SEBI syllabus: Grade A exam pattern for all seven streams

What the SEBI exam pattern looks like from start to finish

SEBI recruits Assistant Managers through one advertisement that covers all streams. The latest advertisement offered 110 posts across seven streams, with General taking the largest share. Everyone sits the same kind of process:

1. Phase I: two objective papers taken online. Clearing it only gets you to Phase II; the marks are not carried forward.
2. Phase II: an English descriptive paper for all streams and a stream paper that is objective for some streams and written for others.
3. Interview: for those shortlisted on Phase II marks.

The final list gives Phase II 85 percent of the weight, leaving 15 percent for the interview. In the latest cycle, a part of the interview marks also went to relevant qualification and work experience. Because the stream paper appears in both phases, it is the single most important block of study whichever stream you choose.

Phase I: the screening papers

You also need 40 percent on the two papers taken together. A wrong objective answer takes away a fourth of its value, which means blind guessing on a 40 minute stream paper usually hurts more than it helps.

Paper 1 is identical for every stream. Paper 2 changes completely: a law graduate faces legal subjects, an engineer faces engineering questions, and a General stream candidate faces accounts, costing, company law, finance, economics and management.

Phase II papers for each stream

The English paper is common: an essay, a precis and a comprehension, typed on screen in 60 minutes for 100 marks, with a 30 percent minimum; it supplies a third of the weighted Phase II score. The second paper, worth the other two thirds, looks very different by stream.

Paper 2 has a 40 percent minimum and the weighted Phase II total needs 50 percent. Time limits for the technical streams have shifted between cycles, so take them from the current notice rather than from older guides.

Stream wise SEBI exam syllabus in brief

• General: accounting and commerce, costing, finance, management, the Companies Act chapters named in the advertisement, and economics. Full list on the Grade A General stream page.
• Legal: constitutional and administrative law, company and securities law, contract, evidence, banking and insolvency law, and the laws SEBI enforces. A law degree is the entry requirement.
• Information Technology: computer networks, databases, programming, data structures, operating systems, software design and testing, information security, and newer areas such as data analytics. An engineering degree in a computer related branch or a master's in computer applications is expected.
• Research: economics, econometrics, statistics and the working of financial markets, at postgraduate level.
• Official Language: Hindi and English language, translation both ways, and official correspondence and noting.
• Engineering (Electrical and Civil): the core subjects of the respective branch at degree level.

Qualification rules differ for each stream and appear in the advertisement itself, so confirm that you fit your chosen stream before you begin.

Paper 1 topics you share with every stream

This paper rewards speed. Expect four parts of roughly similar size, though the split between them is not announced:

• General awareness: current events of recent months with a tilt towards markets, regulators, the budget, government schemes and international financial bodies.
• English: reading passages, spotting which segment of a sentence is wrong, gap filling, reordering jumbled sentences and word meaning.
• Quantitative aptitude: tables and charts to interpret, arithmetic, series and approximation.
• Reasoning: puzzles, seating, syllogisms, inequalities, coding and logical statements.

Because the minimum is only 30 percent, Paper 1 is rarely where people fail; they fail on the aggregate. A good Paper 1 score gives you a cushion for a difficult stream paper.

How to plan around the SEBI syllabus

Start with your stream subject, since it counts twice and carries two thirds of Phase II. Give it about three fifths of your daily study time from the first week. Split the rest between Paper 1 practice and typed writing.

Candidates in descriptive streams such as Research and Official Language should practise answers on a keyboard, not on paper, because the exam is typed. For the English paper, reading SEBI press releases and RBI statements doubles as general awareness preparation.

Reading material and where the official syllabus sits

Use standard degree level textbooks for your stream, the bare text of the Acts named in the advertisement, and the annual reports and circulars of SEBI and RBI for the regulatory side. For Paper 1, any set of timed bank level practice papers works, since the question styles are similar.

The detailed syllabus for each stream is printed inside the advertisement on the SEBI website under careers. Aspirants preparing for more than one regulator often study alongside it for the RBI Grade B syllabus or the NABARD Grade A syllabus, since economics, finance and English writing overlap. More options sit on the bank exams hub.