BEIJING -- About 850,000 candidates across China will be sitting the computer-based national accounting basic-level certificate exam from Saturday to Thursday, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced on Saturday.

The scope of this year's paperless exam has expanded to all test centers in 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, as well as the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, according to the MOF. ? ?

The remaining 16 provincial-level regions will have pilot computer-based exam in selective centers, the ministry said.

Another 500,000 candidates will take the same exam with paper and pencil in October, according to the ministry.

By the end of 2012, China's national accounting certificate exam had received 29.51 million test registrations, with a total of 4.52 million passing the test. The annual exam was first conducted paperless in 2012.