I've been studying for the PAC for about 6 weeks and the programmatic stack stuff is honestly overwhelming. Like I get the basics of DSPs and SSPs but when it gets into bid shading and win rate optimization I feel completely lost.
My background is in social media buying so the RTB concepts are new to me. I've been using practice tests and reading through the IAB materials but I'm not sure if I'm retaining any of it under pressure.
Has anyone who's passed it recently have tips on what actually showed up heavily? I'm seeing things like brand safety, fraud detection, and contextual targeting mentioned a lot.
Also wondering how strict the time limit is — I've heard you get around 90 minutes for 100 questions which feels tight.
Passed it last March with a 78. The bidding math tripped me up too but honestly most questions are more conceptual than calculation-heavy. Focus on viewability standards and IAS/DoubleVerify roles.
Brand safety took up maybe 15% of what I saw. If you know DEAL IDs and PMP vs open auction cold, you're in good shape.
The time limit is fine if you don't overthink. I finished with 12 minutes to spare. What killed me was the data clean room questions — barely covered those in my prep.
Definitely drill attribution models too, last-touch vs data-driven came up multiple times.
I came from a similar social background. The RTB auction mechanics took me two weeks to really click but once they did the rest fell into place fast. Draw out the supply chain on paper a few times.
I used a mix of vendor whitepapers and mock tests and that combo worked well for me.