What's the actual passing score for ITIL? Getting conflicting info

Same boat a few months ago. Here's what I'd tell myself:

The ITIL exam is more concept-focused than the study guides suggest. They test whether you understand ITIL, not just whether you can define it.

My tip: when you see a scenario question, mentally walk through it step by step before looking at the answers. The wrong answers are designed to catch people who jump to conclusions.

Good luck — the fact that you're doing this level of prep means you're going to be fine.

Appreciate everyone sharing their experience here. I'm 4 weeks out from my ITIL exam date and feeling more confident after reading this. The consensus on practice test being the hardest section matches what I'm seeing in my practice scores — going to put extra time there this week.

Failed first attempt, came back to this thread. The consensus on itil practice test being the make-or-break area is right. Focusing almost exclusively on applied questions this time around.

Yeah you're overthinking the state thing, ITIL is a global cert so it doesn't change by location. The pass mark for Foundation is 65%, which is 26 out of 40 questions. The 70/75 numbers you're seeing are probably people mixing up Foundation with the higher level modules. I failed my first go because I crammed definitions and didn't actually practice scenario questions, which is where the real exam lives.

Second time around I stopped memorizing and started drilling practice questions until I could explain the why, not just pick the right word. That's what flipped it for me. The free itil practitioner organizational change management sets helped a ton because they force you to think through the situations instead of just regurgitating terms. Do enough of those and the wording on the actual test stops tripping you up.

Failed my ITIL 4 Foundation on the first attempt and honestly the passing score confusion was part of why — I had convinced myself I needed 75% so when I was cutting it close on practice tests I thought I had more buffer than I did. It's 65% for Foundation (26 out of 40 questions). Full stop. The 70-75% numbers floating around are from older ITIL versions or people misremembering, and since Axelos doesn't exactly plaster this on the homepage, the confusion is pretty understandable.

What actually killed me the first time wasn't the score threshold — it was not understanding how ITIL frames "best practice" language. The exam isn't testing whether you know the definitions cold, it's testing whether you can pick the answer that aligns with ITIL's way of thinking, which is subtle. Questions are scenario-based and multiple answers will sound correct to someone with real IT experience. That tripped me up constantly. Second time through I spent way more time on practice questions specifically to get calibrated to that framing, and I passed with room to spare.

One thing worth knowing: the version matters. If you're doing ITIL 4 Foundation, 65% is your number. Managing Professional or Strategic Leader modules have their own formats and thresholds. So when you see different numbers online, check whether the person is even talking about the same credential you're targeting.