The LEED v5 Green Associate Final Exam Is Here: What Changed and What Didn't
On 28 October 2026, USGBC updated one page on its support site and closed a question that had been open all year. The Green Associate exam has finished its beta phase. The final v5 exam is available and you can book it today.
Plenty of prep sites have not caught up yet. Search for this and you will still find guides telling you the final exam is expected in October. It already arrived, and the detail that matters most is the one nobody is saying out loud: the exam you prepared for over the summer is the same exam.
The short version
What actually changed: the waiting
During the beta you sat the exam and went home without a score. That was deliberate. USGBC states that data collected during the beta is used to establish the passing score, so nobody could be told a result until enough people had tested.
On the final exam your score is displayed on the screen at the end of the session. A report follows by email and your Credentials Dashboard updates within 72 hours.
That is the whole change. One phase ended and the scoring machinery behind it switched back on.
What did not change, and this is the part worth reading twice
The exam specification is identical. Same 100 multiple-choice questions, same two hours, same 125 to 200 scale with 170 to pass. The eight knowledge domains carry exactly the same weights they carried during the beta.
| Knowledge domain | Questions |
|---|---|
| LEED Process | 15 |
| Energy and Atmosphere | 15 |
| Materials and Resources | 11 |
| Indoor Environmental Quality | 11 |
| Water Efficiency | 10 |
| Location and Transportation | 9 |
| Sustainable Sites | 8 |
| Integrative Process, Planning and Assessments | 6 |
So if you studied against the published outline over the summer, none of that work is wasted. Not an hour of it.
If you sat the beta
Your score was released once the phase concluded, and that covers both halves of the beta. This trips people up, because the beta ran in two parts:
Data collection: 28 April to 30 June 2026. Responses from this window were used to set the passing score.
Testing only: 1 July to September 2026. The exam stayed sittable, and responses no longer fed the analysis.
USGBC's wording covers "beta exam candidates (data collection and testing phase)". If you tested in August, you are included.
A lot of the guidance online describes the beta as having run from 28 April to 30 June and stops there. That quietly leaves out three months of people who really did sit the exam.
LEED AP is a different story, and the two get mixed up constantly
The Green Associate exam is final. The LEED AP with Specialty exams are still in beta, and USGBC says so plainly.
The AP handbook, updated October 2026, puts the AP testing-only phase at 28 October 2026 through January 2027. USGBC lists AP score release as tentatively February 2027.
So if you are planning the Green Associate first and the AP after it, the first half of that path no longer makes you wait. The second half still does.
Source: LEED AP with Specialty Candidate Handbook, October 2026; support.usgbc.orgWhat to study from
The handbook names four references for the exam: the LEED Core Concepts Guide, Foundations of LEED, the Guide to LEED Certification for Commercial projects and the LEED Rating System Selection Guidance. Only the first of those costs money.
Alongside those, the rating system itself is what teaches you to read a scorecard, and scorecard literacy sits inside the published domain list. The current edition is the July 2026 one, published on 31 July. Anything citing February 2026 is a version behind.
Your exam registration is valid for 12 months from the date you register. There is no rush to book a date the week you pay, and no benefit to leaving it so long that you forfeit the fee.
Where that leaves you
If you were waiting for the final exam before committing, the wait is over. If you were studying through the beta window, keep going, because the ground did not move under you.
And if you are reading this because you are not sure which sources to trust any more, that is a fair instinct. This year has produced a lot of confidently out of date advice. Check the date on anything you read, including this page, and check it against the handbook.
We publish 15 practice questions covering all eight domains, free and with no account. Every answer shows the document it came from, so you can check our work rather than take it on trust. The full LEED Process module, the deepest domain on the exam, is free with an account.
Common questions
Is the LEED Green Associate v5 final exam available now?
Yes. USGBC states that the Green Associate exam has completed its beta phase and that the final version, based on the LEED v5 rating system, is now available. You can register and book through your USGBC account, with the exam delivered by Prometric at a test center or online.
Do I get my result on the day?
Yes. The Candidate Handbook states that your score is displayed on the screen at the end of the exam, with a score report emailed to you after the session. Your Credentials Dashboard updates within 72 hours.
Did the exam change between the beta and the final version?
The specification did not. The final exam keeps 100 multiple-choice questions in two hours, a 125 to 200 score range and a pass mark of 170, with the same eight knowledge domains at the same weights. What the beta settled was the passing score, which USGBC establishes from the data it collected.
I sat the beta. Where is my score?
Beta scores were held until the phase concluded and released afterwards. USGBC's wording covers beta candidates from both the data collection phase, 28 April to 30 June 2026, and the testing only phase that followed through September. Check your Credentials Dashboard, and contact GBCI if it is not showing.
Is the LEED AP exam final too?
No. The LEED AP with Specialty exams are still undergoing beta testing. The AP handbook, updated October 2026, gives a testing only phase running from 28 October 2026 into January 2027, and USGBC lists AP score release as tentatively February 2027.