Current as of October 12, 2026. Dates are CPA’s and subject to change.

CPA Core is the second module in the new CPA Professional Program. The cases start here, and so does the optional Licensure path.

In this post we cover how each exam is structured and what’s on it. Then we walk through an example of the skill these cases test most, and finish with what we think will be trickiest. It’s the written version of our video, CPA Canada 2027: NEW Core Module – Format, Cases & Requirements. For all five exams at a high level, see Analyzing the New CPA Professional Program Exam Blueprints and its video.

At a glance

Item	Common	Licensure
Who it’s for	Candidates not pursuing a public accounting licence	Candidates considering a public accounting licence
Format	Two to three cases	The same Common cases (Part A), plus one 2-hour case (Part B)
Time	3 hours	5 hours
To pass	Sufficiency on the overall exam	Sufficiency on Parts A and B combined, plus readiness for licensure on Part B
Sittings	September 16, 2027, then every January, May and September from 2028	September 16, 2027, then every January, May and September from 2028

Source: Exam Guide; CPA Western School of Business schedules.

Who writes it, and when

Core is Module 2, after Foundational Development. CPA calls the Core exam Professional Final Exam 1. Whichever path you’re on, you write the same Common cases.

For the first sitting on September 16, 2027, the Licensure module starts May 29 and the Common module starts July 10. From 2028 there are three sittings a year: January 20, May 18 and September 14, each with its own module beforehand (schedules).

Structure

The Common cases are two to three cases in three hours, each between 60 and 120 minutes. The exam doesn’t control your time between cases, so managing it is on you. On the Licensure path, you write those same cases as Part A, then Part B: one more case, two hours long, timed separately.

CPA describes these cases as “non-complex situations” that need “some integration among competencies”. Direction comes through “clear requirements and case facts”, and CPA says the cases are “not meant to be time pressured” (Exam Guide).

Content

Topic	Common and Part A	Licensure Part B
Assurance	20 to 35%	30 to 50%
Financial reporting	20 to 35%	20 to 40%
Tax	10 to 25%	15 to 25%
Data analytics	5 to 15%	Up to 10%
Non-financial reporting	5 to 15%	Up to 10%

Source: Exam Guide.

Strategy, finance, ethics and governance, and management decision-making have no allocation on Core, on either exam.

Part B also goes deeper in each area. What Licensure adds (Module Guide):

• Financial reporting on non-routine transactions.
• Assurance inside and outside the CPA Canada Handbook, such as ESG, cybersecurity frameworks, dataset accuracy and non-financial KPIs.
• Higher-complexity tax and GST, including selling a business by asset or share sale, income splitting, and the section 167 GST election.

Our reading is that anything Licensure-only doesn’t carry forward into Leadership or Professional Readiness: in the Module Guide, those modules build on Core Common, not Licensure. If that’s right, once a Licensure candidate has shown that technical depth on Part B, they won’t need it again on later exams. Neither guide says this directly, and the Exam Guide also says “all prior learning is also testable”, so treat this as our view for now.

The level. CPA says Core applies competencies “at increased levels of proficiency”, with the CPA Ethical Mindset, including professional judgment. Ethics, for example, moves up to “analyze”, Level 3. Collecting data, and preparing it, “including cleaning data and grading quality”, also reach their highest level in Core.

Passing and reference materials

If you pass Part A but not Part B, you can still progress in the program; you just won’t be licensure-eligible before certification. CPA says a separate exam will be available after certification. We assume it will be similar to today’s Post-Designation Public Accounting (PDPA) exam. What happens if you pass Part B but not Part A isn’t stated yet.

Both exams are non-disclosed. As with Foundational Development, that means the exams won’t be released after each sitting the way CFE exams are. You’ll have the CPA Canada Handbooks, the Income Tax Act and the Excise Tax Act.

What CPA’s samples show

CPA published three Core sample cases, which together make up a full Part A and Part B exam:

Sample	Path	Length
Quartz Construction	Common (Part A)	60 minutes
Mont-Bellevue Academy	Common (Part A)	120 minutes
Seaway Property Management	Licensure (Part B)	120 minutes

We don’t know yet whether CPA will publish more. So while this will be candidates’ first go at case writing, they’ll have very limited practice material, a big contrast with CFE and UFE writers. Past CFE material may help to some extent, but the design and content have changed significantly.

The key skill: finding the requirements

Here’s the kind of email you could get in a Core case. It’s our illustration, not from a CPA sample, but it’s modelled on how CPA’s samples deliver their tasks: inside emails and dialogue rather than a “Required” list.

It reads like a normal email. But there are four requirements in there, and each one is a different topic area.

What the email asks	What it really is	Topic area
“What will an audit involve?”	What an audit engagement requires, and what the auditor will need from the client	Assurance
“How should we record the $300,000?”	Revenue recognition on an upfront payment for a three-year contract	Financial reporting
“What’s our exposure on the instalments?”	The interest, and possible penalty, on missed instalments	Tax
“Look at the inventory listing”	Checking the data for errors and anomalies before anyone relies on it	Data analytics

CPA says Core gives you “clear requirements”, but in the samples they arrive inside emails and conversations, not as a numbered list. In our experience, most past CFE cases set out the requireds in the narrative at the start, rather than inside the appendices. So outlining, planning and thinking through your response before you write matters even more. Before you start writing, read the whole case, pull out every request, and map each one to what it’s actually asking.

What we think will be trickiest

Our read of the blueprint, not CPA’s. It’s here to give you a feel for the exam, not to tell you how to study.

Finding the requirements. As the email shows, the tasks are buried in emails and conversations. Pulling them all out before you start becomes a skill in itself.

Little practice material. You’ll be learning case writing with only three sample cases to practise on.

Data that needs checking first. Mont-Bellevue’s donation log has duplicates and dates out of sequence, and the job is to find them. Expect to judge the data before you can use it.

Part B on its own terms. On the Licensure path, Part B decides readiness for licensure. If you know the CFE, we think it will feel close to a Day 2 assurance role case, with more technical content.

The bottom line

CPA Core has two paths, the same Common cases for everyone, and a separate Part B case on the Licensure path.

Next in this series: CPA Leadership, the five-hour case.

CPA resources

• CPA Professional Program Exam Guide, issued August 27, 2026
• CPA Professional Program Module Guide, issued August 25, 2026
• Sample cases: Quartz Construction, Mont-Bellevue Academy, Seaway Property Management
• Examinations and sample exams, CPA Western School of Business
• Exam schedules, CPA Western School of Business
• Post Designation Public Accounting Program, CPA Ontario

Links as at October 27, 2026.