What is on the AIGP exam: the 2026 blueprint, domain by domain

The AIGP exam tests 4 domains and 13 competencies, with a published item range for each. The heaviest single competency is IV.C, governing the deployment and use of an AI system, at 9 to 11 items. The lightest sit at the foundations end, including I.A, understanding what AI is and why it needs governance, at 4 to 6 items.

Which AIGP blueprint version should you study from?

The current document is the IAPP AIGP Body of Knowledge and Exam Blueprint, version 2.1. The IAPP approved it on 9 September 2025 and it takes effect on 2 February 2026, superseding version 2.0.1. If you sit the exam on or after that date, version 2.1 is the map. Check the version number on anything you study from, because an outdated blueprint will have you weighting the wrong material.

What format does the AIGP exam use?

The IAPP publishes the format in its AIGP Study Guide:

"The AIGP is a three-hour exam composed of 100 items. All questions are multiple choice [...] There are no essay questions. Each correct answer is worth one point."

That is the complete published picture. Three hours, 100 items, multiple choice, one point per correct answer. The IAPP does not publish anything about how the questions are written or structured, so any guide that tells you what the questions look like is guessing.

What are the four AIGP exam domains?

Want it on one page? Our free AIGP mind map gives the four domains with a mnemonic, and the 10-question AIGP quiz checks your recall in five minutes.

Two things stand out. First, the exam is weighted toward doing governance, not defining it. Domains III and IV together account for 42 to 50 of the 100 items. Second, no domain is safe to skip. Even the lightest, Domain I, carries 16 to 20 items.

What is in AIGP Domain I on foundations?

Domain I asks whether you can set up a governance function, not just describe one. Only I.A is definitional, and it is one of the two smallest competencies on the exam. The other two competencies are about action. I.B asks you to establish and communicate what your organization expects of AI governance. I.C asks you to build the policies and procedures that apply across the AI life cycle. Notice the pattern in the verbs: establish, communicate, establish again. If your preparation for Domain I stops at knowing what AI is, you have covered 4 to 6 items and left 11 to 15 on the table.

How is AIGP Domain II on laws and standards structured?

This is the legal domain, and its structure tells you how to divide your reading. It splits into three layers. Laws that existed before AI and now apply to it, covered in two competencies: data privacy law in II.A, and every other kind of existing law in II.B. Laws written specifically for AI, in II.C, which is the largest competency in the domain at 6 to 8 items. And the non-statutory layer of industry standards and tools in II.D, which is the smallest competency on the entire exam at 3 to 5 items.

The word to hold onto here is "apply." The competencies do not ask you to recite legal texts. They ask you to understand how those texts reach an AI system. A candidate who can name a law but cannot say what it demands of an AI use case is studying the wrong skill for this domain.

II.D deserves a note despite its size. Standards and tools are a distinct competency, separate from law. Do not fold them into your legal reading and assume you have them covered.

How does AIGP Domain III test governing AI development?

Domain III follows the build life cycle in order. Design and build in III.A. Data for training and testing in III.B. Release, monitoring and maintenance in III.C. Every competency starts with the same verb: govern. You are not being examined as an engineer. You are being examined as the person who must put controls around what engineers do at each stage.

Note where the weight falls. III.C, at 8 to 10 items, is the second-heaviest competency on the exam and it covers what happens after the build: release, monitoring and maintenance. Candidates tend to spend their Domain III study time on training data because it feels like the hard part. The blueprint says the post-release phase carries more items. Governance does not end when the model ships, and neither does this domain.

III.B is also worth reading precisely. It covers data in both training and testing, and it names both the model and the system. Those distinctions are in the competency title for a reason.

What does AIGP Domain IV expect on deployment and use?

Domain IV is structured as a sequence of decisions. First, IV.A: evaluate whether to deploy at all, weighing the factors and risks relevant to that decision. Second, IV.B: perform the assessment activities on the system itself. Third, IV.C: govern the system once it is deployed and in use.

IV.C is the single heaviest competency anywhere on the blueprint, at 9 to 11 items. On a 100-item exam, one competency out of 13 can account for roughly a tenth of your score. Put that next to III.C at 8 to 10 items and a clear message emerges: the exam cares most about live systems. What you must be able to do, according to the performance the blueprint describes, is govern AI that is already deployed and in use, not only AI that is being planned or built.

Which AIGP competencies carry the most and fewest items?

Ranked by maximum item count, the top of the blueprint is IV.C at 9 to 11 and III.C at 8 to 10. The bottom is II.D at 3 to 5, with I.A, II.A and II.B all at 4 to 6. The definitional material in I.A, understanding what AI is and why it needs governance, is among the lightest content on the exam. Most self-study begins there and stays there too long. The blueprint rewards the opposite allocation.

What does the IAPP not publish about the AIGP exam?

Be clear-eyed about the limits of the public record. The blueprint and study guide do not give the registration fee, the passing score, the retake policy or the recertification requirements; those are in the IAPP's Candidate Handbook, which our AIGP certification guide covers, including the 300 on a 100 to 500 scale needed to pass. Neither document describes question style, so treat any resource that claims to know the typical question structure with care. Credential Press is independent of the IAPP, and everything above comes from the IAPP's published blueprint and study guide, nothing more.

How should the blueprint shape your AIGP study plan?

The blueprint is a budget, and the exam will spend it as written. Between 42 and 50 of your 100 items will come from Domains III and IV, and the two competencies covering live, released, in-use systems carry up to 21 items between them. Plan your study hours against the item ranges above rather than against what feels foundational, and check every fact you memorize against the version 2.1 document itself before exam day.

Want it in one place? The AIGP exam guide paperback is mapped to all four domains and 13 competencies of Body of Knowledge 2.1, weighted to the published item counts, and the AIGP question bank has 198 questions with full rationales, weighted to the IAPP's published blueprint.

Frequently asked questions

How many questions are on the AIGP exam?

100 items in three hours, all multiple choice, one point each, no essay questions. 85 of them are scored and 15 are unscored trial items that do not count, and you cannot tell which is which. That is the IAPP's own published description.

What is the AIGP passing score?

300 on a scale of 100 to 500, according to the IAPP's Candidate Handbook. The Body of Knowledge and the study guide do not state it, so check the current handbook on the IAPP's site before you book.

Which AIGP domain is worth the most?

Domains III and IV each supply 21 to 25 items, so together they are more than half the exam. The single heaviest competency is IV.C, Govern the deployment and use of the AI system, at 9 to 11 items.

Which books prepare you for the AIGP?

AIGP Exam Guide

Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional. 21 chapters, 397 pages.

What is insideBuy on Amazon

AIGP Practice Questions

198 questions with full rationales. 214 pages.

What is insideBuy on Amazon