What is on the CNA written exam
The examination is built from a published blueprint: nine content areas, each with a stated percentage and a stated number of questions. Knowing it turns revision from “study everything” into an ordered list. It is also the thing most free practice material gets wrong, because the blueprint was revised and the free packets were not.
The nine content areas
Three domains hold nine areas between them. Physical Care Skills is more than half the paper on its own; the Role of the Nurse Aide domain — rights, communication, legal duties and teamwork — is a quarter of it, and it is the part candidates most often under-prepare because it does not feel like nursing.
| Content area | Share | Scored questions |
|---|---|---|
| I.A · Activities of daily living | 22% | 13 |
| I.B · Basic nursing skills | 35% | 21 |
| I.C · Self-care and independence | 7% | 4 |
| II.A · Emotional and mental health | 8% | 5 |
| II.B · Spiritual and cultural needs | 2% | 1 |
| III.A · Communication | 7% | 4 |
| III.B · Client rights | 8% | 5 |
| III.C · Legal and ethical behaviour | 5% | 3 |
| III.D · Member of the health care team | 6% | 4 |
From the content outline in force, read on 28 August 2026. The nine counts sum to the sixty scored questions, and the site’s build fails if they stop doing so.
Basic nursing skills is a third of the paper
Twenty-one of sixty questions come from one area, and that area is really four subjects sharing a label: infection control, safety and emergency, therapeutic and technical procedures, and data collection and reporting. If revision time is short, this is where it goes.
Activities of daily living is next at thirteen — hygiene, dressing, nutrition and hydration, elimination, and rest. Between them, those two areas are more than half of everything that is scored.
The weights changed, and the free packets did not
The administrator publishes a free practice packet: sixty questions with an answer key, no charge and no account. It is a genuinely useful document and this site would tell anyone to do it. But it is dated 2021, and the content outline printed inside it is the 2016 one.
On the outline in force, activities of daily living is 22% of the paper. On the 2016 outline it was 14%. Basic nursing skills moved the other way, from 39% to 35%. Somebody revising from the free packet is rehearsing a paper with roughly four fewer questions on the everyday care tasks than the one they will actually sit.
| Content area | 2016 outline | Outline in force |
|---|---|---|
| Activities of daily living | 14% · 9 questions | 22% · 13 questions |
| Basic nursing skills | 39% · 23 questions | 35% · 21 questions |
The 2016 figures are printed inside the 2021 practice packet itself; the current ones are from the outline in force. Both read 28 August 2026.
How to use the blueprint
- Work in proportion. Twenty-one questions of basic nursing skills is worth more of your evening than four of self-care and independence.
- Do not skip the small areas. Nine questions live in communication, spiritual and cultural needs, and legal and ethical behaviour combined, and they are the easiest marks on the paper because the answers are principles rather than judgment calls.
- Treat “report it to the nurse” as a real answer. Across several areas it is the correct one, and it is not a trick: it is the scope of the role.
- When a question sets a client’s right against a routine or a schedule, the right is almost always the answer.
Now find out what the clock does to you.
A full-length timed run, free, with a score by section and an explanation for every question afterwards.
Take a timed testFrequently asked
- What subjects are on the CNA written exam?
- Nine content areas in three domains: activities of daily living, basic nursing skills, and self-care and independence under physical care; emotional and mental health needs and spiritual and cultural needs under psychosocial care; and communication, client rights, legal and ethical behaviour and being a member of the health care team under the role of the nurse aide.
- Which area has the most questions?
- Basic nursing skills, at 35% of the scored paper — twenty-one questions covering infection control, safety and emergencies, technical procedures, and data collection and reporting.
- Is the free practice packet still accurate?
- Its questions are the administrator’s own and worth doing. Its content outline is the 2016 one, so the proportions it implies no longer match the paper — most visibly on activities of daily living, which grew from 14% to 22%.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from one of the documents below, with the date it was read. Requirements change; if a source has moved on since that date, the source is right and this page is out of date.
- Credentia — The 2024 National Nurse Aide Assessment Program (NNAAP®) Written (Oral) Examination Content Outline Read August 28, 2026
- Credentia — 2021 NNAAP® Nurse Aide Practice Written Exam Packet Read August 28, 2026
Page facts last verified August 28, 2026.
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Allied Exam Bank is independent practice material and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by Credentia, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, or any state nurse aide registry. NNAAP® is a registered trademark of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc. Programme and examination names are used only to describe what this material prepares you for. Every question here is original and none is taken from any actual examination. This site is not a nurse aide training programme and does not prepare you for the skills evaluation.