CFA Exam Team members are generally asked to write two or three item set or essay questions or approximately 30 multiple choice questions in their assigned topics. The CFA Exam Team develops more questions than needed so that the Council of Examiners (COE) leadership can select the best portfolio of questions to appear on the exams.

Level I multiple choice questions are crafted with each of the incorrect responses (distracters) carefully constructed to represent common mistakes in either calculation or logic. A Level I examination consists of 240 questions to be completed in a six-hour time frame. Learn more

The Level II CFA exam consists of 20 item sets — 10 on the morning session of the exam and 10 on the afternoon session.

Item sets are sometimes called “mini-cases.” Each item set on the CFA exam consists of a vignette (or case statement) and six multiple choice items (questions). Learn more

The Level III exam uses the essay format in the morning, and the item set format, with 10 item sets, in the afternoon.

The Level III essay exam is given in the morning session and has a maximum score of 180 points. The essay exam typically has 10–15 questions, and questions may have multiple parts. The points for each question and each question part are given in the exam. Learn more about the formatting of CFA exam questions