- The Number: 70% on 150 Questions
- What 70% Means in Practice
- Format, Timing, and Proctoring
- Where Your Points Come From: The Five Domains
- How CLSD Questions Are Written
- Retakes and the One-Year Window
- Fees, Registration, and the Study Package
- Eligibility Comes Before the Score
- A Domain-Weighted Preparation Schedule
- After You Pass: Recertification and Career Use
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The Certified Lodging Security Director exam requires a 70% passing score on 150 multiple-choice questions.
- You get 180 minutes, which works out to roughly 72 seconds per question.
- The exam package includes two paid retakes within one year of application approval.
- Five assessed competencies run from Hotel Security Planning through the hotel's legal rights and responsibilities.
The Number: 70% on 150 Questions
The Certified Lodging Security Director (CLSD) credential is issued by the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI), the educational arm of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. According to AHLEI's exam listing, the assessment consists of 150 multiple-choice questions, you have 180 minutes to complete it, and the passing score is 70%.
That is the whole headline, and it is worth stating plainly because candidates often search for a more complicated answer than exists. There is no published scaled-score conversion in the AHLEI listing, no secret curve, and no separate cut score per section. Seventy percent is the number you are preparing to beat.
This article is independent exam preparation content. We are not AHLEI, and the authoritative source for any rule is always the official AHLEI product and exam pages. What we can do is explain what the published numbers imply for how you prepare. If you want broader context on how demanding the exam is, our guide on how hard the CLSD exam is covers difficulty from several angles, and our CLSD pass rate article explains why you should be skeptical of any pass-rate figure that is not backed by an official source.
What 70% Means in Practice
On a 150-question exam, 70% is a clean multiplication: you need 105 correct answers to reach the threshold, which means you can miss up to 45 questions and still pass. That assumes every question counts equally and that the 150 figure includes only scored items. AHLEI's listing does not break out any unscored pretest items, so treat 105 correct as your working target and aim above it for a safety margin.
| Exam Parameter | Published Value | What It Means for You |
|---|---|---|
| Question count | 150 multiple-choice | Breadth matters; no essay or practical component is listed |
| Time allowed | 180 minutes | About 72 seconds per question on average |
| Passing score | 70% | 105 correct answers; up to 45 misses |
| Retakes | Two paid retakes within one year of application approval | A failed first attempt is recoverable, but each retake is an added cost |
| Delivery | ExamFlex with a registered proctor | Proctored remote or arranged delivery, not a casual open-book session |
Format, Timing, and Proctoring
The CLSD is delivered through ExamFlex with a registered proctor. In practice, that means you should confirm your testing arrangements, identification requirements, and technical setup well before exam day. Read the delivery instructions that come with your approved application rather than assuming they match another certification you may have taken.
Pacing across 180 minutes
Seventy-two seconds per question is comfortable for straightforward recall items and tight for long scenario stems. A sensible approach is to work in passes:
- First pass: answer everything you can resolve in under a minute; flag anything that requires re-reading a long scenario.
- Second pass: return to flagged items with the time you banked on easy questions.
- Final review: use leftover time to re-check questions where two options looked plausible, especially those involving legal terminology.
Because the exam is multiple-choice only, there is no partial credit to manage. An unanswered question is simply a missed question, so never leave blanks.
Where Your Points Come From: The Five Domains
AHLEI describes five assessed competencies, which we use as study categories. The official materials do not publish a per-domain question count in the sources we rely on, so avoid any site that claims precise domain percentages unless it cites AHLEI directly. What you can do is allocate effort in proportion to your own weaknesses and to how heavily each area depends on memorized rules versus judgment. For a deeper walkthrough, see our complete guide to all five CLSD content areas.
Domain 1: Hotel Security Planning
This is the foundation area: how a security director designs and organizes a property's security program rather than just reacting to incidents.
- Risk and vulnerability assessment concepts applied to lodging properties
- Structuring a security department, staffing, and policies
- Coordinating security objectives with property operations and management
- Documenting procedures so they can be defended later
Domain 2: Guest and Hotel Asset Protection
Expect scenario questions about protecting people and property in a business that deliberately stays open to the public.
- Guest safety measures and the balance between hospitality and control
- Protecting hotel assets, inventory, and sensitive areas
- Access control concepts in guest-facing environments
- Handling incidents involving guests, visitors, and employees
Domain 3: Emergency Management
Preparedness, response, and continuity when something goes wrong at a property with transient occupants who do not know the building.
- Emergency planning and the role of the security director in a crisis
- Coordination with first responders and internal teams
- Evacuation and communication considerations specific to hotels
- Post-incident review and documentation
Domain 4: Hospitality Law
The legal framework governing the relationship between a lodging operator and its guests. Many candidates find this the most vocabulary-heavy area.
- Core legal concepts as they apply to innkeepers and guests
- Negligence, duty of care, and foreseeability in a security context
- How security practices connect to potential liability
Domain 5: Hotel's Legal Rights and Responsibilities
This competency looks at what the property may lawfully do and what it must do, which is where security decisions meet legal consequences.
- The hotel's rights regarding guests, refusal of service, and removal
- Responsibilities to guests and the public
- Documentation and reporting obligations tied to security events
Domains 4 and 5 overlap in vocabulary, and candidates frequently lose points by confusing a guest's rights with the hotel's rights. Study them together, then test yourself by explaining each situation from both sides.
How CLSD Questions Are Written
Because the exam is a 150-question multiple-choice assessment aimed at working security department heads, expect two broad flavors of items:
- Knowledge items that test whether you know a definition, a legal concept, or the proper purpose of a security practice.
- Judgment items that present a hotel situation and ask for the best or most appropriate action.
On judgment items, more than one option may be defensible in the real world. The scoring question is which option best fits professional lodging security practice and the legal duties of the property. When two answers both seem reasonable, prefer the one that is proactive, documented, and consistent with the hotel's legal responsibilities over the one that is merely fast or informal.
You can build your own judgment-item habit with original questions on our CLSD practice test site, which is independent exam preparation and not affiliated with AHLEI.
Retakes and the One-Year Window
AHLEI's regional listing specifies two paid retakes within one year of application approval. Two details matter here. First, the retakes are paid, so a second or third attempt carries its own cost on top of the initial package. Second, the one-year clock starts at application approval, not at your first exam date, so a long delay between approval and your first attempt shrinks the time left for any retake.
That timing argues against scheduling your first attempt at the very end of the window. Give yourself enough runway that a failed attempt still leaves room to study the specific domains where you slipped and retest. For scheduling mechanics, read our guide to CLSD exam dates and scheduling.
Key Takeaway
Treat the first attempt as a real attempt, but keep your retake window alive. Approve your application, study with a target date well inside the one-year period, and reserve time after a first sitting to review your weakest domains if you need to retest.
Fees, Registration, and the Study Package
The U.S. price for the application, online study guide, and exam package is $530.50. The study guide is described as providing approximately 40 hours of self-paced review. Those 40 hours are a sensible baseline for a candidate who already works in lodging security, but they are not a guarantee of a passing result, particularly if the legal domains are new to you.
For a full line-by-line view of what you will pay across application, exam, retakes, and later renewal, see our CLSD certification cost breakdown. If you are weighing whether the investment pays off, the ROI analysis and the CLSD salary guide take that question on directly, and our CLSD jobs overview covers who tends to value the credential.
Eligibility Comes Before the Score
You cannot sit the exam until your application is approved, so the passing score is the second hurdle, not the first. The published eligibility standard is one year as a security director or security department head. Qualifying corporate or regional candidates are those with security responsibility for a firm operating at least three properties. An accredited degree or a current AHLEI management, department-head, or executive certification can support a six-month experience reduction.
Because approval starts your one-year retake window, submit a complete application with accurate documentation of your role. Full detail is in our CLSD requirements guide.
A Domain-Weighted Preparation Schedule
Generic study advice is less useful than a plan keyed to this exam's structure. The logic below puts the vocabulary-heavy legal material early, so it has time to settle through repetition, and saves the judgment-heavy operational domains for later when scenario practice is most valuable. Adjust the order if your daily work already makes the operational areas second nature. Our CLSD study guide offers a longer version of this approach.
Law first: Domains 4 and 5
- Read the legal material in your AHLEI study guide and build a glossary of terms
- Write a guest-rights versus hotel-rights comparison chart
- Take a short baseline quiz to find the legal gaps
Planning and protection: Domains 1 and 2
- Map your property's real procedures onto the planning concepts
- Practice scenario items on guest safety and asset protection
- Revisit the legal glossary for ten minutes daily
Emergency management: Domain 3
- Walk through response, coordination, and documentation steps
- Connect each emergency scenario back to legal duties from Week 1
- Complete a mixed-domain set under timed conditions
Full-length simulation and gap repair
- Sit a timed run that mirrors 150 questions in 180 minutes
- Score yourself against the 105-correct line and review every miss
- Return to your weakest domain before booking or sitting the exam
If you use the approximately 40 hours in the AHLEI study guide, spread them across these weeks rather than front-loading them, and use the remaining time for practice questions. Our CLSD cheat sheet is a handy final-week review aid.
After You Pass: Recertification and Career Use
Earning the credential is not the end of the fee schedule. The U.S. recertification fee is $204, so factor ongoing maintenance into your long-term budget alongside the initial $530.50 package. The CLSD is aimed at people who hold or are moving into security leadership at lodging properties, which is why the eligibility pathway centers on security directors, department heads, and multi-property corporate or regional leads. For orientation on the credential itself, see what CLSD certification is and, if you are newer to the terminology, what CLSD stands for. The training side is covered in our CLSD training page.
Frequently Asked Questions
AHLEI's exam listing specifies a 70% passing score on a 150-question multiple-choice exam. That corresponds to 105 correct answers, assuming all items count equally.
You have 180 minutes for 150 questions, an average of about 72 seconds per question. Plan a first pass for quick answers and a second pass for flagged scenario items.
The exam package includes two paid retakes within one year of application approval. Because the clock starts at approval, avoid scheduling your first attempt so late that no retake time remains.
The U.S. application, online study guide, and exam package is $530.50, and the study guide provides approximately 40 hours of self-paced review. Recertification in the U.S. is $204. See our certification cost breakdown for the full picture.
Yes. The standard requirement is one year as a security director or security department head, with a six-month reduction possible for an accredited degree or a current AHLEI management, department-head, or executive certification. Your application must be approved before you can test.
The bottom line: the number to beat is 70%, which means 105 of 150 questions in 180 minutes. Build your preparation around the five domains, push your practice scores comfortably above the line, and keep your retake window in mind. For realistic original practice, start with the CLSD practice tests and use the linked guides above to fill any gaps.