AIGP exam guide 2026 (Body of Knowledge v2.1)
The AIGP (Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional) is the IAPP's certification for professionals who govern AI systems. The current exam is built on Body of Knowledge v2.1, effective 2 February 2026, across four domains. It is 100 scenario-based questions in 2.75 hours, scaled 100 to 500 with 300 to pass. The exam tests applied judgement, not memorised definitions: in most questions several answers look plausible and only one fits the responsible-AI governance approach the IAPP defines. Preparing well means studying the current BoK and practising applied reasoning, not collecting question dumps.
What the AIGP is
The AIGP is the certification offered by the IAPP for professionals who work at the intersection of AI systems and governance: how AI is built, deployed, and regulated responsibly. It is becoming the reference credential in AI governance as the EU AI Act and comparable regimes make the discipline a board-level responsibility. The professionals organisations are hiring are the ones who can operationalise governance frameworks, not only describe them, which is exactly what the exam is designed to test.
Get the version right first
Before anything else, make sure you are preparing for the current exam. The Body of Knowledge was restructured from seven domains to four in February 2025, and updated to version 2.1 on 2 February 2026. Most study material online still references the old seven-domain structure or the previous version. If your materials do not reference v2.1, you are preparing for the wrong exam.
The v2.1 update is a recalibration, not an overhaul, but the shifts matter. The most visible change is terminological: "AI models" has been replaced by "AI systems" throughout, reflecting that governance reaches beyond the model to the whole system, its supply chainsupply chainThe layered chain behind an AI product — foundation models, datasets, labelling services, integrators — each layer adding risk the buyer never contracted for directly.Open full entry →, and its downstream uses. New performance indicators were added around agentic architectures, third-party riskthird-party riskRisk inherited through vendors and their supply chains — for AI, invisible training-data defects, layered model dependencies and silent updates.Open full entry → management, and strengthened data governance. The BoK is a free download from iapp.org, and it is the single most important document to study from, because it is the exact blueprint the exam is built on.
The four domains
BoK v2.1 organises the exam into four domains:
- Understanding the foundations of AI governance. Fundamental AI concepts and system types, the principles of responsible AI, how AI creates value and introduces risk, and the ethical dimensions. This is the conceptual bedrock, and it is the smallest domain by weight. A common mistake is to over-study it because it feels foundational; the exam does not allocate most of its marks here.
- How laws and standards apply to AI. How current and emerging laws apply to AI systems, and how the major frameworks (the EU AI Act, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, ISO/IEC 42001, the GDPR) function as governance instruments.
- Governing AI development. The AI lifecycle, the context in which AI risks are managed, and the implementation of responsible AI governance during development.
- Governing AI deployment and use. Governance once a system is live: oversight, monitoring, and the duties that fall on the organisation deploying AI.
Download the current BoK for the exact weighting of each domain, and let those weightings drive how you allocate your study time. Spending equal time on each domain, or most of your time on Domain 1, is the most common way well-prepared candidates underperform.
How the exam works
The exam is 100 questions in 2.75 hours, with a 15-minute break. Of the 100 questions, 85 are scored and 15 are unscored pilot questions being trialled for future exams; you will not know which are which, so treat them all seriously. Scoring is scaled from 100 to 500, with 300 the passing threshold. Roughly 30% of questions are connected to case studies that present a real-world governance scenario.
The certification term is two years. Maintaining it requires 20 continuing-education credits aligned to the BoK and a maintenance fee, which is covered if you hold IAPP membership. This matters for a cost decision discussed below.
The thing that catches well-prepared candidates
The single most important thing to understand about the AIGP is that it is scenario-based, not a recall test. In most questions, three of the four answers look plausible. Only one aligns with the responsible-AI governance approach the IAPP has defined. You cannot reliably eliminate the wrong answers by recognising definitions; you have to reason from the governance principles to the choice the framework would make in that situation.
This is why memorisation fails and why question dumps are a poor foundation. A dump teaches you the answer to a specific question; the exam asks you to apply judgement to a scenario you have not seen. The candidates who pass comfortably are the ones who have internalised a way of thinking about governance, so that when a novel scenario appears they can work out which answer the framework supports. Building that applied reasoning is the real work of preparation, and it is what separates a credential holder who gets hired from one who merely passed.
How to prepare
A realistic preparation plan has three parts: study the current BoK and a structured course built on v2.1; practise scenario-based questions to train applied reasoning rather than recall; and work from a governance framework so that the scenarios connect to a coherent way of thinking rather than a list of facts. Be honest with yourself about the time: most candidates need well over the runtime of any video course, often 50 to 100 hours of active study, even with a strong privacy or compliance background. Treating a course's video length as your study timeline is the most common way to underestimate the commitment.
For a detailed plan, see how to study for the AIGP. If you are still deciding whether to sit the exam at all, see is the AIGP worth it. If you are weighing it against a privacy credential, see AIGP vs CIPP.
How GovCompass prepares you
GovCompass approaches the AIGP the way the exam itself does: through applied governance reasoning built on a framework, not memorisation. The free Responsible AI knowledge base covers the laws and frameworks the exam tests, organised around the seven pillars of responsible AI. The Academy builds the applied, scenario-based depth on top of it.
The AIGP track in the Academy builds that applied depth: original lessons on the current Body of Knowledge, scenario-based questions that train the judgement the exam tests, and honest readiness tracking that reflects your performance rather than how much you have read. It is the first track, with more frameworks to follow.
Disclaimer
GovCompass is an independent resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). "AIGP", "IAPP", and "CIPP" are trademarks of the IAPP, used here for identification only. GovCompass content is educational and does not guarantee any exam result. Always verify exam details against the official IAPP Body of Knowledge and exam blueprint at iapp.org.