How the AMPP CIP EPG blueprint weights the exam — and how to study to it
The AMPP CIP exams aren't a random pile of trivia. Every question is assigned to a scoring domain, and AMPP publishes the percentage of the exam each domain is worth in the Exam Preparation Guide (EPG). Most candidates never open that page. That's the single biggest study-time mistake you can fix in five minutes.
The short answer: CIP Level 1 is 120 questions over 11 domains, and Surface Preparation and Coatings & Inspection are worth 20 % each: 40 % of the paper. The July 2026 CIP Level 2 exam is 120 questions over 10 domains, and Surface Preparation (18 %), Coating Inspection (16 %) and Inspection Process (15 %) together make up 49 %. Split your study time by these weights, not evenly by topic.
The CIP Level 1 blueprint
The Level 1 (Basic Coatings Inspector) theory exam is 120 multiple-choice questions over 11 domains. Twenty of the 120 are unscored trial items you can't identify, so treat every question as live.
| Domain | Weight | ≈ questions of 120 |
|---|---|---|
| Surface Preparation | 20% | 24 |
| Coatings & Inspection | 20% | 24 |
| Inspection Process | 15% | 18 |
| Documentation | 10% | 12 |
| Standards | 10% | 12 |
| Coating Application | 7.5% | 9 |
| Corrosion | 5% | 6 |
| Environmental Controls | 5% | 6 |
| Safety | 2.5% | 3 |
| Teamwork | 2.5% | 3 |
| Ethics | 2.5% | 3 |
The CIP Level 2 blueprint (July 2026)
If your Level 2 course ends after 29 June 2026, you sit a new exam: 120 multiple-choice questions (100 scored, 20 unscored) in 3 hours of seat time, over 10 domains with their own weights. The earlier Level 2 exam used 100 items and the same 11 domains and weights as Level 1; candidates who finished the course before 30 June 2026 still sit that version.
| Domain | Weight | ≈ questions of 120 |
|---|---|---|
| Surface Preparation & Inspection | 18% | 22 |
| Coating Inspection | 16% | 19 |
| Inspection Process | 15% | 18 |
| Coatings & Coating Application | 13% | 16 |
| Documentation | 10% | 12 |
| Corrosion | 9% | 11 |
| Environmental Conditions & Inspection | 7% | 8 |
| Safety | 4% | 5 |
| Communications / Teamwork | 4% | 5 |
| Ethics | 4% | 5 |
There is no stand-alone Standards domain any more. Standards questions sit inside the domain they apply to: waterjetting and abrasive standards under Surface Preparation, galvanizing standards under Documentation, interpreting standards under Inspection Process. The full list of changes is in what changed in the 2026 CIP Level 2 exam.
The numbers that should change how you study
At Level 1, Surface Preparation and Coatings & Inspection together are 40% of the exam. That's roughly 2 out of every 5 questions from just two domains — more than Documentation, Standards, Corrosion, Environmental Controls, Safety, Teamwork and Ethics combined (37.5%).
At Level 2, Surface Preparation, Coating Inspection and Inspection Process together are 49%. Half the paper comes from three domains, and Coating Inspection alone — surveys, failure modes, adhesion and specialised thickness tests — is worth more than Corrosion and Environmental Conditions put together.
At the other end, the smallest domains are 2.5% each at Level 1 (about 3 questions) and 4% each at Level 2 (about 5). Worth knowing cold, since they're quick points, but not worth the study budget of the big three.
Turning the blueprint into an actual study plan
- Allocate study time by weight, not by how many chapters a topic has. A domain worth 18–20% of the exam deserves roughly that share of your prep — probably more for Surface Preparation, which carries the most standards to memorise (SSPC, NACE, ASTM, ISO).
- Practice with blueprint-weighted mocks, not a random question dump. A mock that draws questions in the real proportions gives you an exam-shaped score. A mock that's evenly split across topics tells you something else entirely.
- Review every miss by domain, not by overall percentage. "I scored 74%" tells you nothing actionable. "I'm losing marks in Coating Inspection and Corrosion" is a study plan for tomorrow morning. Level 2 candidates get their own results broken down by domain too.
- Don't ignore the low-weight domains. Ethics and Teamwork content is short enough to lock down in under an hour each.
The blueprint isn't incidental to the exam — it is the exam's structure. Studying against a different structure than the one you'll be tested on is the most common way capable inspectors fail an exam they actually knew the material for. For Level 2, that now includes studying to the old 11-domain split when you will sit the new one.
CoatMentor's mocks draw questions in these blueprint proportions: CIP Level 1 on its 11-domain blueprint, CIP Level 2 on the July 2026 10-domain blueprint at the full 120 questions and 170 minutes. After every mock you get a per-domain "where you lost marks" breakdown, so you know which domain to hit next, not just your overall score.
Try the free sampler See the CIP tracks →Sources
- AMPP — Exam Preparation Guides: Basic Coatings Inspector (CIP Level 1) — item count, exam time, the 11 domain weights
- AMPP — Exam Preparation Guides: Certified Coatings Inspector (CIP Level 2) — both theory-exam versions: the July 2026 guide (120 items, 10 domains) and the earlier one
Checked on 23 September 2026.
Related guides: What changed in the 2026 CIP Level 2 exam · AMPP CIP Level 1 vs Level 2: how the two certifications differ · Surface preparation cleanliness grades: SSPC / NACE vs ISO 8501-1 · FROSIO vs AMPP CIP · How to get NACE (AMPP) CIP Level 1.
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