How to get NACE (now AMPP) CIP Level 1: the steps and a study plan
Many people still call it "NACE Level 1". In January 2021 NACE International and SSPC merged to form AMPP, and the Coating Inspector Program carried on under AMPP: the certification you earn today is AMPP Basic Coatings Inspector, CIP Level 1. Here is the path to it, taken from AMPP's own course pages and exam guides, and a study plan built on the exam's published weights.
The short answer: take AMPP's CIP Level 1 course (in person, 5 or 6 days, no prerequisites), pass the 8-station practical exam on its last day, then pass the 120-question computer-based theory exam at a Pearson VUE test centre. You also need AMPP's online Ethics for the Corrosion Professional course, or approved equivalent training, and to complete AMPP's Professional Code of Conduct. You have four years to finish everything, and the certification is renewed every three years.
The path, step by step
- Take the CIP Level 1 course. It is taught in person over 5 or 6 days, depending on location. There are no prerequisites and no experience requirement: AMPP lists project managers, QA/QC staff, contractors, specification writers, coating manufacturers' representatives, fabricators, welders, applicators and blasters among the people it is for. It is offered in English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, French, Turkish and Korean, though the language and length vary by location. Bought from AMPP, the course includes registration for the certification exam.
- Complete the ethics requirement. Ethics for the Corrosion Professional is an online, self-paced course of about 1.5 to 2 hours, ending in an assessment you pass at 70 %. You take it once, and it counts for every later certification and renewal. Ethics training from your employer can count instead if you completed it within the last 3 years and can document it.
- Pass the practical exam on the last day of the course: eight hands-on stations, closed book. The stations are listed below.
- Schedule and pass the theory exam through AMPP's My Certification Portal, at a Pearson VUE test centre. Each exam authorisation is good for one attempt and is valid for one year from its issue or the end of the course.
- Complete the application. That means AMPP's Professional Code of Conduct, in the certification portal. Once every requirement is met, AMPP awards the Basic Coatings Inspector certification.
You have four years to complete all of it, exam included.
The two exams
| Practical exam | Theory exam | |
|---|---|---|
| When | Last day of the course | After the course, booked through the certification portal |
| Where | At the course | Pearson VUE test centre, on a computer |
| Format | 8 instrument stations, closed book | 120 multiple-choice questions, 20 of them experimental and unscored |
| Time | Up to 10 minutes per station, then 10 minutes for calculations and checking, without instruments | 170 minutes, plus 10 minutes for a tutorial and the non-disclosure agreement: 3 hours of seat time |
| Result | Scored out of 100 points; pass or fail, shown in the certification portal | Pass or fail at the end of the exam, with a bar chart of your strengths and weaknesses by domain |
The practical stations and their points:
- Environmental test (20 points)
- Anchor pattern: comparators and replica tape (20)
- High-voltage DC holiday detector (10)
- Coating thickness: magnetic pull-off gauge, Type I (10)
- Wet-sponge low-voltage holiday detector (10)
- Wet-film thickness gauge (5)
- Coating thickness: constant-pressure probe gauge, Type II (20)
- Soluble salts (5)
Three stations, environmental, anchor pattern and the Type II gauge, carry 60 of the 100 points.
For the theory exam you get an on-screen TI calculator, standard or scientific. If you find it hard to use, you can ask the test administrator for a hand-held one, where available. You cannot bring your own.
If you fail an exam
- Theory exam: you can retake it without retaking the course. You wait 30 days before the first retake and 4 months before each one after that, and each attempt needs its own exam authorisation. Fail it three times and you have to take the course again, at the full price.
- Practical exam: retaking it means registering for the course again.
- If you fail only the theory exam, you do not resit the practical, as long as everything is finished within the four years.
How hard is CIP Level 1?
The exam guide says enough to show where candidates lose marks:
- The course is not the whole syllabus. AMPP calls its training course an excellent method of preparation but states that it is not the only reference used to write the questions.
- More than one option can be right. The guide describes the questions as "multiple-choice where there may be more than one correct answer". Read all of them before you commit.
- The pace is tight. 120 questions in 170 minutes is 85 seconds each, calculations included.
- Standards run through it. They are a 10 % domain of their own, and the surface preparation domain also expects every relevant NACE, SSPC, ASTM and ISO standard for cleaning, blasting and soluble-salt testing.
What the theory exam covers
The guide splits the exam into 11 domains with fixed weights. In brief, this is what it lists for each:
| Domain | Weight | What the exam guide lists |
|---|---|---|
| Surface Preparation and Inspection | 20% | Design and fabrication defects; solvent, hand tool, power tool and abrasive blast cleaning; abrasives and sieve sizing (ASTM C136); visual contaminants and soluble salts; the NACE, SSPC, ASTM and ISO standards for all of these; surface profile by comparator, replica tape and digital gauge (ASTM D4417); dust and debris tests; the NACE SP0178 weld replica |
| Coatings and Inspection | 20% | What coatings are made of and how they protect; organic and inorganic, thermoset and thermoplastic, convertible and non-convertible; curing mechanisms and generic types; wet-film gauges and calculating the dry film; magnetic pull-off and constant-pressure DFT gauges; SSPC-PA 2; holiday detection; coating defects; specifications |
| Inspection Process | 15% | The inspector's role and its limits at each level; the purpose of inspection, cost justification included; specifications, product data sheets, standards, codes and inspection and test plans; the pre-job conference; visual inspection; verification versus hold points; instrument inspection on steel; reporting |
| Documentation | 10% | Log books and daily inspection reports; the coating specification; material inventory, weekly and non-conformance reports; safety data sheets |
| Standards | 10% | Reading, interpreting and using every standard referenced at Level 1 |
| Coating Application | 7.5% | Brush, mitt, roller, conventional air, airless and air-assisted airless spray, with basic troubleshooting; stripe coats; mixing, induction time, pot life and the overcoat window |
| Corrosion | 5% | The corrosion cell; galvanic corrosion and the galvanic series; general and localised corrosion; what drives corrosion rates; service environments; corrosion control |
| Environmental Controls and Inspection | 5% | Air and surface temperature, relative humidity, dew point and wind speed; sling psychrometers (ASTM E337), electronic hygrometers and surface thermometers |
| Safety | 2.5% | Safety data sheets, hazard communication, confined spaces, job- and equipment-specific safety |
| Teamwork | 2.5% | Basic teamwork |
| Ethics | 2.5% | The ethics expected of an AMPP-certified inspector |
A study plan by weight
Split your time the way the exam splits its marks, not evenly by chapter. With 40 hours between the course and the exam, that comes to:
| Domain | Weight | Hours of 40 |
|---|---|---|
| Surface Preparation and Inspection | 20% | 8 |
| Coatings and Inspection | 20% | 8 |
| Inspection Process | 15% | 6 |
| Documentation | 10% | 4 |
| Standards | 10% | 4 |
| Coating Application | 7.5% | 3 |
| Corrosion | 5% | 2 |
| Environmental Controls and Inspection | 5% | 2 |
| Safety, Teamwork, Ethics | 2.5% each | 1 each |
- Start with the two 20 % domains. Together they are 40 % of the exam, and their instruments are the practical's instruments. The surface preparation grades guide covers the SSPC/NACE and ISO 8501-1 cleanliness grades side by side.
- Drill the calculations until they are automatic: wet film to dry film (WFT ↔ DFT formula and calculator), DFT readings against the SSPC-PA 2 rules (DFT measurement guide) and dew point margins (dew point guide).
- Learn standards as number–subject pairs. Many questions turn on knowing which document covers what. The standards matching game drills exactly that.
- Sit full-length mocks: 120 questions in 170 minutes, then review every miss by domain, not by overall score. How the CIP blueprint weights the exam explains why.
What AMPP points you to
The exam guide's reading list is the CIP Level 1 course materials plus:
- Corrosion Prevention by Protective Coatings, by Charles Munger, revised by Lou Vincent
- Practical Math for the Protective Coatings Industry, by Raymond Weaver
- User's Guide to Hot Dip Galvanizing, American Galvanizers Association
- SSPC Painting Manual, Volume 1 (Good Painting Practices) and Volume 2 (Systems and Specifications)
- ASTM Volumes 06.01 and 06.02, for the paint and protective-coating test standards
After Level 1
CIP Level 2, Certified Coatings Inspector, requires the Level 1 certification and two years of verifiable coatings-related work experience, plus its own course and exams. CIP Level 1 vs Level 2 compares the two side by side. Level 1 itself is renewed every three years, with 1.5 years of coating-inspection work in the cycle; the renewal guide has the details.
CoatMentor's CIP Level 1 track is built on this blueprint: 370+ original questions across all 11 domains, three timed 120-question, 170-minute mocks drawn in the blueprint's proportions, a worked explanation for every question and a per-domain breakdown after every mock. Try 15 questions free first, no signup.
Try the free CIP Level 1 sampler See the CIP Level 1 track →Sources
- AMPP — Basic Coatings Inspector Certification (CIP Level 1) — course length, delivery and languages, no prerequisites, who it is for, exam registration included, the four-year window, 3-year validity
- AMPP — Exam Preparation Guides: Basic Coatings Inspector (CIP Level 1) — the theory exam guide (March 2026): format, timing, results, the 11 domains, question type, calculators, reading list, requirements and renewal; the practical exam guide: stations, points and timing
- AMPP — Computer-based exams — scheduling through the certification portal, one attempt per authorisation valid for one year, no practical resit after a failed theory exam
- AMPP — Certification Examination Retake Policy (July 2024, PDF) — waiting periods, the three-failure rule, practical retakes
- AMPP — Ethics for the Corrosion Professional and AMPP Support — What is the ethics course requirement? — format, length, pass mark, equivalent training
- AMPP — Certified Coatings Inspector Certification (CIP Level 2) — Level 2 prerequisites and course length
- AMPP — New Association for Materials Protection and Performance launches (6 January 2021) — the NACE International and SSPC merger
Checked on 2 October 2026.
Related guides: AMPP CIP Level 1 vs Level 2 · How the AMPP CIP EPG blueprint weights the exam · API 510, 570 and 653 vs AMPP CIP · FROSIO vs NACE (AMPP) CIP.
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