The New ICF PCC-MCC Exam: What Changes and Which Exam to Take

From November 10, 2026, candidates for the ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and ICF Master Certified Coach (MCC) credentials choose between two ICF exams: the current ICF Credentialing Exam and the new PCC-MCC Exam. From April 1, 2027, PCC and MCC candidates take only the PCC-MCC Exam.

Both exams sit at the same step of ICF certification, on the full path from ACC to MCC, and lead to the same credential, so you choose by your test date and by the standards you studied.

Key Dates: November 10, 2026 to April 1, 2027

ICF set out the transition in two posts in July 2026: one for coach educators on July 17 and a candidate’s guide on July 27. The exam change in the ICF PCC and MCC credentialing process runs in three stages, and only the middle stage gives candidates a choice of exam.

• Before November 10, 2026: the current ICF Credentialing Exam is the only exam available.
• November 10, 2026 to March 31, 2027: candidates testing or retesting may take either exam. March 31, 2027 is the last day to sit the current exam.
• From April 1, 2027: only the PCC-MCC Exam is available, including for retests.

The PCC-MCC Exam launches with its first test dates on November 10, 2026. To sit the new exam on November 10 or any later date in the transition, use the request form ICF says it will send candidates. If you are already in “ready for exam” status, contact ICF support instead.

One planning fact belongs here. The current exam gives you 60 days to schedule and complete it after ICF’s invitation to schedule, and that window decides how late in the transition a first attempt can safely go.

The Current Exam and the New ICF Exam Side by Side

The PCC-MCC Exam keeps the credential and the four domains and changes most of the exam structure. The table compares the current ICF Credentialing Exam, as ICF’s exam page describes it, with the PCC-MCC Exam, as ICF’s July 2026 posts describe it.

Two differences change the sitting itself. ICF says the knowledge-based items are more direct, so the new exam “involves less reading”, and you have 150 minutes to complete the exam instead of 180. The standards change too: the current exam is built on the 2019 ICF Core Competencies and 2020 ICF Code of Ethics, the new one on the 2025 versions. If you studied the older set, check what changed in the 2025 Core Competencies and read the 2025 revision of the ICF Code of Ethics before you choose.

You take the current PCC and MCC credentialing exam at a Pearson VUE test center or online through OnVUE. ICF reports that 9,795 candidates sat it in 2023, with 75% passing on the first attempt and 87% overall. Those figures describe the current exam only. The PCC-MCC Exam has not run yet.

What Stays the Same on the New Exam

A format change announced partway through months of preparation unsettles careful candidates. ICF’s answer is steady. The PCC-MCC Exam covers the same four domains as the current exam: Foundation; Co-Creating the Relationship; Communicating Effectively; and Cultivating Learning and Growth.

Situational judgment is still the larger share, 44 of the 80 items. ICF has stated that the difficulty and the exam pass rate “remain consistent with the current exam” and that passing either exam earns “the same PCC or MCC credential”. Its candidate’s guide of July 27, 2026 adds: “No major changes to your preparation are necessary.”

The other ICF credential requirements stay where they were. See the full list of PCC requirements and the MCC requirements and timeline. A separate 2027 change to mentor coaching has its own section further down.

Knowledge-Based Exam Questions: The Format Used on the ACC Exam

The new item type is a multiple-choice question with one correct answer, and the PCC-MCC Exam has 36 of them. ICF says this format “has been used on the ACC Exam”. That is the separate ACC Exam. The ICF ACC Exam uses 60 knowledge-based items in 90 minutes and is unchanged by this announcement. The link between the two exams is the question format only.

ICF describes the scope of these exam questions as “core coaching concepts, principles, and professional standards”. It has published no topic outline for the exam content, so we will not guess at one. What you can rely on is the difference in the task. Situational judgment questions give you a coaching scenario and ask for the most and the least effective response. Knowledge-based questions ask for the one defensible answer, and ICF says they involve less reading.

For experienced candidates, the knowledge items are the easier part of the sitting, and the scenarios stay the harder part. Where the knowledge items ask more of you is precision. When exactly one answer is right, the wording of the 2025 Code of Ethics and the 2025 Core Competencies matters more than a general sense of good coaching. Practice both formats.

Cherie: “If you know your ICF Code of Ethics and you know what coaching is and is not according to ICF, you’ll probably be fine with the straight questions.”

For the PCC-MCC Exam, that advice points at the 2025 versions: the 2025 ICF Code of Ethics and the 2025 ICF Core Competencies are the documents to know. ICF will also offer a free tutorial on the new question formats shortly before launch. It was not yet available on October 12, 2026.

Until it is, the two items below show the format. Both come from Tandem’s practice bank and are written against the 2025 standards.

Try Two Questions in the New PCC-MCC Exam Format

Question 1: knowledge. A coach runs sessions on a platform whose AI tool transcribes and summarizes each conversation. Under Standard 2.5 of the 2025 Code of Ethics, how do the coach’s ethical and legal obligations relate to that tool?

• A. They pass to the platform provider once the client accepts its terms of service.
• B. They cover the coach’s own conduct and leave the tool’s processing outside the Code.
• C. They extend through the tool, so the coach stays accountable for how it is used.
• D. They are met by keeping current with coaching technology as a learning practice.

Answer: C. Standard 2.5 asks the coach to fulfill their ethical and legal obligations “directly and through any technology systems I may utilize,” and it names artificial intelligence. A provider’s terms of service do not move those obligations (A), and the 2025 Code brings AI tools inside its scope (B). Keeping current with technology (D) is part of Sub-Competency 2.02, a learning practice under Embodies a Coaching Mindset; it does not discharge an ethical obligation.

Question 2: scenario. A prospective client reaches out, excited about working with you. Money is tight, and they ask whether you would coach them in exchange for copywriting work on your website instead of a fee. The copywriting would be useful to you. Your calendar is already full with paying clients, and your practice runs on a single, transparent fee: you do not barter, partly because trading services with an active client tangles two relationships that are cleaner kept apart. They are waiting on the call, hoping you will find a way to say yes.

Which response is most aligned with the ICF Core Competencies and Code of Ethics, and which is least aligned?

• A. Tell them your practice runs on a set fee and point them to specific low-cost development resources for now.
• B. Acknowledge the constraint and offer to refer them to a directory of coaches whose fee structures differ from yours.
• C. Accept the barter, fitting the sessions into gaps in your already-full schedule and taking the copywriting in place of payment.
• D. Tell them coaching is a paid service in your practice and that paying for it is itself a sign of their commitment.

Best: A. It is honest about what you offer, makes no promise you cannot keep, and still gives the person something useful. That is integrity in practice under the Code of Ethics.

Worst: C. It feels generous, and it does the most damage. You break your own stated practice, take on a client you have no room for, and become their client and their customer at once. When the copywriting disappoints either of you, that tension lands inside the coaching. B is a reasonable but less personal answer; D holds the boundary but adds a judgment about the client’s commitment.

Cherie Silas walks through this scenario in a short video on the barter request.

Which ICF Exam Should You Take Before March 31, 2027?

Both exams lead to the same credential, and ICF says they are equally hard. To choose between the current exam and the PCC-MCC Exam, look at two things: when you will take the exam, and which standards you have been studying. Pick the exam that matches the preparation you have already done.

The factor we weigh most is practice. In the first months after November 10, 2026, little practice material will exist for the new format: ICF’s free tutorial arrives only shortly before launch, and the knowledge items have no published topic outline. For a candidate who is ready now, that tips the balance toward the current exam.

Plan the exam retake before the first attempt. If you do not pass the exam, any retake on or after April 1, 2027 is the PCC-MCC Exam, so a first attempt in the last week of March 2027 leaves no room to retake the exam you prepared for. Count the current exam’s 60-day window, and check ICF’s current retake rules and fees before you book.

If you are ready now, waiting is the weaker choice. Say you prepared on the 2019 competencies and the 2020 Code and can take the ICF Credentialing Exam by early 2027. Waiting means re-studying the 2025 standards for a version of the exam with almost no practice material yet, and scenario practice cannot rehearse single-answer knowledge items.

From the candidate’s chair, the harder question is whether you are ready to pass the ICF exam at all. You are close when you can say why the best answer is best and why the worst is worst, item after item. Whichever row fits, the free PCC and MCC exam-prep course in the preparation section below helps with both exams.

Still completing your training hours? Plan for the PCC-MCC Exam and the 2025 standards from the start. If you have not chosen a program yet, Tandem’s PCC coach training program is one option.

PCC-MCC Exam Preparation: What to Add for the New Format

ICF says “most existing preparation resources remain relevant”, so your scenario practice still counts. What the new format adds is a second kind of question and a different rhythm through the sitting, and both take deliberate practice.

Start With the 2025 ICF Core Competencies and Code of Ethics

The PCC-MCC Exam tests the 2025 ICF Core Competencies and Code of Ethics, so read each core competency and the Code in their current wording before you practice anything else. A knowledge item with one correct answer rewards a precise understanding of the ICF documents, and a scenario item asks you to apply the ICF Core Competencies to a coaching moment.

Keep your scenario practice, because 44 of the 80 items are situational judgment. Add single-answer knowledge practice beside it, and rehearse the alternating order in one sitting: knowledge, situational judgment, break, knowledge, situational judgment.

By our arithmetic rather than ICF’s, the pace tightens from about 2 minutes 8 seconds per item on the current exam (83 minutes for each section of 39) to roughly 1 minute 45 seconds to 1 minute 52 seconds on the new one, depending on whether you take the break.

Treat each switch between blocks as a reset, and reread the instruction line before the first item of the new block. In a knowledge block you choose the one correct answer; in a scenario block you choose the most and the least effective response.

Practice with feedback, the piece self-study most often lacks: a practice system that explains every answer, a mentor or peers. Our guide on how to prepare for the ICF Credentialing Exam covers the scenario side, and our free scenario practice questions with answers give you items to work through now.

What is missing for now is knowledge-item practice. Tandem’s free 80-item practice exam in the new format, with 36 knowledge items and 44 scenarios, is coming before launch.

The free PCC/MCC exam-prep course below was built for the scenario format of the current exam. It still fits either exam, because situational judgment makes up 44 of the 80 items on the new one.

Taking the ICF Exam With ADHD: Reading Load, Breaks and Extra Time

Every situational judgment item opens with a long coaching scenario. For a candidate with ADHD, holding that much text in mind, scenario after scenario, can be the hardest part of the sitting. These suggestions apply to both exams.

Cherie: “The hard part is reading. The scenarios are long and they are long-winded and there are lots of words. Especially for people with ADHD and stressed, that’s the hardest part.”

Read the ask before you answer. Never rush. Be sure whether the item asks for the most or the least effective response, and reread the instruction line every time the exam switches blocks.

Ask ICF about exam accommodations. ICF considers exam accommodations case by case, such as extended time or additional breaks, and approved accommodations cost nothing. Its short request process covers up to 45 extra minutes, which you can use for extra breaks. Ask while you complete your ICF credential application. ICF does not require a formal diagnosis; it asks for documentation from professionals who know you well. Accommodations give access, not a guaranteed result. ICF’s accommodations guide does not yet name the PCC-MCC Exam, so confirm the details with ICF.

Consider the shorter new exam. It runs 150 minutes instead of 180, ICF says it involves less reading, and its 44 scenarios come in two blocks of 22 with knowledge items between them. Weigh that against how little new-format practice material exists at launch.

Practice full sittings under time. Rehearse whole timed exams to build reading stamina, and plan to take the optional 10-minute break rather than push through.

A Separate 2027 Change: The Performance Evaluation and Mentor Coaching

ICF announced a second, separate change in April 2026. It changes a different step of the ICF credentialing process (the performance evaluation and mentor coaching) and runs on its own dates.

ICF ACC and PCC Portfolio Applicants

For ACC and PCC Portfolio applications submitted on or after April 1, 2027, the performance evaluation is no longer required. An enhanced mentor coaching requirement takes its place: a mentor who holds ICF’s Mentor Coach Specialization (MCS) works with you on your coaching practice over at least three months, with at least three hours individual, at least three of your coaching sessions observed and reviewed, and a Competency Review Form from the mentor in place of the recordings and transcripts.

From January 1, 2027, new mentor coaching hours for ACC, PCC and MCC candidates must be with an MCS holder. If you are still building hours, read how mentor coaching hours work by credential and plan for mentor coaching with an MCS holder. Applicants through ICF Level 1 and Level 2 accredited coach education programs see no change, because the program builds the new requirement in.

MCC Credentials Keep the Performance Evaluation

ICF says the performance evaluation “will remain in place” for MCC. Until the 2027 dates, current requirements remain in effect, so a Portfolio application submitted before April 1, 2027 still includes the performance evaluation, and it pays to know what assessors look for in PCC sessions, the PCC Markers.

Frequently Asked Questions About the PCC-MCC Exam