Certified public accountant (CPA) is a designation awarded by a state or other governmental jurisdiction to individuals to practice as a licensed certified public accountant. The candidate for the CPA must meet education, examination, and experience requirements.

Examinations were used as early as 1884 to test the qualifications of accountants and to issue certificates of proficiency upon passage of the examination. In the 1880s two competing organizations, the Institute of Accounts and the American Association of Public Accounts [the predecessor to the current American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)] were issuing certificates based on satisfactory completion of an examination or years of experience as an account ant. Neither organization was able to effectively control the practice of accounting by nonmembers. Consequently, the two rival organizations cooperated to introduce legislation in New York to regulate the practice of public accounting. In...