When is the AP Networking exam?
2026–27 pilot: Friday, May 7, 2027, in Session 2. The official 2027 AP Exam schedule labels Networking as a pilot-school exam.
Late testing: Monday, May 17, 2027, in Session 1, for eligible students at participating pilot schools.
First national AP Networking Exam: May 2028. College Board has confirmed the month and year, but its current AP Networking exam overview does not yet give the exact May 2028 day.
Knowing when the AP Networking Exam takes place is only part of planning for it. Students and families deciding whether the course and exam belong in their academic plan should also read Why Should I Take the AP Networking Exam? for a detailed explanation of college-credit possibilities, qualifying scores, the AP Networking Credential, career connections, and the practical skills students can take away from the course.
There are two calendars because AP Networking is moving from its final pilot year into national availability. A student at a 2026–27 pilot school is preparing for May 7, 2027. A student taking AP Networking after the course launches nationally in 2027–28 is preparing for the first national exam in May 2028.
That difference also affects what to study. The 2027 pilot exam is multiple-choice only. The May 2028 national exam is described as fully digital with scenario-based multiple choice and free response. For the structure rather than the calendar, use the AP Networking Exam Format.
Friday, May 7, 2027: the AP Networking pilot exam date
The official 2027 AP Exam schedule lists Networking on Friday, May 7, 2027 in Session 2. The schedule also says “2026–27 pilot schools only.” That qualifier is important. May 7 is not a national 2027 AP Networking date for every school.
AP Networking is in its third and final pilot during 2026–27. College Board says the course becomes available to all schools in 2027–28. That is why the May 2027 administration and the May 2028 national administration should be treated as separate milestones.
If your school is not participating in the 2026–27 pilot, the May 7 date is not your AP Networking test date. Use the What Is AP Networking? guide for the broader rollout and the Course Guide for the four-unit structure.
What time does the AP Networking pilot exam start?
College Board uses Session 1 and Session 2 on the 2027 exam schedule. For most schools in the lower 48 United States, Hawaii, and Washington, D.C., Session 1 begins at 8 a.m. local time and Session 2 begins at 12 p.m. local time.
That does not mean every AP Networking student should write “12:00 p.m.” into a calendar without checking. College Board publishes different local session times for some locations, including Alaska and several international UTC offsets. Your AP coordinator is the source for the reporting time and testing room at your school.
College Board's 2027 start-time information also says an exam can begin up to one hour after the officially listed start time under its administration rules. Students should still arrive according to the school's instructions, not one hour late.
Monday, May 17, 2027: AP Networking late testing
The 2027 late-testing schedule lists Networking on Monday, May 17, 2027 in Session 1. This is also limited to the pilot administration.
Late testing is not an open alternate date that students choose because it is more convenient. College Board provides late testing when circumstances require an approved later administration, and alternate exam versions are used to protect exam security. AP coordinators handle eligibility, ordering, location, and reporting instructions.
If a conflict may affect May 7, contact the AP coordinator early. Seeing a late-testing date online is not the same as being assigned to that administration.
2027 pilot vs. 2028 national AP Networking Exam
The calendar makes more sense when the two exam versions are compared directly. The 2027 pilot is the end of the development period. The May 2028 exam is the first national AP Networking Exam after the course becomes broadly available.
| Question | May 2027 Pilot | May 2028 National Exam |
|---|---|---|
| Who takes it? | Students at participating 2026–27 pilot schools | Students enrolled after the nationwide 2027–28 launch |
| When? | Friday, May 7, 2027, Session 2 | May 2028; exact day not yet published |
| Format currently described | Multiple choice only | Scenario-based multiple choice plus free response |
| Free-response artifacts | No free-response section in the pilot exam | Yes; realistic networking artifacts and evidence |
| Course stage | Third and final pilot year | First national exam year |
Swipe horizontally to see the full table.
This difference has a practical study consequence. Pilot students should not spend their final review pretending the May 2027 test contains a free-response section that College Board says is not there. Students preparing for the national exam, however, need to practice written evidence analysis in addition to multiple choice. The Multiple-Choice Questions page serves both groups, while Free-Response Questions is aimed at national-exam preparation.
What is actually confirmed about the May 2028 exam?
College Board's AP Networking exam overview says the exam for the 2027–28 school year will be administered in May 2028 and will be fully digital in Bluebook. The overview describes two sections: multiple-choice questions based on networking scenarios and free-response questions using realistic networking artifacts and evidence.
What College Board has not published on the current exam overview is the exact calendar day in May 2028. Until the official 2028 schedule is released, giving students a specific May 2028 day would be guesswork.
Confirmed now
May 2028 • fully digital • Bluebook • scenario-based multiple choice • free response with networking artifacts and evidence. Exact day: not yet published on the current exam overview.
Once the full 2028 AP Exam schedule is published, this page should be updated with the exact day and session. Until then, May 2028 is the most precise official answer.
AP Networking exam timeline from pilot to national launch
Fall 2026
The third and final AP Networking pilot begins at participating schools.
Friday, May 7, 2027
Regular pilot exam, Session 2.
Monday, May 17, 2027
Late-testing AP Networking pilot exam, Session 1.
Fall 2027
AP Networking launches nationally for the 2027–28 school year.
May 2028
First national AP Networking Exam.
If you are unsure which date applies, ask whether your school is a 2026–27 pilot school. That one fact separates the May 2027 pilot schedule from the May 2028 national schedule.
Countdown to Friday, May 7, 2027
This countdown is a planning aid for the regular pilot date. It is not a substitute for the reporting time provided by your school.
Turn the exam date into a useful review calendar
The best use of an exam-date page is to turn the date into decisions. A student eight weeks out needs a different plan from a student eight days out.
8–10 weeks before
Find weak units. Relearn the concept before drilling questions. Use the AP Networking unit hubs to review the course in order.
4–6 weeks before
Mix scenarios from addressing, switching, routing, security, protocols, and troubleshooting so the evidence has to identify the topic.
Final 2 weeks
For the 2027 pilot, emphasize timed multiple-choice work and error review because the pilot exam is multiple-choice only.
Use the AP Networking Final Review for the final sequence and the Exam Cram Guide only when the remaining review window is genuinely short.
Five details to confirm before May 7
- Your school is actually participating in the 2026–27 AP Networking pilot.
- Your school's local Session 2 reporting and start time.
- The testing room and arrival instructions from your AP coordinator.
- Whether you are scheduled for the regular administration or approved late testing.
- The correct exam version: 2027 pilot multiple choice only, not the later national format.
For content rather than logistics, use the AP Networking Study Guide. For what the test is designed to ask, use the AP Networking Exam Guide.
Use your school year, not just the words “AP Networking”
Students can land on this page from a search result without realizing that AP Networking is between a pilot administration and a national launch. The fastest way to avoid the wrong date is to identify the school year first.
You are taking AP Networking in 2026–27
If your school is an approved pilot school, the regular pilot exam date is Friday, May 7, 2027 in Session 2. The pilot exam is multiple-choice only.
You are taking AP Networking in 2027–28
You are part of the national launch year. The first national exam is in May 2028. The exact date still needs to be published on the official 2028 AP schedule.
A student who sees “May 7” in an older pilot discussion and assumes that same day applies in 2028 can easily put the wrong date on a calendar. The year is part of the answer. Likewise, a 2026–27 pilot student should not wait for a 2028 national schedule before planning the May 2027 exam.
Teachers building a syllabus should make the distinction visible to students. Put the school year beside the exam date, especially on classroom calendars, course homepages, and review schedules.
Why “Session 2” is more accurate than simply saying “noon”
College Board's 2027 schedule identifies AP Networking by session rather than by one universal clock time. For most U.S. schools, Session 2 is noon local time, but the published start-time table varies by UTC offset in some locations.
| Example location/time-zone treatment | 2027 Session 1 | 2027 Session 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Lower 48 U.S., Hawaii, Washington, D.C. | 8:00 a.m. local | 12:00 p.m. local |
| Alaska | 7:00 a.m. local | 11:00 a.m. local |
| Some international locations | Varies by May UTC offset | Varies by May UTC offset |
Swipe horizontally to see the session-time table.
This is useful beyond travel logistics. It explains why a search snippet that says “AP Networking is at 12 p.m.” can be incomplete. The official exam assignment is Session 2; the corresponding local start time depends on where the school is administering the exam.
Do not invent an exact 2028 AP Networking exam date
There is a strong temptation to fill in an exact 2028 day based on the 2027 schedule, another AP subject, or a calendar pattern. That would not be reliable. The current College Board AP Networking exam overview confirms May 2028, but it does not yet supply the exact day and session.
The correct way to present the information today is to separate confirmed from not yet published. May 2028 is confirmed. Fully digital Bluebook delivery is confirmed. Scenario-based multiple choice is confirmed. Free-response questions using realistic networking artifacts and evidence are confirmed. The precise May 2028 day is not yet published on the current exam overview.
This page should change when the official 2028 calendar changes from a month-level announcement to a day-and-session schedule. Until then, leaving the day blank is more accurate than guessing.
One more 2027 detail: there is no pilot practice exam
College Board's current pilot information says there is no practice exam available for pilot courses. That matters for students and teachers preparing for May 7, 2027 because they should not spend time looking for an official full pilot practice exam that College Board says is not provided.
Instead, pilot preparation can focus on the published course framework, AP Classroom resources available to pilot teachers, scenario-based multiple-choice practice, and targeted review of the four units. On this site, the AP Networking Practice Questions, Unit 1 Practice Test, Unit 2 Practice Test, Unit 3 Practice Test, and Unit 4 Practice Test provide separate practice paths.
The absence of an official pilot practice exam is also a reason to review mistakes by concept rather than trying to predict an exact released test. If a student misses a routing question, the useful follow-up is to repair the routing misconception—not memorize the wording of that one item.
Three questions prevent almost every AP Networking date mix-up
Search results can place the 2027 pilot and 2028 national exam beside each other even though they apply to different cohorts. Use the student's school year and administration status before copying any date into a calendar.
Separate schedule facts, school instructions, and study decisions
Exam-date pages often become confusing because three kinds of information get blended together. The published AP schedule establishes the administration date and session. Your school establishes local reporting details such as room, arrival instructions, and the coordinator's directions. Your study plan is a separate decision that should be built backward from the correct administration.
May 7, 2027 · Session 2
Regular AP Networking pilot administration for participating 2026–27 pilot schools.
Reporting time and room
Confirm these with the AP coordinator rather than inferring them from a general web page.
Review calendar
Choose what to study based on time remaining, weak concepts, and the format of the administration you are actually taking.
This hierarchy also gives you a rule for conflicts: if a classroom handout, search snippet, or study site disagrees with current official administration instructions, the official schedule and your AP coordinator control the logistics.
Do not prepare for the 2027 pilot as though it were the 2028 national exam
The dates are not the only distinction. According to the information summarized on this page, the 2027 pilot is multiple-choice only, while the first national exam in May 2028 is described as fully digital with scenario-based multiple choice and free-response work using realistic networking artifacts and evidence. That changes what “final review” should mean.
| Preparation decision | 2027 pilot student | 2028 national student |
|---|---|---|
| Timed practice | Prioritize the pilot's multiple-choice task and error analysis. | Prepare to manage time across both selected-response and written evidence work. |
| Artifact interpretation | Use artifacts to strengthen scenario reasoning even without a pilot FRQ section. | Practice turning artifact evidence into explicit written claims because free response is part of the described national format. |
| Calendar precision | Regular date and session are known: May 7, Session 2. | Use May 2028 until an exact national date/session is officially published. |
| Practice-exam assumption | Do not plan around an official full pilot practice exam if none is provided. | Use the national resources that become available for the launched course and exam. |
Swipe horizontally to see the full table.
Five ways a correct-looking exam date becomes the wrong date
- Dropping the year. “May 7” is incomplete because this page spans a 2027 pilot and a 2028 national exam.
- Dropping the pilot qualifier. The May 2027 administration is limited to participating pilot schools.
- Converting Session 2 into a universal noon start. The local clock time can vary; preserve the session designation and confirm locally.
- Treating late testing as an optional convenience date. Eligibility and administration are handled through the AP coordinator.
- Predicting the 2028 day from the 2027 pattern. A prior-year calendar is not evidence of an unpublished future date.
These are useful information-literacy habits beyond this exam. A date is trustworthy only when its year, population, administration type, and source context travel with it.
24 AP Networking exam-date and planning flashcards
These cards are designed to prevent pilot-versus-national confusion while reinforcing the planning decisions students and teachers need to make. Filter the deck, shuffle it, or use Enter/Space to reveal an answer.
AP Networking exam date questions
When is the 2027 AP Networking pilot exam?
Friday, May 7, 2027 in Session 2 for participating 2026–27 pilot schools.
When is AP Networking late testing in 2027?
Monday, May 17, 2027 in Session 1 for eligible pilot students.
What time is Session 2?
For most schools in the lower 48 states, Hawaii, and Washington, D.C., Session 2 starts at 12 p.m. local time in 2027. Other locations can use different times, so confirm with your AP coordinator.
When is the first national AP Networking Exam?
May 2028. The exact day has not yet been published on the current AP Networking exam overview.
Is the 2027 pilot exam multiple choice only?
Yes. College Board's current pilot information says the pilot exam contains only multiple-choice questions.
Will the 2028 exam have free response?
Yes. College Board says the national exam will include free-response questions using realistic networking artifacts and evidence.
Why this page gives May 7, May 17, and May 2028
The May 7 regular date comes from College Board's official 2027 AP Exam schedule. The May 17 date comes from its official 2027 late-testing schedule. Session start-time guidance comes from the 2027 AP Exam Start Times page. The May 2028 timing and national exam structure come from the AP Networking Exam Overview and AP Career Kickstart timeline.
AP Networking Exam Prep is independent. If College Board changes an exam date, session, start-time rule, or administration policy, the official College Board information controls. The purpose of this page is to make the current schedule understandable without mixing the pilot and national exam years.
Official College Board information cited by the source page was checked for this rewrite on September 8, 2026; page structure and study tools updated September 9, 2026.