The FINRA SIE exam has four sections - Knowledge of Capital Markets (16%), Understanding Products and Their Risks (44%), Understanding Trading, Customer Accounts and Prohibited Activities (31%), and Overview of the Regulatory Framework (9%) - tested through 75 scored multiple-choice questions in 1 hour 45 minutes.
The weights below come from FINRA’s official 2025 content outline, which is authoritative; this page is a plain-English summary of what each section covers.
The four sections at a glance
| # | Section | Weight | Scored questions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Knowledge of Capital Markets | 16% | 12 |
| 2 | Understanding Products and Their Risks | 44% | 33 |
| 3 | Understanding Trading, Customer Accounts and Prohibited Activities | 31% | 23 |
| 4 | Overview of the Regulatory Framework | 9% | 7 |
| Total | 100% | 75 |
Section 1 - Knowledge of Capital Markets (16%)
- Regulatory entities and agencies: the SEC, FINRA and other self-regulatory organizations, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, SIPC and the FDIC
- Market participants: investors, broker-dealers, investment advisers, market makers, transfer agents and custodians
- Market structure: primary versus secondary markets, exchanges and over-the-counter trading
- Economic factors: monetary versus fiscal policy, business cycles and economic indicators
- Offerings: underwriting methods, initial public offerings and the prospectus
Section 2 - Understanding Products and Their Risks (44%)
- Equity securities: common and preferred stock, rights, warrants and American Depositary Receipts
- Debt securities: Treasury, municipal and corporate bonds, structure and liquidation priority, money-market instruments
- Packaged products: open-end mutual funds, closed-end funds, ETFs, unit investment trusts, variable annuities and REITs
- Options: calls and puts, buyers and writers, basic risk and reward profiles
- Investment risks: market, credit, interest-rate, inflation, liquidity, reinvestment and currency risk
Section 3 - Understanding Trading, Customer Accounts and Prohibited Activities (31%)
- Orders and execution: market, limit, stop and short-sale orders; trade settlement cycles
- Customer accounts: cash and margin accounts, account opening and know-your-customer requirements, discretionary authority
- Anti-money-laundering: the Bank Secrecy Act, suspicious-activity reporting and the stages of money laundering
- Prohibited activities: insider trading, churning, front running, market manipulation, selling away and related conduct violations
Section 4 - Overview of the Regulatory Framework (9%)
- The federal securities acts: Securities Act of 1933, Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and the Investment Company and Investment Advisers Acts of 1940
- The SRO system and FINRA membership
- Individual registration: Form U4 and Form U5, disclosures and statutory disqualification
- Employee conduct and continuing education
Format and passing score
The exam delivers 80 multiple-choice questions - 75 scored and 5 unscored pretest questions that are not identified - in 105 minutes at a Prometric test center or via online proctoring. Each question has four options. Scoring is statistically equated; 70 on a 0-100 scale passes, and there is no penalty for wrong answers. FINRA does not publish official pass rates. A pass is valid for four years and, on its own, does not register you with FINRA - it is the co-requisite for representative-level exams such as the Series 7.