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This page contains original AUD practice questions on audit assertions, evidence, controls, reporting, and year-end cutoff.
- Each answer includes the reasoning and explains why the alternatives do not fit.
- The questions are independent practice, not official, recalled, or predictive CPA Exam items.
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How to use these AUD questions
These questions are original study material written for this guide. They are not copied from the AICPA, recalled from a live exam, or intended to predict a specific appointment. Use them to practise connecting a fact to an assertion, procedure, or reporting decision. The answer explanations matter as much as the answer letters.
For each multiple-choice question, identify what the task asks before reading every option. Decide whether the issue is existence, completeness, control operation, evidence reliability, or reporting. Then eliminate choices that address a different assertion or go beyond what the facts establish. If you miss one, explain what makes the closest distractor tempting and which fact rules it out.
AICPA’s sample test serves a different purpose. It familiarizes you with the CPA Exam software and tools, includes items from all six sections, is shorter than the real exam, is not scored, and is not a readiness determination. Use it for navigation. Use original content practice and the current AUD blueprint to study audit knowledge.
Original multiple-choice practice
An auditor is testing the completeness of accounts payable at year end. Which starting point is most directly designed to find obligations that may be missing from the recorded balance?
- Select recorded payable balances and trace them to vendor statements.
- Select cash disbursements made after year end and inspect the underlying invoices and receiving evidence.
- Confirm recorded payable balances with vendors and investigate only nonresponses.
- Recalculate the total of the accounts payable listing and compare it with the general ledger.
The auditor selects a recorded receivable and sends a positive confirmation to the customer. The main assertion directly addressed by confirming the customer’s balance is:
- Completeness of all receivables.
- Existence of the recorded receivable.
- Accuracy of the allowance for credit losses.
- Cutoff of all sales near year end.
The client prepares a cash reconciliation showing that the ledger balance agrees to a bank statement. Which evidence is generally the strongest independent support for the bank balance at the confirmation date?
- A copy of the reconciliation signed by the controller.
- A bank confirmation returned directly to the auditor.
- A verbal explanation from the accounting manager.
- A printout from the client’s cash ledger.
An auditor plans to rely on a control requiring a supervisor to review monthly bank reconciliations. Which procedure provides the most direct evidence that the control operated during the year?
- Ask the supervisor whether each reconciliation was reviewed.
- Inspect a sample of reconciliations for evidence of review and investigate what the reviewer did with exceptions.
- Read the control description in the accounting manual.
- Observe the supervisor review one reconciliation near year end and assume the same review occurred each month.
Management refuses to provide an important schedule, and alternative procedures cannot provide sufficient appropriate evidence. The possible effects are material and pervasive. Which report consequence is generally appropriate for this scope limitation?
- An unmodified opinion with an emphasis-of-matter paragraph.
- A qualified opinion in every case involving missing evidence.
- A disclaimer of opinion because the possible effects are material and pervasive.
- An adverse opinion because the auditor could not complete the planned procedure.
A proposed audit adjustment is below overall materiality when considered alone. The evidence shows that management intentionally omitted it to meet a lending target, and other uncorrected items remain. What should the auditor do?
- Ignore it because each adjustment below overall materiality is immaterial.
- Evaluate it with other identified misstatements and consider qualitative factors, including the apparent intent and covenant context.
- Record it as an error only if the lender has already taken action.
- Use the adjustment amount to change the audit opinion without evaluating the financial statements as a whole.
Original task-based case: revenue cutoff
The following case is fictional and original. It is designed to practise reading documents and applying the contract facts. It does not reproduce a live or retired AICPA simulation.
You are auditing Northstar Office Supply’s December 31 financial statements. Its contracts state that control transfers when the customer accepts delivery. A year-end listing contains two transactions selected for cutoff testing.
| Record | Transaction A | Transaction B |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice | $28,000, dated December 30 | $21,000, dated January 3 |
| Delivery and acceptance | January 2, signed by customer | December 30, signed by customer |
| Related inventory cost | $17,000 | $12,500 |
| Year-end ledger | Sale and receivable recorded; inventory relieved | No sale or receivable recorded; inventory remains |
Task 1: identify the cutoff exceptions
Transaction A was recorded before the customer accepted delivery, even though the contract makes acceptance the transfer point. It is a premature year-end sale. Transaction B was accepted before year end but not recorded until after year end. It is an omitted year-end sale on the stated facts. Invoice dates alone do not determine the correct period.
Task 2: determine the separate corrections
For Transaction A, reverse the $28,000 receivable and revenue. Restore the $17,000 inventory and reverse the related cost of goods sold. The sale and inventory relief were recorded too early.
For Transaction B, record the $21,000 receivable and revenue in the year ended December 31. Record the $12,500 cost of goods sold and relieve inventory because the customer accepted delivery before year end under the stated contract condition. The sale and inventory relief were omitted from the year-end records.
Keep the two exceptions separate while evaluating the audit findings. Transaction A overstates revenue and receivables and understates inventory. Transaction B understates revenue and receivables and overstates inventory. Do not hide the different directions by presenting only a net number. Evaluate the misstatements individually and in aggregate, including their effect on the affected accounts and qualitative context.
Task 3: select a procedure for the population
Select sales recorded shortly before and after year end and compare ledger dates with contract terms, carrier delivery records, and signed customer acceptance. Include a search of shipping and acceptance evidence that may not yet have been invoiced or recorded. The first direction tests whether recorded sales occurred in the correct period; the second helps find sales omitted from the ledger. Investigate exceptions and consider whether they indicate a broader cutoff problem.
Why the documents matter
The invoice shows when the seller billed. It does not establish the contract’s transfer condition. Carrier evidence helps establish movement and delivery dates. Signed acceptance evidence addresses the fact the contract makes decisive. The ledger shows how management recorded the transaction, but it does not prove the accounting is correct. Your conclusion follows from comparing the evidence with the contract.
Review the reasoning, not only the key
The practice set covers selected AUD concepts, not the entire blueprint. A correct answer on one question does not demonstrate complete coverage of a topic. After finishing, identify the Area and skill behind each item. For the TBS, note whether you had difficulty reading the task, locating evidence, applying the contract, calculating an adjustment, or explaining the direction of the error.
Build a new example to check transfer. Change the acceptance date or contract condition and ask whether the cutoff answer changes. If the customer accepted before year end, the revenue conclusion may differ. If the contract makes shipment the transfer point, delivery at the dock may not be decisive. The task supplies the facts; do not import a rule from a different case.
For further study, use the official blueprint to find other topics and task statements. The public AICPA retired AUD simulation can illustrate the structure of simulation work, but do not reproduce its case as new practice. AICPA’s software sample and original content questions serve different purposes: interface familiarity versus content and reasoning practice.
Most candidates improve faster when they can state the reasoning in one or two precise sentences. “I chose B because it is the only choice that starts from later disbursements and traces toward unrecorded obligations” is more useful than “I got B right.” That explanation gives you a method you can use on a different case.
Common questions
Are the CPA AUD practice questions on this page official?
No. They are original questions written for study. They are not official AICPA questions, recalled live questions, or predictions of a future exam.
What does the AICPA sample test do?
It helps candidates become familiar with the exam software and tools. It is shorter than the live exam, unscored, and not a readiness assessment.
How should I review a missed AUD question?
Identify the task, assertion, and evidence involved. Then explain why the correct answer fits and what fact makes the nearest alternative wrong. Apply the idea to a new fact pattern rather than repeating only the same item.