Exams / Phlebotomy / How many questions are on the NHA phlebotomy exam?

How many questions are on the NHA phlebotomy exam?

The NHA Certified Phlebotomy Technician (CPT) exam has 120 questions, and you get 2 hours. 100 questions count toward your score, and the other 20 are unscored pretest questions.

Checked against the sources on October 15, 2026.

NHA started a new version of the CPT exam on January 7, 2026, based on a job analysis it finished in 2024. Study materials written for the older exam may weight topics differently, so check that anything you use follows the new test plan.

What the 100 scored questions cover

Domain Scored questions
Routine blood collections 28
Safety and compliance 26
Patient preparation 20
Processing 14
Special collections 12
Total 100

Two hours for 120 questions gives you one minute per question. You won’t know which 20 are pretest questions, so answer every one.

Order of draw falls under routine blood collections, the largest domain. Our order of draw guide lists the tube order from BD’s chart.

Sources

  1. National Healthcareer Association, CPT test plan. 100 scored and 20 pretest questions, 2 hours, scored questions per domain. Checked October 15, 2026.
  2. National Healthcareer Association, New CPT certification exam and study materials. The new CPT exam started January 7, 2026. Checked October 15, 2026.

Join the phlebotomy waitlist

We’ll email you once, the day it opens.

We’re building phlebotomy practice tests with every answer explained. One payment lasts until your test date, and nothing renews.

More about the phlebotomy

What is the NHA CPT passing score?

You need a scaled score of 390 or higher to pass the NHA CPT phlebotomy exam. NHA reports scaled scores from 200 to 500, and the same passing score applies to all of its certification exams.

How much does the NHA phlebotomy exam cost?

The NHA Certified Phlebotomy Technician (CPT) exam costs $134. That’s the price NHA lists for the CPT exam application, and each retake costs the full price again.

Order of draw

Draw blood culture bottles first, then the citrate (light blue) tube, then serum tubes, then heparin, then EDTA, and the fluoride (gray) tube last. This order keeps the additive in one tube from contaminating the next.

Phlebotomy practice test

We’re writing a phlebotomy practice test for the NHA CPT exam, and a certified phlebotomy technician checks every question before it goes live. Join the waitlist to hear the day it opens.