PMP certification requirements

PMP Certification Requirements | Are you eligible for PMP?

10 min. read

You should have heard about Project Management Professional PMP certification. It is among the most reputable project management certifications. What are the benefits of PMP certification? What are the Project Management Professional certificate requirements? In this article, we will describe the PMP certification requirements in detail.

PMP Certification Requirements at a Glance

PMP certification has three requirements:

  • 35 contact hours of Project Management Education
  • Project Work Experience Requirement (at least three years)
  • A secondary or higher-level background

The following table summarizes the PMP certification requirements at a glance.

Education BackgroundProject Experience35 Contact Hours Requirements
Secondary Degree (High School etc.)5+ Years (60 months)Must
Four-Year Degree (BSc, BA, etc.)3+ Years (36 months)Must

We will be going over these requirements one-by-one in detail.

Why Are There Requirements for PMP?

You might wonder why there are requirements for PMP certification? There are two fundamental reasons for this. The first main reason is project management is a serious profession that requires communication with several stakeholders throughout the project. While delivering a scope of work, project managers must be careful about communication, attitude, and how to manage the expectations of different people. Otherwise, project delivery might fail. Therefore, having solid project management job experience is one of the requirements for PMP certification.

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The second main reason for having requirements for PMP is that project management requires solid theoretical knowledge of project management techniques. There are 10 knowledge areas that a project manager has to be proficient in for passing the PMP exam. These knowledge areas are tested in five different project management process groups. To pass the PMP certification exam, a PMP candidate must score above a certain level from these project management process groups.

In short, PMP certification requires two things. Because of these two reasons, requirements for the PMP exam include the PMP experience requirement and the PMP education requirement. PMP work experience requirement will show that the PMP candidate has enough soft skills to sit for the PMP exam. PMP education requirements will show that the PMP candidate has enough theoretical background to manage a project.


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We will see the PMP experience requirement and PMP education requirement in detail. Note that, depending on the PMP education requirement you satisfy, your PMP experience requirement will change as well. We have classified these two different options below with option #1 and option #2

If you satisfy PMP education requirement #1, then you must satisfy PMP experience requirement #2.

If you satisfy PMP education requirement #2, then you must satisfy PMP experience requirement #2.

PMP Education Requirement #1

For applying for PMP certification and earning the PMP certification you need to have at least a secondary degree, for instance, a high school diploma or equivalent education level. If your highest attended education level is a secondary degree, to apply for PMP certification, you need to satisfy the following three PMP certification requirements.

  1. 5 years of project management experience
  2. 7,500 hours of experience leading and directing projects
  3. 35 hours of project management education.

Our 35 contact hours of self-paced PMP Training satisfies the project management education requirement

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PMP Experience Requirement #1

Note that, the project management experience point in PMP certification requirements does not seek active management of a project. Participating in a project environment also counts for these 5 years of experience requirement. However, 7500 hours of these 5 years, which makes around 3.5 years, need to be spent on leading and directing projects. Again, this doesn’t mean that you should have enrolled in a project as a project manager. A leading or directing role can be a supervisor of a junior team member or team member, team leader of a group, assisting the project manager in some of the project management activities, etc.

If your education level is a four-year degree or above, you should be looking for the following PMP requirements.

PMP Education Requirement #2

If your highest attended education level is a four-year degree or above, for instance, bachelors degree or equivalent, master’s degree, doctorate, etc., to apply for PMP certification, you need to satisfy the following three PMP certification requirements

  1. 3 years of project management experience
  2. 4,500 hours leading and directing projects
  3. 35 hours of project management education.

PMP Experience Requirement #2

Note that, the project management experience point in PMP certification requirements does not seek active managing projects experience. Participating in a project environment also counts for these 3 years of the experience requirement. However, 4500 hours of these 3 years, which makes around 2 years, need to be spent on leading and directing projects. Again, this doesn’t mean that you should have enrolled in a project as a project manager. A leading or directing role can be a supervisor of a junior team member or team member, team leader of a group, assisting the project manager in some of the project management activities, etc.

requirements for PMP

In order to check the details of PMP certification requirements, please check the PMP Handbook at pmi.org.

Check our PMP Certification Requirements Video

35 Contact Hours Project Management Education Requirement for PMP

Whether you satisfy the PMP experience requirements #1 + PMP education requirement #1 or PMP experience requirements #2 + PMP education requirement #2, you must attend a 35 contact hours PM education to be eligible to sit for the PMP exam. This is another PMP certification requirement.

For 35 hours of Project Management education requirement of PMP certification requirements, you can enroll in our PMP certification training. You can enroll in our FREE PMP Overview course as well to get more information about PMP certification requirements and also about the PMP exam and application steps.

Our online PMP exam prep training option satisfies the 35 contact hours project management training prerequisite of PMP certification requirements. It covers more than 300 lectures, over 750 practice exam questions, downloadable handouts, supporting documents, cheat sheets, and several other PMP prep materials.

If you are looking for PMP training with thousands of PMP practice questions PMP Certification Online Training bundle will be a good option. The most comprehensive PM training bundle of Master of Project Academy is the Project Management Training program.

PMP education requirements

PMP success stories of Master of Project Academy prove the quality of this online PMP certification course. Don Wheeler is one of the several PMP success stories of Master of Project Academy. Don passed the PMP exam successfully with the PMP training from Master of Project Academy and he scored “Above Target” on all five domains of the PMP exam. This is the highest score that a PMP candidate can get from the PMP exam. You can read Don’s PMP success story.

What is the PMP Certification?

PMP is the abbreviation of Project Management Professional, a certificate given by PMI, Project Management Institute. The applicants who fulfill the PMP certification requirements first and then pass the PMP exam successfully get the PMP certification. Note that, there is a validity period for PMP certification once you get it. Every three years, PMP certification holders must earn 60 PMP PDUs and start the PMP renewal process respectively.


After helping over 125,000 professionals in more than 180 countries with a 99.6% first attempt pass rate, we have prepared a seven-step PMP study plan. Read this PMP study plan and create your own PMP prep plan accordingly.


PMP certification is the most globally recognized professional certification for the project management profession around the world. Many employers seek PMP certification in project management positions when they are hiring. Also, they seek PMP certification as a prerequisite for their current employees when they are promoting their employees to project management positions. Based on a recent survey, PMP certification holders command 14% higher income than their uncertified counterparts.


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Therefore, the importance of the PMP certification has grown rapidly in recent years. However, there are strict PMP certification requirements to fulfill to sit for the PMP certification exam.

What are the benefits of PMP Certification?

PMP certification itself does not prove any competence or experience. But, PMP certification warrants at least a certain level of knowledge in the project management area. However, PMI’s PMP application process and audits seek for relevant experience and education requirements to be a PMP very strictly. Therefore, companies or organizations give very high credit to PMP certification compared to other certificates in the industry. Strict PMP certification process of PMI to check PMP certification requirements if the foundation of this high credit given by employers. Because an employer will know that a PMP certification holder met the strict PMP certification requirements which prove a certain level of project management knowledge and practice.

Participants who earned Project Management Certification: 36.84% increased their salary by 10% or more and 15.13% increased their salary by 20% or more.

PMP certification is not an easy sit-and-pass exam. There are PMP eligibility requirements that every PMP certification aspirant must meet. Let’s see these PMP certification requirements now.
PMP certification requirements

What Should I do if I cannot meet PMP Certification Requirements?

Actually, the PM education requirement aspect of the PMP certification requirements can be satisfied easily by enrolling in 35 contact hours PMP project management courses. The tough part of satisfying PMP eligibility requirements is project management experience. If you have a bachelor’s degree, you must have at least three years of project experience or if you have a secondary degree, you must have at least five years of project experience to sit for the project management certification exam.

You might not want to wait for completing your project experience to kickstart your career in project management. In this case, we recommend you start with CAPM certification. CAPM certification is the entry-level project management certification given by Project Management Institute PMI. The exam content is the same as the PMP certification exam however, the questions are easier compared to the project management certification exam.

There are also CAPM certification requirements you must satisfy but they are not as strict as PMP eligibility requirements. If you have a bachelor’s degree or above, you can enroll in CAPM training programs and satisfy the CAPM exam requirements.

CAPM certification is very valuable and respected by employers as well when they are looking for project management positions. If you start your project management career by getting ready for CAPM certification, you will be familiar with PMP exam content as well. Once you fulfill the project management experience aspect of the PMP certification requirements, you can apply and sit for the PMP to advance your project management experience.


Hint: Do you wonder when you can take the PMP exam? Read more about the PMP exam schedule, the next PMP exam date and how you can schedule, and more in the PMP exam schedule post.


PMP experience requirements

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How to Get PMP Certification article describes the five major steps you should pass for getting PMP certification.

The PMP exam questions article will help you to see sample PMP exam questions. You will see also answers and rationales for these sample PMP exam questions.

The PMP certification salary article will help you to see the anticipated salary hike after you get PMP certified!