CFA Level 1 Syllabus: Topics, Weights and Pattern

CFA level 1 syllabus at a glance: topic weights

The weights are ranges, so how many questions each topic gets moves a little between forms. Roughly, ethics now brings 18 to 27 questions, and each of the four 11 to 14 percent topics brings around 20 to 25. Together, ethics, quant, financial reporting, equities and fixed income make up more than half the paper. If you sit the November window that closes the current year, the earlier outline in the right hand column still applies.

How the CFA level 1 exam is structured

• Session 1: 90 questions in 2 hours 15 minutes. Under the earlier outline this session covered ethics, quantitative methods, economics, financial statement analysis and corporate issuers.
• Optional break: a short pause between the sessions.
• Session 2: another 90 questions in 2 hours 15 minutes, which carried equity, fixed income, derivatives, alternatives and portfolio management. Confirm the split for the sitting you book by logging in to your CFA Institute account, since topic names and weights have just been revised.

That gives you 90 seconds per question. Wrong picks cost nothing, so leave no item blank. Each question has three options, labelled A, B and C. Only the two financial calculator models approved by CFA Institute may be taken into the hall; practise on one of them from day one so key strokes become automatic.

Ethics, quantitative methods and economics

Ethical and Professional Standards

The Code of Ethics and the seven Standards of Professional Conduct, which the newest curriculum teaches as separate learning modules based on the latest Standards of Practice Handbook, followed by application cases. GIPS is no longer a standalone Level I reading in that version. Questions are scenario based: a portfolio manager does something, and you judge whether a standard was broken.

Quantitative Methods

Rates and returns, time value of money, statistical measures of returns, probability trees, portfolio maths, simulation (historical, bootstrapping and Monte Carlo), sampling and estimation, hypothesis testing and simple linear regression. The revised version adds a reading on financial data science and large language models and leans more on spreadsheet based examples, which explains its higher weight.

Economics

Firms and market structures, business cycles, fiscal and monetary policy, geopolitics, international trade, capital flows and the foreign exchange market, and currency cross rate calculations.

Financial reporting and corporate issuers

Financial Statement Analysis is the heaviest reading for most candidates. It walks through the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement, then inventories, long lived assets, long term liabilities, income taxes, reporting quality, ratio analysis and a basic introduction to financial modelling. Commerce graduates who know Indian accounting standards will recognise much of it, but CFA tests the analyst's view: how a choice of method changes the ratios.

Corporate Finance, called Corporate Issuers in the earlier outline, covers forms of business organisation, stakeholders and corporate governance, working capital and liquidity, capital investment decisions, capital structure and business models.

Equities, fixed income, derivatives, alternatives and portfolios

• Equities: market organisation, security indexes, market efficiency, types of equity securities, industry and company analysis, forecasting and valuation models. The revised topic adds more on how analysts build research reports, tying valuation to forecast financial statements and scenario analysis, and a module on the cost of equity using CAPM and multi factor models.
• Fixed Income: among the largest counts of modules. Bond features and issuers, valuation, yields and spreads, the term structure, duration and convexity, credit risk and credit analysis for governments and companies, and securitised products including asset backed and mortgage backed securities.
• Derivatives and Risk Management: forwards, futures, swaps and options, arbitrage and cost of carry, put call parity and a one period binomial model.
• Alternative Investments: private capital, real estate and infrastructure, natural resources, hedge funds and an introduction to digital assets.
• Portfolio Construction: risk and return, portfolio planning, behavioural biases, risk management, technical analysis and fintech.

CFA Institute says the topics other than ethics, quant and equities carry forward with only minor edits, so module lists outside those three should look familiar from earlier study material.

Where to put your effort

Start with ethics, quant and financial statement analysis. Ethics no longer stands alone at the top, but it still rewards repeated reading of the standards and cases rather than formula practice, while quant has grown enough to deserve early, steady practice. Fixed income has many modules but a common logic: once duration and yield make sense, most questions become mechanical.

Derivatives and economics are lighter in weight, yet skipping either is risky because the exam has no topic level pass mark you can rely on. Aim to be comfortable in every area and strong in the big five.

A study plan of about 300 hours

CFA Institute's candidate surveys suggest that passing candidates spend roughly 300 hours or more on each level, and most Indian candidates spread this over five to six months.

1. Months 1 to 3: read every learning module in the official curriculum, topic by topic, in the order of the table above. Do the end of chapter questions as you go.
2. Month 4: topic tests and the practice questions in the candidate learning portal, focusing on weak modules.
3. Month 5: full mock exams under timed conditions, two sessions back to back, then careful review.
4. Final weeks: ethics standards, formula sheets and a light read of every topic summary.

Eligibility and related finance courses

Level I registration is open to holders of a bachelor's degree, to undergraduates whose chosen exam window falls 23 months or less before their bachelor's graduation month, and to anyone with a combined 4,000 hours of work and higher education over at least three sequential years (each year of study counts as 1,000 hours). A valid international passport is required to book the test.

Planning a wider finance path? See the overview of the CFA syllabus across all three levels, compare it with the CA foundation syllabus or the ACCA syllabus, and browse the rest of our entrance exams guides.