Phlebotomy practice test for the NHA CPT exam

The five domains of the CPT test plan

The NHA publishes its CPT test plan with the share of scored questions in each domain and the tasks behind them. The table shows those shares, the number of questions each domain gets in our 120-question mock and the size of our pool.

Routine blood collections and safety together make up more than half of the exam. Routine collections covers the venipuncture itself: assembling equipment, applying and releasing the tourniquet, choosing the vein, the angle of insertion, filling tubes in the right order and mixing them. Safety covers infection control, protective equipment, sharps, exposure incidents and patient identification. Patient preparation is about the requisition, fasting and timing instructions, positioning, and sites you must avoid. Special collections and processing are smaller but precise: blood cultures, timed tests, chain of custody, centrifuging, labeling and transport conditions.

How to practice with this test

Start with routine collections, because its questions reuse knowledge from every other domain. When a set goes well, move to the domain where you made the most errors rather than following the list. Each wrong answer is saved in this browser and comes back on the review page. When every domain is above the 80% target in two sets in a row, take the full timed exam.

Read the explanation even when you were right. Many CPT questions have two options that are both acceptable in daily practice, and only one that is right for the scenario given, often because of patient identification or specimen integrity. The explanation says which detail decides.

Five topics that decide many questions

• Two identifiers. The patient states the full name and date of birth, and you match them to the requisition and the wristband before anything else. Asking "Are you Mrs. Lee?" is the classic wrong answer.
• Tourniquet time. The tourniquet stays on for no more than one minute; longer changes some results through hemoconcentration.
• Sites to avoid. The arm on the side of a mastectomy, an arm with an IV running, a fistula, scarred or bruised areas.
• Order of draw. Blood culture first, then light blue citrate, serum, heparin, EDTA and gray, as CLSI summarizes its GP41 standard. The order of draw trainer drills it.
• Hemolysis. A needle too small, forcing blood through a syringe, shaking tubes or drawing through a hematoma all break red cells and can spoil the specimen.

Safety questions: the federal background

Several safety questions follow the OSHA bloodborne pathogens standard: treat all blood as potentially infectious, use engineered safety devices, never recap a used needle by hand, discard sharps at once in a closable, puncture-resistant container, and report an exposure right away so that follow-up can begin. On the exam, the right answer is the one that protects you and the patient without delay; washing the site and reporting comes before finishing the paperwork.

Before you book the exam

The CPT exam can be taken at a test center or with live remote proctoring, and you need a training program or work experience plus the documented draws. The exam guide covers eligibility, scoring and retakes. The NHA did not show its exam fee on a public page on October 26, 2026; schools often pay it, and your NHA account shows the current amount.

These practice questions are written by us from the test plan topics. They are not questions from the real exam.