The short version: the last seven exams passed 34, 13, 24, 30, 12, 22 and 13 percent of candidates. CBP publishes these rates before appeal decisions and has never published a rate after appeals.
| Sitting | Pass rate before appeals | Candidates | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 28, 2026 | 13% | not published | CBP exam page |
| April 22, 2026 | 22% | not published | CBP exam page |
| October 22, 2025 | 12% | not published | CBP exam page |
| April 23, 2025 | 30% | 956 completed | CBP advisory committee paper, Sept 2025 |
| October 23, 2024 | 24% | 1,045 offered seats | CBP advisory committee paper, Dec 2024 |
| May 1, 2024 | 13% | 1,132 registered | CBP advisory committee paper, June 2024 |
| October 25, 2023 (first four-choice exam) | 34% | 1,141 | CBP advisory committee paper, March 2024 |
| April 26, 2023 | not published by CBP | 1,189 sat | CBP advisory committee paper, June 2023 |
| October 26, 2022 | 11.1% | not published | CBP exam page, archived December 2022 |
| April 27, 2022 | 39.6% | about 800 | CBP advisory committee paper, June 2022 |
| October 8, 2020 | 37% | not published | CBP advisory committee presentation, March 2021 |
Reading the numbers
- Before appeals. Every rate CBP publishes is “prior to appeal decisions”. Some candidates pass on appeal, so the final rate is a little higher, but CBP does not say by how much.
- The candidate counts differ in kind. CBP’s papers count “registered”, “offered seats”, “completed” or “sat”. They are not comparable with each other.
- The swings are large. Rates moved between 12% and 34% over seven sittings. CBP has not explained the swings; its stated aim is consistent difficulty across sittings.
- Older figures are thinner. We found no CBP figure for April 2018, October 2018, April 2019, April 2021 or October 2021. A secondary source gives about 5.5% for April 2023; we could not confirm it with CBP, so it is not in the table.
Why this site drills lookups
At these rates, most candidates who know the material still fail, and the most common reason trade press gives is time. You have about 3 minutes 22 seconds a question. The drills train the part that is fastest to improve: knowing where to look.
Sources checked November 14, 2026. Full notes, including the archive links, are in our research files.