Many law graduates sat for bar exams this week, with almost all jurisdictions having their exams yesterday and today. Yesterday there were connectivity and technical issues in Missouri and Washington (and some reports of a delayed start in Maryland). NBCE, Statement on the July 2026 NextGen Bar Exam Administration, July 28, 2026; see also Ryan Shiner, Internet Issues Affect Bar Exam Start Times in Missouri, ABC17News, July 28, 2026. The technical issues were so serious in Washington that late in the afternoon the Washington State Bar Exam was cancelled.
From the Washington State Bar Association’s announcement:
The Washington State Bar Association was unable to begin day one of the July 2026 bar exam today for applicants testing at the Yakima Convention & Event Center due to a technology issue. The venue, Yakima Convention & Event Center, has released its own statement addressing the cause of today’s disruption. We refer specific technical questions directly to the venue.
We do not have sufficient confidence that the technology issue has been resolved to safely resume the exam tomorrow, July 29, and have made the decision not to continue. We sincerely apologize to the candidates who worked so hard to prepare, and we deeply regret that we could not deliver a successful exam experience today.
Washington State Bar Association, July Bar Exam Cancelled, July 28, 2026. For other coverage, see Isaiah Poritz et al., Washington State Bar Cancels July Exam Over Wi-Fi Problems, Bloomberg Law, July 28, 2026; WA Bar Exam Canceled Due to Tech Issue; 645 Law Students in Limbo, The Seattle Times, July 28, 2026.
More detail can be found in posts on Reddit. See, e.g., Reddit (“As you’ve heard by now if you’re on this subreddit, the Washington Bar Exam did not go through as planned. Instead, around 700 increasingly tired and upset examinees got to sit and be yanked around by connectivity issues and uncertainty for around five hours…..”). Other bar exam related stories were posted earlier in the day. See e.g., Harrison Barnes, The Hardest and Easiest Bar Exams in 2026: A State-by-State Difficulty Ranking, Law Crossing, July 28, 2026; Kathryn Rubio, The Bar Exam Is Here, Which Means Something Is About To Go Horribly Wrong, Above the Law, July 28, 2026; JD Advising, No Matter What Your Bar Exam Results Are, Here’s What to Do Next, JD Advising, July 28, 2026.
