thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Governance, Risk, Audit & Privacy · Advanced

Confidence Coefficient

Probability that a sample result correctly represents the population, such as 95 percent.

Definition

Also called confidence level or reliability factor, it is 100 percent minus sampling risk. Higher confidence requires larger samples. Auditors choose higher confidence for less reliable controls.

Example

A 95 percent confidence coefficient means a 5 percent risk that the sample conclusion is wrong.

Exam tip

Higher confidence or lower tolerable error both increase sample size.

Related terms