Free CPA Test Sample Questions That Still Match the Exam Blueprint
By ExamDumpster Editorial Team· (updated Oct 2, 2026)
Type "cpa test sample questions" into a search bar and you get a wall of lookalike pages, each promising free practice and most quietly recycling items written for an exam version that no longer exists. The CPA Exam changed shape in 2024 with the core-plus-discipline model, and the AICPA updated the blueprints again effective January 1, 2026. A question bank built for the old BEC section is worse than useless when you are studying after work on a tight budget, because every hour spent on stale material is an hour you did not spend on FAR, AUD, REG, or your chosen discipline. This article ranks ten free sources of CPA sample questions against one published rule, states what each set is actually good for, and flags where the free portion ends.
The scoring rule behind this ranking
Every source below is judged on two questions, and the order of the list follows from the answers.
First, blueprint alignment: do the items map to the current exam structure, meaning the three core sections (FAR, AUD, REG) plus the three disciplines (BAR, ISC, TCP), and do they reflect the blueprint updates that took effect January 1, 2026? Those updates were refinements rather than an overhaul — updated references, clarified representative tasks, alignment with current professional standards — but a set still referencing pre-2024 sections fails outright. Second, explanation quality: does every answer tell you why the right choice is right and the wrong ones are wrong, or do you just get a letter and a shrug?
Two more factors break ties. Access honesty matters: how much of the bank stays open without payment, and is "free" a genuine sample or a three-question teaser behind a paywall. And format realism counts, because the real exam splits your score evenly between multiple-choice questions and task-based simulations, so a set with no simulations only trains half the test.
Ten free sources, ranked by that rule
1. AICPA & CIMA official sample test
The exam author's own AICPA & CIMA sits at the top for an obvious reason: nobody else writes the exam. The sample test includes questions from all six sections — AUD, FAR, REG, ISC, BAR, and TCP — and you have up to two hours to complete it, using software that replicates what you will see in the test center. Blueprint alignment is perfect by definition.
Who it fits: every candidate, ideally twice — once at the start of prep to calibrate, once in the final two weeks. Limitation: the bank is small and static, so it measures readiness but cannot carry a study plan on its own. Explanations are thinner than commercial providers. Verdict: start here, but treat it as a yardstick rather than a workbook.
2. New Jersey Society of CPAs sample quizzes
The New Jersey Society of CPAs (NJCPA) page offers quick quizzes organized by section — Auditing and Attestation, Financial Accounting and Reporting, Regulation, and Business — with immediate results. State society pages like this one punch above their weight because they curate rather than mass-produce.
Who it fits: candidates who want a fast diagnostic before committing to a full question bank. Limitation: the section groupings lean on the older four-part framing, so check that discipline content (BAR, ISC, TCP) is covered elsewhere in your plan. Verdict: a credible five-minute gut check, free with no account wall.
3. Becker CPA Exam sample questions
Becker CPA Review come from a provider whose full review course includes thousands of multiple-choice questions mapped to exam material, and the free document gives you a taste of that item-writing style. Becker also tracks blueprint changes closely — its coverage of the 2026 blueprint exposure draft noted that the updates are mostly clarifications, with AUD revising references to updated quality management standards and FAR removing an outdated practice aid.
Who it fits: candidates weighing a paid course who want to judge item quality before spending. Limitation: the free set is a marketing sample, so volume is limited and explanations are shorter than in the paid product. Verdict: high-quality items, small portion.
4. AICPA released questions PDFs (FAR and REG)
Released-item PDFs circulate widely, hosted by third parties but authored by the AICPA. The released FAR questions and the released REG questions from the April 2023 release are genuine retired exam items, which makes them the hardest free practice available.
Who it fits: candidates in mid-prep who want to test themselves against items that actually appeared on the exam. Limitation: the 2023 release predates the 2026 blueprint refinements, and discipline-section coverage is spotty. Verdict: excellent calibration material, but pair it with something written after the 2026 blueprint took effect.
5. Gleim free CPA questions
Gleim's free set mixes multiple-choice questions and task-based simulations, returns a score report broken down by topic, and includes detailed explanations for each answer choice. It suggests about 30 minutes for an MCQ section and 45 for a TBS section, and you can save progress and return later.
Who it fits: candidates who want their first structured simulation experience without paying. Limitation: the free bank is a front door to the paid course, so depth per topic is limited. Verdict: the best free TBS practice outside the AICPA's own test.
6. UWorld pop quiz and trial questions
UWorld's free offering combines actual AICPA-released questions with sample items written by its own team across the exam sections. Its full QBank advertises 9,000+ exam-matched questions, which gives a sense of the item-writing operation behind the free slice.
Who it fits: candidates who want released items plus provider-written items in one sitting. Limitation: the free portion is explicitly a trial preview. Verdict: strong item quality, modest free volume.
7. Mastery Exam Prep free FAR practice exam
The free FAR practice exam from Mastery Exam Prep focuses on a single core section rather than spreading thin across all six. FAR is the section most candidates schedule first, so a dedicated free bank here is practical.
Who it fits: anyone in the FAR study block who has exhausted the released items. Limitation: single-section coverage means you need other sources for AUD, REG, and your discipline. Verdict: a useful specialist, not a generalist.
8. ChatCPA sample questions
ChatCPA publishes sixty complete CPA exam questions free to read, no account required. Sixty is a small number, but "complete and readable without a login" is rarer than it should be in this market.
Who it fits: candidates who want to skim question style before choosing any study tool. Limitation: with a bank this size, coverage of blueprint areas is necessarily shallow, and you should verify each item against the current blueprint before trusting it. Verdict: a low-friction first look.
9. Community-compiled sets (Reddit and forums)
The r/Accounting community periodically surfaces large free compilations — one widely shared thread bundled 400+ practice questions with explanations, flashcards, and notes. Quality varies item by item because authorship is distributed.
Who it fits: budget-zero candidates willing to vet items themselves. Limitation: no blueprint versioning, no guaranteed maintenance, and some "free question" threads drift toward recalled exam content, which raises real ethical and legal problems under the exam's non-disclosure rules. Verdict: usable with skepticism; skip anything that claims to reproduce live exam items.
10. Exam Dumpster's CPA sample set
Full disclosure: this one is ours, and it is ranked last here not because it is weakest but because the honest position for a site-authored entry is at the bottom of its own list. The CPA-TEST sample bank follows the platform's standard format: half the sample questions open to anyone without an account, the second half unlocked by a free account, and an explanation attached to every answer. Items are written against published exam objectives rather than scraped from memory.
Who it fits: candidates who want a drill bank they can also run as a shuffled timed simulation with saved scores, using the exam simulator practice mode to gauge pacing. Limitation: as a newer academic-testing line, the bank is smaller than the big CPA-specific providers. Verdict: a practical supplement to the AICPA materials, not a replacement for them.
Matching your question mix to the 2026 blueprint
The ranking above answers "which sets," but the follow-up question is "which sections." The exam structure as of 2026: three core sections everyone takes (FAR, AUD, REG) and one discipline you choose from BAR, ISC, or TCP. MCQs and task-based simulations each count for 50% of your score, and each section runs up to four hours.
That structure should drive how you spend free resources:
- Before week one: take the AICPA sample test cold. Two hours tells you which core section needs the most work.
- During each study block: drill section-specific sets — released-item PDFs for FAR and REG, provider free sets for AUD and your discipline.
- Final two weeks: retake the AICPA sample test and add at least one full timed simulation with TBS items, since half your score comes from a format that pure-MCQ banks ignore.
One caveat worth repeating: the 2026 blueprint changes were refinements, so a well-maintained 2025 bank is not automatically stale. What disqualifies a set is pre-2024 structure — anything still organized around BEC — or tax items that ignore the July 1, 2026 testability date the AICPA set for certain federal tax provisions. Another71, a long-running CPA community site, has tracked AICPA sample test updates since its July 2021 coverage, which is a useful reminder that the official test itself gets revised and old versions linger online.
A simple tool that would help here: a blueprint-gap checklist where you tick off the areas each free set covers (section, question type, explanation depth) and see at a glance which blueprint areas your current stack misses.
Straight answers on free CPA practice
Are free CPA sample questions enough to pass? For most candidates, no. Free sets work for diagnosis and calibration, but the volume of a full paid bank is hard to replicate from free sources alone. Many candidates do combine the AICPA materials with one paid section bank for their weakest area.
How current do practice questions need to be? They need to reflect the blueprint in force on your exam date. The 2026 blueprints took effect January 1, 2026, and the AICPA typically publishes blueprints one to two times per year, so check the version date on any bank before investing study time.
Should I use questions from people who remember the real exam? No. Candidates sign a non-disclosure agreement, and recalled-content sites sit on the wrong side of it. Written-to-objective practice builds the reasoning the exam actually tests.
How many practice questions should I complete before test day? Volume matters less than review. A candidate who works 1,500 questions and reads every explanation is in better shape than one who clicks through 4,000. Score reports by topic, like the ones Gleim's free set produces, show where repetition will pay off.
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