BCBA Test Content Outline - 6th ed. - Content domains, question structure, and task-level learning objectives

Sep 12, 2026

BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed., TCO) defines the knowledge and skills tested on the BCBA certification examination starting in 2025. The outline covers 175 scored questions and 10 unscored pilot questions and organizes 104 tasks across nine domains. It specifies the domain proportions and details task-level learning objectives for areas such as behaviorism and philosophy, measurement and data interpretation, experimental design, ethics, assessment, behavior-change procedures, intervention selection, and personnel supervision.

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BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed.)

Exam format and task organization

Domain overview and question allocation

Task-level learning objectives by domain

A. Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

B. Concepts and Principles

C. Measurement, Data Display, and Interpretation

D. Experimental Design

E. Ethical and Professional Issues

F. Behavior Assessment

G. Behavior-Change Procedures

H. Selecting and Implementing Interventions

I. Personnel Supervision and Management

BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed.) The BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed. ; TCO) describes the content that will appear on the BCBA® certification examination beginning in 2025. The TCO represents the knowledge and skills identified as being important for entry-level BCBA practitioners by the most recent job task analysis (see the February 2022 BACB Newsletter) . The BCBA examination includes 175 scored questions and 10 unscored pilot questions. The TCO includes 104 tasks organized in 9 domains as follows: | Domain | \# of Questions (% of Exam) | | --- | --- | | A. Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations | 8 (5%) | | B. Concepts and Principles | 24 (14%) | | C. Measurement, Data Display, and Interpretation | 21 (12%) | | D. Experimental Design | 13 (7%) | | E. Ethical and Professional Issues | 22 (13%) | | F. Behavior Assessment | 23 (13%) | | G. Behavior-Change Procedures | 25 (14%) | | H. Selecting and Implementing Interventions | 20 (11%) | | I. Personnel Supervision and Management | 19 (11%) | | Total Questions | 175 | | Domain | | \# of Questions | | --- | --- | --- | | A. Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations | | 8 | | A. 1. Identify the goals of behavior analysis as a science (i.e. , description, prediction, control) .
A.2. Explain the philosophical assumptions underlying the science of behavior analysis (e.g. , selectionism, determinism, empiricism, parsimony, pragmatism) . | A.3. Explain behavior from the perspective of radical behaviorism.
A.4. Distinguish among behaviorism, the experimental analysis of behavior, applied behavior analysis, and professional practice guided by the science of behavior analysis.
A.5. Identify and describe dimensions of applied behavior analysis. | | | B. Concepts and Principles 24 | | | B. 1. Identify and distinguish among behavior, response, and response class. B.2. Identify and distinguish between stimulus and stimulus class. B.3. Identify and distinguish between respondent and operant conditioning. B.4. Identify and distinguish between positive and negative reinforcement contingencies. B.5. Identify and distinguish between positive and negative punishment contingencies. B.6. Identify and distinguish between automatic and socially mediated contingencies. B.7. Identify and distinguish among unconditioned, conditioned, and generalized reinforcers. B.8. Identify and distinguish among unconditioned, conditioned, and generalized punishers. B.9. Identify and distinguish among simple schedules of reinforcement. B. 10. Identify and distinguish among concurrent, multiple, mixed, and chained schedules of reinforcement. B. 11. Identify and distinguish between operant and respondent extinction as operations and processes. B. 12. Identify examples of stimulus control. B. 13. Identify examples of stimulus discrimination. B. 14. Identify and distinguish between stimulus and response generalization. B. 15. Identify examples of response maintenance. B. 16. Identify examples of motivating operations. B. 17. Distinguish between motivating operations and stimulus control. B. 18. Identify and distinguish between rule-governed and contingency-shaped behavior. B. 19. Identify and distinguish among verbal operants. B.20. Identify the role of multiple control in verbal behavior. B.21. Identify examples of processes that promote emergent relations and generative performance. B.22. Identify ways behavioral momentum can be used to understand response persistence. B.23. Identify ways the matching law can be used to interpret response allocation. B.24. Identify and distinguish between imitation and observational learning. This document should be referenced as: Updated 09/2024, Copyright © 2022, BACB® | All rights reserved. Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2022) . BCBA test content outline (6th ed.). [https://www.bacb.com/wp-content/bcba-outline-6thEd/](https://www.bacb.com/wp-content/bcba-outline-6thEd/) C. Measuremen

FAQs

What exam content does the BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed.) cover for 2025?

It describes the knowledge and skills that appear on the BCBA certification examination starting in 2025, structured as tasks within nine content domains.

How many questions are scored and piloted in the BCBA exam?

The exam includes 175 scored questions and 10 unscored pilot questions.

How many tasks and domains are included in the TCO (6th ed.)?

The TCO includes 104 tasks organized into 9 domains, labeled A through I.

Sep 12, 2026

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