How to Become a CPA in California 2025: 8 Crucial Steps

To meet the California requirements to sit for the CPA exam, the California CPA education requirements must be attained first. For California applicants, you need a bachelor’s degree, 24 credits in accounting subjects, and 24 credits in business-related subjects.

You’ll need to create an account on the California Board of Accountancy (CBA) website at www.cba.ca.gov/cbt_public. Then you’ll complete the CPA exam application, and then print, sign, and mail the form and your transcripts to the CBA.

Once the CBA has approved your application and transcripts, you can select the CPA exam sections you want to sign up for, then you’ll submit your payment coupon from NASBA, you’ll then receive your “Notice to Schedule” or NTS, and then you can schedule your actual exam on the Prometric website at www.prometric.com.

Click here to see a breakdown of the California CPA exam costs.

After you pass your first CPA exam section, you’ll have 18 months to pass the remaining 3 sections.

California also requires 150 total credit hours, including 20 semester units of “accounting study”, and 10 semester units of ethics study.

To meet the California CPA experience requirements, you need a minimum of one year of accounting experience working under a licensed CPA. If you want the authority to sign attest reports, you’ll need 500 hours of attest experience.

After completing the previous requirements, candidates must also meet the California CPA ethics exam requirements before you apply for your actual CPA license, you’ll need to take the California PETH examination. You can order the PETH examination at www.calcpa.org/ethics-exam.

Once you’ve met all the requirements, you can apply for your CPA license at https://www.dca.ca.gov/cba/applicants/cpa-application.shtml.