What is on the Customs Broker Exam
CBP publishes no blueprint — but it publishes the papers. Counting the 1,261 questions it has released across 17 sittings gives the weighting below. Entry & Entry Summary alone is 20% of every question on record, about 14.8 of the 80 on a paper.
Every topic, by weight
| Topic | Questions | Share | Usually answered from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry & Entry Summary | 252 | 20% | 19 CFR 141 |
| Classification | 211 | 16.7% | HTSUS General Rules of Interpretation |
| Broker Compliance | 171 | 13.6% | 19 CFR 111 |
| Valuation & Appraisement | 120 | 9.5% | 19 CFR 152 |
| Practical Exercise | 72 | 5.7% | ACE |
| Drawback | 52 | 4.1% | 19 CFR 190 |
| Free Trade Agreements | 44 | 3.5% | 19 CFR 10 |
| Anti-Dumping & Countervailing Duties | 42 | 3.3% | 19 CFR 165 |
| Fines, Penalties & Forfeitures | 42 | 3.3% | 19 CFR 171 |
| Foreign Trade Zones & Warehouses | 42 | 3.3% | 19 CFR 146 |
| Intellectual Property Rights | 41 | 3.3% | 19 CFR 133 |
| Bonds | 40 | 3.2% | 19 CFR 113 |
| Marking & Country of Origin | 31 | 2.5% | 19 CFR 134 |
| Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) | 29 | 2.3% | ACE |
| Power of Attorney | 25 | 2% | 19 CFR 141 |
| Quota | 21 | 1.7% | 19 CFR 132 |
| Miscellaneous | 18 | 1.4% | 19 CFR 133 |
| Recordkeeping | 5 | 0.4% | 19 CFR 111 |
| Partner Government Agencies | 3 | 0.2% | 19 CFR 12 |
Counted from CBP's published papers and answer keys, 2018–2026. Suppressed and voided questions are excluded, which is why the total is 1,261 rather than every question ever printed.
The provisions that answer the most questions
Open book means the answer is in front of you; the exam is whether you can find it in three minutes. These are the places CBP's own answer keys point to most often — the tabs worth having ready.
- 19 CFR 111135 questions
- 19 CFR 14190 questions
- 19 CFR 15270 questions
- ACE70 questions
- HTSUS General Rules of Interpretation64 questions
- 19 CFR 11349 questions
- 19 CFR 13347 questions
- 19 CFR 14646 questions
- 19 CFR 13442 questions
- 19 CFR 19040 questions
Every provision CBP has cited, part by part →
One count per question: a question citing three subsections of the same part counts once. Checked October 6, 2026 against CBP's published exams and answer keys.
What to do with this
Four subjects carry more than half the paper. If your weakest two are in that half, that is where the marks are; if they are in the tail, they are worth less than an hour. The quickest way to find out which is to sit a weighted diagnostic rather than to guess.