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Interior Design Licensing

by Tim Martin
InteriorDesignSchools.org Contributing Writer

The true validation to the professional world of interior design comes with the National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) test. It is the licensing equivalent to the bar exam or a medical license.

Once a designer passes the NCIDQ exam, they are eligible to be registered or licensed in the state they wish to practice. (The profession is regulated at the state level because the job involves the construction of buildings, which may endanger the safety of the general public.)

NCIDQ maintains a strict set of standards that must be met before you can take the exam, including 6 years of both college and full-time professional experience. However, these years can be broken up:

two years of college and four years of full-time experience, or
three years of college and three of full-time experience, or
four or five years of college with two years professional experience.

One way to gain the experience NCIDQ is looking for is to participate in NCIDQ's Interior Design Experience Program.

The NCIDQ test covers six topics pertinent to the industry and takes two days to complete. The test is administered twice a year (in April and October).