CFA Level 1 Pass Rate by Topic 2026: The Cohort Trap

Last verified: October 5, 2026.

The CFA Level 1 pass rate tells two stories at once in 2026, and most coverage conflates them. February 2026 cleared to 45 percent — above the decade average of 40 percent — while May 2026 dropped to 39 percent, the largest cohort in recent memory sat for that window. Same exam, same content outline, two answers. The driver is cohort size: when 31,566 candidates sit for a single window (vs a typical 23,000-26,000), the average moves with the marginal candidates, not the structure of the exam. Read the rate wrong, and the read implies the exam is getting harder; read it right, and it tells you the candidate pool is getting broader.

This piece walks through the four 2026 windows, the first-time-vs-deferral split, the topic-level pass rates the CFA Institute does not publish but the vendors do, the May 2026 cohort trap, the Level 2 and Level 3 pass-rate story, and the salary and career outcomes that decide whether the credential pays for itself.

The Four Windows, Three Standardized Rates

CFA Level 1 is offered in four testing windows per year: February, May, August, and November. The 2026 windows have each completed (Feb, May) or be running (Aug, Nov); each is administered at Prometric testing centers globally on multiple days within the window (Pearson VUE partnership since 2024). The pass-rate story sits in the per-window history:

The 10-year historical pass rate is 40 percent. Two windows in 2024-2026 landed below average (May 2026, August 2024); three windows landed at or above (Feb 2026, May 2025, Feb 2025); the rest cluster at 43-44 percent. The variability is real, but the structural average is stable, and the cohort-size signal explains more of the variance than any change in exam difficulty.

First-Time 50%, Deferral 25-30%

The candidate-level breakdown is sharper than the window-level one. First-time candidates — those testing on schedule without a prior deferral — achieve roughly 50 percent pass rate; candidates testing after at least one deferral achieve roughly 25-30 percent. The 20-25 percentage point gap reflects that deferral is correlated with weaker preparation and is the single strongest predictor of exam success that CFA Institute publishes.

"Staying on schedule remains one of the strongest predictors of exam success," the CFA Institute notes in its annual results release. The implication for any candidate sitting for an August or November 2026 window: the defer option is not a preparation gift. Each calendar month between the planned sit and the actual sit drags the probability curve down by a measurable amount, and the deferral candidate's 25-30 percent rate is what the exam looks like after that drag.

The Hardest Topics, by the Numbers That Actually Exist

CFA Institute does not publish topic-level pass rates. The topic-level difficulty rankings are derived from vendor prep analytics (Kaplan, Wiley, AdaptPrep) and candidate self-reports, which cluster consistently for the major sections:

Ethics is the most-failed topic not because it is the most technical — it is the most detail-heavy, and the only CFA topic where two of the seven Standards can each carry 15-20 percent of the exam weight by themselves. FSA is the heaviest-weighted and most-cited "kills first-time candidates" topic, because the consolidation questions require three-statement modeling under time pressure. Quant is the lowest-scoring for candidates without statistics or econometrics backgrounds. Derivatives is the smallest by weighting but the most per-question dense.

The Cohort Trap Behind May 2026

The CFA Level 1 pass rate dropped to 39 percent in May 2026 because the test-taker pool surged to 31,566 candidates — one of the largest cohorts since before COVID. First-time candidates achieved 45 percent (still above the 10-year average of 40), while candidates testing after at least one deferral achieved 25 percent. The lower average reflects more candidates testing with weaker preparation, not a structural change in exam difficulty.

The pattern is mechanical. Larger cohorts pull in more candidates at the margin — first-time candidates who sit before they are ready, deferral candidates who defer multiple times. Both groups' production math stretches the average downward even when the first-time candidate's per-attempt pass rate is steady or rising. The August 2024 window showed the same pattern at smaller scale (22,235 candidates, 39 percent overall, 43 percent first-time).

For anyone reading the rate as a signal of exam difficulty, this is the trap. The CFA Institute's exam difficulty has been steady through the 2024-2026 windows; the cohort mix has not.

Level 2: The Construct-and-Apply Gap

Level 2 sits between the entry-level exam and the portfolio-management capstone. The 5-year average pass rate is 46 percent:

Level 2 covers 10 topic areas focusing on asset valuation: Ethical and Professional Standards, Quantitative Methods, Financial Statement Analysis, Corporate Issuers, Equity Investments, Fixed Income, Derivatives, Alternative Investments, Portfolio Management, and Wealth Planning. The construct-and-apply question format requires candidates to apply multiple concepts within a single vignette, which is harder than the recall-and-recognize format that dominates Level 1. The higher pass rate reflects the pre-filtered candidate pool (Level 1 passers), not a less-demanding exam.

Level 3: Why the Hardest Has the Highest Rate

Level 3 covers portfolio management and wealth planning. The 5-year average pass rate is 49 percent:

The construct-response essay format (transitioning through 2024 to multi-select and constructed-response items) requires candidate responses to be evaluated against CFA Institute's grading criteria. The Level 3 pass rate of 50 percent is the highest of the three levels because the candidates who reach Level 3 are pre-filtered for success — those who survive Level 1 and Level 2 are systematically more prepared than the original Level 1 cohort.

Salary and Career Outcomes for CFA in 2026

CFA Level 1 candidates who have not completed all three levels earn a median annual salary of $85,000-$120,000 in 2026 — typically investment analyst, junior portfolio manager, or research associate roles. The full CFA charterholder salary range is $108,000-$176,000 per the CFA Institute Salary Survey 2025.

Top-paying CFA roles in 2026: Portfolio Manager $130,000-$300,000+; Equity Research Analyst $90,000-$200,000; Investment Banker $120,000-$250,000+; Risk Manager $100,000-$180,000. The top-paying markets for CFA charterholders: Singapore $192,000, Hong Kong $185,000, United States $165,000, Switzerland $180,000, Canada $148,000, Germany $142,000. The CFA charterholder salary premium versus non-chartered financial professionals is $30,000-$60,000/year on average; for senior portfolio managers and CIOs, the premium is $100,000-$300,000/year.

How to Maximize Pass Probability

The combination of strategies that move the first-time pass rate from the baseline 50 percent to the 75-85 percent range is well-documented. Stay on schedule — deferral drags the rate by 20-25 points. Allocate 300+ hours of preparation; candidates who pass consistently allocate 300-350 hours, failing candidates typically allocate 200-300 hours. Use adaptive learning platforms (AdaptPrep, Kaplan, Wiley) to focus on the lowest-weighted mastery topics; the Adaptive platform's per-topic scorecards catch the questions where the candidate is silently weakest. Join a study group — the same material rehearsed with peers reinforces retention on the topic-detail-heavy sections (Standards I-VII, FSA consolidation mechanics).

Add the newly-introduced Practical Skills Modules (PSMs) to the prep calendar. The PSMs require 10-20 additional hours of study and were introduced as part of the 2025 curriculum update to bridge the gap between technical content and industry practice. The modules count as a required component of the curriculum but not the exam itself.

What to Watch Next

Four signals settle the rest of 2026 and the start of 2027. The August 2026 Level 1 results, due in late October, will be the third 2026 window and the last before the November window closes the year. The November 2026 window opens registration in early September and runs through the November exam dates. The 2027 curriculum update, expected to expand the Practical Skills Modules and revise the Ethics content outline. And the broader question of whether AI in finance is moving fast enough to require its own dedicated CFA topic area; the current curriculum touches AI across multiple sections but does not have a dedicated AI-in-finance module.

The single thing to remember about the 2026 pass rates: February at 45 percent, August at 43 percent, and November likely at 43-45 percent — all in line with or above the decade average of 40 percent. May at 39 percent was the outlier, and the outlier was the cohort, not the exam.

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