How many questions are on the CNA exam in Maryland (2026)?

The Maryland CNA exam is administered by Credentia and follows the same two-part structure used in every other US state. The written portion is a 70-question multiple-choice test that covers the daily knowledge a nurse aide needs on the job: how to provide physical care, communicate with residents, follow infection control practices, and recognize safety risks. You sit for the written exam at a Credentia testing center (or, in some Maryland locations, on paper at a regional site) and you have 120 minutes to finish.

The skills portion is hands-on. On test day, a Registered Nurse evaluator assigns you 5 randomly selected nursing procedures drawn from a state-approved skill list. Two skills — Hand Hygiene and Indirect Care — appear on every exam. The other three rotate from the pool of 18 skills Maryland recognizes, including Hand Hygiene, Indirect Care, Bed Bath, Oral Care, and others.

The format is identical whether your state uses Credentia or one of the other five US certification vendors. All CNA exams are aligned to the same NNAAP content blueprint, so the topics, scoring rules, and critical-step expectations carry over. What changes between states is mostly the fee, scheduling, and which vendor delivers the test — not the content you need to study.

The Maryland written exam draws its 70 questions from five content areas, with weighting that matches the day-to-day responsibilities of a working CNA. Physical Care accounts for roughly 50% of the questions, Psychosocial Care about 14%, Role of the Nurse Aide around 18%, Safety near 18%, and Infection Control approximately 18%. The remaining questions cover sub-topics inside those buckets — things like vital signs, nutrition, dementia care, and resident rights.

The biggest slice is Physical Care — that is, the hands-on skills you'll demonstrate in the clinical evaluation as well: bathing, dressing, transferring, feeding, toileting, and perineal care. Infection Control and Safety are tested heavily because mistakes in those domains harm residents directly, and Role of the Nurse Aide covers the scope-of-practice questions that trip up first-time testers.

Psychosocial Care rounds out the exam — communication with residents and families, dementia and mental-health best practices, and cultural sensitivity. The NNAAP blueprint treats all five areas as essential, so study each one rather than concentrating only on the largest slice.