General Securities Principal Exam (Series 24) Study Guide

The General Securities Principal Exam (Series 24) is the FINRA qualification exam for candidates who will supervise a broker-dealer's securities business. Before you build a study plan, anchor on the exam's core mechanics:

• Format: 150 multiple-choice questions
• Time allowed: 225 minutes (3 hours and 45 minutes)
• Passing score: 70%
• Exam fee: $235

Do the math on that timing and you get roughly a minute and a half per question. That is comfortable if you keep moving, but it punishes candidates who stall on hard supervision scenarios. A good habit in practice sessions: answer, flag anything uncertain, and return to flagged items with your remaining time rather than burning three minutes on one question early.

A 70% passing bar on 150 questions also means you can miss a meaningful number of questions and still pass — so your goal in studying is broad, reliable coverage, not perfection in any single topic.

What the Series 24 Qualifies You to Do

The General Securities Principal Exam (Series 24) qualifies an individual to supervise and manage the securities business of a FINRA member firm. Passing it authorizes a candidate to oversee activities such as underwriting, trading, market making, brokerage office operations, and the supervision of registered representatives.

Exam Format and Logistics

The Series 24 is a knowledge-intensive supervisory exam that assumes you already understand the underlying products and rules — its focus is on how a principal must supervise them. Here are the core specifications you should plan around:

• Questions: The exam contains 150 multiple-choice questions.
• Time limit: You are allotted 225 minutes (3 hours and 45 minutes) to complete the exam.
• Passing score: You must score at least 70% to pass.
• Fee: The examination fee is $235.

How to Read These Numbers

With 150 scored questions and 225 minutes, you have roughly 1.5 minutes per question on average, which leaves room to flag and revisit harder supervisory scenarios. Because 70% is the passing bar, you can miss a meaningful number of questions and still pass — but the margin is smaller on a supervisory exam where many questions are judgment-based rather than purely factual.

FINRA organizes the Series 24 around job functions of a general securities principal, and it publishes item counts for the two heaviest areas:

• Function 2 — Supervision of General Broker-Dealer Activities: 45 questions
• Function 3 — Supervision of Retail and Institutional Customer-Related Activities: 32 questions

Together these two supervision functions account for 77 of the exam's 150 questions — just over half of the entire test. That single observation should shape your study calendar: a candidate who is merely adequate on supervision of broker-dealer operations and customer-related activities is fighting uphill on more than half the exam, no matter how strong they are elsewhere.

How to use this weighting

• Schedule your longest, most focused study blocks for supervision of general broker-dealer activities — at 45 questions, it is the largest published block on the exam.
• Treat retail and institutional customer-related supervision (32 questions) as the second pillar, and drill it with scenario-style questions rather than pure memorization, since supervision topics tend to be tested as judgment calls.
• Cover the remaining functions thoroughly, but let the published item counts decide where your marginal study hour goes.

Build Your Pace Around the Clock

The exam gives you 225 minutes for 150 questions. That averages to about 90 seconds per question, but you should not treat every question equally — factual recall items (registration timeframes, filing thresholds) should take well under a minute, banking time for the long supervisory scenarios and calculation-style questions that can take two to three minutes each.

A Practical Pacing Plan

• Checkpoint approach: Aim to complete roughly one-third of the questions (about 50) every 75 minutes so you always know whether you are ahead or behind.
• First pass: Answer everything you know quickly, and flag anything requiring rereading or calculation.
• Second pass: Return to flagged items with your remaining time, using the buffer built up from the fast factual questions.

Why This Works

Because the passing score is 70%, your goal is consistent accuracy across the whole exam rather than perfection on any single hard question. Spending five minutes on one ambiguous scenario is a poor trade when that time could secure several easier points elsewhere.

What a Principal Is Tested On

The Series 24 is organized around the supervisory responsibilities of a general securities principal. While the exam draws on product knowledge you gained from prior qualifications, the questions consistently frame material from the perspective of a supervisor who must design, apply, and document compliance with firm and regulatory requirements.

Major Domains

• Supervision of investment banking and underwriting: Overseeing public offerings, due diligence, and the distribution of securities.
• Supervision of trading and market making: Managing trading desk conduct, quotations, and order handling.
• Supervision of brokerage office operations: Account approvals, recordkeeping, and customer complaint handling.
• Supervision of sales and associated persons: Registration, communications with the public, and suitability oversight.
• Regulatory framework and compliance: Applying rules to real supervisory scenarios and maintaining written supervisory procedures.

How to Study Each Domain

For every topic, ask not just 'what is the rule?' but 'what must a principal do to supervise it, and how is that documented?' The exam rewards candidates who can translate a rule into a supervisory action or a required written procedure.

You cannot sit for the Series 24 as your first securities exam. Candidates must pass the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) exam and an appropriate representative-level qualification exam — such as the Series 7 — before taking the Series 24.

The SIE piece of the path

• The SIE consists of 75 scored questions.
• The SIE enrollment fee is $100.
• A passing SIE result remains valid for four years.

That four-year validity window deserves attention if you passed the SIE a while ago — for example, before joining your current firm. Before your firm opens a Series 24 exam window, confirm that your SIE pass is still within its four-year validity period; otherwise you may need to retake it before you can complete the principal-level qualification.

If you are earlier in the path, plan the sequence deliberately: SIE, then a representative-level exam such as the Series 7, then the Series 24. Budgeting the $100 SIE fee alongside the $235 Series 24 fee gives you a realistic picture of the exam costs on the principal track.

The Series 24 is not an exam you can simply sign up for on your own. Enrollment requires sponsorship by an eligible regulatory authority, and self-enrollment is not available. In practice, a candidate associated with a broker-dealer typically has a Form U4 submitted by the firm to request the exam — so your first conversation is with your firm's registration or compliance team, not with a test vendor.

The 120-day window

Once your enrollment is processed, FINRA posts a 120-day window in which the exam must be taken. Treat that window as your study deadline, and work backward from it. Two practical tips:

• Don't schedule at the very end of the window. Booking your appointment with time to spare leaves room to reschedule if preparation runs long or life intervenes.
• Coordinate the U4 filing with your study plan. If your firm files before you have started studying, the clock is already running; if you have flexibility, ask the firm to time the request so the 120 days align with your preparation.

Booking the appointment

Appointments are scheduled with Prometric, FINRA's test delivery vendor, either at a local test center or online. Decide early which delivery mode suits you — a quiet, controlled test-center room versus testing from your own space — and book promptly, since you are choosing from available appointment slots within your window.

Set a Target Above the Minimum

The passing score is 70%, so a disciplined study plan should aim for consistent practice-exam scores in the high 70s or low 80s before test day. Building that cushion protects you against exam-day variability and the tendency of scenario questions to feel harder under time pressure.

A Suggested Timeline

• Weeks 1–3 — Foundations: Read the full curriculum once, focusing on understanding supervisory principles rather than memorizing.
• Weeks 4–5 — Application: Work topic-by-topic question sets, reviewing every wrong answer to identify the supervisory concept you missed.
• Weeks 6+ — Simulation: Take full-length, timed practice exams under realistic conditions to build stamina for the 225-minute session.

Simulate the Real Conditions

Because the actual exam is 150 questions over 225 minutes, at least a few of your practice sessions should replicate that full length and time limit. This trains both your pacing and the mental endurance needed to stay accurate deep into a nearly four-hour exam. Also confirm your registration and the $235 fee well ahead of your scheduled date so logistics never disrupt your study rhythm.

FINRA's cancellation rules have real money attached, so know them before you book.

• To avoid any fees: cancel or reschedule a minimum of 10 business days before your appointment.
• Late changes and no-shows: rescheduling or cancelling within two business days of a scheduled appointment, or failing to appear, results in a fee equal to the cost of the exam.

Since the Series 24 costs $235, a missed appointment effectively forfeits the full $235 — you pay the price of the exam without taking it. The practical takeaway: put a reminder in your calendar at least two weeks (to be safely past the 10-business-day mark) before your test date. That is your honest decision point — if you are not on track by then, move the appointment while it is still free to do so, rather than gambling on a late cram.

The numbers FINRA publishes about the Series 24 tell you how to prepare for it. Here is a plan that uses each of them.

Let the 120-day window set your phases

Your exam must be taken within the 120-day window FINRA posts, so structure preparation as phases inside it: an initial pass through all content areas, a second pass weighted toward the supervision functions, and a final stretch dominated by full-length practice exams and review of weak spots.

Weight your hours like the exam weights its questions

With 45 questions on supervision of general broker-dealer activities and 32 on supervision of retail and institutional customer-related activities, supervision scenarios are the center of gravity of this exam. If your practice scores are uneven, fix supervision gaps first — improvement there moves your overall score more than improvement anywhere else, because those two functions alone span 77 of the 150 questions.

Train pacing and the passing bar together

Take at least a few practice exams under real conditions: 150 questions in 225 minutes. Score them against the real 70% passing bar, not a comfort threshold. If you are consistently clearing 70% with room to spare under timed conditions, you are ready; if you are hovering at the line, use the remaining window — and if necessary a fee-free reschedule made at least 10 business days out — rather than walking in on hope.

The week before

• Confirm your Prometric appointment details, including whether you booked a test center or online delivery.
• Re-verify the logistics that carry fees: you are past the point of free changes once you are within 10 business days.
• Taper new material; spend final days on timed review of the two supervision functions.