About This Certification

The Certified Professional Coder (CPC) credential is the gold standard for medical coding professionals working in physician office settings. Awarded by the AAPC, it validates expertise in assigning accurate ICD-10-CM, CPT®, and HCPCS Level II codes for diagnoses, procedures, and services. CPC holders are integral to revenue cycle management, ensuring compliant and complete documentation-based billing.

Exam Overview

The CPC examination is a 5-hour and 40-minute open-book exam administered at Pearson VUE testing centers or remotely proctored online. It consists of 150 multiple-choice questions drawn from real clinical scenarios requiring coding of diagnoses, procedures, and guidelines compliance.

Exam Domains & Weighting

Domain	Description	Weight
Medical Terminology, Anatomy & Physiology	Body systems, medical terminology, pathophysiology, and anatomical nomenclature relevant to coding	18.0%
ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Coding	Official ICD-10-CM coding guidelines, conventions, and chapter-specific instructions for diagnosis assignment	26.0%
CPT® / HCPCS Procedure Coding	CPT® codebook sections including E&M, Surgery, Radiology, Pathology, Medicine and HCPCS Level II codes	28.0%
Coding Guidelines & Regulatory Compliance	Official coding guidelines, NCCI edits, payer policies, compliance standards, and documentation requirements	14.0%
Medical Record Documentation Review	Abstracting clinical information from encounter notes, operative reports, and other source documents	14.0%