Free Practice Questions for NSCA-CPSS

Candidates must hold a current CPR/AED certification with a hands-on skills assessment and qualify through one of three academic/experience routes in Sport Science or a related field (or an unrelated degree with coursework in at least 4 of 6 core sport science areas): (1) a Bachelor's degree plus 3 years of full-time professional sport science experience (at least 1,560 hours/year beyond the internship level); (2) a Master's degree plus 12 weeks (480 hours) of supervised applied experience; or (3) a Doctoral degree (no additional experience required). All transcripts and experience forms must be approved by the NSCA before registering for the exam.

The CPSS is the NSCA's most advanced certification exam. According to the NSCA annual exam report, 339 candidates sat for the CPSS exam in 2025 with a 68% pass rate, and 658 professionals held the credential as of December 31, 2025. The exam is challenging because 45-50 of the 100 scored questions are grouped into multi-item Athlete Case Studies and full-text Research Review Case Studies requiring statistical, psychometric, and workload-modeling interpretation.

The CPSS exam has 115 multiple-choice items (100 scored plus 15 unscored pretest items) and a 165-minute (2 hour, 45 minute) time limit at Pearson VUE test centers. Under the Detailed Content Outline effective July 1, 2026, the 100 scored items are distributed across four domains: Assessment and Monitoring (29 items, 25-30%), Interdisciplinary Needs Analysis (25 items, 24-30%), Sport Science Theory and Process (24 items, 23-29%), and Data Management (22 items, 19-24%), integrated with three crosscutting concepts (Scientific Disciplines, Assessment Technology, and Scientific Research Process).

The exam begins with 50-55 independent multiple-choice items and consolidates 45-50 case-study items at the end across 5-6 Athlete Case Studies and 2-3 Research Review Case Studies (5-7 questions per case). In NSCA's public example, the athlete case gives sport, athlete, and task information plus a table of eight recent workouts (body mass, training-volume change, vertical jump, lifts, 200-m repeats, and RPE) for judging maladaptation and injury risk. The research review case supplies the full-text journal article during the exam, together with the athlete's test results, and asks about explained variance, benchmarking against the paper's means, the limits of correlational findings, and the best training solution.

CPSS candidates first submit an application with a non-refundable $25 application fee. Once the application is approved, that $25 fee is applied toward the exam registration fee of $340 for NSCA members or $475 for non-members. Candidates have a 120-day authorization window to test at Pearson VUE. If a retake is needed, candidates must wait at least 30 days and pay the full registration fee; after three consecutive failed attempts, a 1-year waiting period applies.