Practice Exam for FINANCIAL ANALYST Level III 2026

NEW 2026 - Level III

Previously, the Level 3 program offered a single learning path, orienting candidates towards the role of Portfolio Manager. However, from 2025, the program will be divided into three separate paths, allowing candidates to choose the path that best suits their career goals:

• Portfolio Management Pathway

• Wealth Management Pathway

• Private Market Pathway

Each track will include a general knowledge section, which accounts for approximately 65-70% of the exam content, plus additional specialist content relevant to the chosen track. This means that candidates will need to decide on their track at registration, and this choice cannot be changed afterwards.

Core content

Candidates will have the flexibility to choose between the three pathways above, depending on their personal career goals. However, all candidates must complete 5 common core contents before delving into their specialization, including:

• Asset Allocation

• Portfolio Construction

• Performance Measurement

• Derivatives & Risk Management

• Ethics (Professional ethics)

These contents account for about 50 - 70% of the program volume, creating the necessary knowledge foundation for candidates to continue to delve into the profession.

Specialized subjects

After completing the 5 core subjects, candidates will study different specialized subjects depending on their career orientation. Specifically as follows:

• With the Portfolio management track , this path retains the public market focus of the previous program, the required courses are: Equity Portfolio Management, Fixed Income Portfolio Management; Trading and Execution; Ethics in Portfolio Management and Case study.

• With the Wealth management direction , this path focuses on serving high net worth clients and the required subjects will be: Private Wealth Industry; Client Management; Wealth Structuring; Investment Planning; Ethics in Wealth Management.

• With the Private market orientation focusing on private market investment from the perspective of the Principal Investor, candidates need to study the following subjects: Structures and Investment Process; Private Equity; Private Debt; Private Real Estate & Infrastructure; Ethics in Private Markets.

Add Practical Skills Module

In addition to the core and specialized subjects, the Level 3 program in 2025 will add a new module called Practical Skills Module to enhance candidates' practical skills. Through this module, candidates will learn flexibly through videos, multiple choice questions, case studies and guided practice exercises. This helps candidates easily master specialized knowledge and apply it to real-life working environments.

Information to note about Practical Skills Module:

• Study time: 10-15 hours

• Learning format: Online through Learning Ecosystem

• Note: This course is not part of the exam but is required to complete in order to receive the exam results. It is expected to be added from the 2025 Level 3 exam.

NEW 2025 - Level III Topic and Exam weight

1. Asset Allocation 15–20%

2. Portfolio Construction 15–20%

3. Performance Measurement 5–10%

4. Derivatives and Risk Management 10–15%

5. Ethical and Professional Standards 10–15%

6. Pathways (Portfolio Management or Private Markets or Private Wealth) 30–35%

Exam structure

The Level III exam consists of item sets and constructed response (essay) sets. Both question types combine vignettes with accompanying multiple-choice items for item sets and constructed response items for essay sets.

All questions must be answered based on the information in the vignette. Hence, the items are not free-standing, as in the  Level I exam. You'll need to refer to the vignette before answering each item.

Each session will have either 6 item sets and 5 essay sets or 5 item sets and 6 essay sets. This mixed distribution of item types across the two exam sessions creates a more balanced delivery of questions throughout the exam. Overall, the Level III exam contains 11 item sets and 11 essay sets for 12 points each. Twenty of these question sets are scored, and two (one item set and one essay set) are being trialed and will not be scored.

The Program curriculum topic areas for Level III will be randomly placed on the exam. All topics may be covered in either the first or second sessions, and possibly both sessions. Each vignette will begin with a statement of the topic and the total point value, which is always 12 points.

Exam duration

The Level III exam will be 4 hours and 24 minutes, split into two equal sessions of 2 hours and 12 minutes, with an optional break in-between.