CFA® Pass Rates: Latest Results and Historical Trends

If you sat the August exam, you've probably checked the pass rate more than once while you wait for your own result. If you're planning a first attempt around a full-time job, you want to know what you're signing up for before you commit your evenings and weekends to it.

The latest CFA® pass rates are 43% for Level I, 45% for Level II, and 47% for Level III, all from August 2026. The headline numbers are easy to find. What they mean for you depends on how they're counted, what they're compared with, and how the passing standard actually works.

Key Takeaways About CFA Pass Rates

• Latest results: 43% at Level I, 45% at Level II, and 47% at Level III in August 2026.

• First-time candidates did better: they passed at 49%, 52%, and 56%, compared with 29% to 31% for candidates who'd deferred at least once.

• The long view differs by level: Level II is now above its 2017 to 2019 average, Level I is just below it, and Level III is about seven points below.

• A pass rate isn't a cutoff: the passing standard is a scaled score of 1,600, 2,600, or 3,600, set by performance rather than a quota of passes.

• Your score report matters more than the headline rate: your topic results show where your next round of study should go.

Latest CFA Pass Rates by Level

In August 2026, 43% of Level I candidates passed, along with 45% at Level II and 47% at Level III. Each level's results came out on a different date, so the table shows both when candidates tested and when CFA Institute announced the outcome.

Latest official CFA results, verified October 30, 2026

Compared with each level's previous window, the CFA Level I pass rate climbed four points from 39% in May, and the CFA Level II pass rate rose two points from May's 43%. The CFA Level III pass rate went the other way, dropping three points from 50% in February, according to the official historical record. Level III's most recent earlier window was February, so that's its comparison point.

Level III's 47% covers all three pathways: Portfolio Management, Private Wealth, and Private Markets. CFA Institute doesn't break the rate out by pathway and describes all three as equally demanding, so the results won't tell you which one is easier to pass.

First-Time and Deferred Candidate Results

First-time candidates passed at higher rates than candidates who'd deferred at least once, and the gap grew at each level.

August 2026 cohort results; percentage-point differences calculated from the official announcements above

If you're studying around a full-time job, deferring can feel like the sensible move when a heavy stretch at work eats into your prep. These numbers can't tell you whether it was the right call for anyone. A deferral isn't the same as a failed attempt, and the releases don't say why people deferred or how prepared they were. Still, the gap is a good reason to set your exam date around the time you actually have, so you're less likely to need a deferral at all.

The split also shows that "most first-timers pass" depends on the level. First-time candidates cleared 50% at Levels II and III, but at Level I they came in just under, at 49%.

Historical CFA Pass Rates and Trends

Over the past decade, CFA historical pass rates have mostly sat in the 40s at Levels I and II and between the high 40s and mid-50s at Level III. All three dropped sharply in 2021, and Level I took the longest to climb back.

The table below combines every exam window in each calendar year using the pass and test counts CFA Institute publishes. That way, a large window counts for more than a small one.

Annual candidate-weighted pass rates, calculated by KeyPoint from CFA Institute's historical counts

2026 covers February through August only. These are KeyPoint calculations rounded to two decimals, so they won't match any single window's published whole-number rate. Counts are exam attempts, and one candidate can appear in more than one window.

Recent Results Compared With Longer-Term Averages

Level II is back above where it was before the pandemic. Levels I and III aren't, though the gap is much wider at Level III.

Candidate-weighted comparisons, calculated from the same CFA Institute counts

Full available history starts in 1964 for Levels I and II and 1963 for Level III. Every period ending in 2026 stops at August. Each figure is total passes divided by total attempts for that level and period.

Level III shows the biggest shift. It averaged 48.38% from 2023 through August 2026, about seven points below the 55.41% it averaged from 2017 to 2019. Level I is close to its baseline, at 41.72% against 42.91%, while Level II's recent 46.73% sits slightly above its 45.30%.

Level I has the lowest rate in the latest window and across every period in the table, but not in every single window. In November 2024, Level II came in at 39% while Level I posted 43%. Before you compare two numbers, check whether you're looking at one window, a calendar year, or a multi-year period. A year-to-date figure like 2026's covers only the exams held so far.

None of these shifts proves the exams got harder or easier. The periods have different lengths, candidate groups, and schedules, so read them as a record of what happened rather than a guide to which window you should pick.

How We Calculate Average Pass Rates

There are two common ways to average pass rates, and they give different answers. A candidate-weighted average adds up everyone who passed and divides by everyone who tested, so bigger windows count for more. A simple window average takes each published percentage and averages them, so every window counts the same regardless of size.

Level I in 2026 shows the difference. Across February, May, and August, 35,073 candidates passed out of 83,717 tested.

Two ways to summarize Level I results through August 2026

The weighted figure tells you what share of attempts passed across the year, which is why the tables above use it. The simple average works for describing a typical window, as long as it's labeled that way. When you see an average quoted elsewhere, check which method was used before you compare it with these.

Why Pass Rates Changed During and After the Pandemic

CFA Institute tied the low results of 2021 to pandemic disruption. Its July 2021 results announcement, which reported a 22% Level I pass rate, pointed to repeated changes to the exam schedule and the strain they put on candidates.

The same period brought the move to computer-based testing. CFA Institute's first Level I computer-based results came from the February 2021 window, so the format change and the pandemic overlap in the data. There's no clean way to separate their effects.

By February 2023, CFA Institute reported its first computer-based window without pandemic-related location cancellations. Since then, each level has followed its own path, as the averages above show.

What CFA Pass Rates Can Tell You

A pass rate is the share of candidates who sat a given level in a given window and passed. You get it by dividing the number who passed by the number tested and multiplying by 100.

It only counts people who actually sat the exam, so anyone who registered but didn't test in that window is left out. Across several windows, the same person can show up more than once. That's why combined counts are attempts, not unique candidates.

Do Lower Pass Rates Mean a Harder Exam?

Not on their own. Each level tests different skills and is taken by a different group of candidates. Here's how the official CFA exam overview describes the formats:

• Level I: multiple-choice questions on key terms, concepts, and formulas.

• Level II: vignette-based multiple-choice questions that test analysis and application.

• Level III: a mix of vignette-based essay and multiple-choice questions, with a choice of three pathways.

Everyone sitting Level III has already passed Levels I and II, so its pass rate comes from a group that's been filtered twice. A higher Level III rate doesn't make that exam easier. The essay questions are a reason to plan time for writing out answers, not to scale back your prep.

Why a Pass Rate Is Not Your Personal Probability

A 43% pass rate doesn't mean you have a 43% chance of passing. It describes how the whole group did after the fact. Your own odds depend on things the number can't see, like which topics you're weak in, how you handle timing, and how much review you fit into the final weeks.

The same goes for chaining the three rates together. Multiplying 43% by 45% by 47% won't give you the chance of earning the charter, because each level is a different group and candidates can pass on a later attempt. Measuring that would take data that follows the same people from Level I all the way to the charter.

CFA Pass Rates vs the Minimum Passing Score

The pass rate and the Minimum Passing Score (MPS) answer different questions. The MPS is the performance standard you have to meet. The pass rate is the share of candidates who met it. So a low pass rate doesn't point to a low cutoff, and the rate can't tell you where the cutoff sits.

Published Scaled Scores and Raw Percentages

Since the February 2025 exams, CFA Institute has reported results on a scale, and it publishes the scaled MPS for each level in its guide to understanding exam results.

Published score ranges and scaled passing scores

A raw score is the number of questions you got right. A scale score converts that onto a standard range so results from different exam versions can be compared fairly. Because the conversion depends on the version you sat, one scale score can match more than one raw score, and candidates don't receive their raw scores at all.

That's why there's no official raw percentage you need to hit. Dividing 1,600 by 1,900 won't give you one, and the 60%, 65%, or 70% figures you may see quoted online aren't official cutoffs either. An 80% on a practice test is useful information for your review, but it isn't a conversion to the exam scale and it doesn't promise a pass.

How Standard Setting and Equating Work

The CFA exam doesn't pass a fixed number of candidates. It uses a performance standard, which CFA Institute explains in its assessment-process overview.

Standard setting is how the required level of performance gets defined, and the CFA Institute Board of Governors approves the final MPS. Equating is the statistical step that keeps that standard consistent across exam versions. If your version happened to be harder, equating adjusts for it, and the same goes the other way.

So the same scaled score represents the same standard even when candidates see different questions. A bigger testing group doesn't raise the bar, and a lower pass rate doesn't mean the passes ran out.

When CFA Results Arrive and How to Read Them

Results usually arrive five to nine weeks after an exam window closes, according to CFA Institute's results guidance. Exact dates vary by window, so watch for official emails rather than counting forward from a past release.

You'll get an email when your result is ready. Candidates who pass Level III receive confirmation of the pass without a detailed score report, while other candidates also get their scale score and topic results. Before any of that, make sure your PSM is done.

Complete Your Practical Skills Module Before Results

You need to complete and submit a Practical Skills Module (PSM) before your results are released. If you don't, CFA Institute's PSM policy says your exam result is voided. You'd then have to re-register, pay the fees again, and retake the same level.

After a long exam season, the PSM is easy to push aside. Put it on your calendar as its own task, then check that it shows as completed and submitted.

If you've failed a level before and already finished a PSM for it, you don't need to repeat it, according to CFA Institute's PSM guidance. Check your record before you start another one.

Use Your Score Report to Plan Your Next Step

Your overall result tells you where you landed, and your topic results tell you what to do about it. The official results guide explains how to read the scale score, topic results, and confidence bands together.

Topic results are shown against reference lines at 70% and 50% of the available points. Those lines aren't separate passing marks, since strength in one topic can make up for weakness in another. You also can't average your topic scores to rebuild your overall result, because topics carry different weights.

Confidence bands show the range your true performance likely falls in, and topic bands are wider because each topic has fewer questions. The guide treats a topic band sitting entirely below 50% as a sign that area needs substantial work. Some questions on the exam are also unscored and unmarked, so tallying the answers you remember won't recreate your score.

Write down the topics that need work while the exam is still fresh. That list will do more for your next step than any pass rate can.

Your Next Step After CFA Exam Results

What comes next depends on your result and on your schedule. Either way, be honest about how much time you'll really have over the next few months.

If You Passed

• After Level I: Look at what preparing for Level II involves. Its vignette-based questions reward applying concepts more than recalling them, so build your timetable and practice around that shift.

• After Level II: Review the Level III format and pathways before you register. The essay questions mean you'll want practice writing answers, not just choosing them.

• After Level III: Passing the final exam doesn't award the charter by itself. You still need to meet the work experience and membership requirements.

CFA Institute's charter requirements include 4,000 hours of relevant work experience over at least three years, plus membership. If you're moving on to the next exam, check the current registration calendar before you commit to a window, since registration details in older results announcements may be out of date.

If You Did Not Pass

Most candidates at every level were in the same position in August, so a failed attempt puts you in large company. It tells you what to fix, and your score report is the place to start. Pair it with an honest look at your review habits and practice mistakes. The report shows which topics cost you, and your habits usually explain why.

Next, check the rules. Under the CFA exam eligibility policy, you get up to six attempts per level and no more than two attempts per calendar year where that applies. You can't sit in consecutive testing windows or in windows less than six months apart, and a partially completed exam still counts as an attempt.

Then look at your eligible upcoming exam windows and deadlines and ask whether the timing leaves enough room to fix what went wrong. The earliest window isn't always the right one, especially if a busy period at work lands in the middle of your prep.

If you passed Level I but not Level II, your focus is the Level II retake. For any question about your own eligibility, confirm it with CFA Institute before you pay for another registration.

Preparing for Your Next CFA Exam

The most useful thing pass rates can do is push you toward a realistic plan. If you're working full time, start with the weeks you actually have, then take out the ones you know will be busy at work. A Level I study plan around full-time work can help you map tasks onto what's left.

Pair topic review with practice questions for your level, and note why you missed each one. Was it a gap in what you know, a misread question, a calculation slip, or running out of time? Each points to a different fix, so go back to the concept, test it again, and see whether the same mistake comes back.

Use timed CFA mock exams to rehearse your pacing while there's still time to adjust. Review each mock properly before you take another, because a score only helps when it changes what you do next week.

Hours logged won't tell you whether you're ready. A short weekly record of the topics you covered, the errors you corrected, and the timed practice you finished will give you a much clearer picture, and it tells you exactly what to change in the following week's plan.

Pass rates give you a dated picture of how the whole group did, and the history shows how that picture has moved. Your own preparation is the part you control. If you're preparing for Level I and want more structure around a working schedule, compare Level I study support to see which option fits the time you have.

FAQs About CFA Pass Rates