Series 24 Exam 2026: Format, Content Outline, Passing Score, Corequisites

The Series 24, FINRA's General Securities Principal Qualification Examination, is the exam an entry-level principal passes to supervise a broker-dealer's securities business. FINRA describes it as measuring the knowledge needed to perform the critical functions of a principal, "including the rules and statutory provisions applicable to the supervisory management of a general securities broker-dealer". This guide sets out what FINRA itself says about the exam today: its length and timing, the passing score, how the questions are spread across five job functions, what the content outline lists under each, and how the corequisite exams decide which principal registration a pass gives you. ProSyllabus is an independent study site, not part of FINRA. The facts here are quoted or summarised from the official pages listed under Sources.

FINRA Series 24 page and the Series 24 Content Outline, read 25 Oct 2026.

FINRA builds the Series 24 around what an entry-level general securities principal does at work. The content outline names five major job functions and fixes how many of the 150 scored items come from each; FINRA's Series 24 page prints the same table. The outline gives item counts, not percentages, so the shares below are our arithmetic.

Function 2 carries 45 of the 150 scored items, nearly a third. It is the firm-wide supervisory function: written supervisory procedures and controls, the conduct and compensation of associated persons, new products, discipline and disputes, books and records, and the financial responsibility rules. Functions 3, 4 and 5 have 32 items each, and Function 1, registration and personnel, has 9.

FINRA's Series 24 page gives the passing score as 70, and the content outline says the passing score for the Series 24 exam is 70%, set through a process called standard setting that weighs industry trends, historical exam performance and evaluations of content difficulty by a committee of industry professionals. The outline then explains that all candidate scores are placed on a common scale "using a statistical adjustment process known as equating", which accounts for slight differences in difficulty between the sets of items candidates receive, so that every candidate is held to the same passing standard. The FINRA pages listed under Sources do not publish a way to turn 70 into a number of correct answers, and they do not publish a Series 24 pass rate. Treat any page that converts 70 into an exact count of right answers as a guess.

Because there is no penalty for guessing, an unanswered item can only cost you. At the real pace, 3 hours 45 minutes for 160 items, you have about 84 seconds an item on average (our arithmetic).

The Series 24 does not stand on its own. FINRA's Series 24 page says that, in addition to the Series 24, candidates must pass the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) exam and a representative-level qualification exam, or the Supervisory Analysts Exam (Series 16), to hold an appropriate principal registration. Which registration you receive depends on those corequisites:

Eligibility comes first: FINRA says candidates "must be associated with and sponsored by a FINRA member firm or other applicable self-regulatory organization (SRO) member firm" to be eligible to take FINRA principal-level qualification exams. The sponsoring firm files Form U4 in the Central Registration Depository and requests the principal position, as the content outline's application section describes. FINRA points to FINRA Rule 1210 and FINRA Rule 1220(a)(2) for the registration requirements.

FINRA's page says a general securities principal's supervisory responsibilities are governed by the limits of their representative-level registrations, and that covered supervisory activities include regulatory compliance over advertising, market making, trading and underwriting. The page also answers a common question: how the Series 24 differs from the General Securities Sales Supervisor exams, the Series 9 and 10.

That last line matters for preparation: FINRA says the general securities principal qualification does not cover municipal securities or options. Our suggestion: give your study time to the topics in the Series 24 Content Outline rather than to options strategies or municipal securities.

The content outline includes three sample items near the end, each showing one format FINRA uses: a closed stem (a complete question ending in a question mark), an open stem (an incomplete statement that the answer completes), and an "except" or "not" item, where you pick the option that is an exception to the rule in the stem. FINRA says the samples do not reflect the difficulty level of actual exam items. Each item has only one correct or best answer, and items vary in difficulty and complexity. Read "except" and "not" items twice: under time pressure they are the easiest to answer backwards.

Retake waiting periods are set by FINRA Rule 1210.06. Regulatory Notice 26-18 shortens them from 19 January 2027: from 30 calendar days to 15 after a first or second failed attempt, and from 180 to 60 after a third or later failed attempt within a two-year period. Until then the 30- and 180-day waits apply, and the notice explains how the new waits apply to an exam failed before 19 January 2027. Check FINRA's page before you plan a retake date.

Practice is the part you control. Our independent Series 24 practice exam, linked below the article, has two timed mocks of 150 questions on the official function split, each with an explanation for every answer that names the rule behind it. It is not FINRA's exam and its questions are not FINRA items. Our Series 24 practice questions guide has three worked examples and a pace plan.