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Canada · Licensing exam

The CPTE exam for physiotherapists in Canada

In 2026 the Canadian Physiotherapy Examination (CPTE) replaced the Physiotherapy Competency Examination (PCE), which had a Written Component and then a Clinical Component. The CPTE exam puts both into one sitting: an Oral Section, then a Written Section. The Canadian Alliance of Physiotherapy Regulators (CAPR) runs it, and says you need to pass it to become a licensed physiotherapist in Canada.

  • 5 hoursTotal exam time, in two 2.5-hour sections
  • $2,500Exam fee for each 2027 date
  • 3 attemptsAllowed if you first tested in 2013 or later
Where to studyHow the test works

Updated November 2026 · Written from the CPTE Candidate Guide (November 2025) and CPTE Blueprint 2025

Key facts

At a glance

Delivered by
risr/, ProctorExam and TEAMCo, for CAPR, on the risr/assess exam platform
Oral Section
150 points and 60% of your score. Two examiners mark each case, at least one of them live
Written Section
100 points and 40% of your score: one point per correct answer, with nothing taken off for wrong ones
Where you sit it
Anywhere indoors that meets CAPR’s rules, such as home, work, a hotel room or a library, with remote proctoring. There are no test centres
Results
About 4 to 5 weeks after the exam, with feedback on your performance whether you pass or fail

How it works

How the CPTE exam runs on the day

  1. Apply through CAPR’s Client Portal. You choose your exam date and language and upload your photo ID, and CAPR sends a registration notice within 10 business days.
  2. The Oral Section comes first: 10 cases of 15 minutes each. For every case you read a Client Profile, a Clinical Scenario and three Case Questions, then answer out loud, in order.
  3. Each case has one question on assessment and diagnosis or care planning, one on client safety and client-centred care, and one on professional responsibilities, collaboration, communication or practice management, though not always in that order.
  4. Examiners only tell you when the section and each case start and end. They don’t read out the questions, explain them or remind you of the time, though they may ask you once to re-read a question if you miss its intent.
  5. A break of about 60 minutes, off the clock, separates the two sections. There are no breaks inside either one.
  6. The Written Section has 100 questions with four options each. The first 80 come in sets of four around a short vignette, and the last 20 stand alone. Some use images, video or audio.
  7. You can change written answers until you finish, and replay media as often as you need.

Topics

What the CPTE covers

The CPTE Blueprint 2025 sorts the exam two ways: seven domains of practice, with 63 milestones between them, and four areas of practice, with 47 condition categories. Three core clinical reasoning milestones run through the whole exam. The percentages are the blueprint’s weights.

01

Assessment and diagnosis

Gathering and interpreting information about a client, then reaching a physiotherapy diagnosis.

Key points (3)
  • The domain is 20% of the exam, give or take 3%: about 12% in the Written Section and 8% in the Oral Section.
  • It has nine milestones, from interviewing the client about health conditions and personal and environmental factors to reassessing status and needs.
  • You identify impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions, and decide whether physiotherapy is indicated at all.
02

Care planning

Setting goals with the client and building, changing and ending an intervention plan.

Key points (3)
  • Care planning is also 20%, give or take 3%, split about 12% written and 8% oral.
  • Its eight milestones run from giving the client relevant information throughout care to preparing them for discharge or a transition of care.
  • Helping the client develop self-management skills is a milestone of its own.
03

Client safety and client-centred care

Keeping the client safe and respecting their autonomy throughout care.

Key points (3)
  • This domain is 15%, give or take 3%: about 5% written and 8% oral.
  • Milestones include monitoring and responding to the client’s status during interventions, and to their physical and emotional state throughout care.
  • Milestones include spotting urgent health conditions that need immediate attention and taking the right action, and responding to near misses and adverse events.
04

Professional responsibilities

Working within the rules of the profession and your own competence.

Key points (3)
  • The domain is 15%, give or take 3%, and most of that weight is oral: about 14% oral against 3% written.
  • Its ten milestones include ongoing informed consent, real or perceived conflicts of interest and professional boundaries.
  • You’re expected to work within the physiotherapy scope of practice and your own level of competence.
05

Collaboration

Working with other providers and with the people you assign care to.

Key points (3)
  • Collaboration is 12% of the exam, give or take 2%: about 4% written and 7% oral.
  • It has two parts: interprofessional care, and supervision and education.
  • You assess the competence of personnel before assigning care to them, then monitor the care and give them feedback.
06

Communication

Building trust with clients and keeping clear records.

Key points (3)
  • Communication is 10%, give or take 2%, about 2% written and 7% oral.
  • Milestones include adjusting how you communicate to the purpose, the setting and how well the other person understands.
  • Preparing complete, accurate health records is part of this domain.
07

Practice management

Running services responsibly, from records to workplace hazards.

Key points (3)
  • Practice management is 8%, give or take 2%: about 2% written and 7% oral.
  • Its nine milestones include handling waitlists, caseloads and access to services, and gaps between an employer’s expectations and professional standards.
  • Records must be kept secure, from storage and transfer through to destruction.
08

Areas of practice and conditions

The four groups of conditions the clinical questions draw on, across ages and settings.

Key points (4)
  • Musculoskeletal conditions are 50% of the content, give or take 5%, with 14 condition categories from muscle injuries to pelvic floor dysfunction.
  • Neurological conditions are 20%, give or take 2%, across 13 categories. Cardiovascular-respiratory and other systems are 15% each, give or take 2%.
  • Other systems include integumentary, metabolic and endocrine conditions, oncology and healthy populations.
  • Items cover three client age groups (0 to 18, 19 to 64 and over 65) and settings from home care to hospitals and private clinics.

Test day

What you need at home on exam day

  • Photo ID in the name you registered under: a Canadian driver’s licence, a Canadian permanent resident card or a passport. No other ID is accepted
  • A desktop or laptop with one screen, a webcam, a microphone and speakers, running Google Chrome with the ProctorExam plugin. Headphones aren’t allowed
  • A smartphone or tablet set up as a second camera for the Written Section
  • Water in one clear, unlabelled bottle or glass, and a small unwrapped snack if you want one

Before you go

  1. Set up a private indoor room: well lit, tidy, with bare walls and nobody else in it. CAPR recommends having it ready no later than the day before.
  2. Check your computer, phone and internet against CAPR’s Testing Setup Requirements. If your setup or room doesn’t meet them on the day, you won’t be allowed to sit.
  3. After the break, be ready to start the Written Section by the login time in your Exam Appointment Confirmation email.
  4. If you’re ill or something serious happens before the exam, withdraw or reschedule, and fees apply. If it happens on the day, email CAPR straight away and send supporting documents within 7 calendar days for a possible partial refund.
CAPR: Applying for the CPTECAPR’s applying page has the steps and the payment options: credit card online, or a money order, certified cheque or bank draft.

Study options

Where to study

CAPR’s own blueprint, reading list, tutorial and practice exam come first, then two courses from other providers. The study options page adds what CAPR says about outside courses and a study path.

OptionPriceFree to useLinks
Official sources
CPTE Blueprint 2025 and Companion Guide, from CAPRThe content, format and weight of every part of the examThe Companion Guide explains the intent of each content area. CAPR expects candidates to use both to prepare.
Free PDFsBoth documents
Get the CPTE blueprint ↗Get the companion guide ↗
Key Reference List, from CAPRCAPR’s reading list, sorted by domain and area of practiceIt lists textbooks for each clinical area and CAPR’s own ethics and practice standards for the non-clinical domains.
Free to readThe whole list
See the reading list ↗
CPTE Tutorial and Written Component Practice Exam, from CAPRA demo of both sections on the exam platform, and 200 retired PCE questions in 4 hoursThe oral tutorial includes an example case. CAPR’s practice exam is bought in the Client Portal and runs on the platform the Written Section uses.
Tutorial free; practice exam $120The tutorial, as often as you like
Open CAPR’s practice tools ↗
PCE Learning Module, from CAPRUntimed multiple-choice questions with an explanation for every optionMade for the PCE Written Component and mapped to the PCE Blueprint 2018. It’s open to every CAPR client in credentialling or the exam process.
Free in the Client PortalThe whole module
See the learning module ↗
Courses
CPTE Final Frontier (CPTEFF)Live and self-study CPTE courses, mock exams, tutoring and a course for the Physiotherapy Evaluation ToolFormerly PCE Final Frontier. It says it was set up in 2018 by physiotherapists and that its courses and mock exams follow the CPTE’s written and oral format. It also offers help with CAPR credentialling.
Not listed on its courses pageAn introduction class, a Jeopardy review and a musculoskeletal series
See CPTEFF’s courses ↗
Physio Refresh CoRe, from the University of British Columbia (UBC)Competency Refresh: five self-directed online modules with live virtual workshopsIts baseline and final exams include multiple-choice questions and oral stations that UBC says follow the CPTE’s oral format. The lab weekend is at UBC’s Point Grey campus. UBC’s fees page lists these prices without a year, so check them when you register. It gives no refunds if you cancel, but refunds the lab weekend fee in full if the weekend is cancelled for too few participants.
$4,000, plus $500 for the optional lab weekendNo
See UBC’s CoRe course ↗

Prices and ratings checked November 2026.

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FAQ

Common questions

Is the CPTE exam the same as the PCE?

No. It’s a different exam with its own blueprint, the CPTE Blueprint 2025, which CAPR uses to build it from January 2026. If you passed the PCE Written Component, you must sit both sections of the CPTE too.

How many attempts do you get at the CPTE?

Three, if your first try at the PCE Written Component was between 2013 and 2025, or if the CPTE is your first CAPR exam. Five, if you first sat the Written Component before 2013. There’s no time limit for using them. Failed attempts at the PCE Clinical Component or at a provincial clinical exam, such as the Ontario Clinical Exam, count toward the limit. Written Component attempts don’t, unless you failed all of them.

What is the pass mark for the CPTE?

CAPR’s candidate guide explains how the passing score is set rather than giving a number. Each section gets its own criterion-referenced standard, and the two are combined by weight into one passing score for the whole exam. One wrong answer to a red-flag safety or professionalism question doesn’t fail you on its own, and there’s no minimum number of cases you must pass.

Who can take the CPTE?

Students and graduates of a program accredited by Physiotherapy Education Accreditation Canada, once they’ve finished all its course requirements, which means you can’t sit in your final term. CAPR checks this with your program. If you were educated outside Canada, you go through CAPR’s credentialling program first.

What happens if you fail the CPTE?

You sit both sections again, and you can apply only once your results are out. CAPR can review your marks: that checks how they were added up, not how your answers were judged, and if your result changes to a pass, CAPR refunds the review fee and any retake fees you’ve paid. If an administrative problem, illness or another event outside your control affected you on the day, you can ask for administrative reconsideration, and appeal if it’s turned down.

Which provinces use the CPTE?

CAPR says every Canadian physiotherapy regulator except Quebec’s has agreed, in principle, to use it as the licensing exam. Passing doesn’t license you by itself. You then apply to the regulator in the province or territory where you plan to work, and each regulator may have more requirements.

Sources: CAPR and 12 more. Checked November 2026.

Rules and fees can change, so check the official site before your test.

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