AIDA 1 has no performance requirements for certification. You only have to demonstrate that you know how to freedive safely, and can look after yourself and others.

The challenges for the Intermediate levels are as follows. Note that all depths listed are for Cold Water as per AIDA (<12°C below 10m).

AIDA 2

• Dive to 10m
• Deep safety from 7m
• Rescue from 5m
• Pass the online AIDA 2 exam with a 75% score
• Hold your breath for 2 minutes
• Swim underwater with fins for 40m

AIDA 3

• Dive to 21m
• Deep safety from 15m
• Simulate a leg cramp from 15m
• Rescue from 10m then tow to shore
• Simulate a flooded mask from 10m
• Pass the online AIDA 3 exam with a 75% score
• Hold your breath for 2:45
• Swim underwater with fins for 55m

The challenges for Advanced Safety (aka "Competition Depth Safety") are as follows:

• Ability to assist and rescue from -25m with BOs at random depths (surface, 10m, 25m, in random order) covering all team roles (Safety 1, Safety 2 and Safety 3), including extraction (hand-off to the medical team)
• Team rescues from -25m with 30 second standby
• Solo rescues from -20m
• 30m dive + 30 second surface recovery + 20m dive
• 20m dives with 3-5 seconds notice, at fast pace (early turn simulation)
• Pass the online theory exam with a 75% score

The challenges for Assistant Instructor (aka AIDA 4) are as follows. Note that all depths listed are for Cold Water as per AIDA (<12°C below 10m):

• Dive to 30m
• Deep safety from 20m
• Rescue from 20m then tow to shore
• Leg cramp from 20m
• Flooded mask from 20m
• Rescue from 15m while simulating a leg cramp
• Pass the online AIDA 4 exam with a 75% score
• Hold your breath for 3:30
• Swim underwater with fins for 70m

The challenges for Instructor are as follows:

• CWT 35m
• FIM 35m
• Long CWT 30m 1:30
• Long FIM 30m 2:00
• 15m x 5 CWT dives with 1 minute surface interval in between
• Rescue from 20m then tow 50m
• Rescue from 15m after 30s hang
• CNF 20m
• Pass the written Instructor exams parts 1, 2a and 2b
• Hold your breath for 4 minutes
• Swim underwater with fins for 90m
• Swim underwater without fins for 50m

Note that the depths for some challenges reflect the cold water (<12°C below 10m) modifications specified by AIDA Education Committee head Andy Buhl.

Athletic challenges that don’t require depth, such as breath-holds and underwater swims, can be submitted by video. If you are submitting a challenge by video, please follow these guidelines:

Breath holds
Breath holds (“statics”) should be done on land, lying down in a comfortable place like your bed. You can film yourself with a stationary camera and you don’t need to have a buddy.

Underwater swims
For underwater swims (“dynamics”) you must have a buddy. Your buddy should film you while swimming on the surface next to you. If you don’t have a waterproof camera, you can mount your camera at one end of the pool, as long it has a clear field of view of you and your buddy swimming next to you the whole time.

Here are some tables showing how AIDA's certification requirements compare to those of other agencies. Some observations:

• Molchanovs and NAUI do not offer an entry-level open water certification that is independent of depth. Their lowest level certifications require students to dive to 10-12m. If you are planning to teach in a tropical place with perfect conditions, this may not be a problem, but if you are planning to teach somewhere with more challenging conditions, you will end up with a lot of beginners "failing" your course. In my opinion, this is a big drawback to teaching for these agencies.

• In PFI and NAUI the dynamic (underwater pool swim) is optional, which is a nice benefit for instructors who can't or don't want to teach in a lap pool.