2026 and 2027 Level I weights · checked Oct 22, 2026
Every Level I subject's exam weight, how many of the 180 questions it is worth, and how to split roughly 300 study hours so the heavy subjects get the hours they deserve.
Ethical & Professional Standards alone is 15–20% — about 32 questions.
Where do you stand on the heavy topics? Take the free 30-question mini-mock, weighted like the exam
Quick answer
The 2026 CFA Level 1 exam weights are Ethical & Professional Standards 15–20%, Quantitative Methods 6–9%, Economics 6–9%, Financial Statement Analysis 11–14%, Corporate Issuers 6–9%, Equity Investments 11–14%, Fixed Income 11–14%, Derivatives 5–8%, Alternative Investments 7–10%, Portfolio Management 8–12%. Ethical & Professional Standards (15–20%), Financial Statement Analysis, Equity Investments and Fixed Income (11–14% each) together make up about 55% of the 180 questions. CFA Institute publishes each weight as a range, so the exact number of questions per topic varies from one exam window to the next.
2 sessions of 90, 135 minutes each — about 90 seconds a question.
Weights are published as ranges. Ethics is the single heaviest topic; Derivatives the lightest.
Ethics, FSA, Equity Investments, Fixed Income together are over half the marks.
Sorted heaviest first. Click a topic to open its subject guide and learning modules.
| Topic | Exam weight | Questions (of 180) | Study hours (of ~300) | Modules | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethical & Professional Standards | 15–20% | 27–36 (≈32) | ≈53 h | 5 | High weight |
| Financial Statement Analysis | 11–14% | 20–25 (≈23) | ≈38 h | 9 | High weight |
| Equity Investments | 11–14% | 20–25 (≈23) | ≈38 h | 6 | High weight |
| Fixed Income | 11–14% | 20–25 (≈23) | ≈38 h | 5 | High weight |
| Portfolio Management | 8–12% | 14–22 (≈18) | ≈30 h | 3 | Medium weight |
| Alternative Investments | 7–10% | 13–18 (≈15) | ≈26 h | 3 | Medium weight |
| Quantitative Methods | 6–9% | 11–16 (≈14) | ≈23 h | 11 | Lower weight |
| Economics | 6–9% | 11–16 (≈14) | ≈23 h | 8 | Lower weight |
| Corporate Issuers | 6–9% | 11–16 (≈14) | ≈23 h | 7 | Lower weight |
| Derivatives | 5–8% | 9–14 (≈12) | ≈20 h | 2 | Lower weight |
CFA Institute publishes weights as ranges; the exact mix varies by exam window. Question counts are the range applied to 180 questions, and hours are the midpoint applied to the ~300 hours successful candidates report — use them for proportion, not precision.
For exams from February 2027. Four topics move: Ethics 15–20% → 10–15%, Quantitative Methods 6–9% → 11–14%, Derivatives 5–8% → 6–9%, Alternative Investments 7–10% → 6–9%. Quantitative Methods joins the heaviest group, and Ethics is no longer the single heaviest topic.
| Topic (2027 name) | 2026 weight | 2027 weight | Questions in 2027 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethical and Professional Standards | 15–20% | 10–15% | 18–27 | Down |
| Quantitative Methods | 6–9% | 11–14% | 20–25 | Up |
| Economics | 6–9% | 6–9% | 11–16 | No change |
| Financial Statement Analysis | 11–14% | 11–14% | 20–25 | No change |
| Corporate Finance | 6–9% | 6–9% | 11–16 | No change |
| Equities | 11–14% | 11–14% | 20–25 | No change |
| Fixed Income | 11–14% | 11–14% | 20–25 | No change |
| Derivatives and Risk Management | 5–8% | 6–9% | 11–16 | Up |
| Alternative Investments | 7–10% | 6–9% | 11–16 | Down |
| Portfolio Construction | 8–12% | 8–12% | 14–22 | No change |
Both tables are from CFA Institute's Level I exam page, checked Oct 22, 2026. The 2027 curriculum applies to exams from February 2027; November 2026 candidates still use the 2026 weights.
Every learning module, grouped by subject and ordered by exam weight. Tick modules off in the dashboard and it keeps your cheat sheets, flashcards and quiz scores against the same list.
Priority 1
15–20% · ≈32 questions · ≈53 hours
Rule: Never leave these to the end — together they are more than half the exam.
Priority 2
11–14% · ≈23 questions · ≈38 hours
Rule: Never leave these to the end — together they are more than half the exam.
Priority 3
11–14% · ≈23 questions · ≈38 hours
Rule: Never leave these to the end — together they are more than half the exam.
Priority 4
11–14% · ≈23 questions · ≈38 hours
Rule: Never leave these to the end — together they are more than half the exam.
Priority 5
8–12% · ≈18 questions · ≈30 hours
Rule: Worth a full pass and a second look at the formulas before the exam.
Priority 6
7–10% · ≈15 questions · ≈26 hours
Rule: Worth a full pass and a second look at the formulas before the exam.
Priority 7
6–9% · ≈14 questions · ≈23 hours
Rule: Cover once, do the questions, and let the mock exam tell you whether to return.
Priority 8
6–9% · ≈14 questions · ≈23 hours
Rule: Cover once, do the questions, and let the mock exam tell you whether to return.
Priority 9
6–9% · ≈14 questions · ≈23 hours
Rule: Cover once, do the questions, and let the mock exam tell you whether to return.
Priority 10
5–8% · ≈12 questions · ≈20 hours
Rule: Cover once, do the questions, and let the mock exam tell you whether to return.
Free account, no card needed. Progress saves module by module.
Weights answer three planning questions. They do not tell you what to skip — nothing is skippable.
Quantitative Methods and FSA come first because the investment subjects reuse their maths and ratios. After that, give the four heavy subjects the biggest blocks and leave Ethics for last so it is freshest on exam day.
The table's hours column is ~300 hours split by weight. An accountant can cut FSA hours; a career changer should add to Fixed Income and Derivatives. Keep the total, move the shares.
A 55% in Derivatives costs you about six questions; a 55% in Ethics costs about fourteen. After every mock, revise the subject with the largest weight-adjusted gap, not the lowest raw score.
Study each subject from your curriculum or provider, capture what matters in editable cheat sheets and the formula sheet, and revise the heavy subjects from your own repository before the exam.
For exams from February 2027, CFA Institute's 2027 weights are Ethical and Professional Standards 10–15%, Quantitative Methods 11–14%, Economics 6–9%, Financial Statement Analysis 11–14%, Corporate Finance 6–9%, Equities 11–14%, Fixed Income 11–14%, Derivatives and Risk Management 6–9%, Alternative Investments 6–9%, Portfolio Construction 8–12%. Four topics change from 2026: Ethics 15–20% → 10–15%, Quantitative Methods 6–9% → 11–14%, Derivatives 5–8% → 6–9%, Alternative Investments 7–10% → 6–9%. November 2026 candidates still sit the 2026 weights.
Applying the published weight ranges to 180 questions gives roughly: Ethical & Professional Standards 27–36, Quantitative Methods 11–16, Economics 11–16, Financial Statement Analysis 20–25, Corporate Issuers 11–16, Equity Investments 20–25, Fixed Income 20–25, Derivatives 9–14, Alternative Investments 13–18, Portfolio Management 14–22. The exact mix is fixed per exam form and is not disclosed, so treat these as planning ranges.
Ethical & Professional Standards, at 15–20%. It is also the tiebreaker CFA Institute uses for borderline scores, which makes it the single most valuable topic to be strong in.
Not every year, but they do move when CFA Institute restructures the curriculum. The 2027 table changes four topics (Ethics 15–20% → 10–15%, Quantitative Methods 6–9% → 11–14%, Derivatives 5–8% → 6–9%, Alternative Investments 7–10% → 6–9%). Check the published table once per cycle; the ranges on this page were last checked on the date shown above.
No. Derivatives is 5–8%, about 9–14 questions — more than the margin most candidates fail by. Cover every topic once; use the weights to decide where second and third passes go, not what to leave out.
Start from the ~300 hours successful candidates report and split it in proportion to the weight midpoints: about 53 hours for Ethical & Professional Standards, 38 each for Financial Statement Analysis, Equity Investments and Fixed Income, and less for the rest. Then adjust for your background — an accountant needs fewer FSA hours, a career changer needs more Fixed Income.