A ServSafe course produces a completion record; only a passed exam produces the certificate a law, employer, or franchise rule actually requires. For Manager, that means 56 of 80 scored questions, which is 70%, not the 75% most sites publish.
A study plan built around the Manager exam’s real blueprint (Safe Preparation and Cooking worth 15 of 80 scored questions, Safe Receipt and Storage worth 13) gets most candidates to the 56-of-80 pass line in 7 to 14 days.
The ANAB directory of accredited food protection manager programs listed thirteen issuers in September 2026, and ServSafe is one of them. No program is registered as Safe Serve or SafeServ, which is why the exact name on a certificate is worth verifying before you enrol.
The ServSafe Manager exam is 90 questions in two hours, but only 80 are scored — the real pass mark is 56 of 80 (70%), not the 75% most prep sites list. Food Handler and Alcohol Primary run untimed and non-proctored instead.
The ServSafe Manager exam runs 90 questions in two hours with a pass mark of 56 of 80 (70%), but the one item that can stop you before you start is a photo ID that doesn’t match your registration name. Here’s the full exam-day checklist, plus what actually happens at check-in.
Food Handler is 40 questions, untimed, and valid three years; Manager is 90 questions, 80 scored, proctored, and valid five years. Those numbers decide which certification actually applies to a given role.
A ServSafe certificate lives in the account that submitted the exam and stays downloadable as a PDF for as long as it’s valid: five years after a Manager pass, three years for Food Handler or Alcohol. Most retrieval problems come down to the login rather than a lost record.
Most ServSafe login failures trace to one of three causes: the wrong email, a duplicate account, or a name that doesn’t match the exam record. That same account holds your certificate for as long as it’s valid — 5 years for Manager, 3 for Food Handler or Alcohol.
ServSafe Manager certification lasts five years from your exam date; Food Handler and Alcohol certificates run on a shorter three-year clock, a distinction many prep sites still get wrong.
Online and classroom ServSafe Manager classes end at the identical proctored exam: 90 questions, 80 scored, 56 to pass. Choosing the online course does not remove the Registered ServSafe Proctor requirement, and the certificate runs five years either way.
