CIC Certification in Infection Control

CIC certification at a glance

CIC — Certification in Infection Control — is the recognized board credential for infection preventionists. It is issued by the Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. (CBIC), an independent body created by APIC in 1981; CBIC administered its first certification exam in 1983.

CIC is a board certification, not a course. "Infection preventionist" is the job role; CIC is the credential that role earns. Candidates often confuse CIC with CBIC's entry-level a-IPC credential and its long-term-care LTC-CIP credential — only CIC is the experience-gated, all-settings certification.

Am I eligible for the CIC exam?

Likely yes — if you are directly responsible for infection prevention and control program activities and meet CBIC's experience recommendation. CBIC does not enforce a nursing-only rule or a fixed degree gate; nurses, microbiologists, public-health practitioners, and epidemiologists all sit the same exam.

CBIC recommends post-secondary education in a health-related field and qualifying work experience: at least one year full-time, two years part-time, or 3,000 hours of infection-prevention work within the previous three years. Your activity must span the five core IPC areas plus at least two of the remaining three components.

You are a strong candidate if…

• You hold direct responsibility for your facility's infection prevention and control program, reflected in your current job description.
• You have at least one year of full-time IPC experience (or two years part-time, or 3,000 hours within the last three years).
• Your work covers identification of infectious disease processes, surveillance and epidemiologic investigation, transmission prevention, environment of care, and cleaning/sterilization/disinfection/asepsis.
• You also engage in at least two of: employee/occupational health, management and communication, or education and research.

What does the CIC exam cover? Eight domains

The CIC blueprint spans eight domains, drawn from CBIC's 2021 content outline (built on the 2020 practice analysis). The three largest domains — Preventing/Controlling Transmission, Surveillance and Epidemiologic Investigation, and Identification of Infectious Disease Processes — together carry about half of the scored items, so most study time should live there.

Do not neglect the smaller program domains. Employee/occupational health, management and communication, and education and research feel administrative at the bedside but reliably appear on the exam. The percentages below are NursPrep-computed from CBIC's published scored-item counts (135 scored items total) and are rounded for clarity.

Cost, scheduling, and exam format

The CIC examination fee is $445 USD, submitted with your application (a January 2025 CBIC fee-schedule PDF listed $430; CBIC's current About-the-Examination page lists $445 — verify the live figure before you pay). CBIC delivers the exam through Prometric test centers and Prometric's ProProctor remote-proctoring system, so you can test in person or from a private location.

The exam runs as two 90-minute sections (180 minutes of testing) with a 10-minute tutorial, an optional 16-minute break after Section 1, and a short closing survey. The first 75 questions must be completed in the first 90-minute section, and you cannot return to Section 1 after the break.

Recertification

CIC certification is valid for five years; all certifications expire on December 31 at the end of the five-year cycle. Effective January 1, 2026, CBIC offers two recertification pathways: Infection Prevention Units (IPU portfolio) or retaking the proctored CIC examination. Both pathways cost $430.

Plan recertification well before your expiration date. Keep documentation of your IPUs throughout the cycle so the portfolio pathway is straightforward when your renewal window opens.

How is the CIC exam scored, and how hard is it?

CIC scoring uses a scaled score from 300 to 900, and you need at least 700 to pass. Passing candidates receive only a "Pass" message — no numeric score — while failing candidates receive a scaled score between 300 and 699. The scaled score adjusts for small differences between exam forms, so a 700 reflects the same standard of knowledge regardless of which version you take.

CBIC does not publicly publish a CIC pass rate, so any specific percentage you see quoted elsewhere is not an official figure. Treat the exam as content-broad rather than trick-based: candidates who underprepare for the program domains (employee health, management, education) tend to lose the most points relative to their bedside strengths.

A study plan for the CIC exam

Most working infection preventionists prepare over 8 to 12 weeks, roughly 60 to 100 total study hours, weighting time toward the three largest domains. Use the APIC text as your spine, then drive retention with practice questions across all eight domains rather than re-reading.

How CIC candidates trip up — and how to avoid it

Sample CIC-style question

This NursPrep-authored item mirrors the scenario format of the CIC exam — a short clinical/program stem with four plausible options where only one is best. It is not a CBIC question. Try it before reading the rationale.

Key infection-control terms every CIC candidate should know

These terms surface across CIC exam items. Review them until the definitions feel automatic — scenario stems often hinge on recognizing which framework applies.

CIC vs. a-IPC, LTC-CIP, and AL-CIP

CIC sits within a family of CBIC credentials. Candidates sometimes apply for the wrong one, so the distinction matters before you spend time or money.

Take CIC if you hold direct responsibility for an infection prevention program and meet the experience recommendation. Start with a-IPC if you are new to the field, choose LTC-CIP if you work in long-term care, and pursue AL-CIP once you move into senior IPC leadership.

Frequently asked questions about CIC certification

Trusted sources

All figures on this page are verified against the following primary sources. CBIC revises fees, the content outline, and recertification rules over time — always verify numeric facts against the current CBIC pages before relying on them for application decisions.

• CBIC — About the CIC Exam (exam format, 150/135 items, scaled 700 passing score, $445 fee, break structure)
• CBIC — CIC Eligibility Guidelines (direct responsibility, 1-year full-time / 2-year part-time / 3,000-hour experience rule, activity components)
• CBIC — 2021 CIC Examination Content Outline (eight domains; scored-item counts based on the 2020 practice analysis)
• CBIC — CIC Recertification by Proctored Examination and by IPUs (five-year cycle, pathways effective 2026-01-01, $430 fees)
• CBIC — Examination Fees schedule (effective January 6, 2025)
• CBIC — a-IPC (Associate Infection Prevention and Control) credential page
• APIC — History of CBIC (CBIC created 1981; first exam 1983)
• CBIC — Exam & Certification FAQ

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