CFA Pass Rates 2026: Official Level 1, 2, 3 Numbers & What They Mean

CFA Pass Rates at a Glance

Quick answer: the newest official CFA pass rates are 39% for Level 1 (May 2026 window), 43% for Level 2 (May 2026) and 50% for Level 3 (February 2026) — all published by CFA Institute, the body that runs the exam. The rolling 10-year averages (2017–2026) sit at 40%, 45% and 51%. In other words: across every level, roughly half or more of candidates fail each window.

Those numbers are worldwide. CFA Institute publishes no India-specific pass rate — anyone quoting one is guessing. And the pass mark is not a secret 70%: since February 2025, results use a published scale where Level 1 passes at 1600 on a 1000–1900 scale.

This guide explains what the official numbers actually mean: how the passing score is set, why first-time candidates beat deferred ones by a wide margin, and what your score report shows. For QuintEdge's own audited cohort — 88% of our first-attempt Level 1 candidates passed (151 of 171, Feb 2024–May 2026) — see the full methodology brief.

What Are the Latest Official CFA Pass Rates?

CFA Institute announces each window's result in a press release and then logs it in its official 1963–2026 historical results PDF. Here is every session it has published for the last six windows (the figure in brackets is how many candidates sat that exam worldwide):

Plain takeaway: a typical window passes about 4 in 10 at Level 1, and about half at Level 3 — the dashes simply mean that level is not offered in that window.

Source: CFA Institute results press releases and the official pass-rate infographic and historical PDF (all accessed 8 July 2026). Two reading notes. First, each level runs only in certain windows — Level 1 four times a year, Level 2 in May/August/November, Level 3 in February and August (live calendar on our CFA exam dates hub). Second, May 2025's Level 2 result of 54% was an unusually strong session — the 10-year Level 2 average is 45%, so treat 54% as the outlier, not the norm.

Why Do Most Candidates Fail?

Three structural reasons — none of them "the exam is unfair".

First, the standard is absolute, not a curve. CFA Institute's results guide is explicit: "All candidates who meet this absolute standard will pass the exam." Nobody is protected by a quota, and nobody is squeezed out by one. If everyone clears the bar, everyone passes. A pass rate near 40% simply means most candidates did not clear the bar that window.

Second, the syllabus is wide and the hours are real. Each level demands hundreds of study hours across ten topic areas (we break this down in is the CFA difficult?). Working candidates who under-budget hours make up a large share of every window's failures.

Third, deferrals drag the average down. CFA Institute now splits every release into first-time candidates versus candidates who postponed ("deferred") their exam at least once. The gap is enormous. In the May 2026 Level 1 window, "First-time candidates achieved a pass rate of 45 percent, while candidates testing after at least one deferral had a pass rate of 25 percent." Same story at Level 3 in February 2026: 59% for first-timers versus 34% after a deferral. A deferral is a postponed booking, not a failed attempt — but postponement clearly correlates with drifting preparation.

CFA Institute took the hint from its own data: from the February 2027 exam cycles it is eliminating the paid deferral option altogether, saying deferrals "resulted in significantly lower pass rates for deferred candidates." The lesson for you is blunt — register for a window you can actually prepare for, then sit it.

How Is the CFA Passing Score Decided?

The pass bar is called the MPS — the minimum passing score. The official definition: "Candidates obtaining a score at or above the MPS will pass the exam." Think of it as a high-jump bar set at a fixed height, not a race against the other candidates in the hall.

Who sets the bar, and how? CFA Institute has used the modified Angoff method since 1996 — panels of charterholders judge, question by question, what a just-competent candidate should get right, and that recommendation goes to the CFA Institute Board of Governors, which "will then establish the final MPS on each level of the exam."

The Board does not re-set the bar after every single window. The current rule: a fresh standard-setting happens "whenever there is significant curriculum or population change"; otherwise "the MPS is maintained from administration to administration via equating." Equating is the statistical adjustment that makes an easier question paper and a harder one demand the same real ability — the bar stays the same height even when the runway changes. CFA Institute's own example of a reset is 2021, when exams moved to computer-based testing with fewer questions.

Since the February 2025 administration, your result also comes as a scale score, and the scale MPS is published: 1600 on Level 1's 1000–1900 scale, 2600 on Level 2's 2000–2900, and 3600 on Level 3's 3000–3900 scale. What stays undisclosed is the raw cut — CFA Institute says the percentage of questions you need "may vary slightly among versions" of the exam, and it never reveals your number of correct answers.

Two smaller rules worth knowing. Ethics can rescue (or sink) borderline scripts: for candidates near the bar, "the ethics adjustment may move the overall score to one side of the minimum passing score or the other." And results are final — "Retabulations are not available."

What Does Your Score Report Actually Show?

Five to nine weeks after your window closes — that is the official promise: "Within 5-9 weeks after the close of your exam window, you will receive an email" — your report lands with:

• Result: Pass or Did Not Pass.
• Your scale score against the published MPS, with a confidence band around your score.
• The administration average, so you can see where the group landed.
• A topic-area breakdown comparing you with the group average per topic (added from the August 2025 administration). There is "no minimum passing score by topic area" — only your overall score decides the result.

In 2026 practice, Level 1 and Level 2 results have arrived about five to seven weeks after the window, and Level 3 closer to eight or nine — Level 3's essay answers are graded by charterholders, which takes longer. One quirk: a Level 3 passer gets only a congratulations email, with no detailed report. And if your report is from 2024 or earlier, ignore old descriptions of percentile lines — the 10th/90th percentile markers were removed when scale scores arrived.

How Have Pass Rates Moved Over Time?

Across every exam since 1963 — 4,164,359 candidate sittings — the official lifetime averages are Level 1: 41%, Level 2: 46%, Level 3: 55%. The recent decade runs slightly tougher: the official 2017–2026 averages are 40%, 45% and 51%, and the five-year (2022–2026) set is 41%, 46% and 49%.

Notice the shape: pass rates rise with each level. That is not because Level 3 is easier — it is survivorship. Only candidates who already passed two levels sit Level 3, so the population gets stronger even as the material gets harder.

The one era to read with care is 2021. Level 1 crashed to 25% in May 2021 and a record-low 22% in July 2021. CFA Institute's own explanation was pandemic disruption — deferred candidates piling into windows after long gaps: "We can clearly see that these disruptions have impacted the overall pass rate," said Peg Jobst, its then head of credentialing. The Institute predicted recovery, and the record bears it out: Level 1 has printed 39–45% in every window since 2022. Treat 2021 as an asterisk, not a trend.

One caution when you read averages: the "10-year average" rolls forward every year — the Level 1 decade average was quoted at 41% in the November 2025 release and 40% by the 2026 releases. Always check the as-of date. Our pass-rate research brief tracks the current official comparators alongside QuintEdge's audited cohort, window by window.

Is There an India-Specific Pass Rate?

No. Every official number is worldwide. The press releases count "candidates worldwide"; the historical PDF and infographic publish worldwide totals only. CFA Institute does publish venue counts — the May 2026 Level 1 exam ran across 524 venues in 425 cities — but never a pass rate by country, city or test centre.

So treat any "CFA pass rate in India" figure you see online as invented. It cannot be sourced, because the data is not released. What an Indian candidate can use: the worldwide numbers above (your exam is identical to everyone else's), and provider-level cohorts that are named and auditable — which is exactly why we publish our Level 1 cohort by name, rather than a country guess.

How Do You End Up on the Right Side of the Number?

The data in this post points to four moves that are fully in your control:

• Sit the window you register for. First-time takers out-passed post-deferral candidates 45% to 25% at Level 1 in May 2026. Registering is a commitment device — use it as one.
• Budget real hours before you pick a window. Our CFA duration guide shows the per-level hour maths, and the Level 1 study plan turns it into a week-by-week grid.
• Train against the bar, not the average. The MPS rewards even competence across topics — remember, no topic minimum exists, so bank your strong topics and lift the weak ones. Practise with our free Level 1 question bank.
• Get structure if self-study is drifting. Of the QuintEdge students who sat CFA Level 1 for the first time between February 2024 and May 2026, 88% passed on that first attempt (151 of 171, every pass published by name — methodology here). Against a worldwide first-time rate in the mid-40s, that is the case for structured prep in one line. Explore the CFA coaching programme if that structure would help you.