About the exam
CFA Level I Exam structure
CFA Level I prep with 601 original practice questions, 180-question topic-weighted mocks, flashcards, and topic recovery.
Issuer and path
CFA Level I Exam Prep is administered through CFA Institute. Check official resources before booking, retesting, or relying on a stale requirement.
Ethical and Professional Standards
17.5 scored + 0 pretest
Ethics, trust, professionalism, CFA Institute Code and Standards, standards guidance, compliance procedures, GIPS concepts, and ethics application.
Quantitative Methods
7.5 scored + 0 pretest
Rates and returns, time value of money, statistical measures, probability, portfolio math, simulation, sampling, hypothesis testing, regression, and big data techniques.
Economics
7.5 scored + 0 pretest
Firm and market structures, business cycles, fiscal policy, monetary policy, geopolitics, international trade, capital flows, foreign exchange, and exchange-rate calculations.
Financial Statement Analysis
12.5 scored + 0 pretest
Financial statement analysis framework, income statements, balance sheets, cash flows, inventories, long-term assets, liabilities, taxes, reporting quality, ratios, and modeling.
Corporate Issuers
7.5 scored + 0 pretest
Organizational forms, corporate issuer features, stakeholders, ESG factors, governance, working capital, capital allocation, capital structure, and business models.
Equity Investments
12.5 scored + 0 pretest
Market organization, security market indexes, market efficiency, equity securities, company analysis, industry analysis, forecasting, and basic equity valuation.
Fixed Income
12.5 scored + 0 pretest
Fixed-income features, issuance, markets, bond pricing, yields, term structure, duration, convexity, credit risk, securitization, ABS, and MBS basics.
Derivatives
6.5 scored + 0 pretest
Derivative market features, forwards, futures, swaps, options, contingent claims, hedging uses, arbitrage, replication, cost of carry, valuation, put-call parity, and binomial pricing.
Alternative Investments
8.5 scored + 0 pretest
Alternative investment features, structures, performance, private capital, real estate, infrastructure, natural resources, commodities, hedge funds, and digital assets.
Portfolio Management
10 scored + 0 pretest
Portfolio risk and return, efficient frontier, CAPM, performance measures, portfolio management process, IPS, constraints, behavioral biases, and risk management.
Before registering
Confirm CFA Institute eligibility, exam window, scheduling deadline, passport requirement, approved calculator, PSM requirement, and current Level I topic outline before locking a test date.
Official Outline Coverage Map
Coverage is mapped to official outline item counts so content depth can be checked without hard-coding a single exam.
| Topic | Official outline items | Your questions | Your flashcards | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethical and Professional Standards | 18 | 103 | 8 | Priority |
| Quantitative Methods | 8 | 44 | 8 | Priority |
| Economics | 8 | 44 | 8 | Good |
| Financial Statement Analysis | 13 | 73 | 8 | Priority |
| Corporate Issuers | 8 | 44 | 8 | Good |
| Equity Investments | 13 | 73 | 8 | Priority |
| Fixed Income | 13 | 73 | 8 | Priority |
| Derivatives | 7 | 38 | 8 | Good |
| Alternative Investments | 9 | 50 | 8 | Good |
| Portfolio Management | 10 | 59 | 8 | Priority |
How to use this guide
How to study for CFA Level I
Use CFA Institute's Level I topic weights and learning outcomes as the map: combine ethics discipline with calculation fluency, financial reporting analysis, valuation basics, and portfolio risk-return reasoning.
Classify the topic
Identify whether the item is testing ethics, quant, economics, FSA, issuer analysis, asset valuation, derivatives, alternatives, or portfolio management.
Find the controlling relationship
Select the formula, definition, reporting rule, valuation model, risk concept, or professional standard before calculating.
Use the exact stem
Respect qualifiers such as most likely, least likely, most appropriate, and best described.
Check reasonableness
Validate units, signs, direction, ethics duties, and economic intuition before choosing the answer.
Ethical and Professional Standards
Ethics questions test the Code and Standards, professional conduct, trust, integrity, duties, compliance procedures, GIPS concepts, and scenario application.
Key rules
Rule 1
Ethical and Professional Standards questions reward the answer that follows the official source, the professional role, and the stated facts.
Exam cue: Identify the candidate role, client or public risk, source rule, calculation, or process step being tested.
Rule 2
The strongest answer identifies the rule, safety concern, ethical duty, calculation, client factor, or process step before acting.
Exam cue: Check whether the fact pattern is using a national standard, jurisdiction rule, handbook policy, or scenario-specific instruction.
Rule 3
Eliminate answers that ignore requirements, skip documentation, overreach the role, or treat convenience as the standard.
Exam cue: Choose the compliant and professionally scoped answer before the convenient or familiar answer.
Common traps
Treating related standards as interchangeable without checking the source.
Prevention: Avoid answers that rely only on habit, ignore the stated source, skip safety or compliance steps, or choose convenience over the professional standard.
Skipping screening, documentation, authorization, sanitation, recordkeeping, or other required procedure.
Prevention: Avoid answers that rely only on habit, ignore the stated source, skip safety or compliance steps, or choose convenience over the professional standard.
Choosing an answer that protects convenience instead of client safety, public protection, or the stated professional duty.
Prevention: Avoid answers that rely only on habit, ignore the stated source, skip safety or compliance steps, or choose convenience over the professional standard.
Memory anchors
Professionalism
Professionalism requires integrity, competence, diligence, respect for law, and conduct that supports trust in capital markets.
Code Standards
The CFA Institute Code and Standards set ethical responsibilities for investment professionals.
Material Nonpublic
Material nonpublic information must not be used or shared in a way that violates market integrity rules.
Duties Clients
Duties to clients include loyalty, prudence, care, suitability, fair dealing, and confidentiality.
Duties Employers
Duties to employers include loyalty, reasonable care, and avoiding harm to employer interests within ethical limits.
Conflicts
Conflicts of interest should be disclosed, managed, and prevented from compromising objectivity.
GIPS
GIPS standards promote fair, comparable, and transparent investment performance reporting.
Ethical Framework
An ethical framework identifies facts, stakeholders, duties, conflicts, alternatives, and consequences before acting.
Next best moves
Quick check-up
Use a short quiz to confirm the rule pattern is actually sticking.
Check-up Questions
Priya Nair, CFA, works in a country whose securities law on insider trading is less strict than the CFA Institute Standards, while a client's home country imposes a stricter local statute. When these three sets of rules conflict, which should Nair follow to comply with Standard I(A) Knowledge of the Law?
An equity analyst is invited by the management of a company she covers on an all-expenses-paid trip, on the company's private jet, to tour a remote mining site that cannot be reached by commercial flights. Under Standard I(B) Independence and Objectivity, what is her most appropriate action?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Open another topic next
Official resources
Verify the details with the official sources
Use these links for eligibility, scheduling, handbook rules, and issuer updates. Our guide helps you study; official sources tell you what the testing partner currently requires.
CFA Program Level I Exam
Official CFA Institute Level I page with exam structure, 180-question format, topic weights, question design, and Level I guidance.
2026 Level I Topic Outlines
Official CFA Institute PDF with 2026 Level I learning outcomes across Quantitative Methods, Economics, Corporate Issuers, FSA, Equity, Fixed Income, Derivatives, Alternatives, Portfolio Management, and Ethics.
CFA Program Exam Information
Official CFA Institute overview comparing levels, exam day timing, registration, results, policies, and exam resources.
CFA Program Curriculum
Official curriculum entry point for CFA Program topic organization, learning ecosystem, and candidate study resources.
FAQ
Common CFA Level I questions
Is this the official CFA Level I exam?
No. These are original practice questions aligned to public CFA Institute Level I information and 2026 topic outlines. They are not copied from secure CFA exam material.
How many questions are on CFA Level I?
CFA Institute describes the Level I exam as 180 multiple-choice questions in two 135-minute sessions with 90 questions each.
How are the topic weights handled here?
CFA Institute publishes topic-weight ranges. This site uses the midpoint of each 2026 Level I range to allocate the 601-question bank and 180-question mock.
Does CFA Level I have only three answer choices?
The real Level I exam uses three answer choices. This site's shared practice engine uses four choices, while preserving the tested concepts and one best answer.
How should I use the 601 questions?
Keep ethics in constant rotation, drill quantitative and valuation mechanics until formulas are automatic, then run full 180-question mocks to practice topic switching.