1.1 Current Exam Facts

Current Exam Facts

Quick Answer: The California Department of Insurance (CDI) Bail Agent examination is a 75-question, 120-minute computer-based test administered by PSI Services LLC. You need a 70 percent score to pass. One to ten experimental items may appear; they are not scored, but they eat the clock. A passing result is good for one year under Insurance Code section 1676(a).

This study guide is written for the CDI Bail Agent exam (ca-bail-bond). It is not a generic multi-state bondsman course. California's classroom-only prelicensing rule, filed surety rates, Penal Code recovery statutes, and CDI identification card do not match what you would study for a Florida, Texas, or private bounty-hunter certificate. If an outline you downloaded talks about a "statutory 10 percent premium" as California law, put it aside.

Who owns the exam and who delivers it

CDI owns the license, the educational objectives, and the pass/fail decision. PSI delivers the sitting. You create an account and schedule at the PSI California insurance portal, https://test-takers.psiexams.com/cadi. You may sit at a PSI center anywhere in the PSI network, at CDI's Los Angeles test center in the Ronald Reagan Building (300 South Spring Street, First Floor, North Tower, Suite 1000 — no PSI convenience fee at that site), or through a live remote proctor. The Bail Agent exam is on PSI's remote list. The format is English-language multiple choice. No code books, phones, smart watches, notes, or calculators are allowed.

CDI's official time-and-question table lists Bail Agent at 2 hours and 75 questions. The same page states that all producer license examinations require a 60 percent score to pass, and that the adjuster and bail examinations require a score of 70 percent. PSI's Candidate Information Bulletin (CIB), revised March 2026, repeats that Life and Disability Analyst, Adjuster, and Bail sittings are the 70 percent exams. The examination fee on CDI's fee table for the bail row is $62, paid to PSI when you schedule — not mailed with the Sircon license application.

Exam trap: A roommate who just passed Life-Only will tell you "everything at CDI is 60 percent." That is true for most producer exams and false for bail. On 75 scored items, 70 percent is 53 correct answers. Sixty percent would be 45. Those eight extra items are the difference between a license and a retake fee.

Time, experimental items, and the free tutorial

You have 120 minutes of examination time. That is 96 seconds per scored item if the form is exactly 75 questions. In practice, PSI may administer one to ten experimental items, generally about 10 percent of the number of questions. Those items will not be scored. They will count against examination time. If you receive eight extra items, you are looking at 83 screens in the same two hours — closer to 87 seconds each. Experimental items are not marked on the screen. Treat every question as if it counts.

Before the clock starts, the computer offers an introductory tutorial of up to 15 minutes. Tutorial time is not charged against the 120 minutes. Use all of it. Click through every control on the function bar, including the flag/mark feature and the comments link. Sample questions follow the tutorial so you can practice selecting an answer and changing it. Scratch paper or an LCD writing tablet is available at test-center terminals and must be returned. Remote sittings generally do not allow scratch paper unless the proctor expressly permits it.

California scenario: Diego books a 9:00 a.m. remote sitting from his apartment near MacArthur Park. He skips the tutorial to "save time," then spends the first ten scored minutes hunting for the flag button. Those ten minutes are gone forever. The tutorial would have been free.

Scheduling, cancellation, and exam-day logistics

Create a PSI account whose legal first and last name match your current government-issued photo ID exactly. Select test center or remote proctor, pick a slot, and pay. You may cancel and reschedule without forfeiting the fee if PSI receives notice at least two business days before the sitting. Call PSI at (833) 518-7456 or use the website. A voicemail or email message is not an acceptable cancellation. A late cancellation or a no-show burns the $62 fee. Remote candidates who do not launch within 15 minutes after the booked time also forfeit the sitting.

On exam day, arrive at least 30 minutes early. That extra time is for sign-in and identification. If you arrive late, you will not be admitted and you forfeit the fee. Time waivers are not allowed. Bring one unexpired government photo ID with a signature (California driver license, California ID card, passport, military ID, and the other documents listed in the CIB). For remote sittings, an out-of-state ID card is not acceptable. California does allow an expired California ID plus the paper extension when the names and numbers match.

Security is strict. No phones, calculators, notes, hats (religious apparel excepted), or weapons. Remote rooms must be private; another person walking through can terminate the session. Examinees must keep hands visible and must not cover the mouth. Copying or communicating examination content violates PSI policy and Insurance Code section 1681.5. Willfully cheating or subverting a license examination is punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment of up to one year.

Score reporting and how long a pass lasts

At a test center, pass/fail appears on screen after you end both the examination portion and the survey portion; a score report is emailed. Remote results are emailed within 24 hours. A failing report includes a diagnostic of how many items you answered correctly. You may retake by re-registering and paying again, with one hard ceiling: Insurance Code section 1682 does not admit a person to more than 10 license qualification examinations of the same type in any 12-month period; after that tenth sitting, the person is barred from another examination of that type until a 12-month period has passed. The count is by examination type and counts admissions, not only failures. Bail sittings do not combine with Life sittings. CIC 1682(c) also bars a candidate who has passed an examination from a later administration of that examination unless the commissioner or applicable law requires a retake. Do not treat retakes as unlimited.

A passing score is not a license. Under Insurance Code section 1676(a), examinations are valid for one year from the date the examination was passed. If you delay the Sircon application, the $1,000 bond, the Action Notice, fingerprints, or photo past that anniversary, the pass expires and you sit again.

What the 75 items actually test

CDI's Bail Educational Objectives (March 2023) are the blueprint. Nine domains sum to 75 questions:

Bail – General is almost a third of the exam: licensing, CIC Chapter 7, Title 10 transaction rules, and Penal Code admission, surrender, and forfeiture. Financial Responsibilities is the next-largest cluster — fiduciary money, filed rates, build-up funds, and IRS Form 8300. Do not ignore the 4-item domains. Privacy and Ethics are short, but they are cheap points if you know the statutes.

Exam trap — the 10 percent premium myth: National bondsman courses teach a "statutory 10 percent premium." California does not enact a statutory 10 percent. Each surety files rates with CDI, and bail agents representing a surety must charge the same filed rates on the undertaking (10 CCR 2081; CDI consumer bail page). Rebating a lower fee is allowed under Proposition 103. CDI notes that ten percent is most commonly what consumers pay — that is a market observation, not a rule of law. If an answer choice says "California law sets premium at 10 percent of the face amount," it is wrong.

A realistic picture of the sitting

Imagine you are in the PSI center in El Monte. You confirmed your name on the identification screen, finished the tutorial, and the clock is running. Item 4 looks like a Penal Code forfeiture timing question you have not reviewed; you flag it. Item 11 is a privacy fact pattern that feels oddly worded — it may be experimental, but you cannot tell, so you treat it as scored. You keep both hands visible. At minute 110 you still have six flagged items. That is the sitting this guide is training you to finish with 53 or more correct.