ExAC 2026 Exam Guide: Format, Sections, and What to Expect on Test Day

What is the ExAC?

The ExAC is the Examination for Architects in Canada. It is the national licensing exam used by most Canadian architectural regulators to assess whether an Intern Architect is ready to register and practise as an architect. The exam is administered through the Committee for the Examination for Architects in Canada, a body that operates independently of any single province or firm. The Examitect approach, refined from the post-exam debriefs our team runs with candidates after every sitting, is to ground every study decision in this one fact: the ExAC tests breadth, not depth in any one chapter.

To be eligible to sit the ExAC, a candidate has normally completed the academic and internship requirements set by their provincial or territorial regulator. The reference framework is the Internship in Architecture Program (IAP), a national standard that defines the experience hours, mentor structure, and competency records expected of an Intern Architect. The ExAC sits at the end of this internship period as the final, formal test of competency before registration.

The ExAC tests the breadth of practice that a beginning architect is expected to demonstrate on day one of independent registration. It is not an academic exam; it is a practice exam, written by practising architects, that asks whether you can apply Canadian codes, contracts, and professional standards to realistic scenarios. The four-section structure reflects four broad areas of competency: design and analysis, codes, sustainability and project synthesis, and construction and practice.

The 2026 exam format at a glance

Most of the format has been stable for years. The 2026 sittings keep the same four-section structure, the same two question formats, and the same open-book rule for Section 2. The most important format-level facts to know in advance are below.

If you are choosing between a single-day sitting and a split, the deciding factors are usually how much study runway you have, how confident you feel across sections, and whether your work schedule supports a full study cycle for all four at once. The all-four-sections-in-one-sitting blog post covers the trade-offs in detail.

The four ExAC sections explained

Each ExAC section maps to a competency area, a different mix of references, and a different exam strategy. The summaries below give you the shape; the linked section overview pages give you the full topic list, primary references, and study cards.

The trap, especially for working interns, is to weight study time by familiarity rather than by exam weight. Construction administration in a firm is not the same as Section 4 in a timed exam, and a working knowledge of the NBC is not the same as Section 2 under time pressure. The honest read is to test yourself, section by section, with practice questions before deciding where to spend your study hours.

Question formats: multiple choice and short answer

The ExAC uses two main question formats. Knowing what each one rewards (and what it does not) is the difference between a written-out wall of text and a clean rubric-friendly response.

Multiple choice

Multiple choice is the dominant format across all four sections. Each question presents a short scenario with three or four answer options, only one of which is correct. The wrong options are typically realistic distractors; they describe answers a working intern might believe to be correct based on intuition or partial reading. The exam rewards candidates who can read the scenario carefully, eliminate the implausible options, and select the one that best fits Canadian practice and the most recent codes.

Time management matters. A common pace is roughly 60 to 90 seconds per multiple-choice question, depending on the section. Mark uncertain items, keep moving, and use any remaining time at the end of the section to return to the flagged questions.

Short answer (constructed response)

Short-answer questions appear primarily in Section 3 and ask candidates to write a brief structured response to a scenario. These are graded against a published rubric, which means examiners look for specific content elements; they do not award marks for writing style, length, or rephrasing the question.

A good short-answer response typically does three things. It answers the exact question that was asked, it shows the chain of reasoning rather than only the conclusion, and it uses the Canadian terminology examiners expect (the language of CHOP, CCDC, and the NBC). Bullet points and short paragraphs are perfectly acceptable; ornate prose is not rewarded. The short-answer grading post walks through what examiners actually mark.

What is open book (and what is not)

This is the single biggest source of confusion for first-time candidates: the ExAC is mostly closed book. Only Section 2 (Codes) is open book, and only two references are permitted in the exam room.

Read this carefully: only Section 2 is open book, and only the NBC 2020 and NECB 2020 are allowed. CHOP, CCDC 2, CHING, RSMeans, Yardsticks, your own notes, sticky-note annotations, and electronic devices are not permitted. The tabbing strategy that works for Section 2 is the one covered in the ExAC open-book tabbing strategy post: a small number of high-value tabs, placed on the parts of NBC 2020 you have actually drilled with scenarios, and arranged so you can find any clause in under 30 seconds.

One more clarification candidates ask about every cycle: cost tables. Where a Section 1 question requires cost data (for example, a Yardsticks for Costing-style calculation), the relevant data is supplied within the exam booklet itself. You are not bringing RSMeans, Yardsticks, or a printed table into the room.

What to expect on test day

If you are sitting all four sections in a single day, the schedule is long but predictable. The host site sets the exact times, but the shape of the day is consistent. Use this as a working model and confirm the specifics in the sitting instructions you receive from the examination committee.

If you are splitting your sitting (for example, Sections 1 and 2 in the morning only), the day is much shorter, but the check-in and break rhythm is the same. The week-before protocol covers exactly what to do (and stop doing) in the final seven days, including the night before.

Scoring, passing, and what happens if you fail a section

Each section of the ExAC is scored independently. To be reported as passing the exam, you must pass each of the four sections. The passing standard is a competency-based cut score set by the examination committee; it is not a fixed percentage, and the cut score can be calibrated from sitting to sitting.

If you fail one section and pass the others, your passes carry. You do not re-sit sections you already passed. You register for the failed section at the next available sitting, study only that section, and return to write only that section. Most candidates who fail one section the first time pass it on the next sitting, particularly when they treat the failure as a diagnostic rather than a verdict.

Score reports include a pass or fail outcome per section, and (depending on the cycle) some directional feedback on where a fail clustered. Use that feedback honestly. If a Section 2 fail came with a flag on spatial separation, do not spend the next study cycle on the same passive re-reading approach that failed the first time. Run timed scenarios on spatial separation until the recall is fast.

Common mistakes first-time candidates make

Every ExAC cycle, the same handful of avoidable mistakes show up in the post-exam debriefs our team runs with candidates. Reading them now is cheaper than discovering them in the exam room.

• Treating the open-book rule as broader than it is. Only Section 2 is open book, and only the NBC 2020 and NECB 2020 are permitted. Candidates who arrive with a backpack of references discover at check-in that the references they relied on for study are not coming into the room with them. Plan your closed-book sections around closed-book recall.
• Re-reading instead of practising. Re-reading CHOP from cover to cover feels like study. Answering practice questions on bidding, programming, or schematic design under a timer is study. The ExAC tests retrieval; build retrieval directly with question practice and review the source only on the items you missed.
• Underestimating Section 2. The reading-to-recall gap is widest in Section 2. Working architects who know the NBC well in their day job often discover that timed scenario questions on Part 3, fire and life safety, and spatial separation are noticeably harder under exam conditions. Drill Section 2 with timed questions, not casual reading.
• Writing essays in short-answer questions. Section 3 short-answer prompts reward specific rubric content, not eloquence. Answer the exact question, show the chain of reasoning, use Canadian terminology, and stop. A tight, structured response usually outscores a long, meandering one.
• Memorizing NBC clause numbers. The ExAC does not test whether you can recite clause 3.8.3.2 from memory. It tests whether you can apply the requirement to a scenario. Tab the NBC so you can locate content fast under time pressure, and spend zero study time drilling clause numbers by rote.
• Skipping the practice exam. A full timed mock exam before exam day is the single most informative thing you can do. Candidates who avoid the mock because they are afraid of a low score arrive at the real exam with no calibration on pace, fatigue, or recall under pressure. The mock is a diagnostic; let it do its job.