CFA Level I Diagnostic Quiz

Not sure where to start? This 30-question diagnostic samples every CFA Level I domain in proportion to its weight on the real exam, then tells you which domains to study first. It takes about 10 minutes, there is no timer, and nothing leaves your browser.

30 questions about 10 minutes 10 domains free, no sign-up

Find your weak spots

30 questions, about 10 minutes, no timer. Every domain is sampled, weighted the way the real exam weights it. You get a band for each domain and a study-first list, not a pass prediction.

30 questions~10 min10 domains

No feedback until the end. Your result is saved in this browser only.

Sample CFA Level I diagnostic questions

These are real items from the CFA Level I bank, one from each of three domains, shown with their answers so you can see the format before you start. The diagnostic itself draws 30 questions from 100 CFA Level I terms , and does not reveal answers until the end.

  1. Alternative Investments

    Which best describes “Infrastructure”?

    • · Hybrid financing that sits between senior debt and equity in the capital structure, often debt with equity warrants.
    • · A basic, interchangeable good — energy, metals, agriculture — traded mainly through standardized futures contracts.
    • · Investment in physical property for rental income and capital appreciation, accessed directly or through REITs.
    • ✓ Investment in long-lived physical assets — toll roads, airports, utilities, pipelines — that generate stable, often inflation-linked cash flows.

    Exam tip: Brownfield (existing, operating) assets offer lower-risk, income-like returns; greenfield (to-be-built) assets carry construction and demand risk for a higher expected return. Many infrastructure cash flows are contractually or regulatorily linked to inflation.

  2. Equity Investments

    Which best describes “Ticker”?

    • · The number of shares actually available for public trading, excluding closely held positions.
    • · An ownership interest in a company — a residual claim on assets after all liabilities and senior claims are paid.
    • · How easily and quickly a security can be converted to cash without significant price impact.
    • ✓ A short symbolic code that uniquely identifies a security on an exchange.

    Exam tip: Tickers are exchange-specific — the same company can trade under different tickers on different exchanges, and tickers get reused after a delisting, so always pair with an ISIN or CUSIP for identification.

  3. Ethics and Professional Standards

    Which best describes “Disclosure”?

    • · Acting with integrity, competence, diligence, and respect to support the integrity of capital markets.
    • · Dealing fairly and objectively with all clients when distributing recommendations, making decisions, or taking action.
    • · Maintaining objectivity by avoiding economic, employment, or personal relationships that could compromise judgment.
    • ✓ Full and fair disclosure of any matter that could reasonably be expected to impair independence, objectivity, or duties to clients.

    Exam tip: Disclosures must be 'prominent, delivered in plain language, and effective' — burying a conflict in a footnote does not satisfy the standard.

What the CFA Level I diagnostic covers

The quiz mirrors the exam blueprint. Ethics and Professional Standards carries the most weight on the real CFA Level I, at about 18% of the test, so it gets the most questions here; Derivatives, at about 6%, gets the fewest, but never fewer than 3, because a band should never rest on a single question. The questions draw on the site's CFA Level I term bank, so they measure how well you know the concepts and vocabulary the exam is built on. They are not full-length scenario items.

  1. Ethics and Professional Standards

    18% of the exam

    Topic Areas

    Topic 1 — the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct, which apply to every candidate, charterholder, and member firm.

    10 terms · 1 study set

  2. Equity Investments

    12% of the exam

    Topic Areas

    Topic 6 of the Level I curriculum — the structure of equity markets and the vocabulary of stocks, dividends, repurchases, and equity risk measures.

    10 terms · 1 study set

  3. Financial Statement Analysis

    12% of the exam

    Topic Areas

    Topic 4 — reading and interpreting the financial statements, from the income statement and balance sheet to cash flows, accruals, and ratio analysis.

    10 terms · 1 study set

  4. Fixed Income

    11% of the exam

    Topic Areas

    Topic 7 — debt securities: bond mechanics, pricing, yield measures, and the risks (interest rate, credit, liquidity) that move bond prices.

    10 terms · 1 study set

  5. Portfolio Management

    10% of the exam

    Topic Areas

    Topic 10 — putting it all together: risk and return, diversification, the efficient frontier, performance measurement, and the investment policy statement.

    10 terms · 1 study set

  6. Alternative Investments

    8% of the exam

    Topic Areas

    Topic 9 — assets outside traditional equity and fixed income: private equity, hedge funds, real estate, infrastructure, and commodities.

    10 terms · 1 study set

  7. Corporate Issuers

    8% of the exam

    Topic Areas

    Topic 5 — how firms are organized and governed, how they raise capital, and how they make investment and financing decisions.

    10 terms · 1 study set

  8. Economics

    8% of the exam

    Topic Areas

    Topic 3 — microeconomic foundations and macroeconomic indicators that drive financial markets, from supply and demand to inflation, business cycles, and trade policy.

    10 terms · 1 study set

  9. Quantitative Methods

    8% of the exam

    Topic Areas

    Topic 2 — the statistical and analytical toolkit underlying the rest of the curriculum, from descriptive statistics to hypothesis testing and regression.

    10 terms · 1 study set

  10. Derivatives

    6% of the exam

    Topic Areas

    Topic 8 — financial instruments whose value derives from an underlying asset: forwards, futures, options, and swaps.

    10 terms · 1 study set

How your result is scored

Each domain comes back as a band rather than a percentage: Needs work (under 50% correct), Developing (50% to 79%), or Solid (80% and up). A handful of questions per domain is enough evidence to say "this needs work"; it is not enough to trust a number like 67%, so we do not show one.

The study-first list ranks domains by the share of the exam each one puts at risk: its blueprint weight multiplied by the fraction you missed. On the CFA Level I that maths has teeth, because the domains are not equal — Ethics and Professional Standards is worth about 18% and Derivatives about 6%, so half-knowing Ethics and Professional Standards costs you roughly 9 points of the exam while barely knowing Derivatives costs about 5. Up to three domains make the list; if all 10 come back Solid, the list is empty and the full-length mock exam is the next real test.

Every question you miss is written into that study set's flashcard deck as due now, so the review queue starts with your actual gaps — across the 1 study sets in Ethics and Professional Standards alone, that is the difference between re-reading things you already know and drilling the ones you do not. Your attempts are kept in this browser (the last five), and a retake shows which domains moved up or down since last time.

This is a study map, not a prediction. The real CFA Level I runs 90 questions in 135 minutes and is administered by CFA Institute; this is 30 untimed questions drawn from the same blueprint. No sample that short can estimate a result on it, and the site's own mock exam uses a 70% practice target rather than a pass prediction for the same reason.

What to do with your result

  1. Step 1

    Open your first focus domain

    Start with the top of the study-first list. Its study sets are linked right on the results screen; flashcards for the terms you missed are already due.

  2. Step 2

    Drill the set, then quiz it

    Flashcards build recall; the per-set quiz checks it with confusable distractors drawn from related terms.

  3. Step 3

    Retake, then take the mock exam

    After a study block, retake the diagnostic to see which bands moved. When the focus list is empty, the timed CFA Level I mock exam is the next real test.

All CFA Level I study modes → · How to pass the CFA Level I →

Frequently asked questions

How long is the CFA Level I diagnostic quiz?
30 questions, untimed. Most people finish in about 10 minutes. Every domain gets at least 3 questions, and the rest are spread in proportion to each domain's weight on the real exam.
Does the result predict whether I will pass?
No. A 30-question sample can tell you which domains need work; it cannot estimate a real CFA Level I result. Treat it as a study map, then measure progress with the full-length mock exam.
Where is my result stored?
In your browser only, using local storage. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed. Retake the quiz later and the results screen compares the two attempts domain by domain.
What happens to the questions I miss?
Each missed term is scheduled as due in that study set's flashcards, so your next review session starts with exactly the gaps the diagnostic found.