CNA
CNA Exam Prep
Practice questions built against the federal nurse aide training-and-competency floor, with server-graded rationale for every answer.
CARE Nursing is not affiliated with, and does not claim endorsement by, any state nurse aide registry or testing vendor.
The federal minimum, and why there's no single blueprint
CNA certification is a federal training-hour-and-competency floor set by OBRA-87 (42 CFR §483.152–483.154), administered separately by each state. Because states use different testing vendors and set different specific skills checklists on top of the federal floor, there is no single national percentage-of-test breakdown the way there is for the NCLEX — presenting one here would be misleading, so we don't.
- Federal minimum: 75 total training hours (42 CFR §483.152(a)(1)).
- At least 16 hours of foundational instruction (communication, infection control, safety, resident independence, resident rights) before any direct resident contact.
- At least 16 hours of supervised practical (hands-on) training.
- Competency evaluation: a knowledge exam (candidate's choice of written or oral format) plus a hands-on skills demonstration, evaluated independently of the training facility.
- States may — and often do — require more than this federal floor.
Find your state's CNA requirements
Every state runs its own nurse aide certification program on top of the federal floor — different testing vendors, different skills checklists. Tell us which state you're certifying in and we'll set your account up for it.
What choosing a state does today: it records which state’s certification you are preparing for, so we can point you at the right requirements and target future state-specific material to you. Our CNA practice questions are currently one national bank built on the federal OBRA-87 core — the questions you see are the same in every state, and they do not replace your own state's skills checklist or curriculum.
Tap a state, or use the search above.Hover to identify a state, then click to continue — or use the full list below, which includes Washington, DC and the states too small to click comfortably.
All states
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- Washington, DC
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Who this is for
Nurse aide training program candidates preparing for their state's certification testing (written/oral knowledge exam and skills demonstration).
How CARE helps you prepare
- Real practice questions covering the federal core-content areas (resident rights, communication, infection control, safety, basic care and ADLs), with a rationale explaining every answer.
- Grading happens server-side — the correct answer is never sent to your browser before you submit.
- Select-All-That-Apply items are supported alongside single-best-answer items.
This content covers the federal core and does not replace your specific state’s own skills checklist or curriculum. CARE Nursing is a study aid. Questions are written from recorded, authoritative sources and independently reviewed, but this material is not reviewed or endorsed by NCSBN, any state board of nursing, any testing vendor, or your training program.
Frequently asked questions
Is there one national CNA exam, the way there's one national NCLEX?
No. Federal law (OBRA-87) sets a training-and-competency-evaluation floor that every Medicare/Medicaid-certified facility's nurse aides must meet, but each state runs its own certification program — often through a different testing vendor (e.g. Pearson VUE, Prometric, D&S/Headmaster, or a state-run program) with its own specific skills checklist and content emphasis. There is no single national content-weighting blueprint the way NCSBN publishes one for the NCLEX, so we don't present one here.
What are the federal minimum training-hour requirements?
Under 42 CFR §483.152, an approved nurse aide training program must include no less than 75 clock hours of training. At least 16 of those hours (covering communication, infection control, safety, promoting residents' independence, and resident rights) must occur before any trainee has direct contact with a resident, and at least 16 hours must be supervised practical (hands-on) training. States may, and often do, require more than this federal floor.
What does the competency evaluation itself involve?
Two components, per 42 CFR §483.154: a knowledge exam, which the candidate may take in either written or oral format (the candidate's choice, not the state's), and a hands-on skills demonstration evaluated by a registered nurse with at least one year of experience caring for the elderly or chronically ill. The evaluation must be administered by the state or a state-approved entity that is independent of the facility that trained the candidate — a facility cannot evaluate its own trainees.
Get started
Choose your state
CNA certification is run by each state, so we set your account up for yours.
Your state is recorded on your access so we can point you at the right requirements. The CNAquestion bank is one national bank today — the questions are the same in every state, and they do not replace your own state’s curriculum or skills checklist.
Choose your access plan
Choose the access time and question-bank size that fits your study plan.
Choose your state above to continue to a CNA plan.
Starter
7-day access to CNA prep.
- 500 Questions
- Unlimited practice sessions
- A written rationale for every answer
- Diagram, chart and exhibit questions
- Practice by topic
- Retry the questions you missed
- Progress tracking and full session history
- Timed full-length mock exams
- Weak-topic identification
Basic
30-day access to CNA prep.
- 1,000 Questions
- Unlimited practice sessions
- A written rationale for every answer
- Diagram, chart and exhibit questions
- Practice by topic
- Retry the questions you missed
- Progress tracking and full session history
- Timed full-length mock exams
- Weak-topic identification
Premium
90-day access to CNA prep.
- 1,750 Questions
- Unlimited practice sessions
- A written rationale for every answer
- Diagram, chart and exhibit questions
- Practice by topic
- Retry the questions you missed
- Progress tracking and full session history
- Timed full-length mock exams
- Weak-topic identification
Complete
180-day access to CNA prep.
- 2,400+ Questions — the full bank
- Unlimited practice sessions
- A written rationale for every answer
- Diagram, chart and exhibit questions
- Practice by topic
- Retry the questions you missed
- Progress tracking and full session history
- Timed full-length mock exams
- Weak-topic identification
- New questions added during your access
Every plan is one-time, fixed-duration access — nothing renews automatically. Terms