Green BuildingOctober 9, 202611 min read

LEED Green Associate Exam Topics 2026: What the v5 Switch Changed

The exam switched to LEED v5 in 2026 and the 11-question Project Surroundings and Public Outreach domain went with it. Energy and Atmosphere now ties LEED Process as the largest, at 15 questions.

  • 100 (85 scored)Questions
  • 2 hoursTime
  • 8Sections
  • YesWeights published
  • 170/200Pass mark
  • $100-$250Fee
LEED Green Associate exam topics: LEED v5 knowledge domains and question counts

Table of Contents

The whole paper in one bar

The LEED v5 Green Associate exam specifications, in use since April 2026 is the exam guide GBCI publishes for LEED Green Associate, restated so you can see the shape of the paper before you read a word of the detail. The bar below is the entire syllabus: 8 sections, in the order the certifying body lists them.

17.6%
7.1%
10.6%
9.4%
11.8%
17.6%
12.9%
12.9%
  • §1 LEED Process — 15 items (17.6%)
  • §2 Integrative Process Planning and Assessments — 6 items (7.1%)
  • §3 Location and Transportation — 9 items (10.6%)
  • §4 Sustainable Sites — 8 items (9.4%)
  • §5 Water Efficiency — 10 items (11.8%)
  • §6 Energy and Atmosphere — 15 items (17.6%)
  • §7 Materials and Resources — 11 items (12.9%)
  • §8 Indoor Environmental Quality — 11 items (12.9%)

Those percentages are derived from GBCI’s own published question counts, not an estimate. That matters more than it sounds: most pages ranking for this query quote weightings the certifying body never published.

The syllabus, section by section

Each block below is one section of the official outline. The bullets are the sub-objectives GBCI publishes underneath it — the actual scope statement, not a summary of it.

LEED Process

15 items (17.6%)~15 questions
  • USGBC and GBCI: mission, non-profit status and respective roles
  • Rating system structure: prerequisites, credits, Minimum Program Requirements
  • Rating system families (BD+C, ID+C, O+M) and rating system selection
  • LEED development: consensus process, updates, stakeholder and volunteer involvement
  • Goals of each credit category and the impact areas: decarbonisation, ecological conservation and restoration, quality of life
  • Certification process: review phases, certification levels, addenda, LEED Interpretations, third-party verification
  • Benefits of certification and research resources such as the interpretation database

Integrative Process Planning and Assessments

6 items (7.1%)~6 questions
  • Integrative process and early assessment
  • Systems thinking across disciplines
  • Life-cycle cost analysis
  • Core team: owner, architect, engineers, landscape architect
  • Contractor, facility manager, technicians and consultants
  • Community stakeholders as team members

Location and Transportation

9 items (10.6%)~9 questions
  • Site selection: avoid sensitive habitat; prefer previously developed sites and brownfields
  • Locations with existing infrastructure and nearby uses
  • Transportation demand management: active and alternative modes, ridesharing
  • Alternative fuel vehicles and transport infrastructure design
  • Reduced parking footprint and vehicle miles travelled (VMT)
  • Commuting emissions
  • Equitable development: compact and connected development, equitable access, local economy

Sustainable Sites

8 items (9.4%)~8 questions
  • Site assessment, including environmental assessment
  • Construction site compliance measures
  • Habitat conservation and restoration; limiting disturbance of natural areas
  • Exterior open space
  • Heat island reduction
  • Light pollution reduction
  • Rainwater management and resilience

Water Efficiency

10 items (11.8%)~10 questions
  • Outdoor water: smart irrigation controllers, native and adaptive plants
  • Graywater and rainwater use
  • Indoor water: low-flow and waterless fixtures, water-efficient appliances
  • Process water and water treated on site
  • Cooling towers
  • Water metering, sub-metering, leak detection and monitoring
  • Water quality and assessment tools

Energy and Atmosphere

15 items (17.6%)~15 questions
  • Building loads: envelope, equipment and appliances, heating and cooling loads, space usage
  • Energy efficiency: energy modelling, passive design, heating and cooling systems, thermal comfort
  • Renewable energy, green power and renewable energy certificates (RECs)
  • Energy storage and reduced peak loads
  • Performance management: benchmarking, building automation, advanced metering
  • Monitoring-based and ongoing commissioning
  • Electrification and decarbonisation; greenhouse gases and global warming potential
  • Refrigerant management and ozone depletion

Materials and Resources

11 items (12.9%)~11 questions
  • Life-cycle assessment (LCA) and design for flexibility
  • Embodied carbon
  • Human and ecological health impacts of materials
  • Product purchasing, raw material sourcing and declarations
  • Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in products
  • Reuse, recycle and repurpose: buildings, interiors, furniture, materials
  • Waste: construction and demolition, operations, composting, diversion, waste management plans

Indoor Environmental Quality

11 items (12.9%)~11 questions
  • Indoor air quality: ventilation levels, filtration, natural ventilation, testing and monitoring
  • Construction IAQ management, low-emitting materials, green cleaning, smoke control
  • Lighting: daylight, electric lighting quality, glare control, lighting levels
  • Sound: acoustics and noise isolation
  • Thermal conditions: occupant controls, adaptive comfort, thermal comfort design
  • Biophilic design: live plants, quality views, adaptable environments
  • Accessibility and inclusive design
Worth knowing

GBCI publishes a question count for each domain, and the eight counts add up to 85. The exam has 100 questions, so 15 are unscored items you cannot identify - the handbook confirms unscored items exist but does not print the number; 15 is the arithmetic, and the same figure the v4 handbook stated. The exam is closed-book and, for now, English only. Units appear imperial first with metric in brackets. Testing time is 2 hours, but allow 2 hours 20 minutes for the session. Remotely proctored candidates get no breaks; at a test centre you may step out, but the clock keeps running.

What the weightings really mean

A percentage in an exam guide is a promise about how many questions get drawn from a section, not about how hard those questions are. On a paper of roughly 85 items, LEED Process at 15 items (17.6%) is worth about 15 questions and Integrative Process Planning and Assessments at 6 items (7.1%) is worth about 6. No single section decides the result on its own here - the largest is 15 items (17.6%) of the paper - so the result is decided by how few sections you leave weak, not by how well you master one.

The trap is treating that arithmetic as permission to skip. Weightings are the floor of what a section costs you, because the low-weight sections on almost every blueprint are the ones that supply context for questions filed under a different heading. You lose those marks in the heavy section and never find out why.

Reading the verbs in the objectives

The verb at the front of each sub-objective is the part candidates skim and examiners take literally. It sets the depth you are tested at, and it is the difference between recognising a term and being asked to choose between two answers that both look right.

VerbWhat a question at that depth looks like
Recall / IdentifyFacts stated in the exam references: what USGBC does versus GBCI, which rating system family fits a project type, what a REC is, how the certification levels work. No scenario, one fact.
Apply / SelectA short scenario where you pick the strategy that meets an intent - which measure cuts potable water demand, which team member to involve early, which site avoids sensitive habitat.
Analyze / WeighA scenario with interacting elements that you must break down - for example a site choice that changes transport, heat island and rainwater outcomes at once - and the answer that accounts for all of them.

GBCI tests at three cognitive levels - Recall, Application and Analysis - and does not publish how many items sit at each. The domain list is a set of concepts with examples, not credit thresholds, and the references are general guides such as the LEED Core Concepts Guide, 5th edition, rather than the v5 reference guides the LEED AP exams use.

Study it in this order, not the syllabus order

Exam guides are written to describe what a candidate must know, not to teach it. The published order is almost never the order that builds knowledge fastest. This is the sequence that front-loads the material everything else depends on.

OrderWhy here
1. LEED Process15 items (17.6%). Prerequisites versus credits, Minimum Program Requirements, rating system families, certification levels and the v5 impact areas. Every scenario question assumes this vocabulary.
2. Integrative Process Planning and Assessments6 items (7.1%), the smallest domain. Early assessment, systems thinking, life-cycle cost and who sits on the team. Learn it with LEED Process; it explains the order decisions are made in.
3. Location and Transportation + Sustainable Sites9 items (10.6%) and 8 items (9.4%). Site selection, brownfields, VMT, heat island, light pollution and rainwater. Site decisions come first on a real project and shape the later categories.
4. Water Efficiency10 items (11.8%). Outdoor use, indoor use and performance management. Concrete and self-contained, so the marks come quickly.
5. Energy and Atmosphere15 items (17.6%), the largest technical domain: loads, efficiency, renewables and RECs, commissioning, refrigerants, electrification and decarbonisation. Give it the most time.
6. Materials and Resources11 items (12.9%). Life-cycle assessment and embodied carbon tie it to the decarbonisation thread in Energy and Atmosphere, so study it straight after.
7. Indoor Environmental Quality11 items (12.9%). Air quality, lighting, acoustics, thermal comfort, biophilic and inclusive design. Largely definitional - finish here.
Sequencing note

The six credit-category domains are 64 of the 85 scored items (75%); LEED Process and Integrative Process are the other 21. Learn the framework first - it is a quarter of the marks, and the other domains' questions are phrased in its terms.

What changed, and how to spot the next change

The exam moved to LEED v5 in 2026. The last LEED v4 Green Associate exam was on 26 April 2026, and registrations not used by then were switched to the English v5 exam. A v5 beta ran from 28 April to 30 June; GBCI used its data to set the cut score and published the final v5 exam in September 2026, with scores shown on screen again. The new specifications drop the 11-question Project Surroundings and Public Outreach domain, rename Integrative Strategies, lift Energy and Atmosphere from 10 to 15 questions, and add embodied carbon, electrification, biophilic design and inclusive design. Translated versions are expected in 2027. Current credential holders do not retest. The exam costs $250, $200 for USGBC members or $100 for students, and every attempt is a new fee. Keeping the credential takes 15 CE hours, 3 of them LEED-specific, every two years, plus a $100 renewal fee, or $85 if you renew early.

Two habits keep you from studying a retired outline. First, open the official exam guide and look for its revision date before you buy anything — courses and question banks lag a syllabus change by months, and the cheapest ones never catch up. Second, re-check it the week you book. A revision announced after you started studying is still a revision you sit.

Turn the syllabus into questions

Reading an outline tells you the shape of the paper. Answering questions tells you which sections you would actually lose marks on. Start free, then $5.99 unlocks the full LEED Green Associate bank.

App StoreGoogle PlayFree practice testLEED Green Associate exam page

FAQ

What are the LEED Green Associate knowledge domains and their weightings?

Eight under the LEED v5 specifications, by GBCI's question counts: LEED Process 15 (17.6%), Integrative Process Planning and Assessments 6 (7.1%), Location and Transportation 9 (10.6%), Sustainable Sites 8 (9.4%), Water Efficiency 10 (11.8%), Energy and Atmosphere 15 (17.6%), Materials and Resources 11 (12.9%) and Indoor Environmental Quality 11 (12.9%). The counts total 85 scored items; GBCI publishes counts, and the percentages are derived from them.

What is the passing score for LEED Green Associate?

170 on a scale of 125 to 200. It is a scaled score, not 170 correct answers and not 85%. GBCI publishes neither the raw-to-scaled conversion nor a pass rate. On the final v5 exam your score appears on screen when you finish, and your Credentials Dashboard updates within 72 hours. GBCI never changes a score: a successful content appeal earns a free retest, and you must have commented on the question during the exam.

Can I still take the LEED v4 Green Associate exam?

No. The last v4 sitting was 26 April 2026. Registrations not used by then moved to the English v5 exam, keeping their original 12-month eligibility. v4 study material is now out of step: a whole domain, Project Surroundings and Public Outreach, has gone. If you passed the v4 exam you keep the credential without retesting, and it still qualifies you for the v5 LEED AP with Specialty exams.

How much does the LEED Green Associate cost in total?

$250, or $200 for USGBC members and $100 for students enrolled in college courses, full- or part-time. Each attempt is a new full fee, and after three failures within 12 months you must wait 90 days. Rescheduling is free 46 or more days out, $30 at 30-45 days, $60 at 4-29 days and not allowed inside 3 days. Every two years you need 15 CE hours and a $100 renewal fee, or $85 if you renew early.

Sources

Every section title, sub-objective and number on this page comes from the certifying body:

Checked October 9, 2026. Exam guides are revised without notice — confirm against GBCI before you build a study plan around this page.