FINRA SIE Diagnostic Quiz

Not sure where to start? This 24-question diagnostic samples every SIE domain in proportion to its weight on the real exam, then tells you which domains to study first. It takes about 8 minutes, there is no timer, and nothing leaves your browser.

24 questions about 8 minutes 4 domains free, no sign-up

Find your weak spots

24 questions, about 8 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.

24 questions~8 min4 domains

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

Sample SIE diagnostic questions

These are real items from the SIE bank, one from each of three domains, shown with their answers so you can see the format before you start. The diagnostic itself draws 24 questions from 91 SIE terms , and does not reveal answers until the end.

  1. Understanding Products and Their Risks

    Which best describes “Restricted & Control Stock”?

    • · Equity ownership in a corporation carrying the right to vote, receive dividends if declared, inspect books, maintain proportionate ownership (preemptive rights), and claim residual assets last in a liquidation.
    • · Shares a corporation has issued and then repurchased; treasury stock carries no voting rights, pays no dividends, and reduces the count of outstanding shares.
    • · Both let the holder buy the issuer's stock at a set price: preemptive rights are short-term (weeks), issued to existing shareholders, and priced below the market; warrants are long-term (often years), usually attached to other securities as a sweetener, and priced above the market at issuance.
    • ✓ Restricted stock is unregistered stock acquired privately (e.g., in a private placement) that generally must be held six months before resale; control stock is registered stock held by affiliates (officers, directors, >10% owners), whose sales face volume limits under Rule 144.

    Exam tip: Rule 144 in one line: restricted stock = 6-month holding period; control stock = no holding period but sales limited to the greater of 1% of shares outstanding or the average weekly trading volume over the prior four weeks.

  2. Overview of the Regulatory Framework

    Which best describes “Outside Business Activities (OBA)”?

    • · FINRA caps gifts from a member or rep to employees of other firms at $300 per person per year (raised from $100 effective March 30, 2026) where the gift relates to the recipient's employer's business; business entertainment the giver attends is separate and must be reasonable, not conditioned on business.
    • ✓ Any business activity outside the member firm for which a rep receives or expects compensation — a second job, directorship, or side business — requiring PRIOR WRITTEN NOTICE to the firm before participating.
    • · Form U4 registers an individual with FINRA through a member firm — disclosing employment history, residences, and disciplinary events; Form U5 reports the termination of that registration within 30 days, with a copy to the rep.
    • · Two ongoing requirements for registered persons: the Regulatory Element — FINRA-prescribed training completed annually by December 31 — and the Firm Element, the firm's own annual training program for covered persons.

    Exam tip: OBA = notify the firm in writing FIRST; the firm can restrict or prohibit it. Passive investments (buying rental property, owning stock) are not OBAs. If the outside activity involves SECURITIES transactions, it is a private securities transaction instead — stricter rules apply.

  3. Knowledge of Capital Markets

    An accredited investor has a net worth over $1 million excluding the primary residence, or income over $200,000 ($300,000 joint) in each of the last two years. Rule 506(b) allows up to 35 non-accredited purchasers but no general solicitation; 506(c) allows advertising but accredited investors only.

    Which term does this describe?

    • · The SEC
    • · Underwriting Commitments
    • · The Prospectus & Registration
    • ✓ Private Placements & Exempt Offerings

    What it means: Offerings excused from SEC registration: Regulation D private placements sold mainly to accredited investors, intrastate offerings under Rule 147, small offerings under Regulation A, and exempt securities such as Treasuries and municipals.

What the SIE diagnostic covers

The quiz mirrors the exam blueprint. Understanding Products and Their Risks carries the most weight on the real SIE, at about 44% of the test, so it gets the most questions here; Overview of the Regulatory Framework, at about 9%, 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 SIE 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. Understanding Products and Their Risks

    44% of the exam

    Exam Sections

    The heaviest section by far: 33 of the 75 scored questions on the products themselves — equity and debt securities, mutual funds and other packaged products, options — and the specific risks each one carries. If you master one section, make it this one.

    40 terms · 5 study sets

  2. Trading, Customer Accounts & Prohibited Activities

    31% of the exam

    Exam Sections

    23 of the 75 scored questions on how trades and accounts actually work: order types and trade capacity, settlement, cash and margin accounts, account registrations and retirement accounts, the prohibited activities FINRA polices hardest, and the compliance rules — AML, SIPC, Regulation BI — that protect customers.

    28 terms · 4 study sets

  3. Knowledge of Capital Markets

    16% of the exam

    Exam Sections

    12 of the 75 scored questions cover how the markets themselves work: the regulators (SEC, FINRA and the other SROs), market structure and participants, how new securities are brought to market, and the economic forces — monetary and fiscal policy, the business cycle, interest rates — that move prices.

    15 terms · 2 study sets

  4. Overview of the Regulatory Framework

    9% of the exam

    Exam Sections

    The shortest section: 7 of the 75 scored questions on the legal backbone of the industry — the Securities Act of 1933 and Exchange Act of 1934, registration and reporting on Forms U4 and U5, statutory disqualification, continuing education, and the employee-conduct rules on outside activities and gifts.

    8 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 SIE that maths has teeth, because the domains are not equal — Understanding Products and Their Risks is worth about 44% and Overview of the Regulatory Framework about 9%, so half-knowing Understanding Products and Their Risks costs you roughly 22 points of the exam while barely knowing Overview of the Regulatory Framework costs about 7. Up to three domains make the list; if all 4 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 5 study sets in Understanding Products and Their Risks 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 SIE runs 75 questions in 105 minutes and is administered by FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority); this is 24 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 SIE mock exam is the next real test.

All FINRA SIE study modes → · How to pass the SIE →

Frequently asked questions

How long is the SIE diagnostic quiz?
24 questions, untimed. Most people finish in about 8 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 24-question sample can tell you which domains need work; it cannot estimate a real SIE 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.