The CTFL syllabus, explained

Get the document your exam uses

Start from the official CTFL download page, rather than a file shared in a course group or an old search result. Keep the filename and version on your notes so you can spot mixed materials.

The current English syllabus is CTFL v4.0.1, dated September 15, 2024. It is a maintenance revision of CTFL v4.0. If you study in another language, confirm the local syllabus edition and exam version with the provider.

Download the official English syllabus →

The six chapters

1. Fundamentals of testing

Ask what testing can reveal, why it matters and how testing activities fit together.

Try this: Write a short example that distinguishes an error, a defect and a failure. Explain the difference without relying on the words in the definitions.

2. Testing throughout the software development lifecycle

Connect testing with development approaches, levels, types and maintenance.

Try this: Take a small feature and describe how its testing would change if the team released it once a month rather than once a year.

3. Static testing

Study reviews and feedback on work products without executing the software.

Try this: Review a short requirement. Mark ambiguity, missing information and contradictions. Explain what a review could find before a dynamic test is possible.

4. Test analysis and design

Work through test techniques and collaborative approaches.

Try this: Use a fictional discount rule to practice partitions, boundaries, decision tables and state transitions. Change an assumption and rebuild the tests.

5. Managing the test activities

Connect planning, risk, progress, configuration and defects.

Try this: Draft a one-page test plan for a small release. Describe the risks, priorities, evidence you need and a clear defect report.

6. Test tools

Understand the support tools can provide and the risks and benefits of automation.

Try this: Choose a repetitive testing task. Explain why automating it could help and what maintenance or incorrect assumptions could undermine it.

Read the verb in each learning objective

CTFL uses K1, K2 and K3: remember, understand and apply. The syllabus identifies the level for each learning objective. Learning a definition is a different task from recognizing an explanation or applying a technique to a scenario.

• For recall: cover the definition and retrieve it from memory.
• For understanding: explain why an example fits a concept and why a nearby alternative does not.
• For application: work the technique from a new scenario before comparing your answer.

A practical mistake is to spend all your time highlighting a document. Highlighting can identify a topic. It cannot show that you can work with it under exam conditions.

Turn the syllabus into a working checklist

• Record each objective’s ID, topic and K-level.
• Add an example you can solve or explain without notes.
• Mark your current state: not studied, needs practice, or can explain and apply.
• Link each practice mistake to the relevant objective instead of making a separate list of answer letters.
• Revisit weak objectives after a gap. If you only remember your previous answer, change the example.

Training minutes printed in the syllabus describe course allocation. They are not the same thing as exam question weights. Use the current exam structure tables if you need the official exam allocation.

Turn your checklist into a study plan →

Want every official file in one place? Our ISTQB study materials page lists the current syllabus, sample exams, glossary and exam rules, plus books that match CTFL v4.0.