Training, exams and certification
Training, exams and certification
Four questions, three hours, eighty marks, forty to pass — and the standard on your desk. Forty-five minutes per question is generous only until you start reading the scenario.
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The APMG ISO/IEC 20000 Practitioner certificate tests whether you can apply the requirements of ISO/IEC 20000-1 to a real organization: planning, implementing and improving a service management system.
| Questions | 4 scenario-based questions, each worth 20 marks |
|---|---|
| Format | Objective testing: complex multiple-choice items built on a scenario |
| Duration | 180 minutes |
| Pass mark | 50% — 40 marks out of 80 |
| Materials | Open book: a copy of ISO/IEC 20000-1 only |
| Prerequisites | ISO/IEC 20000 Foundation or ITIL Foundation |
| Languages | English, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (traditional) |
| Typical course | Two days |
Three hours for four questions sounds relaxed. It is not: each question sits on a scenario, and each is worth twenty marks spread across several items. Reading the scenario carefully is where the time goes — and where the marks are lost when people skim.
The pass mark is lower than at Foundation, 50% instead of 65%, because the questions are harder. Forty marks out of eighty: a weak question can be recovered, a skipped one cannot.
You may bring ISO/IEC 20000-1 and nothing else. That is a real help: the requirements are in front of you, so the exam is not about remembering the clause numbers but about applying them to the scenario.
Make the copy usable. Know the clause structure well enough to open the standard on the right page in seconds, and keep clause 8 — the process groups — within reach.
You need either ISO/IEC 20000 Foundation or ITIL Foundation. Many candidates come in through ITIL, which makes sense: the processes are familiar. What ITIL does not give you is the habit of reading “shall” — and the Practitioner exam is built on it.
Practise with full scenarios under time, with the standard open. After each question, check not only the answer but the clause that justifies it. If you can explain why an option meets — or fails — a specific requirement, you are thinking the way the exam is marked.
Four scenario-based questions, each worth twenty marks, for eighty marks in total.
Forty marks out of eighty — 50%.
Three hours.
Yes. It is open book with a copy of ISO/IEC 20000-1, and nothing else.
ISO/IEC 20000 Foundation or ITIL Foundation.
No. It is objective testing: you choose answers in complex multiple-choice items, you do not write essays.
Sources. Every figure on this page comes from APMG International’s own published certification pages and from accredited training material, checked in October 2026.
We run it as a two-day in-company course with an APMG-accredited trainer, the exam at your premises or by voucher. From €640 per participant, exam included, minimum four.
See the courseBITIL.COM is an ATO (Accredited Training Organization) of APMG-International for ISO/IEC 20000® & ISO/IEC 27001® courses.
