CAIA Association recommends a minimum of 200 hours of study for each level, Level I included.
Recommended study
At least 200 hours
Topics
Six in the 2027 curriculum
Next windows
March 2027 and September 2027
Early deadline, March 2027
7 December 2026
Planning 200 hours
200 hours over 20 weeks is 10 hours a week; over 16 weeks it is 12.5 hours a week.
Start with the free diagnostic to see which topic needs the most of those hours.
Leave the last weeks for timed practice: our full-length practice exam has 200 questions in four hours.
Where the hours go
The introduction topic carries the most calculation: return statistics, risk measures and derivatives.
Private markets and hedge funds add fee and cash flow arithmetic.
Ethics rewards practice on cases more than reading.
Try 4 questions
Question 1Quantitative and statistical foundations: returns, moments, distributions, regression
The annual returns of a commodity index and a hedge fund index have a covariance of 0.012. Their standard deviations are 20% and 10%. The correlation between them is closest to:
Question 2Equity and event-driven strategies
An equity long/short fund has $100 million of capital, $130 million of long positions and $70 million of short positions. Its net exposure as a percentage of capital is:
Question 3Infrastructure: assets, cash flows, regulation and risk
An investor buys a stake in a toll road that has been open and collecting tolls for twelve years. In infrastructure terms, this investment is BEST described as:
Question 4Ethics, professionalism and the duty to clients and employers
An analyst downgrades a listed infrastructure company from buy to sell. Her firm's sales team wants to call its five largest clients an hour before the change is sent to everyone else. Which approach is MOST consistent with fair dealing?