AICP Certification Exam Content Outline

Updated October 2026

What Changed in the AICP Exam Content Outline?

A member guide to the 2022-to-2026 content update

AICP periodically reviews the Certification Exam to ensure it reflects the knowledge and competencies planners need in current practice. The revised outline retains the same nine major domains while updating domain weights, terminology, examples, and areas of emphasis.

Content Weight Changes

2027 (Pilot) AICP Exam Content Outline

The AICP Certification Exam evaluates the knowledge and competencies planners need to think critically, anticipate consequences, address problems, serve the public interest, and practice ethically. The revised outline retains nine major content areas. Each content area includes categories and illustrative examples; exam questions are not necessarily limited to the examples shown.

Research and Assessment Methods (9%)

• Conducting research and acquiring knowledge (e.g., qualitative and quantitative research, experiential research, oral histories, appropriate research methodologies, precedents and examples, analysis and reporting, surveying, sources of data, metadata)
• Data and source selection (e.g., authoritative data sources, documenting choice selection, data quality, data relevance, data reliability, data validity)
• Data interpretation and evaluation (e.g., data set context, gaps in data, implicit bias, reliability of results)
• Spatial analysis (e.g., GIS, mapping, interpretation, 3D visualization, modeling)
• Community outreach and engagement approaches (e.g., accessibility, diverse perspectives, in-person versus virtual tools, lived experiences, qualitative versus quantitative methods, surveys)
• Acknowledgment of privacy and confidentiality concerns, including the ethical use of new technologies (e.g., data source sharing, population location data, documenting, validating, and disclosing the use of AI/machine learning)

Fundamental Planning Knowledge (14%)

• History and evolution of planning, planning movements, and influences on contemporary planning (including diverse historical planning individuals, perspectives, and politics)
• Planning theory (e.g., public interest theory, incrementalism versus comprehensiveness, equity, advocacy planning, rational planning)
• Influences on patterns of human settlement (e.g., growth and development of places over time, trade, climate, infrastructural resources)
• Foundational legal principles and statutory basis of planning (e.g., federal, state, and local law; housing law; property rights; eminent Content Areas; police power; redlining; case law and statutes)
• The role and influence of related professions on planning projects (e.g., public health, landscape architecture, law, engineering, real estate, landscape, ecology, public finance)
• Natural, social, and economic patterns (e.g., demographics, social infrastructure, sustainability, resiliency, ecology, water, health, climate, finance)
• How technology can be used to advance planning (e.g., smart cities, data aggregation and interpretation, smart devices, V2X communications, automated delivery, AI/digital tools)
• Information technology tools (e.g., GIS, visualization, spatial software, modeling, scenario planning)

Communication and Interaction (11%)

• Communication (e.g., relationship building, conducting meetings, media relations, appropriate language(s), audience awareness, electronic versus traditional media, internal versus external communications, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence)
• Security (e.g., internal drafts, executive sessions with government attorneys, preliminary development inquiries)
• Strategies and techniques to provide nondiscriminatory information materials free of obstacles and/or barriers to accessibility
• Listening, comprehension, and documentation of needs and ideas (i.e., accurate compilation and integration into the planning process)
• Management, collaboration, and teamwork (i.e., facilitating decision making in the public interest to build consensus)
• Social justice and culturally appropriate communication (i.e., interacting with and planning for diverse communities with sensitivity to cultural history and social movements)
• Understanding the roles of organizations and their functions (e.g., government agencies, nonprofit entities, and for-profit businesses)
• Analysis of the success of the public outreach strategy and its success in targeting communities/populations (e.g., recognizing implicit bias, outcomes, participant demographics)
• Navigation of sensitive and complex political situations (e.g., practical understanding of the role of a planner and the role of elected officials, relationship building, role of the media, including social media)
• Presentation of data to the public, end users, and decision makers in an accessible, equitable, and understandable manner
• Reporting and tracking (e.g., analysis, metrics, benchmarks, check-backs)

Plan and Policy Development (16%)

• Preparing to plan (e.g., scoping, goal setting, visioning, key issue/opportunity identification, statutory/regulatory/physical/economic/social/cultural context)
• Requirements for scopes of work (e.g., development review, long-range projects, different roles/skills required, budget, interested parties and participants, objectives, deliverable(s), content, appropriateness, timelines, public outreach/engagement)
• Stakeholder and community inclusion in scoping a plan, policy, and project (e.g., strategic stakeholder identification)
• Familiarity with local, state, and federal laws and case law (e.g., preemption, national precedence, tribal sovereignty, jurisdictional ordinances)
• Formulating and drafting policies (e.g., policy analysis, equity, economic and environmental implications, APA policy guides)
• Interrelationship between vision, goal, objective, and policy creation
• Objectives and actions to address identified needs and priorities equitably
• Negotiation and facilitation to address conflicting interests and demands
• Applying innovations and best practices appropriate to place and context
• Identifying and evaluating potential pros and cons of outcomes
• Funding and financing considerations, demands, and strategies (e.g., budgeting, return on investment (ROI), municipal and real estate financing sources)
• Community character and form (e.g., context-sensitive design, historic architecture, urban design, evolution and dynamics, form-based codes, multicultural sensitivity, equity, community cohesion, street patterns)

Plan Implementation (14%)

• Interpretation and application of regulations, policies, and programs (e.g., codes and regulations, budgeting and finance, decision making, capital improvement) in assessing projects
• Funding and financing options (e.g., grants, local, state, federal, private partnerships)
• Funding procurement, management, and administration (e.g., grant writing, budget advocacy, financing transactions, securing public benefits, negotiations)
• Strategic partnerships and actions to facilitate equitable plan implementation (e.g., engagement, education)
• Identifying and mitigating challenges and obstacles for equitable plan implementation (e.g., striving toward a win-win outcome, supporting differing viewpoints, avoiding misinformation)
• Drafting action steps and assigning responsibility, including managing, facilitating, and/or coordinating the implementation of programs or projects according to a schedule
• Monitoring, evaluating, and updating adopted plans, policies, and implementation actions (e.g., cost/benefit, qualitative and quantitative measures and criteria, transparency, adaptive management, performance metrics)
• Integrating multiple projects to achieve efficiency and effectiveness equitably (e.g., budget, prioritization, identifying projects based on geographic area, cost savings, equity, constituency, infrastructure, aligned projects)

Administration and Management (7%)

• Project or program management (e.g., RFPs, RFQs, grants, budget preparation, managing contracts, scheduling, staff allocation, planning process)
• Internal organizational management (e.g., team organization, staff training, alignment with strategic mission and vision, organizational budgeting and financial management)
• Management of external relationships (e.g., customer service, client interaction, file management, partner organizations, decision makers, and boards and commissions) in a manner considering transparency, freedom of information, confidentiality, and privacy
• Mentoring and motivating staff equitably to develop their skills
• Performance-oriented management and accountability (e.g., creating benchmarks, contract management, testing for statistically significant variations, quality control, and quality assurance)

Leadership (6%)

• Leadership in support of planning and participation (e.g., education, building partnerships, advocacy in diverse settings, ethical advocacy)
• Introduction and advocacy of best practices, tools, and applications
• Accountability to the profession, ethical principles, and the public interest
• Comprehensive approaches to complex problem solving
• Diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI)
• Coaching and mentoring
• Professional development expectations and standards
• Value and importance of planning
• Participation in programs, functions, and events to benefit and serve the public and community

Areas of Practice (13%)

• Comprehensive and long-range planning (e.g., community values assessment, socioeconomic analysis, growth scenario development, visioning, physical planning, capital budgeting, policy planning, strategic planning)
• Geographically focused subarea planning (e.g., district, community, corridor, neighborhood planning, downtown)
• Current planning (e.g., legal procedural applications, codes and regulations, zoning administration, plan review, impact analysis, design review, site planning)
• Sustainability and resilience planning, including adaptation and life-cycle analysis (e.g., interwoven equity, resilient economy, healthy community, responsible regionalism, climate action plan, vulnerability assessments, adaptive planning, modeling)
• Transportation and multimodal planning (e.g., integration of transportation modes, land use and mobility demand, goods movement/logistics, access equity for all, environmental and energy impacts, smart mobility, curb management, autonomous vehicles, transit-oriented development (TOD), traffic impacts and mitigation, Vision Zero, safe routes)
• Infrastructure and service planning, including adaptability and life-cycle analysis (e.g., concurrency, essential public and community facilities, service delivery, energy, capital improvement planning, demand analysis, utilities, energy planning)
• Hazard mitigation and resiliency planning (e.g., risk assessment, floods, earthquakes, wildfires, spills, brownfields, antiterrorism, disaster preparedness, environmental justice planning, public health access, adaptation, disaster response planning)
• Natural resources planning (e.g., environmental assessment, environmental impact analysis, climate impact and change, environmental justice impacts on Indigenous and/or marginalized communities, adaptability, proactive climate protection)
• Economic development (e.g., community revitalization, fiscal and economic analysis and forecasting, incentives, funding and financing, workforce development, business retention and expansion, entrepreneurship, sustainability and diversification, micro and macro considerations, regionalism)
• Urban design (e.g., placemaking/placekeeping, public realm, design guidelines, urban form and mix of uses, density and intensity, performance standards, walkability)
• Housing planning (e.g., demand and market analysis, funding, financing, affordability and accessibility, policy, equity, cultural considerations, unhoused populations and social services, housing typology)
• Parks, recreation, and open space (e.g., livability, variety, programming, accessibility, natural systems viability, safety, safe routes, informal spaces, allowance of cultural practice, conservation versus preservation, active versus passive open/recreation spaces, proximity, trails, green infrastructure)
• Historic preservation and cultural resource planning (e.g., identification, provision, protection, adaptability, viability, cultural and racial awareness, legacy, sensitivity)
• Facility and services planning (e.g., state and federal facilities, local community facilities and institutional uses, shared use, airports, military bases, campuses, joint land use plans)
• Food system planning (e.g., security, access and justice, production, urban agriculture, economies, management of food waste, governance, industrialization, delivery systems, sustainability and resilience, labor)
• Community health planning (e.g., environmental justice, healthy lifestyles through design, active living, service access, distribution and integration, locational suitability, mobility of service, technology, affordability, health impact assessment, emergency shelters)
• Rural and small-town planning (e.g., rural economic development, natural and agricultural resources protection, multijurisdictional relations, character, scale, land use, density, transfer of development rights (TDR), sustainable futures practices and policies, growth and agriculture interface)
• Comprehensive equity and advocacy planning (e.g., as applicable to placemaking/placekeeping, mobility, housing, economic development, access to facilities and services, repairing legacies of harm)
• Regional and multijurisdictional planning (e.g., watershed, transportation systems, regional infrastructure, jurisdictional collaboration, border issues, housing and resiliency considerations, land use, demographics, financing and funding)
• Big data, smart city planning, AI, and emerging technologies

AICP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (10%)

• Overall responsibility to the public (e.g., serving the public interest, achieving high standards of professional integrity)
• Responsibility to both internal and external clients and employers (e.g., diligent, creative, and competent performance of work in pursuit of a client or employer's interest)
• Responsibility to the planning profession and colleagues (e.g., promoting planning, increasing public understanding of planning activities, increasing opportunities for underrepresented groups to become professional planners, leadership and involvement, continuing education, service to the profession)
• Responsibility of the planner to uphold the AICP rules of conduct, compliance, and administration (e.g., conflicts of interest, quality and integrity of planning practice, validity of AI- and machine-learning-based outcomes)
• Core values of planning (e.g., equity, diversity, inclusion, social justice, public interest, sustainability, resiliency, healthy and prosperous communities, democratic engagement, transparency)

*All ethics questions are based on the AICP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct adopted in 2022.