February 2027 and July 2027 California Bar Exam: dates, deadlines, late fees and results

Short answer. The February 2027 California Bar Exam is on Tuesday and Wednesday, February 23 to 24, 2027. The application opens on October 1, 2026. The timely deadline is November 2, 2026. After that you pay a $50 late fee until November 30, 2026. From December 1, 2026 to the final deadline of January 4, 2027 the late fee is $250 (Dates and Deadlines; Appendix A). The July 2027 exam is expected on July 27 to 28, 2027 (Order S296951). Its timely deadline should be April 1, 2027 and its final deadline June 1, 2027, but the State Bar has not posted them yet.

The exam fee is $878 for general applicants and $1,650 for attorney applicants, plus $153 to type on a laptop (Appendix A). Results for February 2027 are not announced; expect early May 2027. Results for July 2027 are expected in November 2027.

Applies to: the February 2027 and July 2027 sittings. Both use the current two-day format. Every date, fee and rule below was checked on September 24, 2026 against the State Bar, Supreme Court or NCBE page linked beside it. Posted means the State Bar has published the date. Projected means the date follows a published rule but the State Bar has not published it yet.

February 2027 California Bar Exam: dates and deadlines (posted)

The State Bar has published the February 2027 calendar on its Dates and Deadlines page. Two dates differ from the generic "November 1 and January 1" rule. November 1, 2026 is a Sunday and January 1, 2027 is a holiday, so Rule 4.61 moves each deadline to the next business day (Title 4 rules PDF). The NCBE's California chart still prints the generic November 1 and January 1 (NCBE chart). The State Bar dates control.

The format is unchanged. Day 1 (Tuesday) is five one-hour essays and one 90-minute Performance Test, typed in ExamSoft Examplify. Day 2 (Wednesday) is the NCBE's 200-question Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) in two three-hour sessions, answered on a Scantron sheet (July 2026 exam page). The passing score is 1390 out of 2000 (Grading). The full format and the 13 tested subjects are on The exam and Subjects.

July 2027 California Bar Exam: dates and deadlines (projected)

The State Bar has not posted a July 2027 page. Two published rules let us project the calendar.

1. The Supreme Court's order of July 15, 2026 fixes the exam on the last Tuesday and Wednesday of July. In 2027 that is July 27 to 28 (Order S296951).
2. Rule 4.61 opens the application on March 1 for a July exam, sets the timely deadline on April 1 and the final deadline on June 1 (Title 4 rules PDF). Appendix A puts the $50 late window "between the first and last business days of April" (Appendix A). The $250 window runs from the end of April to the final deadline.

One watch item. In January 2026 the State Bar approved business requirements for a new exam-administration vendor from 2027, and no selection has been announced (Board and CBE, January 23, 2026). Confirm the written-day software when the July 2027 page posts. The format, subjects and passing score do not change.

The two 2027 sittings side by side

The calendar for every sitting through February 2028 is on Dates and deadlines.

Sources: Dates and Deadlines; Appendix A; Title 4 rules PDF; Order S296951.

Late fees: what a late application costs

Appendix A sets the exam fee at $878 for a general applicant and $1,650 for an attorney applicant. The first late window adds $50. The final late window adds $250 (Appendix A). The totals below are our arithmetic from that schedule. They exclude the $153 laptop fee and the 2.5 percent card-processing charge; an ACH bank transfer is free (California Bar Examination; Appendix A). ACH payments take up to seven days to process, so do not pay by ACH on deadline day (California Bar Examination).

For July 2027 the same three tiers are expected. The windows are March 1 to April 1 (no late fee), April 2 to 30 ($50) and May 1 to June 1, 2027 ($250) (Appendix A; Title 4 rules PDF).

Which tier are you? A lawyer admitted in another country is an attorney applicant under Rule 4.3(B), even though they sit the two-day General Bar Exam (Title 4 rules PDF). An LL.M. graduate who is not admitted anywhere is a general applicant. The one-day Attorneys' Exam is only for lawyers with at least four years of active licensure in a U.S. jurisdiction (Attorney Applicants). The eligibility rules for each route are on Eligibility for foreign-trained lawyers.

Two cautions. First, the Board raised the fees on November 20 to 21, 2025 (Board release, November 2025). The Appendix A page carries no year label, so check it before every payment. Second, prep sites that quote $850 or $1,500 are out of date. Every charge, including registration and moral character, is on Fees.

The laptop fee and the ExamSoft deadlines

You choose laptop or handwriting in the exam application. The laptop fee is $153; handwriting is free. Changing from handwriting to laptop after you apply costs $60 (Appendix A; Laptops for Bar Exam).

The laptop is needed only for the written session on Day 1, the essays and the Performance Test. The MBE on Day 2 is answered on a Scantron sheet with a No. 2 pencil, and nothing is entered into Examplify (July 2026 exam page; Laptops for Bar Exam).

The deadlines that matter, based on the July 2026 rules (Laptops for Bar Exam):

• ExamSoft registration. For July 2026 it opened on June 30, 2026, four weeks before the exam. The February 2027 opening date is not posted.
• Mandatory mock exam. You must complete a mock exam in Examplify, with up to five attempts. You must then upload the mock file and receive an email confirmation by the published deadline. For July 2026 the deadline was July 24, 2026, four days before the exam. If you miss it, you must handwrite.
• Answer-file upload. Answer files are due by noon Pacific on the day after the exam (July 30 for July 2026). A late upload costs ten scaled points. A file not uploaded within two weeks scores zero. For February 2027, if the same rule applies, the deadline is noon on February 25, 2027. Do not book a flight home before then.
• Hardware. A Windows or Mac laptop with a screen of at most 17.3 inches. No desktops, no iPads or tablets with detachable keyboards, and no backup laptops.

Candidates who type slowly in English should still choose the laptop. A typed answer is easier for a grader to read, and the IRAC structure that graders reward is easier to keep in a typed document. Our essay method chapters teach that structure.

Results dates: what to expect in 2027

The State Bar has not announced the results dates for either 2027 sitting. The recent pattern is stable: about 9.5 weeks after a February exam and about 14 weeks after a July exam.

How results are released. Since the Board's action of July 16, 2026, results appear in the Applicant Portal at 4:00 p.m. Pacific on a Friday, moved forward from 6:00 p.m., and the public pass list is posted the next business day (Board action, July 16, 2026). A total scaled score of 1390 or more passes. A score from 1350 to 1389 gets a full second read (Grading). Unsuccessful applicants can usually register for the next exam on results day (July 2025 Unsuccessful Applicant Bulletin).

One timing trap follows from these dates. If February 2027 results arrive in early May 2027, the July 2027 timely deadline of April 1 has already passed. Only the $250 late window, open until June 1, 2027, remains. A February 2027 candidate who wants July 2027 as a backup has two choices. File for July by April 1 before knowing the result, or wait for results and pay the $250 late fee. The same pattern applied in 2026, when February results came on May 1 and the July final deadline was June 1 (Dates and Deadlines; February 2026 results).

Other deadlines in the same cycle

The exam application is only the last of three filings. Registration must be approved first, and the moral character application runs on its own clock (Title 4 rules PDF).

You can take the MPRE before or after the bar exam. California sets no time limit on when you earn the passing score of 86, but you need it before you can be admitted (State Bar MPRE).

A month-by-month plan for a foreign-trained candidate

For a lawyer from China, Korea or Japan targeting February 2027, the calendar looks like this. Each item links to the step on How to apply.

• Now, late September 2026. Create an Applicant Portal account and file the registration. Order a Certificate of Good Standing from your home bar; it must be dated within six months of filing, so do not order it too early (Proof of Admission and Good Standing). Start the moral character application.
• October 1, 2026. The exam application opens. File it and elect the laptop (Dates and Deadlines).
• By November 2, 2026. Timely deadline. Filing on time avoids the $50 and $250 late fees (Dates and Deadlines).
• By January 4, 2027. Final deadline for the application and for a testing-accommodations request (Testing Accommodations).
• Late January to mid-February 2027. Expect ExamSoft registration, the mandatory mock exam and the Admittance Ticket. In July 2026 these fell four weeks and four days before the exam (Laptops for Bar Exam). Book travel only after the ticket shows your test center.
• February 23 to 24, 2027. Exam, in person in California. Stay until the answer-file upload at noon on February 25 (Laptops for Bar Exam).
• March 1 to April 1, 2027. The July 2027 timely window. Decide whether to file for July as a backup before results arrive.
• Early May 2027 (expected). Results. If you need July 2027, the $250 late window runs to June 1, 2027.

For a July 2027 target: register now, file between March 1 and April 1, 2027 (final June 1), and expect results in November 2027. The next sitting after that, February 2028, is the last one in the current format.

Why the 2027 sittings matter

February 2027, July 2027 and February 2028 are the last three administrations of the current exam. From July 2028 the State Bar replaces it with the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam under the Supreme Court's order of July 15, 2026 (Order S296951; State Bar notice, July 15, 2026). A candidate who fails July 2027 has exactly one more attempt in the current format. A candidate who fails February 2028 next faces a different exam, a different score scale and a different subject list.

That makes the 2027 deadlines above more than administrative. Missing November 2, 2026 costs $50, or $250 after November 30. Missing January 4, 2027 costs a sitting, and there are only three left. The full timeline, including what changes in 2028 and the proposed 2029 California component, is in California Bar Exam changes 2027, 2028 and 2029. See also The 2028 NextGen change.

What to do this week

1. Check your route and fee tier on Eligibility for foreign-trained lawyers.
2. Register in the Applicant Portal and order your Certificate of Good Standing, following How to apply.
3. Put October 1, November 2, 2026 and January 4, 2027 in your calendar.
4. Start a study plan built around the February 23, 2027 exam date. Our plans generate a day-by-day schedule from your exam date and available hours, and every chapter of the 13 subjects is written in plain English for non-native readers.

Last verified: September 24, 2026. The State Bar's pages control if anything here differs from them.