative source for the passing standard. Aim to answer every scored item confidently rather than budgeting for a specific number of misses.

What is a passing score for the CNA exam?

The passing standard for the nurse aide written examination is set by each state board rather than nationally, so it varies by jurisdiction and is published in your state candidate handbook. On the skills evaluation the rule is stricter and clearer: you must perform every Critical Element Step correctly on each assigned skill, and you must also meet the passing standard for that skill overall.

How long is the CNA exam?

You get 2 hours for the NNAAP written or oral examination, and you are told when 15 minutes remain. The skills evaluation is separate and much shorter: 30 minutes to perform five assigned skills in front of a Nurse Aide Evaluator. Many candidates sit both parts on the same day, which makes the day long even though neither component is individually long.

Is the CNA exam hard?

The written portion is not conceptually hard, but it is broad: 60 scored questions spread across ten content areas, so thin coverage anywhere costs you. Most candidates find the skills evaluation harder, because it is performance under observation and a single missed Critical Element Step fails the whole skill. Written questions reward repetition; skills reward rehearsal out loud with a partner.

How much does it cost to take the CNA exam?

Fees are set per state, not nationally. As one published example, Washington charges 100 dollars for the skills evaluation, with the written examination billed separately. Your state candidate handbook lists the current written, skills and retest fees for your jurisdiction. Because retests usually cost the full fee again, the money argument for drilling before you sit is straightforward.

How long should you study for the CNA exam?

Most candidates test within a few weeks of finishing their state-approved training program, while the material is still fresh, and that timing matters more than total hours. What moves scores is the share of study time spent answering questions rather than rereading handouts, because the exam tests retrieval under a clock. Two focused weeks of daily question drills beats a month of highlighting.

How many times can you retake the CNA exam?

Attempt limits and time windows are set by your state, and both parts are tracked separately, so you can retake just the component you failed. Washington, as one published example, requires candidates who do not complete testing within three years to retrain and retest. Check your state candidate handbook for the exact number of attempts and the deadline that applies to you.

What topics are on the CNA written exam?

The 2024 NNAAP content outline splits the 60 scored questions into three domains: Physical Care Skills at 64 percent, Role of the Nurse Aide at 26 percent, and Psychosocial Care Skills at 10 percent. The single largest subcategory is Basic Nursing Skills at 35 percent, or 21 questions, covering infection control, safety and emergency, technical procedures, and data collection and reporting.

Is this an official CNA practice test?

No. PDFQuiz is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Credentia, Prometric, NCSBN or any state nurse aide registry. It writes practice questions from the training material you upload so you can drill recall between full mock exams. Credentia publishes a free official NNAAP practice written exam packet, and you should work through that as well.

CNA exam prep

CNA Practice Test: CNA Practice Questions and Nursing Assistant Practice Exam From Your Own Study Guide

Upload the handouts from your state-approved nurse aide program, your CNA textbook chapters or the skills checklist your instructor gave you, and the AI writes exam-style multiple choice questions with an answer key in seconds. You drill the material your program actually taught instead of a generic question bank you have already seen three times.

Your training files are processed securely and deleted automatically after your practice questions are built.

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In short: to build CNA practice test questions from your own material, upload your nurse aide class handouts, textbook chapters or study guide and the AI writes exam-style multiple choice items with an answer key in seconds. The NNAAP nurse aide written examination is 70 multiple choice questions, of which 10 are unscored pretest items, giving 60 scored questions in 2 hours. Those 60 questions split 64 percent Physical Care Skills, 26 percent Role of the Nurse Aide and 10 percent Psychosocial Care Skills. A separate skills evaluation asks you to perform five skills in 30 minutes, and hand hygiene is always one of them.

Last updated August 2026

Written exam: 70 items, 60 scored
Skills evaluation: 5 skills, 30 min
Practice questions: Unlimited

A CNA practice test built from your own training material

Every nurse aide program hands out its own packet. Some run on a full textbook, some on a spiral-bound workbook, plenty on photocopied skills checklists and the instructor's own slides. The free CNA practice questions floating around online are written against none of those. They are written against somebody's memory of the exam, which is why you can score well on a random online quiz and still walk out of the testing center unsure.

This works the other way around. You upload the material your program gave you, and the AI reads it and writes multiple choice questions from what is actually in it, with an answer key and a short explanation for each item. If your instructor spent two classes on transfer belts and positioning, your practice test reflects that. If your packet has a page on abbreviations, you get abbreviation questions.

The point is repetition on the right material. The nurse aide written examination is not a hard exam in the sense that any single idea is difficult. It is a broad exam, and it is scored on 60 questions spread across ten content areas, so a weak patch anywhere shows up in your score. Generating a fresh set of questions from a different chapter each night is a cheap way to find those weak patches before a Nurse Aide Evaluator does.

What you can upload

Class handouts, textbook chapters saved as PDF, your program's skills checklist, the state candidate handbook, printed lecture slides, or your own typed notes. Scanned pages work too. Most candidates get the best results by uploading one content area at a time rather than a whole textbook at once, because a tighter source produces sharper questions.

Good sources to upload

1.Your nurse aide program handouts and workbook pages
2.CNA textbook chapters, saved or scanned as PDF
3.The skills checklist your instructor grades you against
4.Your state nurse aide candidate handbook
5.Medical abbreviation and terminology lists
6.Your own class notes, typed or handwritten

CNA exam format at a glance

These figures describe the NNAAP nurse aide examination administered by Credentia, which is the version used in a large share of states. Some states test through Prometric or another vendor with a different question count and skills list, so confirm the details in your own state candidate handbook.

Item	Detail
Written examination length	70 multiple choice items, 10 of them unscored pretest items
Scored questions	60
Time allowed	2 hours, with a warning when 15 minutes remain
Oral option	60 multiple choice items plus 10 reading comprehension word recognition items
Skills evaluation	Five assigned skills in 30 minutes, performed for a Nurse Aide Evaluator
Skills always assigned	Hand hygiene, plus exactly one measurement skill
Automatic skill failure	Missing any Critical Element Step fails that skill
Content outline in force	2024 outline, effective April 2024, from the NCSBN job analysis published 2023
Passing standard	Set by each state board and published in the state candidate handbook
Fees	Set per state. Washington, as one published example, charges 100 dollars for the skills evaluation

What is on the CNA written exam, and what to upload for each part

This is the 2024 NNAAP written examination content outline. The percentages and question counts are Credentia's own, and they sum cleanly to 100 percent and 60 scored questions. Use it as a checklist: work down the table, and for each row upload the pages of your training material that cover it.

Content domain	Weight	Questions	What to upload
I. Physical Care Skills, 64 percent, 38 questions
Activities of Daily Living Hygiene, dressing and grooming; nutrition and hydration; elimination; rest, sleep and comfort	22%	13	Your ADL chapters, bathing and feeding handouts, intake and output pages
Basic Nursing Skills Infection control; safety, prevention and emergency; technical procedures; data collection and reporting	35%	21	Infection control and standard precautions notes, vital signs pages, incident and reporting handouts
Self Care and Independence	7%	4	Restorative care and rehabilitation sections
II. Psychosocial Care Skills, 10 percent, 6 questions
Emotional and Mental Health Needs	8%	5	Dementia, depression and behavior management handouts
Spiritual and Cultural Needs	2%	1	Cultural competence and end of life care pages
III. Role of the Nurse Aide, 26 percent, 16 questions
Communication	7%	4	Therapeutic communication notes, abbreviation and terminology lists
Client Rights	8%	5	Residents' rights handout, privacy and dignity sections
Legal and Ethical Behavior	5%	3	Abuse and neglect reporting, scope of practice pages
Member of the Health Care Team	6%	4	Chain of command and delegation sections
Total	100%	60

The practical read on this table: Basic Nursing Skills alone is 21 of your 60 scored questions, more than a third of the exam. Infection control, vital signs and reporting are worth more than everything in Psychosocial Care Skills and Legal and Ethical Behavior combined. If you have limited study time, that row is where it goes.

The skills evaluation is a different animal, and it fails more candidates

Written questions and the skills evaluation are scored separately, and you can pass one and fail the other. The written test rewards knowing things. The skills evaluation rewards doing things in the right order while someone watches and writes on a clipboard, which is a different nerve entirely.

Five skills, 30 minutes

A Nurse Aide Evaluator assigns you five skills from your state's list and you have half an hour to complete all five. The setting is built to resemble a real care situation, and another candidate volunteers to play the client.

Two of the five are predictable

Hand hygiene is always one of the assigned skills, and you will always get exactly one measurement skill: blood pressure, radial pulse, respirations, urine output or weight. That is 40 percent of the evaluation you can rehearse with certainty.

Critical Element Steps

Inside each skill sit a handful of Critical Element Steps. Miss one and you fail that skill, regardless of how well you did the rest. Performing only the Critical Element Steps is not enough either, since you still have to meet the passing standard for the skill.

Generated questions help here more than people expect, because most skills failures are sequencing failures rather than technique failures. Upload your program's skills checklist and ask for questions about it, and you end up drilling which step comes before which, which is exactly what the Critical Element Steps test. Rehearsing the sequence out loud with a classmate covers the rest.

How to make a CNA practice test from your study guide

Pick one content area

Start with Basic Nursing Skills, since it is 21 of the 60 scored questions. Gather the pages of your handouts or textbook that cover infection control, vital signs and reporting.

Upload the file

Drop in the PDF, Word file, slides or a scan of the printed handout. Handwritten notes work as long as they are legible in the scan.

Generate the questions

The AI reads the material and writes multiple choice items with four options each, an answer key and a short explanation for every question, matching the shape of the real exam.

Drill, then rotate

Take the set, mark what you missed, then generate a fresh set from the next content area. Export to PDF or Word if you want to work on paper or quiz a classmate.

Who uses this

Candidates finishing a training program

You have a few weeks between your last class and your test date, and a stack of handouts. This turns that stack into question sets you can take repeatedly.

Candidates retaking one component

If you passed skills and failed the written, or the reverse, you only need to rebuild one half. Generate questions narrowly against the domains you actually lost points on.

Nurse aide instructors

Upload your own course packet and produce a fresh quiz for each cohort without writing 30 items by hand, then export it to PDF or Word for the classroom.

Long-term care staff developers

Facilities that run their own nurse aide training can build competency checks from the same policies and procedures the staff are expected to follow.

Candidates testing in a second language

If you plan to take the oral version, the reading comprehension section tests common long-term care vocabulary. Upload a terminology list and drill the words directly.

Students moving on to nursing

Plenty of CNAs are working toward an LPN or RN seat. The same upload-and-drill routine carries over to NCLEX practice questions and the TEAS practice test later on.

Where a generated CNA practice test falls short

It cannot test your hands

The skills evaluation is half of what stands between you and the registry, and no written question set can substitute for performing a bed bath or a blood pressure in front of an evaluator. Questions help you learn the sequence. A classmate with a checklist helps you pass.

It is only as good as your source

The AI writes questions from the material you give it. If your handouts skip a content area, your practice test will skip it too. Cross-check your uploads against the content outline table above so you are not drilling 80 percent of the exam.

It is not calibrated to the real cut score

Scoring 90 percent on a generated set tells you the material stuck. It does not predict your scaled score against your state's passing standard. Use Credentia's free official practice written exam packet for a sense of the real item style and difficulty.

It is independent, not official

PDFQuiz has no affiliation with Credentia, Prometric, NCSBN or any state nurse aide registry. Your state candidate handbook governs fees, attempt limits, the skills list and the passing standard, and it is the only source that binds.

CNA practice test questions people ask

How many questions are on the CNA exam?: The NNAAP nurse aide written examination has 70 multiple choice questions, and 10 of those are unscored pretest items, so your result comes from 60 scored questions. The oral version swaps the format: 60 multiple choice items plus 10 reading comprehension word recognition items. Both versions allow 2 hours. States that test through Prometric or another vendor use a different count, so check your state candidate handbook.
How many questions can you miss on the CNA written exam?: There is no single national answer, and any site that gives you one number is guessing. The NNAAP exam is scored against a cut score that each state board sets, and only the 60 scored items count toward it. Your state candidate handbook is the only authoritative source for the passing standard. Aim to answer every scored item confidently rather than budgeting for a specific number of misses.
What is a passing score for the CNA exam?: The passing standard for the nurse aide written examination is set by each state board rather than nationally, so it varies by jurisdiction and is published in your state candidate handbook. On the skills evaluation the rule is stricter and clearer: you must perform every Critical Element Step correctly on each assigned skill, and you must also meet the passing standard for that skill overall.
How long is the CNA exam?: You get 2 hours for the NNAAP written or oral examination, and you are told when 15 minutes remain. The skills evaluation is separate and much shorter: 30 minutes to perform five assigned skills in front of a Nurse Aide Evaluator. Many candidates sit both parts on the same day, which makes the day long even though neither component is individually long.
What skills are on the CNA skills test?: You perform five skills in 30 minutes. Two of the five are predictable: hand hygiene is always assigned, and you always get exactly one measurement skill such as blood pressure, radial pulse, respirations, urine output or weight. The other three are drawn from your state skills list. Each skill contains Critical Element Steps, and missing even one of those fails that skill outright.
Is the CNA exam hard?: The written portion is not conceptually hard, but it is broad: 60 scored questions spread across ten content areas, so thin coverage anywhere costs you. Most candidates find the skills evaluation harder, because it is performance under observation and a single missed Critical Element Step fails the whole skill. Written questions reward repetition; skills reward rehearsal out loud with a partner.
How much does it cost to take the CNA exam?: Fees are set per state, not nationally. As one published example, Washington charges 100 dollars for the skills evaluation, with the written examination billed separately. Your state candidate handbook lists the current written, skills and retest fees for your jurisdiction. Because retests usually cost the full fee again, the money argument for drilling before you sit is straightforward.
How long should you study for the CNA exam?: Most candidates test within a few weeks of finishing their state-approved training program, while the material is still fresh, and that timing matters more than total hours. What moves scores is the share of study time spent answering questions rather than rereading handouts, because the exam tests retrieval under a clock. Two focused weeks of daily question drills beats a month of highlighting.
How many times can you retake the CNA exam?: Attempt limits and time windows are set by your state, and both parts are tracked separately, so you can retake just the component you failed. Washington, as one published example, requires candidates who do not complete testing within three years to retrain and retest. Check your state candidate handbook for the exact number of attempts and the deadline that applies to you.
What topics are on the CNA written exam?: The 2024 NNAAP content outline splits the 60 scored questions into three domains: Physical Care Skills at 64 percent, Role of the Nurse Aide at 26 percent, and Psychosocial Care Skills at 10 percent. The single largest subcategory is Basic Nursing Skills at 35 percent, or 21 questions, covering infection control, safety and emergency, technical procedures, and data collection and reporting.
Is this an official CNA practice test?: No. PDFQuiz is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Credentia, Prometric, NCSBN or any state nurse aide registry. It writes practice questions from the training material you upload so you can drill recall between full mock exams. Credentia publishes a free official NNAAP practice written exam packet, and you should work through that as well.

Related study tools

If you are moving up the nursing ladder, the same routine works on the exams that come next: NCLEX practice questions for the RN licensure exam, NCLEX-PN practice questions for practical nursing, and the TEAS practice test or HESI A2 practice test for nursing school admission. For general study work there is the nursing quiz maker, a study guide maker, a flashcard generator for drilling abbreviations, and a general PDF to practice test converter. To build question sets from any document, use the question generator or the practice test maker.

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