How to Excel in the SAP LeanIX Certification (C_LIXEA) Exam in 2026
Updated 3 Nov 2026: the LeanIX exam is now a 2-hour architecture conversation. What it asks, and how to prepare for it.
Updated 3 November 2026. I first wrote this in March 2025 for C_LIXEA_2404. Since then SAP has replaced that exam with a new format, and most of the original advice no longer applies. Everything below comes from SAP's certification and learning pages, checked on 3 November 2026.
The LeanIX certification used to reward knowing where things are in SAP LeanIX. The 2026 exam rewards something closer to an architecture review. You get a client situation, an AI stakeholder asks what you'd do, and you have to explain and defend it for two hours.
If you're an enterprise architect who already presents to steering committees, that's good news. If you've only ever clicked through LeanIX, it's a different exam from the one you were preparing for.
What is the C_LIXEA exam in 2026?
C_LIXEA is "SAP Certified - Enterprise Architecture Consultant - SAP LeanIX", a 2-hour Scenario-Based Assessment with a 60% pass score. SAP's C_LIXEA certification page lists one activity and says the exam validates "enterprise architecture fundamental skills and core knowledge in using SAP LeanIX required for the consultant profile."
The code has lost its release suffix. C_LIXEA_2404 is gone, and you book C_LIXEA. The skills SAP attaches to the exam are Consultant, Enterprise Application Integration, Business Architecture and Enterprise Architecture.
What changed since the C_LIXEA_2404 version of this guide?
Almost every exam detail. In 2025 I described 60 questions, 120 minutes, a 75% cut score, English only, and four weighted topic areas led by LeanIX Features at 41–50%. Here is what SAP's page shows now:
- Format: one Scenario-Based Assessment, a roleplay with an AI avatar, or a recorded video for human review.
- Time: 2 hours.
- Pass mark: 60%.
- Languages: the AI roleplay runs in English, Spanish, Italian, French, Japanese and 25 more. The video option is English only.
- Supervision: none. SAP's exam essentials page calls the new exams "performance-based, open-book" and non-proctored.
The old topic weights still say something useful. Features, the meta model, the platform overview and use cases are what a LeanIX consultant works with. What changed is how you prove it: by reasoning through a case, not by recalling a screen.
For how SAP’s new exams work end to end, from booking to renewal, see my new exam format guide.
What does the LeanIX scenario exam actually ask you to do?
Explain and defend enterprise architecture decisions to a stakeholder who pushes back. SAP’s scenario-based assessment FAQ says each objective is graded from “1 (Insufficient) to 5 (Excellent)” on criteria set by subject-matter experts. The AI judges what you mean, not whether you hit keywords.
Here is a made-up example to show the shape, not real exam content. A CIO says the company runs 900 applications, nobody trusts the inventory, and the board wants costs cut. The stakeholder might ask:
- How would you get a trustworthy inventory before you rationalize anything?
- Which fact sheets and relations would you model first, and why?
- How would you decide which applications to retire?
- Who owns data quality once the project ends?
Compare two answers to the first question. A weak one lists features: “I’d use Application fact sheets and send a survey.” A stronger one names the decision and its trade-off: “Before scoring anything, I’d fix ownership. Each application gets an owner, a survey collects lifecycle and business criticality, and we accept a rough first pass so the board gets a decision based on data people trust.”
Each answer draws on LeanIX knowledge, but what’s graded is the decision and the reasoning behind it. The BTP architect exam works the same way. I wrote that it is a pitch, not a test, and the same is true here.
Which LeanIX skills should you be ready to defend?
The nine outcomes SAP lists for its LeanIX learning journey are the best map you have. SAP's learning journey says learners will be able to:
- Navigate SAP LeanIX and understand its core structure and features.
- Model enterprise architecture using fact sheets and relations.
- Configure SAP LeanIX by adapting the meta model, defining data governance rules, and managing users and roles.
- Import and manage data using several methods, including AI-supported ones.
- Analyze and communicate insights with diagrams, dashboards and reports.
- Collaborate using surveys, to-dos and subscriptions to keep data quality high.
- Apply automations and AI capabilities to cut manual effort.
- Conduct use cases such as Application Portfolio Assessment and Application Rationalization.
- Extend SAP LeanIX with integrations for enterprise-wide processes.
Turn each one into a question a stakeholder might ask. For outcome 3: "Why change the meta model instead of using tags?" For outcome 6: "How do you stop the inventory going stale after go-live?" If you can answer each in under a minute, with a reason, you're preparing for the right exam.
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The journey has two courses, LIX100 and LIX200, each listed at 2+ hours. LIX100 covers navigation, fact sheets, the meta model, data import and AI features. LIX200 goes deeper into governance, meta model configuration and collaboration.
How should you prepare for C_LIXEA in 2026?
Learn LeanIX hands-on, then practise defending architecture decisions out loud against pushback. Reading feature lists won't prepare you for a CIO who questions your retirement plan.
1. Do both courses with a real case in mind. Pick a portfolio you know, real or invented, and apply each LIX100 and LIX200 topic to it.
2. Write one-minute answers for the nine outcomes. Say what you'd do and why. Keep it in business language a CIO would follow.
3. Practise the use cases end to end. Application Portfolio Assessment and Application Rationalization are named outcomes. Be ready to walk from messy inventory to a defensible retire, replace or keep decision.
4. Rehearse the pushback. ERPPrep's Scenario Roleplay is built for SBA exams like C_LIXEA:
- An AI character plays the client stakeholder through five steps: a scenario brief, your clarifying questions, your recommendation and defence, the stakeholder's pushback, and a graded debrief.
- The debrief scores each objective on a 1–5 band and quotes your own words back to you.
- The scores follow ERPPrep's criteria, not SAP's, so treat them as a study signal.
- A free sample roleplay is available before you buy.
5. Drill the weak domains. ERPPrep's C_LIXEA practice has 120 skill drills across 8 skill domains and 24 scenario simulations, with a free sample drill and a 4.5/5 rating from 60 learners. The C_LIXEA exam guide maps those domains to the exam.
6. Use SAP's own warm-up. The C_LIXEA page links an introduction to scenario-based assessments and an AI-powered tool to try before the exam.
What do you need on exam day?
A Learning Hub subscription with exam attempts, an SAP Universal ID with a secondary email, and a working microphone. Those first two come straight from SAP's C_LIXEA page, which also notes that "subscription attempts and exam attempts are shown separately."
From the SBA FAQ:
- Camera is optional, microphone is required.
- Pause freezes the roleplay, not the countdown. Plan your two hours.
- Attempts: up to four in 12 months, 24 hours apart. Fail with time left and you can retake immediately as one attempt. After four failures you wait a year.
- Video route: a human SAP evaluator scores it, which can take up to 20 business days.
Your certification then lasts 12 months, with a 90-day renewal window, according to SAP's step-by-step guide.
Why is SAP testing architects this way?
Because architecture is judgment, and SAP now certifies judgment. Andre Bechtold, President of SAP Industries and Experiences, wrote in SAP News that certification is now "a demonstration of applied capability: the ability to navigate ambiguity, make decisions, and use AI as a tool without relying on it."
Diana Roesner, Head of Certification Transformation at SAP, said in SAP's 30-year certification feature that certification must move "beyond what someone knows to validating what they can actually do."
Navigating ambiguity is the daily job of an enterprise architect. The exam now checks it directly. SAP's data architect exam for Business Data Cloud follows the same logic: it grades the argument, not the product tour.
Frequently asked questions
Is C_LIXEA_2404 still available? No. SAP now lists the exam as C_LIXEA, "SAP Certified - Enterprise Architecture Consultant - SAP LeanIX", as a scenario-based assessment.
What is the C_LIXEA pass score? 60%, according to SAP's certification page on 3 November 2026.
How long is the LeanIX certification exam? Two hours, with one scenario-based activity.
Is the SAP LeanIX exam open-book? Yes. SAP describes its new exams as performance-based, open-book and non-proctored.
Which SAP courses prepare you for C_LIXEA? SAP's learning journey "Learning to Use LeanIX for Successful Enterprise Architecture", with courses LIX100 and LIX200.
Can I take C_LIXEA in another language? Yes, for the AI roleplay: English, Spanish, Italian, French, Japanese and 25 more. The video option is English only.
The short version
C_LIXEA still tests SAP LeanIX, but now as an architecture conversation. Know the nine outcomes SAP lists, practise the portfolio use cases end to end, and rehearse defending your decisions out loud. Two hours and 60% leave room for gaps, but not for answers you can't explain.
