How many NCA exams will I get? Core, optional and why assignments differ
Most candidates are assigned at least the five core NCA exams; how many more you get depends on your legal education and professional experience.
It's one of the first things people compare, and the answers vary a lot. Here's what the NCA says (checked 18 Oct 2026).
The core every candidate should expect
The NCA says you'll generally need at least the five mandatory Canadian subjects:
- Canadian Administrative Law
- Canadian Constitutional Law
- Canadian Criminal Law
- Foundations of Canadian Law
- Canadian Professional Responsibility
The NCA also lists Contracts, Torts and Property as core common law subjects. Whether you're assigned them depends on how your degree covered them; graduates from mixed legal systems are usually asked to show competence in all eight. Two more requirements are courses, not NCA exams:
- Canadian Legal Research and Writing, for qualifications assessed after 1 January 2022, through CPLED or an approved law school course.
- Indigenous Law and Peoples: as of 1 March 2026, applicants must demonstrate competence in it, through a CPLED module or an NCA-approved law school course.
Additional subjects
Additional subjects come from the NCA's list: Business Organizations, Civil Procedure, Commercial Law, Evidence, Family Law and Remedies. If your qualifications are "stale" (you weren't studying law or gaining legal experience in three of the last five years), the NCA adds one of Contracts, Torts or Property for each five-year gap, up to 15 years, and moves on to the list once those are assigned. Some assessment reports let you choose, for example "two of the following". Our post on choosing optional exams compares them.
Why two candidates get different numbers
The NCA says the number of exams depends on your legal education and professional experience. In practice, candidates point to:
- Whether your degree is from a common law or civil law system. Civil law graduates commonly report more assignments.
- Which subjects your degree covered, and your grades in them: the NCA says low marks in a core subject can mean more exams.
- Whether you're licensed, and how much practice experience you have.
If you think your assessment got something wrong, the NCA has an assessment appeal process ($285 plus tax).
Exams or law school courses
In most cases you can take equivalent Canadian law school courses instead of the exams. An NCA exam costs $500 plus tax; a full year of law school costs $35,000 to $56,000 in tuition, according to the NCA.
How long you have
You have five years from the date of your assessment result to complete your assignments. The NCA puts the best case at about 10 months and the average at about two years.
How many were you assigned, and where did you study law? It helps others see the pattern. Please don't post your file number.
Sources: NCA FAQs, Costs and timelines