CCSI Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts

Which CCSI This Sheet Covers

This cheat sheet is about the ACI Concrete Construction Special Inspector credential, issued under the American Concrete Institute's certification program. It is the full Special Inspector credential, not the Associate level, and it is administered through ACI-approved examiners and local Sponsoring Groups, with grading by ACI. If you landed here looking for a different certification that happens to abbreviate the same way, the figures below will not apply to it. For background on the name itself, see What Does CCSI Stand For? and What Is CCSI Certification?.

Exam Format at a Glance

Question counts are approximate, and the two components stay separate. Do not combine them into a single "100 questions, four hours" exam, because the program does not describe it that way. Oral administration is possible only with ACI approval.

Some course marketing and the generic introduction of the Job-Task Analysis mention "performance" examinations. The selected program and the certification policy specify written inspection plus plans reading, so do not assume a third CCSI practical exam. The practical element you will meet belongs to the Field Testing Technician prerequisite, discussed next. For a full read on difficulty, see How Hard Is the CCSI Exam? and for the score threshold, CCSI Passing Score 2026.

Eligibility, Validity and Recertification

The Field Testing Technician Condition

Full certification requires one of two things: current ACI Concrete Field Testing Technician Grade I certification, or previous Grade I certification plus passing its current written examination within one year of the first Inspector examination you pass. In both cases you also need acceptable employer-verified experience. The Grade I practical assessment is its own requirement and is not a CCSI exam component.

Education and Experience Pathways

Degree acceptability and experience remain subject to ACI policy. Employer verification must establish decision authority, compliance and field evaluation, reporting and inspection proficiency, including the required concrete-testing experience. Associate status does not replace any of the full-credential requirements. The detailed walk-through is in CCSI Requirements 2026.

Five-Year Validity and Renewal

Certification is valid for five years after all requirements are satisfied. Recertification uses the criteria current at the time, including the Field Technician Grade I condition and both examinations. Experience is not reevaluated for renewal at the same level.

The 17 Reference Headings

The seventeen headings below come from the public Job-Task Analysis for ACI Certification of Concrete Construction Special Inspector (the document carries an approval date of 2/17/2014 and is 17 pages). Sixteen are reference headings and the seventeenth is the plans-reading component. Seventeen is a serialization count, not an official weighted blueprint. No heading is published as the heaviest, and the public headings do not prove exhaustive coverage of the paid standards. Our full breakdown is in CCSI Exam Domains 2026.

Numbers and Rules Worth Memorizing

These are the figures that actually appear in the program materials. Nothing here is a pass rate or a salary statistic, and we do not publish any because none are verified for this credential. For the discussion of what is and is not known, see CCSI Pass Rate 2026.

• 70%: minimum on each exam component.
• 1 year: window within which both components must be passed.
• 3 hours / 1 hour: time for written inspection and plans reading respectively.
• About 80 / about 20: multiple-choice question counts.
• 5 years: certification validity after requirements are satisfied.
• 80%: quiz threshold in the public on-demand course. This is a course quiz rule, not the certification passing score.

Reference Labels That Disagree

Open-book exams reward knowing exactly which book sits in front of you. The issuer's own sources label several references differently, and the safest approach is to keep each label as published and confirm the authorized list with your Sponsoring Group before purchasing anything.

Pinned program references include CT-16, 117-10(15), PRC-213-14, 301-16, 302.1R-15, 304R-00(09), 304.2R-96, 305R-10, 306R-10, 308R-01, 309R-05, 318-14 (chapters 1-2, 17, 19-20 and 25-26), 347R-14, and IBC 2015 chapters 17 and 19. A reviewed CP-21 record adds suffixes such as 304.2R-96(08) and 308R-01(08), and lists the CRSI Manual of Standard Practice, 2009. The CP-21 store page could not be retrieved during our latest check, so treat those labels as provenance rather than confirmed current availability. Never substitute newer code editions for the listed ones, since an open-book answer keyed to the wrong edition is a classic way to lose points.

Plans-Reading Checklist

The plans-reading component is short, about 20 questions in an hour, and it rewards a repeatable scan routine. The public task headings point to these items:

1. Drawing identity: titles, numbers, revisions and approval dates. Confirm you are reading the current sheet.
2. Reinforcing: size, grade, location, spacing and splicing.
3. Tolerances: placement, spacing and cover.
4. Schedules: hooks, bends, ties, stirrups and supplemental reinforcement.
5. Forms: concrete-form shapes and sizes.
6. Details: sections and general requirements, plus information that must be assembled across multiple drawings.
7. Locators: stations, grids and detail references.
8. Preparation: subgrade and form-surface preparation, joints and blockouts.
9. Mix requirements: specified strength, slump, admixtures, exposure and durability.
10. Embedded items: post-tensioning steel, dowels and other embedments.

The policy also names field operations the inspector must understand: installation and removal of formwork, reinforcement, embedments, conveying, placement, consolidation, finishing, jointing, curing and protection, plus drilled piers, pilings, pavements and soil cement where appropriate. These are scope flags, not separately weighted domains.

The Supplementary Training Curriculum

ACI's public on-demand course is organized into five modules: (1) inspection and the inspector, reports, statistical quality assurance, inspecting and testing materials, handling and storage; (2) concrete fundamentals, proportioning and control of mixtures, batching and mixing; (3) preconcreting inspection, concreting operations, form removal, reshoring, curing and protection, and postconstruction inspection; (4) building slabs, pavement slabs and bridge decks, architectural concrete, and special methods; (5) special concrete, precast and prestressed concrete, grout, mortar and stucco, and testing, records and reports. These modules are supplementary and unweighted, not five extra official domains. See CCSI Training for how courses and exam preparation fit together.

Cost Items Kept Separate

The most common budgeting error is blending three different things: exam fees, reference books, and courses. Local Sponsoring Groups set examination prices, so there is no single national standalone fee to quote.

For the full picture, including what is and is not included in each line, read CCSI Certification Cost 2026, and for scheduling realities see CCSI Exam Dates 2026. Questions about earnings and return on investment are handled in CCSI Salary Guide 2026 and Is the CCSI Certification Worth It?, and neither should be read as implying a measured certification premium.

A Domain-Ordered Review Sequence

Because both components are open book, the skill being tested is fast, accurate lookup. Sequence your review so that the references you will navigate most are tabbed first. The order below is a suggestion, not an official plan. For a fuller approach, see the CCSI Study Guide.

If you are building the right practice habits, our CCSI practice tests provide independently authored supplementary questions you can use alongside the issuer's materials. They are not actual exam questions and cannot replace the Field Technician requirement, field experience, or ACI assessment.

FAQ

Keep this sheet beside the primary sources, verify every edition-specific detail with your Sponsoring Group, and use independently authored practice as a supplement to, not a substitute for, field experience and the issuer's own requirements.