Pass the California Property & Casualty Insurance Exam on Your First Try
Standard: Current 2026 Testing Standards
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The California Property and Casualty insurance license exam is a 150-question, proctored test administered by PSI Services on behalf of the California Department of Insurance. You have 3 hours and 25 minutes to complete it, and you need a score of 60% or higher to pass. The exam covers five topic areas weighted by the CDI content outline — Property Insurance is the largest section at 30%, followed by Casualty Insurance at 25% and General Insurance at 20%. The remaining 25% covers Personal Lines and CA Insurance Code & Regulations. California-specific rules around homeowners insurance, auto coverage mandates, the FAIR Plan, and surplus lines regulations account for a significant share of questions — candidates who only study national property and casualty concepts without drilling the California-specific material routinely lose enough points in the state-law sections to fail.
Exam details
The exam is administered by PSI Services at over 20 test center locations across California and is available via remote online proctoring through PSI Bridge. You must complete all pre-licensing education requirements before scheduling — California requires 20 hours of line-specific pre-licensing education plus a 12-hour Ethics and California Insurance Code course (32 hours total). The exam fee is $55 per attempt with no waiting period between retakes, though candidates who fail 10 times in a 12-month period are barred for one year. On exam day, you must bring one valid government-issued photo ID — out-of-state IDs are not accepted at CDI exam sites. No calculators, phones, or notes are permitted in the testing room. You receive a pass/fail result immediately when you finish, with a printed diagnostic report showing performance by topic.
A new test and solution key are generated each time; the solution key link is included in the PDF.
Three areas cause a disproportionate share of failures on the California P&C exam. First, the California Insurance Code & Regulations section — only 10% of the exam, but the California-specific surplus lines rules, FAIR Plan eligibility, mandatory auto coverage requirements, and producer conduct rules differ meaningfully from national standards. Candidates who used a non-California study guide and skipped state law prep routinely miss half or more of these 15 questions. Second, policy exclusions and conditions in the Casualty section — the exam regularly presents loss scenarios and asks which policy applies, whether coverage is triggered, and what the insurer's obligations are. These require understanding policy structure in depth, not just definitions. Third, property valuation disputes — the distinction between actual cash value, replacement cost value, and agreed value comes up across multiple question types, and the California FAIR Plan rules around wildfire exposure and underwriting add a layer that pure national prep does not cover.
150 multiple-choice questions, all scored. You have 3 hours and 25 minutes to complete the exam — roughly 82 seconds per question.
60%, meaning at least 90 correct answers out of 150. PSI displays your result immediately when you finish and prints a diagnostic score report broken down by topic area.
PSI Services LLC, contracted by the California Department of Insurance. You can test at over 20 PSI locations statewide, at the CDI's Los Angeles test center (no convenience fee), or via remote online proctoring through PSI Bridge.
Five topics weighted by the CDI content outline: Property Insurance (30%), Casualty Insurance (25%), General Insurance (20%), Personal Lines (15%), and CA Insurance Code & Regulations (10%).
Yes. PSI offers remote proctoring for California insurance exams via PSI Bridge. You need a computer with a moveable webcam, microphone, and stable internet. Run PSI's compatibility check tool before scheduling to confirm your setup qualifies.
$55 per attempt at a PSI test center, plus a $43 convenience fee at PSI locations (no fee at the CDI's LA site). There is no waiting period between retakes, but failing 10 times within 12 months results in a one-year bar.
Yes. California requires 20 hours of P&C-specific pre-licensing education plus the 12-hour Ethics and California Insurance Code course — 32 hours total. Your completion certificate must be submitted to the CDI before you can schedule. Starting January 1, 2026, the 20-hour general requirement is eliminated, leaving only the 12-hour Ethics and Code course.
The California FAIR Plan (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements) is a state-mandated insurer of last resort for properties that cannot obtain coverage in the standard market, primarily due to wildfire risk. It appears on the exam in both the Property Insurance and CA Insurance Code sections — expect questions on eligibility, coverage limits, and how the FAIR Plan interacts with a companion policy (Difference in Conditions).
One valid government-issued photo ID with your signature. Out-of-state IDs are not accepted at California CDI exam sites. Acceptable forms include a California driver's license, CA ID card, US passport, passport card, or military ID.
You must submit your license application through Sircon or NIPR within one year of passing, or you will need to retake the exam. Processing takes 2 to 4 weeks after fingerprinting is complete.
Topics and blueprint percentages come from our topic bank; practice sessions allocate questions using those shares when set.
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