Financial Adviser Exam Format at a Glance (2026)

6 min read · facts checked 12 Oct 2026

As at 12 October 2026, ASIC says the financial adviser exam has at least 70 multiple-choice questions, split equally across three areas, answered in 3.5 hours including 15 minutes' reading time (ASIC Exam preparation guidance v6.0 and Exam policy). You sit it online under remote proctoring and are told only whether you passed or failed.

The exam at a glance

The three areas

ASIC's exam policy says the questions are "equally split across the examined areas", so expect roughly a third on each. ASIC does not publish the count per area.

• Financial advice regulatory and legal obligations: Corporations Act 2001 Chapter 7, the AML/CTF Act 2006, the Privacy Act 1988 and Subdivision 50-AA of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009.
• Applied ethical and professional reasoning and communication: The Financial Planners and Advisers Code of Ethics 2019, ethical frameworks, the best interests duty, referral, file maintenance and biases in judgement.
• Financial advice construction: Suitability of advice for different retail client groups, consumer behaviour and decision making, risk tolerance, and spotting inappropriate advice and better alternatives.

The syllabus guide lists the learning outcomes and the reading ASIC suggests for each area.

Question types

• Multiple choice: pick the best answer from four options, (a) to (d). ASIC's practice guidance tells you to choose the best answer to the question asked, even where more than one option looks right.
• True/false sets: you decide whether each statement is true or false and need every part right to earn the one mark. In ASIC's practice set every true/false question has two statements.
• The maximum marks for each question are shown on screen.
• Since 19 January 2024 the law allows only multiple-choice type questions. The short written answers of the old format went, and the first exam without them was on 26 March 2024 (see what changed from the FASEA exam).

Client scenarios

ASIC's practice guidance says you will see several client scenarios or case studies covering different types of advice, such as financial planning, superannuation, stockbroking, SMSFs and insurance. In ASIC's 64-question practice set, 12 client scenarios carry 50 of the questions (2 to 8 each) and run to roughly 140–390 words; the rest sit on a short vignette inside the question. The number of scenarios in the live exam is not published.

Timing

The first 15 minutes are reading time, and ACER says answers entered during reading time are not saved. That leaves 3 hours 15 minutes for at least 70 questions: about 2 minutes 47 seconds a question. There is no scheduled break; you can go to the bathroom with the proctor's permission, but the timer keeps running.

What is supplied, and what is not

• Supplied: relevant statutory content as part of the questions, for example a section of the Corporations Act or a standard of the Code of Ethics.
• Not supplied: non-statutory documents such as ASIC regulatory guides, so you need to know those yourself.
• Not allowed: hardcopy materials, other websites and calculators of any kind.
• For working: a small erasable whiteboard and marker. In 2026 you may use one blank A4 sheet instead; from 2027 only whiteboards are allowed.

What ASIC does not publish

• The exact number of questions in a sitting, or per area.
• The number or length of the client scenarios.
• The pass mark for a sitting (it is standard-set each time: see the pass mark guide).
• A numerical score for candidates.
• A "law as at" cut-off date for legislative changes.

Practise in the same format

Our free mock is 70 questions in 3.5 hours, most of them set on client scenarios. Our mocks report a pass or fail against a 70% practice line (49/70), the middle of the 65–74% credit band. That line is ours, not ASIC's: ASIC sets the real cut-off for each sitting and does not publish it. You can also start with the free sample questions.