The ISTQB® CT-GenAI exam: a practical guide

The exam format

The CT-GenAI exam is a multiple-choice exam with 40 questions to complete in 60 minutes. It is scored out of 46 points and you need at least 30, i.e. 65% of the total, to pass.

It is open to holders of the ISTQB® Foundation Level (CTFL) certification. Questions cover the whole of syllabus v1.1, except the introduction, hands-on objectives and appendices; a single question may draw on several sections.

Scoring: understanding K-levels

Every learning objective in the syllabus has a knowledge level: K1 (remember), K2 (understand) or K3 (apply). Questions inherit that level, and their value depends on it: 1 point for a K1 or K2 question, 2 points for a K3 question. That is why the exam totals 46 points for 40 questions.

In practice, K3 questions, often built around a scenario, are worth double. They need the most practice — and they are the ones you can least afford to rush.

The weight of each chapter

ISTQB® sets how many questions come from each chapter. Chapter 2, on prompt engineering, is by far the most important: it carries more than a third of the points.

Question types

• Single correct answer: the most common case. You are asked for the best answer according to the syllabus, not just a plausible one.
• “Select TWO options”: the sample exam published by ISTQB® includes some. Read the instruction: it tells you how many options to choose.
• Keyword questions: the terms listed at the start of each chapter are examinable, even outside learning objectives.
• Scenario questions (often K3): a testing context, a prompt or an LLM output to analyze, and a decision to make.

Managing your time

The ISTQB® exam rules give time guidelines per question: about 1 minute for a K1 question, 1 to 2 minutes for a K2 and 3 minutes for a K3. For CT-GenAI that adds up to about fifty minutes: you have some margin to review, but not to get stuck.

1. Do a first pass answering everything that is obvious.
2. Do not get stuck on a question: move on and come back to it if time allows.
3. Keep time for K3 questions, which are worth 2 points.

The extra-time rule

If the exam is not in your native language, the ISTQB® rules grant 25% extra time: 75 minutes instead of 60. Practical arrangements (request at registration, possible proof) depend on your exam provider: check them before booking your session.

Common traps

• Answering from experience rather than from the syllabus. Your practice is valuable, but the exam expects the syllabus answer.
• Mixing up related concepts: hallucination and reasoning error, prompt chaining and meta prompting, AI chatbot and LLM-powered testing application, RAG and fine-tuning.
• Misreading the instruction of a two-answer question, or missing a negation (“which is NOT…”).
• Neglecting the short chapters: chapters 4 and 5 together carry 12 points, more than a quarter of the total.
• Using outdated terminology: in v1.1, the attack vector is “Context Manipulation”.

Preparation checklist

• CTFL certification obtained.
• Syllabus v1.1 read in your exam language, keywords understood.
• The six components of a structured prompt mastered: role, context, instruction, input data, constraints, output format.
• The three key prompting techniques practiced: prompt chaining, few-shot prompting, meta prompting.
• Risks and their mitigations known: hallucinations, biases, non-determinism, privacy, security.
• ISTQB® sample exam taken under time pressure, mistakes analyzed.
• Weak chapters identified and reworked, starting with those worth the most points.
• Exam provider arrangements checked (language, extra time, exam conditions).

For the big picture, see our complete guide to the CT-GenAI certification; to practice in a structured way, discover the QAcademy CT-GenAI course.