Specialist

A checkout page that slows to a crawl on launch day is the kind of failure CT-PT prepares you to prevent. The exam itself is a 90-minute paper of 40 questions on how performance testing is planned, modelled, measured and reported, and you need 26 correct answers (65%) to pass. The syllabus is v1.0 from 2018, the fee is USD $199, and you must already hold the ISTQB Foundation certificate. This guide walks through the syllabus chapter by chapter.

Is syllabus v1.0 from 2018 still the one to study, and what must you hold before booking?

Yes. In October 2026 the ISTQB page for Certified Tester Performance Testing still points to the same document: the Foundation Level Performance Testing syllabus, version 2018, dated 9 December 2018 and listed as v1.0 in its file name. No newer syllabus has replaced it, and the ISTQB sample exam is marked as compatible with it. Study that version and nothing else.

ISTQB states the entry rule on the same page: to gain this certification you must hold the Certified Tester Foundation Level certificate. The syllabus repeats it, saying the Foundation Level core certificate must be obtained before the performance testing exam. If you have not passed CTFL yet, that exam comes first; this one builds on its vocabulary of test levels, test process and risk.

Updated on 3 October 2026. What’s new: exam fee corrected to USD $199, and Foundation Level is a required entry condition under syllabus v1.0

CT-TAS is the ISTQB exam for the person who decides whether, what and how much to automate, so it asks for judgement rather than code. You get 40 questions in 60 minutes, the paper is worth 49 points and 32 of them pass. Everything is drawn from one syllabus, version 1.0, which was still the current one on ISTQB's own certification page when we checked in October 2026.

Picture the situation the exam is built around. A team has 1,200 manual regression tests, a release every two weeks and a manager who asks whether automation will pay for itself. A tester who can write Selenium scripts does not automatically know the answer. The answer depends on project length, tool licences, test distribution, environments, who maintains the suite and what the reports will be used for. The Certified Tester Test Automation Strategy syllabus covers exactly those questions, and this article walks through them in the order the syllabus does.

Picture a mobile app that clears every case on the test bench and then freezes in a customer's hand, because a call arrived while the signal dropped from Wi-Fi to cellular. The ISTQB Certified Tester Mobile Application Testing (CT-MAT) certificate is built around that gap. Its paper has 40 multiple-choice questions, runs 60 minutes and needs 26 correct answers, and it expects you to hold the Foundation Level certificate first.

Why does an app that passes on the test bench still fail on a customer's phone?

Because the bench rarely contains the things a pocket does to software. A phone changes networks while a form is half sent, rotates in the middle of typing, loses battery, asks the user for permissions that may be refused, and receives notifications that the operating system may delay or drop to save power. CT-MAT teaches you to plan tests around those conditions instead of treating the app as a desktop program with a smaller screen.

ISTQB's CT-MAT certification page describes it as an insight into the methods, techniques and tools a professional may use to test mobile applications, covering the project activities, roles, methods and methodologies. It is aimed at people who already work with mobile technology, people about to start mobile projects, and people in companies that plan to. Checked in October 2026, the exam is still listed there with the 2019 syllabus attached.