CIA exam resources

The Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) is the credential for internal audit professionals, administered globally by The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA). Where the CPA is anchored in public accounting and U.S. state licensure, the CIA is a certification built around one discipline: providing independent assurance and advice on an organisation's governance, risk management and control processes.

It is most useful for people who work in — or want to move into — internal audit, and it also carries weight in adjacent careers: risk management, compliance, controls testing and governance roles all draw on the same body of knowledge the exam tests. If your target is external (financial-statement) audit, the CPA is usually the more direct route; if your target is auditing, improving and advising on how organisations manage risk from the inside, the CIA is the purpose-built credential.

According to the IIA's official program information, the CIA exam consists of three computer-based parts, each made up entirely of multiple-choice questions:

• Part 1 — Internal Audit Fundamentals. 125 multiple-choice questions in 2.5 hours. The conceptual base of the whole program: the purpose and authority of internal audit, ethics and professionalism, governance, risk management and control, and fraud risks. This is the subject of our first deep guide: the complete Part 1 guide.
• Part 2 — Internal Audit Engagement. 100 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours. A single engagement end to end: engagement planning; information gathering, analysis and evaluation; and engagement supervision and communication.
• Part 3 — Internal Audit Function. 100 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours. Managing the function itself: internal audit operations, the risk-based audit plan, the quality of the function, and engagement results and monitoring.

The parts may be taken in any order. Many candidates start with Part 1 because its concepts underpin the other two, but that is a strategy choice, not a rule.

The IIA updated the CIA exam syllabus effective May 2025 to align it with the Global Internal Audit Standards, which replaced the previous International Professional Practices Framework (IPPF) as the profession's authoritative framework. The practical consequence for candidates is simple but important: study from materials written for the current syllabus. Older prep resources built around pre-2025 IPPF terminology can teach you vocabulary and framework structures the current exam no longer uses. Our part guides are written against the current IIA syllabus, and our blueprint update policy explains how we track official changes like this one.

To enter the CIA program you must meet eligibility requirements that the IIA defines and administers — covering education, professional experience and a character reference. The specifics interact (for example, education level affects the experience expected), and the IIA updates its program rules from time to time, so we deliberately do not restate the detailed criteria here. Before you build a study plan, confirm your eligibility directly against the IIA's official CIA program pages. Discovering an eligibility gap after months of study is an avoidable setback.

Because the parts can be taken in any order, your plan is genuinely yours to design. The common-sense default — Part 1 first, since its foundations recur throughout Parts 2 and 3 — works well for most people, but candidates with strong day-job exposure to audit operations sometimes prefer to bank Part 2 early. Whatever the order, the IIA's program rules govern how long you have to complete the program, so check the current policy on the official site rather than relying on hearsay.

Two free Certuvo tools support the planning work:

• Exam study-plan generator — turns your available weekly hours, background and target dates into a week-by-week schedule across the three parts.
• Certification cost calculator — CIA fees depend on your circumstances, such as IIA membership status, so rather than quoting figures that may be wrong for you, the calculator itemises the fee categories and links to the IIA's official pricing.

All six deep guides, written against the current IIA syllabus under the same editorial standards:

• CIA Part 1: Internal Audit Fundamentals — the four syllabus domains with official weights, worked examples and a study approach for the foundational part.
• CIA Part 2: Internal Audit Engagement — engagement planning, information gathering, analysis and evaluation, and supervision and communication, with official weights.
• CIA Part 3: Internal Audit Function — operations, the risk-based audit plan, quality, and the heavyweight engagement-results-and-monitoring domain.
• CIA requirements — the IIA's eligibility framework, the application process, experience verification and the program timeline.
• CIA exam cost — every fee category explained, and how IIA membership changes the pricing.
• CIA study plan — hour estimates per part, part-order strategy and a weekly study structure.