CPA Exam Requirements By State

That is, are you a US citizen, pursuing an accounting degree in an accredited college in the US? If so, the natural path for you is to graduate and apply for the CPA exam from your state of your college.

You should be able to get a lot of guidance from the professors and TAs on the process anyway. No worries.

• You next step would be to get ready and evaluate the CPA exam review courses that you'll need to ace the exam.

In order to become a CPA, the candidate have to go through the 3Es: Education, Exam and Experience.

As mentioned above, different states have slightly different rules but in generally they have the following requirements:

• Education: 4-year bachelor degree or above
• Exam: Pass all 4 sections of the CPA exam within an 18-month window
• Experience: Fulfill 1-5 years of experience, depending on the educational level and individual state requirements

There are also certain restrictions on citizenship, residency and minimum age for some states, but in most cases candidates don't need to worry about it.

I am going to list a few CPA exam requirements for popular state as examples. If I do not cover your state, there will be instruction on where you can get the relevant information at the bottom of this page.

California is one of the biggest states so let's start with that.

For education requirements:

• Bachelor degree or above
• 24 credit hours of accounting
• 24 credit hours of business courses

For those who has obtained 120 credit hour for their education (typically a 4-year bachelor degree in the US), then they will need to work for 2 years after passing the CPA exam in order to get the license.

For those who has obtained 150 or more credit hour (typically a master's degree in relevant discipline), then only 1 year of accounting experience is enough.

Please note that social security number (SSN) is required to get the license from California.

* For further details and links to primary sources, please visit this page on California CPA exam requirements.

Photo courtesy of scazon @ flickr

For education requirements:

• Bachelor degree or above
• 24 credit hours of accounting
• 24 credit hours of business courses
• 6 credit hours of business law

For those who has obtained 120 credit hour for their education (typically a 4-year bachelor degree in the US), then they will need to work for 2 years after passing the CPA exam in order to get the license.

Please note that Florida's requirement on accounting and business courses is stricter than California. For example, they have to be upper-level (i.e. 3rd or 4th year level) and accounting course for non-accounting majors for MBAs cannot be counted. There are also a specification of what subjects are included/excluded. For details, please check with the link below.

Also, while Florida State Board let candidate to sit for the exam with 120 credit hours, in order to obtain the license candidates have to fulfill the full 150 credit hours.

For the experience requirement, the candidate will need to get 1 year of accounting experience supervised by a CPA (US) licensee. Alternatively, s/he can work under a CPA equivalent (e.g. Chartered accountant from Canada or CA/CPA from Australia) but the number of years working under this supervisor will have to be longer.

Please note that social security number (SSN) is also required to get the license from Florida.

* For further details and links to primary sources, please visit this page on Florida CPA exam requirements.

* Photo courtesy of orangejack @ flickr

What's special about Illinois is that it is one of the few states that remain to be "two-tiered", i.e. candidates can obtain a CPA certificate before getting a full license. The implication is that the candidate can choose to get a "partial" CPA qualification without fulfilling the working experience requirement. Also, SSN is not required by the Illinois State Board.

Education requirements:

• Bachelor degree or above
• 150 semester units from an accredited colleges
• Undergrad degree:
• 24 credit hours of accounting
• 24 credit hours of business courses
• Graduate degree:
• 24 credit hours of accounting (undergrad level); OR
• 15 credit hours at graduate level

For working experience, there is no need for any in order to get the CPA certificate. To get the full license, one has to work for 1 year in accounting under the supervision of an actively licensed CPA.

* For further details and links to primary sources, please visit this page on Illinois CPA exam requirements.

* Photo courtesy of cyberdees @ flickr

Similar to Florida, you can sit for the exam with 120 credit hours but in order to ultimately obtain the license you will have to fulfill 150 credit hours.

For education requirements:

• Bachelor degree or above
• 21 credit hours of accounting
• 9 credit hours of business courses

Massachusetts also grants something like a CPA certificate (what they call a non-reporting license) to graduate degree holder without the need of working experience. For reporting license, 1 year of public accounting (essentially means auditing) experience is required.

* For further details and links to primary sources, please visit this page on Massachusetts CPA exam requirements.

* Photo courtesy of Melissa Babin @ flickr

New York used to allow 4-year bachelor degree graduate (i.e. 120 credit hour holders) to sit for the exam. No longer. You'll need the full 150 credit hours just to get qualified.

• Bachelor degree or above
• 150 semester units from an accredited colleges
• An accounting program either registered or accredited by the New York State Education Department as licensure-qualifying, which generally means
  • 33 credit hours of accounting
  • 33 credit hours of business courses
  • There is also a minimum grade requirement on each of the subjects

There is an exception to the above: if you can prove that you have worked under a licensed CPA for 15 or more years, then the education requirements can be waived.

For working experience, the candidate generally needs to work for 1 year in accounting under the supervision of an actively licensed CPA.

* For further details and links to primary sources, please visit this page on New York CPA exam requirements.

* Photo courtesy of D.Fletcher @ flickr