Best free resources for Banking prep in 2026 — compiled list

Great list. I'd add: LinkedIn Learning has some banking-related courses that overlap with cert content, and if you have a library card many libraries give free access to it. Also check if your local library has access to O'Reilly or similar — tons of technical content there.

The official candidate guide is something a lot of people skip but it literally tells you the topic weighting and domain breakdown. It's the roadmap for your study plan. Never skip it.

For Banking Exam specifically, I found the PracticeTestGeeks explanations were detailed enough that I didn't need to buy a separate study guide. The combination of doing the practice questions + reading every explanation (for both right and wrong answers) covered most of the content I needed.

Quick update for anyone tracking their progress on here. I sat down for a full PTG practice run this weekend and pulled a 84%, which honestly shocked me a little because two weeks ago I was barely scraping 60. The question explanations are what did it for me. I wasn't just memorizing answers, I actually started understanding why I got stuff wrong, and that's where the jump came from.

I'm planning to book the real CBP exam for early July, so I've got a few more weeks to keep grinding. My weak spot is still the compliance and regulations section, so that's where most of my time is going now. If you're just starting out, don't stress the early low scores. They climb fast once it clicks.

Failed my first attempt back in March and honestly it wasn't even close. I'd been doing random YouTube videos and just skimming my notes, which I thought was enough. It wasn't. What actually changed my results the second time was switching to structured practice questions and tracking which areas I kept getting wrong. I started using a banking practice test pdf I could actually print out and mark up, and that shift from passive reading to active testing made a real difference.

The other thing I changed was timing myself. I didn't do that at all the first time and then panicked during the actual exam because I wasn't used to the pace. If you're studying now, don't wait until a week before to start practicing under timed conditions. Do it from the start. I also stopped trying to cover everything and focused hard on the question types I consistently missed. Second attempt I passed with room to spare.