CBLE Pass Rate and Passing Score: What CBP's Figures Show

CBP's own numbers show how few examinees pass. Of the last three exams, the best pass rate before appeals was 30 percent and the worst was 12 percent. This guide sets out what CBP publishes about pass rates and the passing score, what 75 percent means in questions, how the appeal line introduced in April 2026 works, and the risks we suggest you plan for. ProSyllabus is an independent study site, not part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

CBP Customs Broker License Exam (CBLE) page, "Pass Rate Information", read 21 Oct 2026.

CBP's CBLE page gives a pass rate for each of the last three exams, each one "prior to appeal decisions". Some examinees pass on appeal; the CBP page we read reports pre-appeal rates and gives no after-appeal rates.

Read the swing as well as the level. The published pass rates differ by 18 percentage points, and the CBP page we read gives no reason for the difference. What does not change is the bar: CBP requires a score of 75 percent to pass.

The CBLE has 80 questions and CBP requires a score of 75 percent, so you need credit for 60 questions. Put the other way, 20 questions can go without credit. When CBP grants all examinees credit for a question, as it did for question 73 in April 2026, that question counts for everyone. CBP's instructions add that "There is no penalty for guessing", so every question should get an answer, even one you have no time to look up.

The middle row is new. From the April 2026 exam, CBP only accepts appeals from examinees who scored within three questions of the passing score: "57 or more out of 80". Those examinees may appeal up to four questions. Everyone else may retake a future exam of their choosing. That makes the gap between 56 and 57 matter almost as much as the gap between 59 and 60.

CBP explains why it drew the line there. Its analysis found that "97 percent of appellants who passed on first appeals were three or fewer questions away from the passing score", rising to nearly 100 percent after it began a pre-exam legal review. It also says that "On average, 70 percent of exam questions are appealed following each exam with many appellants submitting three to four times the number of arguments they need to receive a passing score."

The CBP pages we read give no breakdown of why examinees fail. What follows are the risks we suggest you plan for, drawn from the exam's published format and from working the past papers; it is our reading, not CBP's.

Four and a half hours for 80 questions is 3 minutes 22.5 seconds each. The exam is open book, and that is the trap: it is tempting to look up questions you could answer from memory. A classification question that needs a section note, a chapter note and a subheading can take ten minutes on its own. Six of those use 60 minutes and leave 210 minutes for the other 74 questions, under 3 minutes each.

The references are on screen as well as on paper, but CBP warns that on exam day you "will not be able to move from keyword instance to keyword instance" as you can on the sample exam, and you "cannot copy and paste language from the questions into the search box". CBP recommends bringing your own paper references, marked up and bookmarked, as a backup.

Some questions turn on one word. April 2026 question 4, below, asks which measure would terminate a power of attorney "EXCEPT". Our suggestion: read the stem twice, and when reviewing an option check its deadline (calendar or working days, counted from which event), the responsible party (broker, importer, surety) and the required form.

Each exam names its editions, and a different edition can change an answer. On its reference list for the October 28, 2026 exam CBP says: "Using any other version of the reference materials than those above is at your own risk."

Question 4 of the April 2026 paper is a clean example of an EXCEPT question. Three options do what the stem asks and one does not, and you have to know three provisions of 19 CFR Part 141 (141.34, 141.35 and 141.39) to be sure which. Quoted from CBP's published exam:

Again our suggestion, built from the format rather than from any CBP statement:

The CBP pages we read state one overall pass mark: 75 percent of 80 questions, which is credit for sixty questions. On all four papers from October 2024 to April 2026 Entry / Entry Summary was 25 questions and Valuation 15, so those two categories alone are half the exam. Classification was 10 questions on the October 2025 and April 2026 papers; we suggest budgeting time for it, since a question that needs section notes, chapter notes and a subheading involves several look-ups. The arithmetic on the April 2026 paper: Entry / Entry Summary 25, Valuation 15 and Broker Compliance 17 make 57, so even full credit in all three needs at least 3 more credited answers from Practical Exercise (9), Quota (4) and Classification (10). Our suggestion: be strong on entry, valuation and broker compliance, quick on the categories you know, and leave a slow classification question for the second pass.

If you have just sat the exam and are waiting for your letter, the appeals guide below explains the threshold and the 60-day deadline. If you are starting for April 2027, the dates guide sets out what CBP's pages said when we read them on 21 October 2026.