This is the one-page version of everything you need to keep straight before sitting for the Certified Compliance & Ethics Professional - International exam. No filler, no generic test-taking platitudes - just the numbers, domain names, and mechanics from the Compliance Certification Board's (CCB) own 2025 candidate handbook, organized so you can scan it the night before your exam. For deeper dives on any single topic, we link out to the full breakdowns throughout.
- The exam has 115 multiple-choice questions (100 scored, 15 unscored) in 2 hours 30 minutes.
- Fees are $350 for SCCE/HCCA members and $450 for non-members; membership isn't required.
- Eligibility needs 1 year full-time or 1,500 hours of compliance work plus 20 CCB-approved CEUs (10 live) within 12 months pre-exam.
- Investigation and Responses, Discipline and Incentives is the largest of the six domains.
Exam Snapshot: Format, Fees, and Delivery
CCEP-I is administered by the Compliance Certification Board (CCB), the credentialing arm affiliated with SCCE and HCCA, with PSI Services handling delivery logistics. Before you memorize a single domain, lock in these mechanics:
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Total questions | 115 multiple-choice (100 scored, 15 unscored pretest items) |
| Exam-day time allotted | 2 hours 30 minutes (credential-specific section of the handbook) |
| Fee - SCCE/HCCA member | $350 |
| Fee - non-member | $450 |
| Delivery format | PSI test centers, remote proctoring, or approved paper-and-pencil conference exams |
| Book policy | Closed book |
| Standard-setting method | Expert Angoff |
| Certification validity | 2 years |
Membership in SCCE or HCCA is not a prerequisite to sit for the exam - it only affects which fee tier you pay. If you want the full math on total spend including CEUs, prep materials, and renewal, see the CCEP-I Certification Cost breakdown.
Eligibility Quick Reference
Before you can even schedule the exam, the CCB requires you to document professional experience and pre-approved continuing education. Here's the compressed version:
Experience Requirement
One of the following, satisfied before application:
- One year of full-time compliance-related work, OR
- 1,500 hours of direct compliance duties completed within the preceding two years
CEU Requirement
20 CCB-approved continuing education units earned within the 12 months before your scheduled exam date, with a minimum of 10 of those CEUs completed live (not self-study), and approval secured before you apply.
Graduates of accredited university compliance programs may qualify for handbook-defined waiver routes on both the experience and CEU requirements - worth checking if you're coming out of a formal compliance or risk-management degree track. For the complete eligibility walkthrough, including how the waivers work, read the full CCEP-I Requirements guide.
Key Takeaway
Start your CEU approval process months ahead - the 10-live-CEU minimum and pre-approval rule mean last-minute applications often stall on paperwork, not knowledge gaps.
The Six Domains at a Glance
The CCB's content outline organizes the exam into six domains. Knowing their names and rough scope helps you triage study time - full explanations of each live in the CCEP-I Exam Domains Guide.
Domain 1: Standards, Policies, and Procedures
Building, documenting, and maintaining the code of conduct and organizational policies that anchor a compliance program.
- Code of conduct drafting and dissemination
- Policy lifecycle management
Domain 2: Compliance and Ethics Program Oversight and Governance
Board and executive accountability, reporting lines, and the structural design that gives a program authority.
- Governance reporting structures
- Program independence and resourcing
Domain 3: Communication, Education, and Training
How organizations roll out awareness campaigns and training to employees, contractors, and third parties.
- Training design and delivery methods
- Communication of policy changes
Domain 4: Monitoring, Auditing, and Internal Reporting Systems
Ongoing surveillance mechanisms, audit cycles, and hotline or reporting-channel management.
- Monitoring vs. auditing distinctions
- Hotline and case-intake handling
Domain 5: Investigation and Responses, Discipline and Incentives
The largest domain on the exam - investigative process, corrective action, and how discipline and incentive structures reinforce compliance culture.
- Investigation protocol and documentation
- Consistent discipline application
- Incentive design to reward ethical behavior
Domain 6: Risk Assessment
Identifying, prioritizing, and responding to compliance risk across business units and geographies.
- Risk assessment methodology
- Prioritization frameworks
Why Investigation and Responses Carries the Most Weight
Domain 5 - Investigation and Responses, Discipline and Incentives - is the single largest content area on the CCEP-I exam. That has direct implications for how you allocate review time: if you're rationing hours in the final stretch, this is not the domain to shortchange.
Questions here tend to probe process integrity: how an investigation should be opened, documented, escalated, and closed; how discipline is applied consistently regardless of an employee's seniority; and how incentive programs can be structured without creating perverse pressure to hide misconduct. If you're still unsure how difficult this domain feels in practice compared to the others, the How Hard Is the CCEP-I Exam guide breaks down where candidates commonly report friction.
Scoring, Passing, and What Angoff Means for You
The CCB sets its passing standard using the expert Angoff method - a panel of subject-matter experts rates each exam item on how a "minimally qualified" candidate would perform on it, and those ratings aggregate into the cut score. This matters practically for two reasons:
- The passing threshold is tied to item difficulty, not a flat percentage you can casually assume (like "70% correct").
- Of the 115 questions you'll see, only 100 are scored - the remaining 15 are unscored pretest items mixed in indistinguishably, so treat every question as if it counts.
For the full explanation of how the Angoff-derived cut score is calculated and what that means for your target accuracy, see CCEP-I Passing Score: Exactly What You Need to Pass. And if you're still weighing how challenging the exam is overall relative to your background, the CCEP-I Pass Rate guide discusses what the available data shows.
Renewal and Recertification Numbers
Certification is valid for two years from the date you pass. Keeping it active means one of two paths:
| Renewal Path | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Continuing Education | 40 CCB-approved CEUs total, including at least 20 live CEUs |
| Reexamination | Retake and pass the current CCEP-I exam instead of submitting CEUs |
| Renewal fee - member | $145 |
| Renewal fee - non-member | $265 |
Note that the live-CEU requirement doubles from the initial 10 (for eligibility) to 20 (for renewal) - plan your ongoing conference and webinar attendance accordingly rather than trying to cram it all in the final months of your two-year cycle.
One-Week Cram Schedule by Domain
If you're in the final stretch before exam day, here's a compact review sequence that weights time toward the domains with the most content and the ones candidates most often underestimate. Pair this with the fuller multi-week plan in the CCEP-I Study Guide if you have more runway.
Domain 5 - Investigation and Responses, Discipline and Incentives
- Review investigation workflow end to end
- Drill scenario questions on proportional discipline
Domain 6 - Risk Assessment
- Practice ranking and prioritizing sample risk scenarios
Domain 4 - Monitoring, Auditing, and Internal Reporting Systems
- Clarify monitoring vs. auditing distinctions
- Review hotline case-handling flow
Domains 1-3 - Standards, Governance, Training
- Skim policy lifecycle and governance reporting lines
- Review training delivery methods
Full mixed review
- Timed practice set covering all six domains under 2h30m conditions
- Confirm PSI booking logistics and ID requirements
Run your mixed review under real time pressure - closed-book, single sitting, 150-minute cap - so exam-day pacing across 115 questions isn't a surprise. Practicing with realistic questions on our CCEP-I practice test platform is one of the most direct ways to simulate that pressure before it counts.
Key Takeaway
Weight your final review toward Domain 5 first, then risk assessment and monitoring - these are content-dense areas where scenario-based questions punish shallow review.
If you're still deciding whether to pursue this credential at all, the Is CCEP-I Worth It ROI analysis and CCEP-I Salary Guide cover the career-side questions, while CCEP-I Jobs outlines the types of roles - corporate compliance officers, healthcare compliance managers, multinational risk and ethics staff - that typically look for this credential on a resume. For a plain-language primer on the credential itself, start with What Is CCEP-I? or CCEP-I Certification.
Frequently Asked Questions
115 multiple-choice questions total - 100 scored and 15 unscored - with 2 hours 30 minutes allotted for the credential-specific exam session. Always confirm your exact booking duration when scheduling through PSI.
Per the CCB's 2025 handbook, the fee is $350 for SCCE/HCCA members and $450 for non-members. Membership is optional and only affects which fee tier applies.
Domain 5, Investigation and Responses, Discipline and Incentives, is the largest domain on the exam outline, making it the highest-yield area for focused review.
One year of full-time compliance work or 1,500 hours of direct compliance duties in the prior two years, plus 20 CCB-approved CEUs earned within 12 months before your exam (at least 10 live), approved before you apply.
Certification lasts two years. Renewal requires 40 CCB CEUs (including 20 live) plus a $145 member / $265 non-member fee, or alternatively passing a reexamination.