- CT-MAT (Mobile Application Testing) is the ISTQB specialist certification for testing mobile apps: market-driven test strategy, hardware and sensor testing, interrupts, permissions, battery, connectivity, installability, emulators, device labs and automation.
- Current version: syllabus v2019 (May 3, 2019). It's available in English and Spanish.
- Prerequisite: the ISTQB Foundation Level (CTFL) certificate.
- Exam: 40 questions, pass mark 26 (65%), 60 minutes (75 if it isn't in your native language).
- 5 chapters and about 775 minutes (almost 13 hours) of minimum training; the longest chapter covers mobile-specific test types.
- Our mobile automation course with Appium builds the hands-on skill of automating apps, but it is not an ISTQB exam-prep course.
- The exam isn't included in any course: buy it from iSQI (20% coupon for Cool Testers students) or through us if you need an invoice.
Testing a mobile app isn't testing a website on a smaller screen. There are thousands of combinations of device, OS, screen size and network; the app gets interrupted by a call, loses signal in the elevator, runs out of battery, or the user denies camera permission. ISTQB CT-MAT turns all of that into a method. This guide explains what the syllabus covers, what the exam looks like, how to prepare and how it relates to mobile automation.
If you're still mapping out your certification path, see our main ISTQB certification guide.
What CT-MAT is and where it sits in the ISTQB portfolio
CT-MAT is ISTQB's specialist certification for mobile application testing. According to the syllabus, it's aimed at anyone involved in software testing who wants to broaden their knowledge of mobile app testing or start a specialist career in this field.
The syllabus covers both the business side (why the monetization model and market data change your test strategy) and the technical side (sensors, interrupts, permissions, emulators, device labs and automation approaches).
Current version
The current version is v2019, released by ISTQB on May 3, 2019. It was built with the 2018 Foundation Level as a reference; it remains the official version and, at the time of writing, the ISTQB page doesn't announce a new one. A Spanish translation is available too.
Where it fits
You take it after ISTQB Foundation Level (CTFL 4.0). In the portfolio it sits alongside closely related specialist certifications such as Performance Testing (CT-PT), Usability Testing (CT-UT) and Security Tester, which go deeper into test types that CT-MAT covers from a mobile angle.
Who it's for and prerequisites
- Functional testers starting to test apps who want to stop improvising.
- QA on mobile product teams (banking, retail, delivery, mobility, healthcare) who need a defensible device strategy.
- Automation engineers already using Appium or another tool who want to understand what to test, not just how.
- QA leads deciding between an in-house lab, a remote lab or crowdtesting.
- Mobile developers who want to understand how their work gets tested.
Exam entry requirements
The syllabus is clear: you must hold the ISTQB Foundation Level certificate before taking CT-MAT. An accredited course isn't mandatory; self-study candidates should, according to ISTQB, review the competence guidelines and do the hands-on exercises themselves.
What you'll be able to do: business outcomes
The syllabus defines seven Business Outcomes:
| Code | Business outcome |
|---|---|
| MAT-01 | Understand and review business and technology drivers for mobile apps in order to create a test strategy. |
| MAT-02 | Identify and understand the key challenges, risks and expectations of testing a mobile app. |
| MAT-03 | Apply test types and levels specific to mobile applications. |
| MAT-04 | Apply common test types (those in the Foundation Level) in the mobile context. |
| MAT-05 | Carry out mobile-specific activities as part of the ISTQB test process. |
| MAT-06 | Identify and use suitable environments and tools for mobile testing. |
| MAT-07 | Understand the methods and tools that support mobile test automation. |
Syllabus content chapter by chapter
The syllabus has five chapters. Each one states its minimum training time, and learning objectives range from K1 to K3. It also includes hands-on objectives (levels H0 to H3), such as testing an app on several devices or creating and using an emulator. They aren't examined, but they build the real competence.
| Chapter | Minimum time | Key topics |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Mobile World: Business and Technology Drivers | 175 min | Mobile analytics data, business models, device and app types, architecture, test strategy, challenges and risks |
| 2. Mobile Application Test Types | 265 min | Hardware and sensors, displays, temperature, input methods, orientation, interrupts, permissions, battery, notifications, quick-access links, OS preferences, native/web/hybrid, multi-platform, co-existence, connectivity |
| 3. Common Test Types and Test Process for Mobile Applications | 200 min | Installability, stress, security, performance, usability, database, localization, accessibility, field testing, app store approval, exploratory techniques, process and approaches per level |
| 4. Mobile Application Platforms, Tools and Environment | 80 min | IDEs, SDK tools, emulators vs. simulators, on-premise vs. remote labs |
| 5. Automating the Test Execution | 55 min | Approaches and frameworks, object identification methods, tool evaluation, automation labs |
Chapter 1. Mobile world: business and technology drivers (175 min)
This chapter teaches you to think before you test. Main topics:
- Mobile analytics data: platform distribution, OS versions, device types by region, screen sizes and resolutions, input methods and cameras. The syllabus mentions sources such as StatCounter GlobalStats and the vendors themselves. You use that data to select and prioritize your device portfolio.
- Business models: freemium, ad-based, transaction-based, fee-based and enterprise apps, plus in-app purchases. Each one changes what's critical to test.
- Device types: basic phones, feature phones, smartphones, tablets and companion devices (wearables, some IoT).
- App types: native, browser-based (m-dot sites, responsive, adaptive and PWAs) and hybrid.
- Architecture: thin or fat client, single- or multi-tier servers, never-connected, always-connected or partially-connected apps, continuous or store-and-forward sync, synchronous or asynchronous transfer.
- Test strategy (K3): single-platform, multi-platform (a representative selection based on traffic data) or maximum coverage (rarely economically viable); emulators early and real devices later; remote device access, crowdtesting or personal networks when devices are missing.
- Mobile-specific challenges and risks, and how to mitigate them.
Practical example (similar to the syllabus H3 exercise): your payments app launches in Mexico and Colombia. You check OS and version market share in those countries, choose five devices covering most of the market (including at least one low-end device with a small screen) and calculate the expected coverage. Now you can justify to the business why you test on those five and not twenty.
Chapter 2. Mobile application test types (265 min)
The longest chapter and the one contributing the most exam questions. It has three blocks:
Compatibility with device hardware.
- Device features (camera, GPS, NFC, Bluetooth, etc.) while the app is in use.
- Displays: screen size, aspect ratio and density (K3).
- Effects of device overheating.
- Input sensors and input methods: multiple keyboards, gestures, camera.
- Screen orientation changes, with data retention and correct UI.
- Typical interrupts (K3): calls, messages, alarms, other apps coming to the foreground.
- Permissions (K3): granting and denying permissions at install time and afterwards.
- Power consumption and battery state (K3): how the app affects battery and how it behaves on low battery.
Interaction with device software: notifications in the foreground and background (K3), quick-access links or shortcuts, OS user preferences such as font size or language (K3), differences between testing native, web and hybrid apps, interoperability across platforms and OS versions, and co-existence with other apps.
Connectivity: testing across networks, with Bluetooth, when switching from Wi-Fi to cellular data and when turning on airplane mode.
Example: a user is halfway through a five-step sign-up form, gets a call, rotates the phone on returning and, at step 4, the app asks for camera permission to scan an ID, which the user denies. Is the data kept? Does the UI re-layout correctly? Does the app offer an alternative to scanning or does it get stuck? That one scenario combines three K3 objectives from the chapter.
Chapter 3. Common test types and test process for mobile (200 min)
Here you take test types you know from Foundation Level and adapt them to mobile:
- Installability (K3): installing, updating and uninstalling through different channels while preserving data and preferences.
- Stress (K3): low memory, low storage, many open apps.
- Security: examples of typical mobile app issues.
- Performance: time behavior and resource considerations.
- Usability (K3), database, globalization and localization, and accessibility.
- Additional levels: field testing (under real usage conditions) and testing for app store approval and post-release.
- Experience-based techniques: personas, mnemonics, heuristics, tours (such as the Feature tour, K3) and session-based test management (SBTM).
- How to adapt the Foundation Level test process and which approach to use at each test level, including the test pyramid.
Example: before shipping an update, you prepare installability tests covering a clean install, upgrades from the two previous versions (checking that session and preferences are kept), uninstall and reinstall. Then you run a 60-minute exploratory session with a feature tour on a low-end device.
Chapter 4. Platforms, tools and environment (80 min)
- Development environments: Android Studio and Xcode, plus cross-platform frameworks.
- SDK tools useful to testers: AVD Manager, Android Debug Bridge (ADB) and Android Device Monitor on Android, and Instruments on iOS, for screenshots, logs and simulated events.
- Emulators vs. simulators: a simulator models the runtime environment (the app is compiled into a dedicated build), while an emulator models the hardware and runs the same bytecode as the real device. Neither fully replaces a physical device.
- Test labs: on-premise, with full control and good support for proximity and sensor testing but high cost and maintenance; or remote, with access to many devices and networks but slower response and limits on gestures, NFC, Bluetooth or battery testing.
Example: you use the Android emulator for early testing of each story, simulating slow networks and GPS location changes, and reserve real devices for camera, NFC and battery tests before each release.
Chapter 5. Automating the test execution (55 min)
- Approaches: user-agent based testing (for mobile web, spoofing a device browser) and device-based testing (on a real or emulated device).
- Classic approaches applied to mobile: capture/playback, data-driven, keyword-driven and BDD.
- Key framework capabilities: object identification and operations, reporting, extensible APIs, documentation, integrations and independence from the development practice.
- Object identification methods: image recognition, OCR/text recognition and object recognition (web or native).
- Tool evaluation: organizational and technical fit (FaceID, fingerprint, chatbots, network conditions, test data, scale, CI integration).
- Automation labs: on-premise vs. remote, and why lab stability matters when running at scale from CI.
The syllabus doesn't teach a specific tool; it gives you the criteria to choose and use one. That's where hands-on practice comes in.
Download the official syllabus
CT-MAT has an English syllabus and a Spanish translation. If you'll take the exam in English, study from the English version (the Spanish one is handy for clarifying concepts):
The CT-MAT exam
Verified structure
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Questions | 40, multiple choice |
| Total points | 40 |
| Pass mark | 26 points (65%) |
| Duration | 60 minutes; 75 minutes if it isn't in your native language (+25%) |
| Hands-on exercises | Not examined |
Source: the syllabus itself (40 questions, 65%) and the ISTQB Exam Structure and Rules Tables v1.18 (May 2026). According to the distribution published by ISTQB, chapter 2 contributes 13 questions, chapter 3 contributes 11 and chapter 1 contributes 8; chapters 4 and 5 add up to 8.
Exam formats
- Online with remote proctoring (iSQI FLEX), 24/7: book at least 2 hours ahead. You need a webcam, a microphone, a second camera (your phone) and a government-issued ID.
- Pearson VUE: at a test center or online with OnVUE.
- On-site at your company for groups of 6 or more: Cool Testers brings a proctor.
Paper-based exams are no longer offered. If the exam isn't in your native language you get 25% extra time; check the available languages on iSQI when booking. The certification has the same value in any language; some employers with US projects may prefer the English exam, but that's their call.
Where to buy it
- Directly at iSQI.org, our partner and official exam provider, with a 20% coupon off the price on their site for the first attempt for Cool Testers students. Recommended if you're paying yourself.
- Through Cool Testers (certification exam, 1 or 2 attempts) if your company pays or you need an invoice. You have 1 year to take it. Contact us to confirm availability.
Costs in your currency: main ISTQB certification guide.
How to prepare for CT-MAT
- Read the syllabus chapter by chapter, starting with chapters 2 and 3, which account for more than half of the questions.
- Do the hands-on exercises on your own phone. Take any app you use daily and test interrupts, orientation, permissions, airplane mode and low battery. The K3 questions are much easier once you've experienced them.
- Install Android Studio and create an emulator. Practice with ADB: install an app, take screenshots and pull logs (one of the syllabus H1 exercises).
- Build a device portfolio using real market data for your country and calculate its coverage.
- Run an exploratory session with a mobile tour or heuristic and document findings with SBTM.
- Memorize the K1 lists: device types, sensor tests, SDK tools, tool evaluation parameters.
- Take the official sample exam and review the rationale for each option.
If you also want to master the technical side of automation, the Appium course is the practical next step; for companies, request a quote or message us on WhatsApp.
Benefits and career paths
- You specialize in an area with strong practical demand. Almost every digital product has an app, and mobile failures show up immediately in app store reviews.
- You gain strategic judgment. Being able to justify which devices to test and why puts you in the conversation with product and business.
- It complements automation. CT-MAT tells you what to test; tools like Appium tell you how. Together they make you far more complete.
- Roles where it adds value: mobile QA engineer, product QA in fintech, retail or mobility, mobile automation engineer, mobile QA lead.
We don't quote salary figures because they vary a lot by country and company.
Related certifications and next steps
| Certification or course | Relationship to CT-MAT |
|---|---|
| CTFL 4.0 | Entry requirement |
| CT-PT Performance Testing | Goes deeper into performance, including mobile app risks |
| CT-UT Usability Testing | Goes deeper into usability and user experience |
| Security Tester and CT-STE | Go deeper into security testing |
| CTAL-TAE | Architecture and design of automation solutions, mobile included |
| Appium course | Hands-on mobile automation skill (not exam prep) |
Frequently asked questions
What is the ISTQB CT-MAT certification?
It's ISTQB's specialist certification in mobile application testing. It covers market-driven strategy, hardware, sensor, interrupt, permission, battery and connectivity testing, common test types in a mobile context, tools, emulators, labs and automation.
How many questions are on the CT-MAT exam and what's the pass mark?
40 multiple-choice questions. You need 26 correct answers (65%). It lasts 60 minutes, or 75 if it isn't in your native language.
Do I need Foundation Level to take CT-MAT?
Yes. The syllabus states that you must hold the ISTQB Foundation Level certificate before taking the exam.
Does the Cool Testers Appium course prepare me for the CT-MAT exam?
No. The Appium course builds the hands-on skill of automating mobile app tests, but it doesn't follow the ISTQB syllabus or prepare you for the exam. It's a good complement, especially for the automation chapter.
Is there a Spanish version of the CT-MAT syllabus?
Yes. There's a v2019 Spanish translation in addition to the English syllabus. You can download both from this page.
Do I need to know how to code for CT-MAT?
No. The exam covers concepts, strategy and test types. You'll need coding skills to automate in practice, but that isn't examined.
Can I prepare using only emulators?
They help a lot for studying, but the syllabus itself explains that an emulator doesn't fully replace a real device. Practice on your phone too.