- CDPA here means Certified Digital Persuasion Analyst, issued through HFI Training (Human Factors International).
- Preparation maps to two courses: PET Design and The PET Architect. These are unweighted categories, not official exam domains.
- The badge requires at least 70% on multiple choice plus passing essays; no numeric essay rubric is published.
- Legacy exam-only terms list USD 475, 90 minutes in a 24-hour window, and one free retake within six months.
CDPA Cheat Sheet 2026: The One-Page Version
- The One-Page Version
- Identity and Issuer: Who Runs This Credential
- Exam Facts at a Glance
- What Is Not Publicly Verified
- Course 1: PET Design Must-Knows
- Course 2: The PET Architect Must-Knows
- The Persuasion Principles Checklist
- Question Style and Passing Logic
- Fees and Registration Mechanics
- A Domain-Ordered Review Schedule
- Quick FAQ
Key Takeaways
- CDPA here means Certified Digital Persuasion Analyst, issued through HFI Training (Human Factors International).
- Preparation maps to two courses: PET Design and The PET Architect. These are unweighted categories, not official exam domains.
- The badge requires at least 70% on multiple choice plus passing essays; no numeric essay rubric is published.
- Legacy exam-only terms list USD 475, 90 minutes in a 24-hour window, and one free retake within six months.
- Pass rate, question count, version number, and renewal rules are not publicly disclosed, so avoid sources that claim them.
This page condenses what a candidate actually needs to hold in their head: the issuer, the two course areas, the named persuasion tools, the assessment style, and the pricing mechanics. It also flags what is not publicly confirmed, because a cheat sheet that guesses is worse than none. For a deeper walkthrough, pair it with the CDPA study guide and the CDPA exam domains guide.
Identity and Issuer: Who Runs This Credential
The Certified Digital Persuasion Analyst credential comes from Human Factors International, delivered through HFI Training. The issuer-served certification page and the /cdpa/ page both name the credential as Certified Digital Persuasion Analyst and tie its assessment to two HFI courses.
Because the acronym is shared by unrelated credentials elsewhere, always confirm that a study resource is about persuasion, emotion, and trust in digital design before relying on it.
Exam Facts at a Glance
| Item | What Is Published |
|---|---|
| Issuer / administrator | Human Factors International via HFI Training; HFI administers the online exam |
| Proctoring/platform vendor | Not publicly named |
| Legacy exam-only price | USD 475 with one free retake within six months (current 2026 exam-only checkout price unconfirmed) |
| Legacy duration | 90 minutes within a scheduled 24-hour access window (current timing unverified) |
| Question types | Multiple choice plus application/essay questions |
| Badge threshold | At least 70% on multiple choice plus passing essays |
| Prerequisites | Legacy exam-only page lists none |
| Exact question count | Not publicly disclosed |
| Pass rate | Not publicly disclosed |
| Weighted blueprint / version number | None verified |
What Is Not Publicly Verified
Candidates lose time chasing numbers that simply are not published. Treat any site that states the following as fact with suspicion:
- An exact number of questions, or a multiple-choice versus essay split
- A count of scored versus unscored items
- A numerical essay rubric or a combined aggregate scoring formula
- A pass rate (see our CDPA pass rate discussion for what can and cannot be said)
- Whether the exam is open-book, calculator-permitted, or adaptive
- Current proctoring rules
- Certification validity period, renewal fee, or CEU/CPE requirements
Course 1: PET Design Must-Knows
The first course area is "How to Design for Persuasion, Emotion, and Trust," known as PET Design. These are unweighted preparation categories, not official weighted exam domains, so no one can honestly tell you which area is "worth the most points." Prepare both fully.
PET Design: Published Learning Outcomes
Expect the assessment to probe whether you can apply, not merely recite, these skills:
- Applying core methods and tools for persuasive and emotional design, including creating a persuasion strategy
- Evaluating sites on the basis of persuasion, emotion, and trust
- Using PET Design markers to identify persuasion, emotion, or trust elements in your own prototypes or designs
- Integrating PET-related requirements into data gathering and interaction design
- Building personas specifically to research, probe, and analyze PET-related factors
- Constructing designs and persuasion flows based on users' drives and blocks
- Validating the persuasiveness and emotional impact of your designs
- Leveraging the research that continues to shape this evolving discipline
Two phrases deserve special attention: drives and blocks (what pushes a user toward action and what stops them) and PET markers (observable design elements that signal persuasion, emotion, or trust). Application questions often ask you to spot these in a described interface.
Course 2: The PET Architect Must-Knows
The second course area, "The PET Architect," shifts from analyzing designs to building strategy. Its outcomes center on the Core PET Meme and the Persuasion Flow.
The Core PET Meme
A Core PET Meme is a phrase, behavior, or image that carries your persuasion strategy. The published outcomes say it must be:
- Tuned with executive intention: aligned to what leadership actually wants
- Tuned with deep PET analysis insights: grounded in your research
- Practical to transmit: easy to communicate and repeat
- Protected from maladaptation: resistant to being distorted as it spreads
You should also be able to create a projection of a Core Meme (as a phrase, behavior, or image).
The Persuasion Flow
Centered on your Core PET Meme, a Persuasion Flow involves:
- Selecting effective, synergistic, and practical methods
- Creating core chains through an interaction
- Ensuring momentum
- Ensuring final conversion
- Embellishing with triggers
Retention and Application
Customer retention methods (sustained relationships) cover pain control, habit, and engagement and commitment. You then apply PET Architecture methods to market strategies, new product and service innovations, and application and website designs.
For how these two areas fit together as an exam map, see the complete domains guide.
The Persuasion Principles Checklist
HFI states that participants in The PET Architect must already be able to apply the persuasion engineering tools from the PET Design course. That makes the following list your highest-value memorization target. Know each by name, know what it does, and be ready to recognize it in a scenario.
- Contrast principle
- Decidophobia
- High price equals good
- The power of free
- Social proof
- Social learning
- The power of people we like
- Diffusion of responsibility
- Scarcity
- Reason for request
- Over-categorization and correlation
- Overestimation of big unlikely events
- Rule of reciprocation
- Divestiture aversion
- Feel good
- Priming and framing
- Conditioning and association
- Expectation
- Cognitive dissonance
- Pressure by people we like
- Obedience to authority
- Psychological reactance
- Momentum of "Yes"
- Compliance laddering
Key Takeaway
Group these into families to make them stick: social levers (social proof, social learning, people we like, obedience to authority), commitment levers (cognitive dissonance, momentum of "Yes," compliance laddering), value-perception levers (contrast, high price equals good, the power of free), and friction/resistance concepts (decidophobia, psychological reactance, divestiture aversion). Then practice naming which lever a described design is using.
Question Style and Passing Logic
The published assessment includes both multiple-choice and application/essay questions, so this is not a multiple-choice-only credential. The issuer-controlled badge requires at least 70% on the multiple-choice portion and passing essays. Because no numerical essay rubric or current aggregate formula is verified, you cannot "average out" a weak essay with a strong multiple-choice score, and you should not assume you can. Details on how scoring is described live in our CDPA passing score article.
What application and essay questions reward
- Naming the specific principle at work, not just describing the behavior
- Connecting a persuasion lever to a drive or a block in the user's journey
- Explaining how you would validate persuasiveness or emotional impact
- Showing how a Core PET Meme would carry through a Persuasion Flow to conversion
A useful drill: take any familiar checkout or signup flow, label each step with the principle in play, then identify where momentum could stall and what trigger or retention method you would add. Practicing questions in this mixed style is the fastest way to build fluency; the practice test site is built for exactly that kind of repetition. For a candid read on difficulty, see how hard the CDPA exam is.
Fees and Registration Mechanics
Pricing is where legacy and current information diverge, so read carefully.
| Path | Published Terms | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Analyst exam-only (legacy page) | USD 475, one free retake within six months | Current 2026 checkout price unconfirmed |
| North American Architect package | USD 3,290; five days / 40 hours, two courses, materials, examination, and one reattempt within six months | Current published package |
- No member versus non-member price split is published.
- The 40 training hours in the package are not a universal prerequisite for the exam.
- The three-day and two-day courses total five training days; this does not make the exam five days long.
A Domain-Ordered Review Schedule
Since neither course area is officially weighted, split your time by dependency rather than by guessed percentages. PET Design comes first because The PET Architect explicitly assumes you can already apply those tools.
PET Design foundations
- Memorize the full persuasion principles checklist above
- Learn drives, blocks, and PET markers; label markers on real sites
PET Design application
- Practice persona building for PET factors and persuasion-flow construction
- Write short answers on validating persuasiveness and emotional impact
The PET Architect
- Draft a Core PET Meme meeting all four criteria
- Map a Persuasion Flow: core chains, momentum, conversion, triggers
Retention and mixed review
- Cover pain control, habit, engagement and commitment
- Take mixed multiple-choice and written practice; revisit weak principles
If you want a fuller plan, the study guide expands this outline.
Quick FAQ
No. They are the two named HFI courses linked to the Analyst examination and are used here as unweighted preparation categories. No official weighted blueprint has been verified, so no area can be called the highest-weighted.
The published assessment requires at least 70% on multiple choice plus passing essays. No numerical essay rubric or combined scoring formula has been verified.
The legacy exam-only page lists none, and no mandatory degree, experience hours, or references have been verified. The package's 40 training hours are not a universal prerequisite.
The legacy Analyst page describes 90 minutes within a scheduled 24-hour access window. Current timing is not independently reconfirmed, so verify with HFI Training before test day.
CDPA-specific validity, renewal fees, and CEU/CPE requirements are not publicly verified. Do not assume policies from other HFI credentials apply; ask HFI directly.
Once you have the facts straight, the remaining work is repetition. Review the principles checklist daily, rehearse mixed-format questions, and use the CDPA practice tests to find the gaps before the real attempt.