Frequently Asked Questions

The COBie Certified Professional™ Program is an international scheme developed by buildingSMART International under the Professional Certification program to support COBie training and assessment. It comprises two tiers:

In tier 1 - (Professional Certification Foundation), there is the COBie Foundation module.

In tier 2 - (Professional Certification - Practioner), there is the COBie Certified Professional™

The tasks needed to deliver COBie during design and construction are documented in the COBie Educational Curriculum. Next to each task is the knowledge needed to successfully complete that task.

The summary of basic factual knowledge is the subject of the "Foundation - COBie" exam. Foundation - COBie Registered Training Provider courses have been checked to ensure they cover this basic factual knowledge.

The summary of best-practice application and related knowledge is the subject of the "Practitioner- COBie" exam (i.e. the "COBie Certified Professional" exam). COBie Registered Training Provider courses at this level have been checked to ensure they cover this best-practice application knowledge.

This exam tests if the candidate has met the "Practitioner" level COBie learning requirements defined in the COBie Educational Curriculum. This person must know the facts about COBie, its organization, quality control procedure, and best-practice application of the COBie specification. This person is qualified to support the team responsible for collecting COBie data during design and construction.

The COBie Practitioner exam is called "COBie Certified Professional" and is offered exclusively by buildingSMART International. Training from a bSI-authorized Registered Training Provider is recommended, but not required for this exam.

This exam tests if the candidate has met the "Foundation" COBie learning requirements defined in the COBie Educational Curriculum. This person must know the facts about COBie and benefits correctly using the COBie specification. This person is qualified, with associated software training, to deliver COBie for individual disciplines and subcontractors.

The COBie Foundation exam is called "Foundation - COBie" and is offered by participating buildingSMART Chapters. Training from a Chapter-authorized Registered Training Provider is a prerequisite for this exam.

Given the world-wide application of the COBie standard, anyone may sit for the Certified Professional or Foundation exam, as soon as they are publicly released. This includes both bSI members, and non-bSi members.

The COBie Foundation exam is now available for use by bSI Chapters. Please check with your local chapter to see if they have implemented this exam. If your local chapter does not offer the exam, you may sit for the exam offered by any chapter that provides the exam in your language.

The COBie Certified Professional™ examination is an uninterrupted two-hour exam and contains 160 randomly selected questions drawn from a question bank of over 600 possible questions. Question formats include the following: multiple choice (pick one), multiple choice (pick multiple), short answer, and true/false. Some questions require the candidate to extract or evaluate COBie-relevant information from typical design and construction sources.

Passing the COBie Certified Professional™ Examination demonstrates a mastery of the COBie standard and its generic application to typical building design and construction practice. Exam will receive a grade of Pass or Fail.  bSi employs a proprietary method to normalize the raw scores achieved on each exam to ensure that difficulty level is taken into account when identifying the line between passing and failing.

Candidates will be notified of their grade by electronic mail from bSI within thirty (30) days of the examination date.

The COBie Foundation Module examination is a 30-minute exam. Question formats include the following: multiple choice (pick one), short answer, and true/false. Some questions refer to figures containing COBie-relevant information.

Both the COBie Certified Professional Examination™ and the COBie Foundation Examination are on-line exams. The date and time of your exam will be scheduled by arrangement with bSi staff. Candidates will be required to verify their identity and agree to monitoring as part of the exam.

You must take the test in a web browser on a desktop or laptop computer. Your desktop or laptop computer must have an attached camera and microphone that you must allow to being used during the exam. Use of all other electronic devices at any time during the exam is prohibited. bSI has published the COBie Certified Professional™ Exam Organisation Overview and Proctoring Instructions. See the resources page for more information.

Yes. Upon successful completion of the exam, each candidate will be able to download their certificate from the exam web site.

You need to give permission after the exam and then if you are informed later that you have passed, buildingSMART International will publish your name, certification number, certification date, and certification status on the registry page on this web site. This will allow others to verify that you have a claimed COBie certification.

Note that once you pass the examination the status of your certification will be identified as “Active”.  Should you not renew according to the policy below, your status will be changed to “Inactive.” Should your certificate be revoked according to the policy below, your status will be changed to “Revoked”.

Companies may not claim they are COBie Certified Professionals. The designation COBie Certified Professional™ is a personal designation only. However, companies may wish to identify that they employ such professionals. They may do so only by listing these employees’ names, certification number, and certification dates.

The cost for the COBie Certified Professional exam are:

500 Euro Initial Exam, buildingSMART Member Fee

750 Euro Initial Exam, non-buildingSMART Member Fee

125 Euro Initial Exam, Retest Fee

250 Euro Requalification Exam Fee

buildingSMART offers discounts to approved candidates meeting one of two criteria: (a) employees of national, state, or municipal government agency, educational institution, or not-for-profit organization, or (b) groups of candidates of three or more persons from one company or organization.

The discount amount is 10% off the initial exam fee. There are no discounts on other fees. No more than one discount can be applied.

Contact cobie@buldingsmart.org for further information. Once approved as a discounted group. Each candidate must individually apply to sit for the exam and identify themselves with the discount code provided.

The costs for this exam have not yet been fixed.

Yes, you may register to take one retest within 90 days of the date on your exam result notification email.  Note that retest fees apply. Your examination status will not be made public if you do not pass.

Yes. Recertification is required every five (5) years or when the standard is substantially modified.  If portions of the standards are modified, specific tests may be prepared for individuals that are already certified. Certification holders will be notified if re-testing is required and would have six (6) months to take the modified sections tests. If re-testing does not take place within the six (6) month period, then the certification holder would have to retake the test in its entirety.

Should you fail to recertify, buildingSMART International will so indicate by changing your certification status to “Inactive”. This indicates that in the past you held a certification.

The COBie Certified Professional™ examination is a rigorous two-hour exam. Only those who have studied the COBie standard in detail and have delivered COBie data during both design and construction phases of a building project will successfully pass this exam.

bSi has published the COBie Educational Curriculum, a Learning Objective Summary, and has a Registered Training Providers program. See the Resources page for more information.

The primary source for the COBie Certified Professional Examination is the COBie standard itself. The current version of the COBie standard (COBie 2.4) may be downloaded directly from https://www.nationalbimstandard.org/.  Within the set of files downloaded, the two files you will need are Chapter 4.2 and the associated Annex A.

During the COBie Certified Professional™ exam you may only have three resources open on your computer's desktop. These resources are the COBie Standard, Annex A to the COBie Standard, and one COBie spreadsheet of your choosing. You may not get help from anyone else. All work must be your own. Before taking the exam, you must agree to these restrictions and consent to remote monitoring.

Should there be any question regarding your use of external resources at any time following your exam. buildingSMART International reserves the right to remove you from the list of certified or qualified individuals. All decisions in this regard by buildingSMART are final and my not be appealed.

bSI reserves the right to revoke your certification or qualification. After successfully passing the exam, should buildingSMART International become aware of the use of outside assistance during the exam, you will be notified that your certification is to be changed to “Revoked”. A notification will be given and after a thirty (30) period buildingSMART International will decide the matter. Should a decision to “Revoke” be made, the candidate’s website certification status will be changed to “Revoked”. This decision may not be appealed.

buildingSMART International (bSI) does not provided training. However, bSI's Registered Training Provider program identifies training providers who have submitted documents that demonstrate coverage of the COBie Certified Professional learning objectives. See the option provided under the menu heading "Registry."

Documents containing the policy, procedures, and forms necessary to submit an application for consideration to become a COBie Certified Professional Registered Training Provider may be found under the Resources > Downloads section of this website.