LCSW guide2026 exam format
How Many Questions Are on the LCSW Exam in 2026?
The current ASWB Clinical exam has 122 multiple-choice questions: 110 scored and 12 unscored pretest items you cannot identify.
Short answer
The current ASWB Clinical exam has 122 multiple-choice questions in two sections of 61. Twelve are unscored pretest questions mixed among the items, so 110 questions count. You cannot tell which 12 are pretest. Performance on those 12 does not affect the score. This count applies to exams administered beginning August 3, 2026, not to the retired 170-question format.
122 on the screen. 110 in the score.
That split is the whole answer to the search. Treat every item as if it counts when you practice in Passy, because that is the only rational way to sit an exam that hides the pretest questions.
The guidebook is explicit: pretest questions are mixed with scored questions, they are being tried for possible future use, and only the remaining 110 affect the result. Pretest items have already passed ASWB’s other quality checks. They are not trick questions printed in a different font.
Both three-option and four-option multiple-choice items can appear. The exam does not use “all of the above” or “both A and B.”
Why 170 is still everywhere
Older Clinical prep still says 170 total, 150 scored, and 20 pretest. That was the retired format. LCSW exam changes in 2026 puts the two counts side by side. If a practice test is built as 170 items, it is not a replica of the current sitting.
What is on the LCSW exam? is the content those 110 scored questions are drawn from. The count and the outline answer different questions.
What the count does not tell you
It does not tell you the passing number. Scored questions are the denominator, and even then the cut varies by form, generally 66 to 78 correct. Passing score is that rule. Dividing either 66 or 78 by 122 invents a percentage the pretest items were never meant to enter.
It also does not tell you the clock. Two sections, up to two hours each, sit inside a four-hour exam. How long is the LCSW exam? keeps the section lock separate from the raw count.
Leave a slow item and come back inside the section in Passy so one vignette does not imitate a failed time strategy.
The testing software lets you move inside a section. It does not let you return after you submit section one.
When the 122 / 110 / 12 split is automatic, set practice volume from that exam rather than a 170-item bank in Passy.
Older banks still drill 170 items. That count is the retired form.
Sit one quiet mixed block in Passy and notice whether you are still budgeting time for that retired count.
Trust the source
Official sources
Exam policies can change. Use these primary sources for the most current details.