BCBA Task List 6th Edition: All 104 Tasks and What Each Is Worth

If you've been hunting for the BCBA task list 6th edition and keep landing on a PDF, a Quizlet deck, or someone's Etsy shop, there's a reason. The BACB doesn't publish a BCBA task list anymore. The document you're looking for is called the BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed.), and it's what every question on your exam is built from.

Same document, new name. It has 104 tasks across 9 domains, and the exam pulls 175 scored questions from them. This page has all 104 tasks, the exact question count for each domain, and one piece of arithmetic the BACB doesn't do for you: which domains pack the most exam questions into the fewest tasks. That last number is the one worth studying from.

Everything here comes from the BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed.) (updated 09/2024) and the BCBA Handbook, both retrieved August 17, 2026.

Why You Can't Find the BCBA Task List Anymore

The 5th Edition Task List was the last one to carry that name. When the BACB replaced it for exams beginning January 2025, it renamed the document to the Test Content Outline, or TCO. The reasoning is in the name. A task list reads like a description of the job. A test content outline is a blueprint for the exam, and that's all this document has ever really been used for.

So when a study group, a professor, or a prep course says "6th edition task list," they mean the TCO. There is no separate document. If you check the BACB's test content outlines page, the only BCBA entry is the Test Content Outline (6th ed.), with no task list listed alongside it and no successor edition announced.

One practical consequence. Older study materials that advertise themselves as built on "the task list" may be built on the 5th edition, which is two years out of date. The tell is the section names. If your materials divide content into Foundations and Applications, they're 5th edition.

How the BCBA Task List 6th Edition Is Weighted

Nine domains, lettered A through I. The exam has 175 scored questions plus 10 unscored pilot questions the BACB uses to test out future items, so you'll answer 185 questions in 4 hours and only 175 of them count. You won't know which is which.

Here's the full breakdown, with the task count per domain alongside the question count. The BACB publishes these two numbers in separate places and never puts them in the same table, which hides the most useful thing about them.

Look at that last column. Domain B has 24 tasks and 24 questions, so a single concepts-and-principles task is worth about one question. Domain F has 8 tasks and 23 questions, so a single behavior-assessment task is worth almost three. Same for domain I at 2.7 and domain H at 2.5.

That gap is the whole study strategy. Most people study the BCBA task list front to back, which means they spend the most time on B because it has the most items. But B is the flattest domain on the exam. The three domains at the back of the alphabet, behavior assessment, selecting and implementing interventions, and personnel supervision, are 34 tasks that carry 62 questions between them. That's 35% of your exam sitting in a third of the document.

What Changed From the 5th Edition Task List

Three things, and none of them is what people expect.

The item count went from 92 to 104. That's 12 more tasks, but the content wasn't expanded so much as broken apart and reorganized. Things that used to be bundled inside one item now get their own line.

The Foundations and Applications split is gone. The 5th edition sorted its 9 content areas into two halves, with A through E as Foundations and F through I as Applications. The 6th edition keeps the same nine letters and drops the division. In practice this reflects how the exam already worked, since your score was never broken out that way.

And the name changed from task list to Test Content Outline, which is the change that sends people in circles looking for a document that was renamed rather than retired.

Worth knowing if you're mid-program: your coursework may still be built on the 5th edition sequence while your exam is 6th edition. That's a normal situation and not a problem, because the underlying content overlaps heavily. What you should not do is study from a 5th edition item list and assume it maps to the current weights, because it doesn't.

All 104 Tasks in the BCBA Task List 6th Edition

Here's the complete outline. Task numbers match the BACB's exactly, so you can cross-reference anything here against the source document.

A. Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations (5 tasks, 8 questions)

• A.1 Identify the goals of behavior analysis as a science (i.e., description, prediction, control).
• A.2 Explain the philosophical assumptions underlying the science of behavior analysis (e.g., selectionism, determinism, empiricism, parsimony, pragmatism).
• A.3 Explain behavior from the perspective of radical behaviorism.
• A.4 Distinguish among behaviorism, the experimental analysis of behavior, applied behavior analysis, and professional practice guided by the science of behavior analysis.
• A.5 Identify and describe dimensions of applied behavior analysis.

B. Concepts and Principles (24 tasks, 24 questions)

• B.1 Identify and distinguish among behavior, response, and response class.
• B.2 Identify and distinguish between stimulus and stimulus class.
• B.3 Identify and distinguish between respondent and operant conditioning.
• B.4 Identify and distinguish between positive and negative reinforcement contingencies.
• B.5 Identify and distinguish between positive and negative punishment contingencies.
• B.6 Identify and distinguish between automatic and socially mediated contingencies.
• B.7 Identify and distinguish among unconditioned, conditioned, and generalized reinforcers.
• B.8 Identify and distinguish among unconditioned, conditioned, and generalized punishers.
• B.9 Identify and distinguish among simple schedules of reinforcement.
• B.10 Identify and distinguish among concurrent, multiple, mixed, and chained schedules of reinforcement.
• B.11 Identify and distinguish between operant and respondent extinction as operations and processes.
• B.12 Identify examples of stimulus control.
• B.13 Identify examples of stimulus discrimination.
• B.14 Identify and distinguish between stimulus and response generalization.
• B.15 Identify examples of response maintenance.
• B.16 Identify examples of motivating operations.
• B.17 Distinguish between motivating operations and stimulus control.
• B.18 Identify and distinguish between rule-governed and contingency-shaped behavior.
• B.19 Identify and distinguish among verbal operants.
• B.20 Identify the role of multiple control in verbal behavior.
• B.21 Identify examples of processes that promote emergent relations and generative performance.
• B.22 Identify ways behavioral momentum can be used to understand response persistence.
• B.23 Identify ways the matching law can be used to interpret response allocation.
• B.24 Identify and distinguish between imitation and observational learning.

C. Measurement, Data Display, and Interpretation (12 tasks, 21 questions)

• C.1 Create operational definitions of behavior.
• C.2 Distinguish among direct, indirect, and product measures of behavior.
• C.3 Measure occurrence.
• C.4 Measure temporal dimensions of behavior (e.g., duration, latency, interresponse time).
• C.5 Distinguish between continuous and discontinuous measurement procedures.
• C.6 Design and apply discontinuous measurement procedures (e.g., interval recording, time sampling).
• C.7 Measure efficiency (e.g., trials to criterion, cost-benefit analysis, training duration).
• C.8 Evaluate the validity and reliability of measurement procedures.
• C.9 Select a measurement procedure to obtain representative data that accounts for the critical dimension of the behavior and environmental constraints.
• C.10 Graph data to communicate relevant quantitative relations (e.g., equal-interval graphs, bar graphs, cumulative records).
• C.11 Interpret graphed data.
• C.12 Select a measurement procedure to obtain representative procedural integrity data that accounts for relevant dimensions (e.g., accuracy, dosage) and environmental constraints.

Tasks C.4 to C.6 are where most measurement questions come from. Our guide to continuous vs. discontinuous measurement covers each method and which way each interval method skews the data.

D. Experimental Design (9 tasks, 13 questions)

• D.1 Distinguish between dependent and independent variables.
• D.2 Distinguish between internal and external validity.
• D.3 Identify threats to internal validity (e.g., history, maturation).
• D.4 Identify the defining features of single-case experimental designs (e.g., individuals serve as their own controls, repeated measures, prediction, verification, replication).
• D.5 Identify the relative strengths of single-case experimental designs and group designs.
• D.6 Critique and interpret data from single-case experimental designs.
• D.7 Distinguish among reversal, multiple-baseline, multielement, and changing-criterion designs.
• D.8 Identify rationales for conducting comparative, component, and parametric analyses.
• D.9 Apply single-case experimental designs.

E. Ethical and Professional Issues (12 tasks, 22 questions)

• E.1 Identify and apply core principles underlying the ethics codes for BACB certificants (e.g., benefit others; treat others with compassion, dignity, and respect; behave with integrity).
• E.2 Identify the risks to oneself, others, and the profession as a result of engaging in unethical behavior.
• E.3 Develop and maintain competence by engaging in professional development activities (e.g., read literature, seek consultation, establish mentors).
• E.4 Identify and comply with requirements for collecting, using, protecting, and disclosing confidential information.
• E.5 Identify and comply with requirements for making public statements about professional activities (e.g., social media activity; misrepresentation of professional credentials, behavior analysis, and service outcomes).
• E.6 Identify the conditions under which services or supervision should be discontinued and apply steps that should be taken when transitioning clients and supervisees to another professional.
• E.7 Identify types of and risks associated with multiple relationships, and how to mitigate those risks when they are unavoidable.
• E.8 Identify and apply interpersonal and other skills (e.g., accepting feedback, listening actively, seeking input, collaborating) to establish and maintain professional relationships.
• E.9 Engage in cultural humility in service delivery and professional relationships.
• E.10 Apply culturally responsive and inclusive service and supervision activities.
• E.11 Identify personal biases and how they might interfere with professional activity.
• E.12 Identify and apply the legal, regulatory, and practice requirements (e.g., licensure, jurisprudence, funding, certification) relevant to the delivery of behavior-analytic services.

F. Behavior Assessment (8 tasks, 23 questions)

• F.1 Identify relevant sources of information in records (e.g., educational, medical, historical) at the outset of the case.
• F.2 Identify and integrate relevant cultural variables in the assessment process.
• F.3 Design and evaluate assessments of relevant skill strengths and areas of need.
• F.4 Design and evaluate preference assessments.
• F.5 Design and evaluate descriptive assessments.
• F.6 Design and evaluate functional analyses.
• F.7 Interpret assessment data to determine the need for behavior-analytic services and/or referral to others.
• F.8 Interpret assessment data to identify and prioritize socially significant, client-informed, and culturally responsive behavior-change procedures and goals.

G. Behavior-Change Procedures (19 tasks, 25 questions)

• G.1 Design and evaluate positive and negative reinforcement procedures.
• G.2 Design and evaluate differential reinforcement (e.g., DRA, DRO, DRL, DRH) procedures with and without extinction.
• G.3 Design and evaluate time-based reinforcement (e.g., fixed-time) schedules.
• G.4 Identify procedures to establish and use conditioned reinforcers (e.g., token economies).
• G.5 Incorporate motivating operations and discriminative stimuli into behavior-change procedures.
• G.6 Design and evaluate procedures to produce simple and conditional discriminations.
• G.7 Select and evaluate stimulus and response prompting procedures (e.g., errorless, most-to-least, least-to-most).
• G.8 Design and implement procedures to fade stimulus and response prompts (e.g., prompt delay, stimulus fading).
• G.9 Design and evaluate modeling procedures.
• G.10 Design and evaluate instructions and rules.
• G.11 Shape dimensions of behavior.
• G.12 Select and implement chaining procedures.
• G.13 Design and evaluate trial-based and free-operant procedures.
• G.14 Design and evaluate group contingencies.
• G.15 Design and evaluate procedures to promote stimulus and response generalization.
• G.16 Design and evaluate procedures to maintain desired behavior change following intervention (e.g., schedule thinning, transferring to naturally occurring reinforcers).
• G.17 Design and evaluate positive and negative punishment (e.g., time-out, response cost, overcorrection).
• G.18 Evaluate emotional and elicited effects of behavior-change procedures.
• G.19 Design and evaluate procedures to promote emergent relations and generative performance.

H. Selecting and Implementing Interventions (8 tasks, 20 questions)

• H.1 Develop intervention goals in observable and measurable terms.
• H.2 Identify and recommend interventions based on assessment results, scientific evidence, client preferences, and contextual fit (e.g., expertise required for implementation, cultural variables, environmental resources).
• H.3 Select socially valid alternative behavior to be established or increased when a target behavior is to be decreased.
• H.4 Plan for and attempt to mitigate possible unwanted effects when using reinforcement, extinction, and punishment procedures.
• H.5 Plan for and attempt to mitigate possible relapse of the target behavior.
• H.6 Make data-based decisions about procedural integrity.
• H.7 Make data-based decisions about the effectiveness of the intervention and the need for modification.
• H.8 Collaborate with others to support and enhance client services.

I. Personnel Supervision and Management (7 tasks, 19 questions)

• I.1 Identify the benefits of using behavior-analytic supervision (e.g., improved client outcomes, improved staff performance and retention).
• I.2 Identify and apply strategies for establishing effective supervisory relationships (e.g., executing supervisor-supervisee contracts, establishing clear expectations, giving and accepting feedback).
• I.3 Identify and implement methods that promote equity in supervision practices.
• I.4 Select supervision goals based on an assessment of the supervisee's skills, cultural variables, and the environment.
• I.5 Identify and apply empirically validated and culturally responsive performance management procedures (e.g., modeling, practice, feedback, reinforcement, task clarification, manipulation of response effort).
• I.6 Apply a function-based approach (e.g., performance diagnostics) to assess and improve supervisee behavior.
• I.7 Make data-based decisions about the efficacy of supervisory practices.

Your Score Is Overall, Not Domain by Domain

This one trips up a lot of candidates, and it's stated plainly in the BCBA Handbook: your examination result is based on your overall performance, not your performance in each content area. There's no minimum you have to clear in domain D. You can bomb experimental design and still pass if you're strong everywhere else.

All 175 scored questions are equally weighted too. A question about radical behaviorism counts exactly as much as a question about functional analysis. Which means the domain percentages in that table aren't difficulty ratings, they're just how many chances each topic gets to show up.

The passing score itself isn't a fixed percentage. The BACB sets it using the modified Angoff method, which is criterion-referenced: a panel of certified subject matter experts judges how many questions a minimally competent entry-level behavior analyst should get right, and the Board approves that number. You're not graded against the other people testing that day. A new passing score gets set when the exam content changes significantly, which is exactly what happened when the 6th edition TCO came in.

That reset is part of why the numbers moved. First-time pass rates fell to 51% in 2025, the lowest the BACB has recorded, down from 54% the year before. We dug into what's behind that in our guide to how hard the BCBA exam actually is.

How to Study From the BCBA Task List 6th Edition

The outline is a checklist of what you're expected to be able to do, so read the verbs. They tell you the level of knowledge each task is testing.

Tasks that start with "identify" or "distinguish" are recognition tasks. Domain B is almost entirely built from these, and they're the ones flashcards genuinely help with. Tasks that start with "design and evaluate," "apply," or "make data-based decisions about" are application tasks. You'll see those as scenario questions, where you get a client, a set of data, and four plausible-looking options. Domains F, G, H and I are dense with them.

So the practical order looks something like this:

• Start with domain B, because everything else is written in its vocabulary. You can't evaluate a differential reinforcement procedure in G.2 if you can't distinguish the schedules in B.9.
• Move to F, H and I next, not last. They're 34 tasks carrying 62 questions, the highest question density in the outline, and they're the ones most people leave until they're tired.
• Practice C.11 and D.6 with real graphs. Interpreting graphed data and critiquing single-case data are two tasks you cannot learn by reading about them.
• Don't skim E. Twelve tasks and 22 questions, and the ethics items reward knowing the actual Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts rather than general good judgment.

One caution about study products. Because the document was renamed, plenty of "6th edition task list" flashcard decks and study guides on marketplace sites are 5th edition content with a new cover. Check that the material has 104 items in 9 domains with no Foundations and Applications split. If it has 92, it's the old one.

Do the 2027 BCBA Changes Affect the Exam?

No. This is worth saying clearly because the 2027 changes are big and people assume the exam is caught up in them.

On January 1, 2027 the BACB's degree, coursework, fieldwork, continuing education and ongoing supervision requirements all change. Coursework gets restructured into six areas totaling 315 instructional hours, and pathways 3 and 4 go away. We covered what that means for candidates in our breakdown of the current BCBA requirements and the fieldwork rules.

The exam is not part of that. The BACB's own 2027 requirements documentation states that the exam continues to be based on the BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed.) with no upcoming changes. The 104 tasks on this page are what you'll be tested on before and after 2027.

The one edition rule you should know: if a new TCO edition does take effect while your 2-year authorization period is active, you have to test under the new outline, not the one that was current when you applied. Nothing like that is announced right now, but it's why you don't want to sit on an authorization.

Where the Task List Fits in the Bigger Picture

The TCO is the last thing standing between you and certification, but it's a long way down the road. You need a qualifying master's degree, the behavior-analytic coursework, and 1,500 to 2,000 hours of supervised fieldwork before you can even apply to test. If you're earlier in that process, our guide on how to become a BCBA walks the whole sequence, and you can compare accredited ABA master's programs if you're still choosing where to do the coursework.

If you've already got a program in mind, it's worth checking BCBA exam pass rates by school. Programs report their own first-time pass rates, and the spread between the strongest and weakest is wider than most applicants expect.

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