SEBI Grade A Syllabus and Exam Pattern: Phase I, Phase II and Interview
Last updated: 2026-11-13 · MockMentor
SEBI Grade A is a three-phase exam. Phase I only screens candidates for Phase II. The final merit list gives 85% weight to Phase II and 15% to the interview. The pattern and syllabus below are from SEBI's 2025 advertisement.
Phase I: screening (two papers)
| Paper | Subjects | Marks | Time | Cut-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 (all streams) | General Awareness (including easy to moderate financial sector questions), English, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning | 100 | 60 minutes | 30% |
| Paper 2, General stream | Commerce, Accountancy, Management, Finance, Costing, Companies Act, Economics | 100 | 40 minutes | 40% |
| Paper 2, other streams | The specialised subject of the stream | 100 | 40 minutes | 40% |
| Aggregate | 40% |
- Both papers are multiple choice, with a quarter-mark penalty for each wrong answer.
- Paper 1 has no sectional cut-off.
- Everyone who meets all three cut-offs goes to Phase II. Phase I marks do not count later.
Phase II: two papers
| Paper | Stream | Format | Marks | Time | Cut-off | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 | All streams | English descriptive test of drafting skills | 100 | 60 minutes | 30% | 1/3 |
| Paper 2 | General | Objective: Commerce, Accountancy, Management, Finance, Costing, Companies Act, Economics | 100 | 90 minutes | 40% | 2/3 |
| Paper 2 | Legal | 70 one-mark MCQs + 3 descriptive questions of 10 marks | 100 | 60 + 60 minutes | 40% | 2/3 |
| Paper 2 | Information Technology | Objective: logic flow, debugging, syntax, program dry runs, data analysis | 100 | 180 minutes | 40% | 2/3 |
| Paper 2 | Research | Descriptive: economics, financial markets and statistics | 100 | 120 minutes | 40% | 2/3 |
| Paper 2 | Official Language | Translation and drafting in Hindi and English | 100 | 90 minutes | 40% | 2/3 |
- You need 30% in Paper 1, 40% in Paper 2 and 50% in the weighted aggregate.
- About 3 times the vacancies are then called to interview, in order of merit.
- MCQs in Paper 2 carry a quarter-mark penalty. Descriptive answers are typed on the keyboard.
- All papers except the English test are set in both Hindi and English.
Phase III: interview and final merit
| Component | Weight in final merit |
|---|---|
| Phase II | 85% |
| Interview | 15% |
For the Legal and Engineering streams, up to 3.75 of the 15 interview marks go for relevant post-qualification experience, and the interview itself carries 11.25. You may choose to take the interview in Hindi or English.
General stream syllabus (Paper 2, same for Phase I and Phase II)
| Subject | Main topics |
|---|---|
| Commerce and Accountancy | Accounting as an information system; accounting standards (depreciation, inventories, revenue recognition, fixed assets, foreign exchange, investments); cash flow and fund flow statements; ratio analysis; share capital, bonus and rights shares; ESOPs and buy-back; company final accounts |
| Management | Nature and scope; planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling; the manager's role; leadership styles and theories; Human Resource Development; motivation, morale and incentives; communication and its barriers |
| Finance | Regulators in the financial sector; primary and secondary markets (forex, money, bond, equity); derivatives basics (forwards, futures, swaps); recent developments; financial inclusion and technology; alternate finance and PPP; taxes, GST, Finance Commission, fiscal policy and the FRBM Act; inflation, WPI and CPI |
| Costing | Cost and management accounting; unit, job, batch, contract and process costing; standard and marginal costing; budgetary control; lean systems, JIT, Kaizen, 5S, TPM, Six Sigma, BPR |
| Companies Act, 2013 | Chapters III, IV, VIII, X, XI, XII and XXVII |
| Economics | Demand and supply, market structures, national income, classical and Keynesian approaches, consumption and investment functions, multiplier and accelerator, money demand and supply, IS-LM, inflation and the Phillips curve, business cycles, balance of payments, forex markets, monetary and fiscal policy, NBFCs |
Other streams in brief
- Legal: Phase I covers the Constitution, contract law, the Code of Civil Procedure, transfer of property, arbitration, limitation, administrative law, jurisprudence and torts. Phase II covers criminal law and evidence under the new codes, corporate laws (Companies Act, LLP Act, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code) and securities laws, which carry the largest weight (40%).
- Information Technology: Phase I covers databases and SQL, programming (Java, C, C++), Python or R, algorithms, networking, cyber security, data warehousing and shell scripting. Phase II focuses on algorithms, data structures, strings and object-oriented programming.
- Research: economics, public economics, statistics and econometrics, international economics and financial markets.
How to use our material
The Finance, Management and Economics parts overlap with RBI Grade B Phase 2, so our Finance notes and Management notes cover a good share of the General stream. Phase II Paper 1 is a drafting test, so practise structured, time-bound English answers; our descriptive writing guide explains how.