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Exam family

FINRA Series exams

The core FINRA qualification exams.

11 published exams, administered by FINRA. Official exam lengths run from 50 to 200 questions. Time limits run from 1h 30m to 5h 30m. 1,980 free practice questions are live across the family.

11
Exams
1,980
Free practice questions
11
Study guides
11
Cheat sheets

11 exams

Every exam in this family

Most searched first.

Which FINRA Series exam is yours?

Choose your FINRA exam by the work you will do. The SIE covers industry basics; representative exams cover roles such as selling securities, investment banking or operations; principal exams cover supervision. The exam numbers are not a sequence you work through from lowest to highest.

You can take the SIE without a sponsoring firm. FINRA requires sponsorship for its representative and principal qualification exams, generally through a FINRA member firm or another applicable SRO member firm. Passing the SIE alone does not register you to conduct securities business.

The Series 63, 65 and 66 are NASAA state-law exams, even though FINRA administers them. They are grouped on our NASAA state exams page. They answer a separate registration question from the FINRA exams listed here: whether you meet the exam requirement for a state securities registration.

Match the exam to your role

Find the work you expect to do below. The exam links open our guides; the free practice tests, study guides and cheat sheets are in the exam cards above. FINRA's exam pages and co-requisite table are the sources for the registration relationships described here.

Entry: learn the securities-industry basics
SIE

Securities Industry Essentials. No firm sponsorship is needed. It is a co-requisite for the representative exams below, but passing it alone does not authorize you to sell securities.

Representative: mutual funds and variable contracts
Series 6

The Investment Company and Variable Contracts Products Representative exam covers products such as mutual funds, variable annuities and unit investment trusts. This is a narrower product scope than Series 7. Sponsorship and the SIE are required.

Representative: stocks, bonds, options and other securities
Series 7

The General Securities Representative exam covers a broader range of securities products than Series 6, including stocks, bonds and options. You need sponsorship to take it and must pass both Series 7 and the SIE for this registration.

Representative: investment banking, trading, research or operations
Series 79Series 82Series 57Series 22Series 86/87Series 99

Match the role to its exam: investment banking (79), private securities offerings (82), securities trading (57), direct participation programs (22), research analysis (86/87), or operations (99). These are separate registrations, not interchangeable alternatives to Series 7. Each requires sponsorship and the SIE.

Related NASAA requirement: state-law registration
Series 63

NASAA writes the Series 63 for broker-dealer agents. Its Series 65 covers investment adviser law. The Series 66 combines the state-law exam qualifications of the 63 and 65, but using it for adviser registration also requires a valid Series 7. Passing an exam does not itself grant state registration.

Principal: supervise a securities business
Series 24Series 23

Series 24 is the General Securities Principal exam. FINRA pairs it with different co-requisites for different registrations: SIE plus Series 7 supports general securities supervision; other combinations cover narrower functions. Series 23 is the sales-supervisor module, with SIE, Series 7 and Series 9/10 co-requisites.

Principal: supervise sales, options or investment company products
Series 9/10Series 4Series 26

Series 9/10 covers general securities sales supervision, Series 4 options supervision, and Series 26 investment company and variable contracts products supervision. FINRA lists SIE plus Series 7 for 9/10 and 4; Series 26 accepts SIE plus Series 6 or Series 7.

Principal: finance, operations, compliance or research
Series 27Series 28Series 14Series 16Series 39

These cover financial and operations principals (27), introducing broker-dealer financial and operations principals (28), compliance officers (14), supervisory analysts (16), and direct participation programs principals (39). FINRA lists no exam co-requisite for 27, 28, 14 or 16. Series 39 requires SIE plus Series 7 or Series 22.

Sponsorship, co-requisites and your next step

  1. 01No sponsoring firm yet? The SIE has a self-enrollment route. Start there if you want to study securities products, markets and industry rules before joining a firm. It does not replace a role-specific qualification exam.
  2. 02Joining a broker-dealer? The firm's registration team identifies the representative registration for your duties and handles the sponsored exam enrollment. A sales role, investment-banking role and operations role do not all call for the same Series exam.
  3. 03Distinguish a co-requisite from an exam order. Co-requisites are exams you must pass for the registration; the label does not itself mean you must pass one before sitting the other. For example, FINRA requires both the SIE and Series 7 for General Securities Representative registration.
  4. 04Moving into supervision? Use the principal row for the function you will supervise. There is no universal representative-then-principal exam ladder: FINRA lists different co-requisites for Series 24, 26 and 4, and none for several finance, compliance and research exams.
  5. 05Preparing for a specific exam? Use its own practice bank and outline. Series 6's product scope is narrower than Series 7's, and a principal exam tests supervisory responsibilities. The fees and formats below help with booking; they do not determine which registration your job requires.

Fee, format and passing standard

All 11 exams on this page. Each figure is that exam's verified fact, cited to the regulator's page on the exam guide it links to. A blank cell means the regulator publishes no fixed figure.

ExamFeeQuestionsTimePassingWritten by
SIE$100751h 45m70 (scaled score)FINRA
Series 6$100501h 30m70 (equated)FINRA
Series 7$3951253h 45m72FINRA
Series 79$395752h 30m73%FINRA
Series 57$105501h 45m70%FINRA
Series 99$100501h 30m68%FINRA
Series 24$2351503h 45m70%FINRA
Series 26$2001102h 45m70%FINRA
Series 9/10$4102005h 30m70% each partFINRA
Series 4$2001253h 15m72%FINRA
Series 14$4501103h70%FINRA

Who writes these exams

FINRA
Develops the SIE and FINRA Series qualification exams, defines the registration categories and co-requisites, and administers these exams. Its official exam pages explain the work each registration covers.
NASAA
Develops the Series 63, 65 and 66 state-law exams, which FINRA administers. These appear in the separate NASAA exam family on this site; passing a FINRA exam does not by itself settle state registration requirements.

Official pages this section is drawn from

FINRA Series exams articles

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Pass-rate breakdowns and independent prep-course comparisons for finra series exams exams. Every figure links back to the body that publishes it.

Grounding

Official sources

Every exam number on this page traces to a document published by the body that sets or administers the exam. These are the primary publishers cited across FINRA Series exams.

Last verified against these documents: