• 60 questions

Nursing Informatics Certification Practice Test

Unofficial practice for the ANCC informatics nursing exam: foundations of practice, system design life cycle, data and technology.

In the DIKW model, which term names data that have been given meaning and purpose?

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Exam mode: 50 questions, 60 minutes.

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Bank checked October 12, 2026.

The real exam, as its certifying body describes it

Questions
150
Time limit
180 minutes
Fee
$395; $295 for American Nurses Association members; $340 for American Nursing Informatics Association members
Valid for
5 years
Format
Computer-based; applications are taken all year, with a 120-day window to test
Credential
Nursing Informatics-Board Certified (NI-BC)

Checked October 12, 2026 against Informatics Nursing Certification (NI-BC) page and Test Content Outline, nursingworld.org. Rules change, so confirm with the agency itself before your test.

ANCC's own exam page

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All 60 questions

Foundations of practice 22

  • A health IT developer's practice is likely to interfere with the access, exchange or use of electronic health information. What does the Cures Act call this? Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (healthit.gov), Information Blocking, What Is Information Blocking and to Whom Does It Apply?. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • A nurse signs in with a password and then a code from a phone app. Which two authentication factors are these? Wikipedia, "Multi-factor authentication", Authentication factors. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • A report built for the billing office includes every patient's full clinical notes, which billing does not need. Which Privacy Rule standard does the report fail? 45 CFR 164.502, Uses and disclosures of protected health information (eCFR), paragraph (b). Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
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Foundations of practice, continued

  • A stolen, unencrypted laptop held patient records. Once the hospital discovers the breach, what is the outer limit for telling the affected patients? 45 CFR 164.404, Notification to individuals (eCFR), paragraph (b). Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • A team that builds order sets works in time-boxed iterations of two weeks, each ending with a review for stakeholders. What does Scrum call each iteration? Wikipedia, "Scrum (software development)", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • An email that looks as if it came from the help desk asks staff to confirm their passwords through a link. Which threat is this? Wikipedia, "Phishing", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • During a system outage, decisions pass to the staff who know the failing interface best, whatever their rank. Which characteristic of a high reliability organization is this? Wikipedia, "High reliability organization", Characteristics. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • In a SWOT analysis for a telehealth program, which two categories are usually considered internal to the organization? Wikipedia, "SWOT analysis", Internal and external factors. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • In the diffusion of innovations, which group of adopters comes right after the innovators? Wikipedia, "Diffusion of innovations", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • In the DIKW model, which term names data that have been given meaning and purpose? Wikipedia, "DIKW pyramid", Information. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • In the technology acceptance model, which two beliefs most shape whether staff will use a new system? Wikipedia, "Technology acceptance model", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • Members of a new interprofessional EHR workgroup begin to voice disagreements and personality clashes. Which stage of Tuckman's model is this? Wikipedia, "Tuckman's stages of group development", Storming. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • The Security Rule's required risk analysis assesses risks to which three properties of electronic protected health information? 45 CFR 164.308, Administrative safeguards (eCFR), paragraph (a)(1)(ii)(A). Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • Unsecured protected health information is breached, and 620 people are involved. When must the Secretary of HHS be told? 45 CFR 164.408, Notification to the Secretary (eCFR), paragraphs (b) and (c). Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • Which approach is an organization-wide effort to build a lasting climate in which employees continuously improve what they provide to customers? Wikipedia, "Total quality management", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • Which HIPAA de-identification method works by removing or generalizing a set list of 18 elements? Wikipedia, "De-identification", Safe harbor. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • Which HIPAA Security Rule standard calls for mechanisms that record and examine activity in systems that hold electronic protected health information? 45 CFR 164.312, Technical safeguards (eCFR), paragraph (b). Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • Which improvement method runs projects on an existing process through the five DMAIC phases? Wikipedia, "Six Sigma", Methodologies. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • Which law, enacted within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, made meaningful use of interoperable EHRs a national goal? Wikipedia, "Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act", lead section and Electronic health records. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • Which SMART criterion asks for an indicator of progress that can be quantified? Wikipedia, "SMART criteria", History. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • Which statement is one of the values of the Agile Manifesto? Wikipedia, "Agile software development", The Manifesto for Agile Software Development. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.
  • Which three sciences does the ANCC test content outline give as examples of the foundations of nursing informatics? ANCC, Informatics Nursing Board Certification Examination Test Content Outline, I.B.1. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain I: Foundations of Practice.

System design life cycle 21

  • A go-live plan has three chains of dependent tasks, lasting 9, 12 and 7 weeks. Which chain is the critical path? Wikipedia, "Critical path method", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • After an upgrade, earlier test scripts are run again to confirm that functions that worked before still work. Which testing is this? Wikipedia, "Regression testing", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • After build has begun, departments keep adding report requests to an EHR project, with no change to its budget or dates. What is this called? Wikipedia, "Scope creep", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • After EHR classes, an analyst observes whether nurses on the unit now document as they were taught. Which Kirkpatrick level is this? Wikipedia, "Donald Kirkpatrick", Kirkpatrick Model of Training Evaluation. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • An informatics nurse compares how discharge teaching is documented today with how it should be documented in the future system. Which technique is this? Wikipedia, "Gap analysis", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • "As a charge nurse, I want to see open tasks by room so that I can balance assignments." What is this kind of requirement statement called? Wikipedia, "User story", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • Before the build, analysts show nurses a clickable but incomplete version of the new admission screen to gather their feedback. What is this version called? Wikipedia, "Software prototyping", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • By Knowles's characteristics of adult learners, what do adults need at the start of training? Wikipedia, "Andragogy", Characteristics. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • Evaluators examine a screen design and judge it against recognized usability principles. Which method is this? Wikipedia, "Heuristic evaluation", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • Every unit switches from the old system to the new one on a single date, with no transition period. Which adoption method is this? Wikipedia, "Big bang adoption", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • In downtime planning, which measure is the targeted time within which a process must be restored after a disruption? Wikipedia, "IT disaster recovery", Recovery Time Objective. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • In the TELOS areas of feasibility, which one asks whether the project can be afforded? Wikipedia, "Feasibility study", Common factors. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • In which environment do end users do their real work? Wikipedia, "Deployment environment", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • In which phase of the systems development life cycle are users engaged to define what is needed, recorded in a requirements specification? Wikipedia, "Systems development life cycle", Phases, Requirements analysis. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • The lab system and the EHR each pass their own tests. Which testing checks that results cross between them correctly? Wikipedia, "Integration testing", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • Most knowledge-based clinical decision support systems have three parts. Which part holds the rules, often in IF-THEN form? Wikipedia, "Clinical decision support system", Knowledge-based. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • To reduce risk, a hospital keeps the old system running beside the new one for a time, then switches the old one off. Which adoption method is this? Wikipedia, "Parallel adoption", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • Which diagram divides a process flow into rows or columns that show who is responsible for each step? Wikipedia, "Swimlane", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • Which document does an organization issue to solicit business proposals from potential suppliers of a system? Wikipedia, "Request for proposal", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • Which kind of backup saves only what has changed since the last full backup? Wikipedia, "Differential backup" and "Incremental backup", lead sections. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.
  • Which testing is done just before final release, with scenarios from real work, to decide whether the application can be accepted? Wikipedia, "Acceptance testing", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain II: System Design Lifecycle.

Data management and health care technology 17

  • A lab interface must label each result with a universal code that identifies the laboratory observation. Which standard supplies those codes? Wikipedia, "LOINC", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • A nurse logs in once and then opens the EHR, the pump library and the policy site without entering credentials again. What provides this? Wikipedia, "Single sign-on", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • A wound photo is taken at a rural clinic, sent on, and read by a specialist the next day. Which kind of telehealth is this? Wikipedia, "Telehealth", Store and forward. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • An analyst wants one chart that ranks the reasons for barcode scanning overrides from most to least frequent and adds a cumulative line. Which chart is it? Wikipedia, "Pareto chart", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • From base to top, in what order do the tiers of the DIKW pyramid run? Wikipedia, "DIKW pyramid", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • In a relational database, the encounter table has a patient ID column that points to a row in the patient table. What is that column in the encounter table? Wikipedia, "Foreign key", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • In a SQL SELECT statement, which clause specifies which rows to retrieve? Wikipedia, "Select (SQL)", Overview. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • Monthly fall rates are plotted over time with a centre line and limits above and below. Which kind of variation do those limits set apart from common-cause variation? Wikipedia, "Control chart", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • What does the "7" in Health Level Seven refer to? Wikipedia, "Health Level 7", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • Which feature of an infusion pump helps to avoid medication errors by checking each drug against set limits? Wikipedia, "Infusion pump", Safety features available on some pumps. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • Which is a central store of information about data: its meaning, its relationships to other data, its origin, usage and format? Wikipedia, "Data dictionary", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • Which nurse-developed terminology links its nursing diagnoses and its nursing interventions through 21 Care Components? Wikipedia, "Clinical Care Classification System", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • Which standard covers storing and transmitting medical images and related information digitally? Wikipedia, "DICOM", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • Which system is a central repository of data integrated from disparate sources, used for reporting and analysis? Wikipedia, "Data warehouse", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • Which term means "data about data"? Wikipedia, "Metadata", Definition. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • Which terminology is described as the most comprehensive, multilingual clinical health care terminology in the world? Wikipedia, "SNOMED CT", lead section. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.
  • With which bedside technology does the nurse scan the patient's wristband and then the medication to verify the five rights? Wikipedia, "Bar code medication administration", Implementation. Outline: ANCC Informatics Nursing Test Content Outline (effective May 3, 2023), Domain III: Data Management and Healthcare Technology.

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the three domains of the Informatics Nursing Board Certification Examination Test Content Outline of the American Nurses Credentialing Center, effective May 3, 2023 (https://www.nursingworld.org/globalassets/informatics-tco_08292025-for-webposting.pdf, linked from https://www.nursingworld.org/our-certifications/informatics-nurse/, read 2026-10-12), in its weights of 36, 35 and 29 percent. The bank holds 22, 21 and 17 questions in that order. Every fact was read on 2026-10-12 in the public page the question names: 45 CFR 164.308, 164.312, 164.404, 164.408 and 164.502 on ecfr.gov; the information blocking page of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (healthit.gov); the outline itself; and the Wikipedia articles named on the questions. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.

How it works

This free nurse informatics cert practice test has 60 questions of our own, written to the ANCC Informatics Nursing test content outline. It is unofficial and not affiliated with or endorsed by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

Read the full guide

What the exam covers

The test content outline effective May 3, 2023, read October 12, 2026, has three domains: foundations of practice 36%, system design life cycle 35%, and data management and health care technology 29%. The 60 questions are split 22, 21 and 17.

Timing

Exam mode asks 50 questions in 60 minutes: a third of the real exam's questions in a third of its time.

Where the answers come from

The HIPAA rules of 45 CFR Part 164 on eCFR, the federal health IT office's page on information blocking, ANCC's own outline, and named Wikipedia articles for the standards, testing, project and data terms.

  • The outline lists its data standards by name: LOINC, SNOMED, HL7, FHIR and DICOM, and the nurse-developed CCC and PNDS.

Questions and answers

How many questions are on the nursing informatics certification exam?

150 questions in 3 hours, by ANCC's certification page. 125 are scored and 25 are pretest questions, which are not scored and cannot be told apart from the rest.

Who can take the ANCC informatics nursing exam?

By ANCC's page: an active RN license, a bachelor's degree or higher in nursing, two years of full-time RN practice, 30 hours of informatics continuing education in the last three years, and one of three informatics practice or graduate study routes.

Is this an ANCC nursing informatics study guide?

No. It is a question bank. Each answer names the outline domain and the public page it was read in, so a missed question points to what to read next.

Are these real NI-BC exam questions?

No. The 60 questions were written for this page from the public outline and the public page each one names. Each was compared with ANCC's sample test questions, and none repeats one.

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