The California Bar Exam tests 13 subjects: seven appear on both the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) and the essays, and six appear only on the essays. A separate performance test rounds out the exam and tests lawyering skills rather than any specific body of law.1The State Bar of California. Scope of the California Bar Examination
Knowing which subjects live in which portion of the exam matters, because the MBE tests majority rules and the Federal Rules, while California essays can layer California-specific distinctions on top of the same subjects. Six subjects show up only in essay form, and several of them are where California law departs most sharply from what you studied in law school.
How the Subjects Are Distributed Across the Exam
Day one is written: five one-hour essays and one 90-minute performance test. Day two is the MBE, 200 multiple-choice questions split into two three-hour sessions of 100 questions each. The MBE covers seven subjects with roughly 25 questions per subject.2National Conference of Bar Examiners. MBE Subject Matter Outline
Those same seven MBE subjects are also fair game on essays. The other six subjects appear only on essays. Any essay can also blend two or more subjects into a single question, so studying by silo will only take you so far.
One boundary worth flagging: California’s Board of Trustees and Committee of Bar Examiners voted in January 2026 to explore transitioning to the NextGen Uniform Bar Examination beginning in 2028, but no final decision has been made.3The State Bar of California. Board and CBE Approve Options for 2028 Bar Exam The subject list below is the current California-specific exam.
Subjects Tested on Both the MBE and Essays
Torts
Torts covers intentional torts (battery, assault, false imprisonment) with their defenses, negligence as the most heavily tested area, and strict liability. Negligence questions walk through duty, breach, actual causation, proximate causation, and damages, and the duty analysis often turns on the relationship or status of the plaintiff, such as invitee versus trespasser.
Strict liability appears in two contexts: abnormally dangerous activities and products liability. Products questions involve manufacturing defects (a flaw in one unit), design defects (the entire product line is unreasonably dangerous), and failure-to-warn defects.4LII / Legal Information Institute. Products Liability California applies a strict liability standard for all three.
Contracts
The first analytical step is usually identifying which body of law applies. Common law governs services, employment, and real estate. Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code governs the sale of goods.5Legal Information Institute. UCC Article 2 – Sales The rules on formation, modification, and breach differ between them.
Formation covers offer, acceptance, consideration, and defenses such as the statute of frauds, which under the UCC requires a writing for sales of goods priced at $500 or more.6Legal Information Institute. UCC 2-201 Formal Requirements Statute of Frauds Expectation damages are the default remedy, meant to put the non-breaching party where they would have been had the contract been performed.7LII / Legal Information Institute. Expectation Damages Consequential and incidental damages, mitigation, and liquidated damages clauses appear regularly.
Criminal Law and Procedure
Substantive criminal law tests the elements of specific crimes, especially homicide and the differences between first-degree murder, second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter. Theft, robbery, burglary, arson, inchoate crimes (attempt, conspiracy, solicitation), accomplice liability, and defenses like self-defense, insanity, intoxication, and duress round out the substantive side.
Criminal procedure focuses on constitutional protections. Fourth Amendment search-and-seizure questions ask whether the officer had a warrant, whether an exception applied, and what happens to evidence from an illegal search. Fifth Amendment questions drive Miranda analysis: when warnings are required, what constitutes custody, and the consequences of a violation. Sixth Amendment right-to-counsel and jury-trial issues also appear.8Legal Information Institute. Bill of Rights
Constitutional Law
Structural questions cover separation of powers, congressional authority under the Commerce Clause, and federalism (including preemption). The dormant Commerce Clause is a recurring issue where a state law is challenged for discriminating against or burdening interstate commerce.
Individual rights focus on the First Amendment (free speech, free exercise, and the Establishment Clause) and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. Equal protection analysis turns on the correct level of scrutiny: strict scrutiny for race or national origin, intermediate scrutiny for gender, and rational basis review for most economic and social legislation. Substantive due process and fundamental rights like privacy, marriage, and voting also show up.
Evidence
MBE Evidence applies the Federal Rules. Relevance opens the subject, including the balancing test that lets a court exclude relevant evidence when the risk of unfair prejudice substantially outweighs its value. Character evidence is a common trap: generally you cannot introduce someone’s character to prove they acted in conformity with it, but a criminal defendant can open the door.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Federal Rules of Evidence Rule 404 – Character Evidence Not Admissible To Prove Conduct Other bad acts can come in for motive, plan, identity, or absence of mistake.
Hearsay is the single biggest topic. Know the definition (an out-of-court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted), the Rule 803 exceptions that apply regardless of availability (present sense impression, excited utterance, business records, and others),10Legal Information Institute. Rule 803 Exceptions to the Rule Against Hearsay and the Rule 804 exceptions that apply only when the declarant is unavailable (former testimony, dying declarations, statements against interest).11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Federal Rules of Evidence Rule 804 – Exceptions to the Rule Against Hearsay When the Declarant Is Unavailable as a Witness Privileges, authentication, and the best evidence rule are tested less often.
Real Property
Estates in land (fee simple absolute, defeasible fees, life estates) and future interests (remainders, reversions, executory interests) form the analytical backbone. These questions test whether a future interest is vested or contingent and whether the Rule Against Perpetuities destroys it.
Landlord-tenant law covers types of tenancies, the implied warranty of habitability, and constructive eviction. Land transactions cover the contract of sale, marketable title, deed requirements, and recording statutes (race, notice, and race-notice). Easements, covenants, and servitudes round out the subject.
Civil Procedure
Federal civil procedure governs the MBE, but essays can also test California’s rules, which diverge in meaningful ways.
Federal topics include subject matter jurisdiction (federal question and diversity), personal jurisdiction (minimum contacts, specific versus general), venue, and removal. A defendant removing a case from state to federal court must file a notice of removal within 30 days of receiving the initial pleading or summons.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1446 – Procedure for Removal of Civil Actions Federal pleading follows the plausibility standard. Joinder, discovery, summary judgment, and preclusion (claim and issue) all appear.
California uses a fact-pleading standard, which requires the complaint to lay out specific facts supporting each element. That is more demanding than the federal approach. California also has the anti-SLAPP motion, a tool for quickly striking a lawsuit targeting protected speech or petitioning activity unless the plaintiff can show a reasonable probability of winning.13California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 425.16
Subjects Tested Only on the Essays
Business Associations
Agency law tests when a principal is liable for an agent’s actions, focusing on actual authority, apparent authority, and ratification. Partnership questions cover formation (which can happen without any formal agreement), the rights and obligations of partners to each other and to third parties, and how partnership debts are allocated.
Corporations dominate the subject. Fiduciary duties of directors and officers get heavy attention, especially the duty of care (informed decision-making, protected by the business judgment rule) and the duty of loyalty (prohibiting self-dealing unless properly approved). Shareholder rights, including derivative suits and inspection rights, also come up.
Professional Responsibility
Professional Responsibility appears on the exam more than any other essay subject and is frequently combined with other topics. You need both the ABA Model Rules and the California Rules of Professional Conduct, because the exam specifically tests where they diverge.
A key California distinction: when total fees and expenses are reasonably expected to exceed $1,000, the fee agreement must be in writing.14California Legislative Information. California Business and Professions Code 6148 California also prohibits “unconscionable” fees rather than the ABA’s “unreasonable” standard.15The State Bar of California. Rule 1.5 Fees for Legal Services Executive Summary Confidentiality and conflicts of interest are perennial. California requires informed written consent for concurrent conflicts, and the crime-fraud exception can override confidentiality when a client uses the attorney’s services to further an ongoing or planned crime. Duties to prospective clients, former clients, and the tribunal also appear.
Community Property
Community Property is California’s signature subject, with no MBE equivalent. All property acquired by a married person during the marriage while living in California is community property, owned equally by both spouses.16California Legislative Information. California Family Code 760 Separate property includes anything owned before marriage, anything acquired afterward by gift or inheritance, and the income generated by separate property.17California Legislative Information. California Family Code 770
Tracing analysis follows the source of funds through accounts and purchases to determine whether an asset is community, separate, or a mix. Transmutation, changing an asset’s character between spouses, requires a writing that expressly declares the change. Upon dissolution, the court divides the community estate equally. Essays often involve commingled assets, quasi-community property (property acquired in another state), and presumptions from joint title.
Wills and Succession
You need the requirements for a valid will (California recognizes both formally witnessed wills and holographic wills written entirely in the testator’s handwriting), grounds for contest (undue influence, fraud, lack of capacity), and the rules of intestate succession when there is no will.
Common issues include ademption (a specific gift no longer exists at death), lapse (a beneficiary dies before the testator), and the omitted spouse or child doctrine. This subject crosses over frequently with Community Property, because a California decedent can only dispose of their half of the community estate by will.
Trusts
Express trusts require intent, a trust res, identifiable beneficiaries, and a valid purpose. Resulting trusts arise by implication when an express trust fails, and constructive trusts are imposed by courts to prevent unjust enrichment.
Trustee fiduciary duties drive most essay analysis: loyalty, prudence in investment, impartiality among beneficiaries, and no commingling with personal funds. Modification and termination, charitable trusts with the cy pres doctrine, revocable versus irrevocable trusts, and powers of appointment also appear.
Remedies
Remedies is tested standalone and crosses over frequently with Contracts and Torts. It covers three categories of relief.
- Legal remedies are primarily money damages: compensatory (expectation, reliance, consequential), nominal, and punitive damages for intentional or egregious wrongdoing.
- Equitable remedies are available when money alone will not make the plaintiff whole. Injunctions order a party to do or stop doing something. Specific performance compels a party to carry out a contract, typically for unique property like real estate. Legal remedies must be inadequate before a court will grant equitable relief.
- Restitutionary remedies strip a defendant of unjust gains rather than compensate the plaintiff. Constructive trusts, equitable liens, and disgorgement fall here.
Election of remedies, the adequacy requirement, and defenses such as laches and unclean hands are commonly tested.
The Performance Test
The performance test does not test any subject in the list above. You receive a File containing case documents (interview transcripts, contracts, correspondence, police reports, or similar) and a Library of legal authorities (cases, statutes, regulations). A memo from a supervising attorney tells you exactly what to draft.18NCBE. Multistate Performance Test
The assignment might be an objective memorandum, a persuasive brief, a demand letter, a client advice letter, or a contract provision. You are not expected to know any law going in; everything you need is in the Library. Graders look for careful reading, accurate rule extraction from unfamiliar authorities, application to the facts in the File, and a professional document produced in 90 minutes.
Crossover Essays
California essays frequently combine two or more subjects in a single question, and spotting the crossover is half the work. Professional Responsibility is the most common crossover partner because ethical issues can arise anywhere. A criminal defense scenario, for example, can test both substantive criminal law and the attorney’s conduct.
Other frequent pairings include Community Property with Wills (marital property at death), Contracts with Remedies (identify the breach, then select the relief), and Business Associations with Professional Responsibility (an attorney’s duties when representing a corporation versus its officers). Studying subjects in isolation leaves you unprepared for the format the exam actually uses.