OpenExamsFREE PRACTICE — ANY EXAM

CLP – C Certified Professional Programmer — Requirements & Free Practice

US · License preparation

100 free questions · Answer explanations · No signup required

Choose what to practice

Start with an exam below. Your examination requirements depend on your application pathway. View licensing requirements

Loading selected examination banks…

Licenses, application pathways and examination requirements

Each license and applicant pathway has its own requirements and exemptions. Choosing practice questions does not determine your eligibility.

CLP – C Certified Professional Programmer

The CLP – C Certified Professional Programmer certification validates advanced-level C programming skills required to build efficient, portable, and reliable software.

Licensing authority: C++ Institute · Application information

Initial by examination
CLP – C Certified Professional Programmer
Admission
Issuer policy requires two original, valid, unexpired IDs, one primary government-issued photo ID and one secondary ID; registered names must match the IDs. Physical-center candidates should arrive at least 15 minutes early.
Applicability
The current official page identifies CLP-12-01 as Active and explicitly aligns the complete syllabus with it. No official start or end date is stated for the examination, credential or route; date boundaries remain null rather than using document dates or retrieval timestamps.
Eligibility
No formal prerequisites; CLA certification or equivalent experience is recommended. Entry-level and associate certification progression is recommended, not mandatory.
Qualification
Pass the corresponding active CLP-12-01 examination; the issuer currently awards lifetime certification reflecting the exam version completed.
Registration
Register through the linked Pearson C++ Institute candidate website, its contact center or an authorized test center; pay directly or use a voucher. Candidates must follow Pearson and C++ Institute testing agreements and identity rules.
Retakes
After failure, wait 15 days; a new voucher/payment may be needed. No retaking a passed examination of the same version.
Scheduling
Rolling Pearson appointments; schedule at least one full business day (24 hours) in advance. OnVUE is available 24/7 year-round except maintenance; physical test-center availability is local. The CLP page and CLP policy identify Pearson/OnVUE; the broader program's TestNow wording is not adopted as a CLP delivery option.

CLP – C Certified Professional Programmer

Provider
C++ Institute; examination delivery by Pearson VUE at authorized test centers or through OnVUE
Format
Single-select & multiple-select questions; English
Exam questions
Total questions: 55.
Time limit
65 minutes (exam) + approx. 10 minutes (Non-Disclosure Agreement/Tutorial)
Passing score
70%; maximum 1000 points normalized to percentages, with differently weighted questions
Examination outline
  • Applied Evolution of C Programming (14.5%)
    • Historical standards of C and their significance
    • Obsolete and modern C language constructs
    • Trigraphs, digraphs, and function declaration changes
    • New C11 keywords in code
  • Variadic Functions and Macros (9%)
    • Calling conventions, stack behavior, and parameter passing
    • Macros from stdarg.h
    • Standard variadic I/O functions
  • Fundamentals of Low-Level IO (13%)
    • POSIX, API, ABI, and WINAPI system interfaces
    • System calls for file operations
    • Control calls for file descriptor manipulation
  • Memory and String Handling (16%)
    • Standard-library string manipulation and memory handling
    • Sorting and searching with qsort() and bsearch()
    • Memory allocation strategies
    • Wide characters, Unicode, and I18N
  • Process and Thread Management (9%)
    • History and role of processes and threads
    • Unix and Windows process/thread models
    • Thread safety and environmental conditions
    • C11 threading in multi-threaded applications
  • Numerical Types and Computations (11%)
    • IEEE-754, NaN, infinities, and signed zero
    • Floating-point behavior and precision issues
    • Multi-precision arithmetic with external libraries
  • Network Socket Programming (13%)
    • Network sockets and data protocols
    • Client-server communication using socket APIs
    • Endianness, message ordering, and transmission challenges
  • Specialized Programming Considerations (14.5%)
    • const and volatile
    • Use cases and risks of goto and non-local jumps
    • setjmp/longjmp for advanced flow control
    • Undefined behavior and sequence points
    • Complex declarations, function pointers, and variable-length arrays
Examination sources