Updated on 22 September 2026. What’s new: updated for the LEED v5 AP BD+C exam, now a standalone English-only beta after LEED v4 testing ended on 28 June 2026.
If you are getting ready for the LEED AP BD+C exam this autumn, you are getting ready for a LEED v5 exam. USGBC stopped offering the LEED v4 version on 28 June 2026, and the only Building Design and Construction exam on offer today is the LEED v5 beta: 100 questions in two hours, 170 out of 200 to pass, and no score on the day. This guide explains the new eight-domain outline and gives ten study tips written for it.

Which version of the LEED AP BD+C exam can you take right now?
The answer depends on the date you test, not the date you register, and it changed twice in 2026. We checked USGBC's LEED v5 exam information page (last updated 14 August 2026) and GBCI's LEED AP with Specialty Candidate Handbook (updated September 2026) in September 2026. Here is the position they describe.
LEED v4 is gone for BD+C
The last day to register for the LEED v4 AP with Specialty exams was 24 June 2026, and the last day to sit one was 28 June 2026. Anyone who had registered but not tested by then was moved automatically to the English version of the LEED v5 exam, keeping the original 12-month eligibility period. There is no route back to the v4 paper, even if your project work is still on LEED v4.