Certification guide
ITIL 4 Specialist: Create, Deliver and Support is the delivery-side module of the ITIL 4 Managing Professional designation. Where Foundation asks whether you can define the framework, CDS asks whether you can run it: how work is organised into a service value stream, how the management practices plug into that stream, and how services stay supportable once they are live. It is the module aimed at the people who actually build, ship and keep services running rather than the people who describe them.
The paper is 40 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes, and the extra time relative to Foundation is not generosity. It is a signal about question style. CDS questions are scenario-led. You are given a situation and asked what should happen next, or which approach fits, rather than which definition is correct. Twenty-eight correct answers are required to pass, a 70% threshold that is five points higher than the 65% used at Foundation level, and that difference is felt on a scenario paper where a careless reading costs a mark that a vocabulary paper would have given away.
CDS is one of four modules (with Drive Stakeholder Value, High-Velocity IT and Direct, Plan and Improve) that together award the ITIL 4 Managing Professional designation. Accredited training is mandatory, and PeopleCert withholds results until proof of completion is on file, so this is not a credential you can self-study your way onto in isolation.
Scheme status. PeopleCert released ITIL Version 5 in February 2026, and the current plan is to sunset all ITIL 4 modules on 31 December 2027. Create, Deliver and Support is live and examinable today. An ITIL 4 certificate earned now remains valid, renews on the normal three-year cycle, and still counts as a prerequisite for higher Version 5 modules, passing this exam is not wasted work if the scheme moves on. Confirm current scheme dates with PeopleCert before booking.
Level · Managing Professional 40 questions 90 minutes 113 minutes if English is not your first language Pass · 28 of 40 · 70% Multiple choice · closed book · no negative marking Prerequisite · ITIL 4 Foundation, any ITIL v3 certification, or an ITIL 4 Managing Professional certificate Accredited training mandatory · results withheld without proof of completion Renew every 3 years · 60 CPD points From $649 USD exam bundle · list $865
Every question carries one mark and there is no negative marking, so a blank costs exactly what a wrong answer costs, never leave one. The paper is closed book: no syllabus, no publication, nothing on the desk. Candidates sitting in a language that is not their first receive 113 minutes instead of 90.
Three syllabus sections structure the exam, and unusually for ITIL 4 they are close to evenly matched. The largest is 40% and the smallest is 22.5%. There is no section here you can safely skip, and no section that will carry you if the others are weak. The sections below are listed in descending weight order.
How relevant ITIL practices contribute across the service value system and value streams
Section 2 · 40%The heaviest section, and the one that separates CDS from Foundation most sharply. Foundation asks what a management practice is for; CDS asks what it contributes at a specific point in a specific value stream, and what breaks downstream when it contributes badly. Questions typically describe an organisation mid-problem (work stalling between teams, changes landing without the right checks, support absorbing failures that should have been designed out) and ask which practice should be doing the work, or how a practice should be applied given the constraints described. Answers that are correct in the abstract are routinely wrong in context here, which is exactly the discrimination the section is built to make. Sixteen questions on a 40-question paper come from this material, so it deserves the largest share of study time by a clear margin.
Plan and build a service value stream
Section 1 · 37.5%Close behind, and conceptually the section the other two lean on. This is the design work: understanding the demand a stream exists to satisfy, laying out the steps by which that demand becomes a working service, and deciding what the organisation, its people, its information and technology, and its partners and suppliers each need to contribute along the way. Expect questions about how teams are structured and how work flows between them, how a stream is integrated rather than assembled, and how you would plan a stream for a described situation. Roughly fifteen questions of a 40-question paper. Candidates who come from a delivery background often find this the least familiar of the three sections, because it asks them to describe deliberately what they normally do by habit.
How to create, deliver and support services
Section 3 · 22.5%The smallest section by weight and the most operational in feel: the co-ordination, prioritisation and structuring of work as services are actually created, delivered and supported day to day. Nine questions of a 40-question paper. It reads as the easiest section for practitioners, which is precisely why it is worth checking yourself on, familiarity with how your own organisation does something is not the same as knowing how ITIL says it should be done, and a 70% pass mark leaves little room for questions dropped through overconfidence.
A free 15-question Create, Deliver and Support sample is live now, weighted across all three syllabus sections in the proportions PeopleCert publishes, scored instantly against the real exam’s 70% threshold, no account needed. Full-length 100-question practice sets are in development and will follow the same official weights: 40 from how the practices contribute across the service value system and value streams, 37 or 38 from planning and building a service value stream, and 22 or 23 from creating, delivering and supporting services, with the pass mark at the real exam’s 28 of 40 rather than the more forgiving 65% used at Foundation level. Questions are original throughout and written in the scenario style the real paper uses, because a bank of definition recall would not prepare anyone for this exam.
Frequently asked questions about ITIL 4 Create, Deliver and Support
What is ITIL 4 Specialist: Create, Deliver and Support?
It is the delivery and operations module of the ITIL 4 scheme, covering how a service value stream is planned and built, how the ITIL management practices contribute across the service value system and its value streams, and how services are created, delivered and supported in practice. It sits at Managing Professional level and is one of the four modules that award the ITIL 4 Managing Professional designation, alongside Drive Stakeholder Value, High-Velocity IT and Direct, Plan and Improve.
How many questions are on the exam and how long is it?
Forty multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes. Candidates taking the exam in a language that is not their first receive 113 minutes. There is no negative marking, so an unanswered question and a wrong answer cost the same.
What is the passing score?
Twenty-eight of 40, which is 70%. That is five percentage points above the 65% used at ITIL Foundation level, and it applies to a scenario-based paper rather than a definitions paper, the margin for a misread question is genuinely thinner than at Foundation.
Are there any prerequisites?
Yes. You need ITIL 4 Foundation, any ITIL v3 certification, or an ITIL 4 Managing Professional certificate before you can sit the exam.
Do I have to take accredited training?
Yes, and this is not a formality. Accredited training is mandatory for Create, Deliver and Support, and PeopleCert withholds results without proof of completion, so an exam voucher on its own does not get you a certificate. Budget and schedule for the course as part of the credential, not as an optional extra.
What are the syllabus sections and their weights?
Three sections: how relevant ITIL practices contribute across the service value system and value streams (40%), plan and build a service value stream (37.5%), and how to create, deliver and support services (22.5%). The spread is narrow by ITIL 4 standards, so no section can be safely neglected.
Is the exam open book?
No. Create, Deliver and Support is a closed-book paper, no syllabus, no framework publication, no notes.
How does this fit the Managing Professional designation?
Create, Deliver and Support counts toward ITIL 4 Managing Professional together with Drive Stakeholder Value, High-Velocity IT and Direct, Plan and Improve. Direct, Plan and Improve is the most reusable of the four, since it also counts toward the ITIL 4 Strategic Leader designation.
How long is the certification valid, and does the ITIL Version 5 release change that?
Three years, renewed with 60 CPD points or by passing another ITIL exam. PeopleCert released ITIL Version 5 in February 2026 and currently plans to sunset all ITIL 4 modules on 31 December 2027, but a CDS certificate earned now stays valid, renews normally, and still counts as a prerequisite for higher Version 5 modules.
How should I prepare?
Treat the three sections as close to equal in study time, weighted only slightly toward the practices section at 40%. Then shift from reading to scenarios as early as you can: this paper rewards applying a practice inside a described constraint, not reciting its purpose. Drill blueprint-weighted sets until you are clearing 70% consistently rather than occasionally, and read the explanation on every miss to find out whether you got it wrong on the framework or on the reading of the scenario, the second failure mode is more common on CDS than candidates expect.
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All questions, answers, and explanations on Certifym are original content written for practice purposes. They are not actual PeopleCert examination questions and are not represented as such. Practicing with these materials does not guarantee a passing result on any live certification exam.