CFA Exam Pass Rates: All Levels Compared based on Historical Trends

The CFA exam pass rate can help candidates understand how exam outcomes have changed across different levels and examination periods. However, comparing one exam session with another requires looking at the official historical data rather than relying on a single percentage.

The latest CFA exam results show that 39% of candidates passed Level 1 and 43% passed Level 2 in May 2026. It also provides long-term averages covering examinations from 1963 to 2026, allowing candidates to compare pass rates across all three CFA levels.

CFA Pass Rates Overview

The CFA Program includes three exam levels—Level I, Level II and Level III. The official CFA exam results provide historical candidate and pass-rate data for these levels across examination periods from 1963 to 2026. The latest available results cover the May 2026 examination.

CFA Pass Rate Comparison Official PDFs

The CFA Institute provides two official PDFs with CFA examination results. The pass-rate infographic presents key recent and average pass-rate figures, while the historical results PDF provides detailed candidate, pass and fail data from 1963 to 2026.

Compare CFA Exam Results PDFs

What Is the Average CFA Pass Rate Across All Levels?

The official historical results show different average pass rates for each CFA level. From 1963 to 2026, the average pass rate was 41% for Level 1, 46% for Level 2 and 55% for Level 3. The 10-year average for 2017–2026 was lower for each level: 40% for Level 1, 45% for Level 2 and 51% for Level 3.

The CFA Institute infographic also reports a five-year average for 2022–2026 of 41% for Level 1, 46% for Level 2 and 49% for Level 3.

CFA Level 1 Pass Rate Recent Trends 

The CFA Level 1 pass rate was 39% in May 2026, with 31,566 candidates tested. In February 2026, the pass rate was 45% among 24,006 candidates, while the August 2025 session recorded a 43% pass rate among 26,192 candidates.

Recent Level 1 results show that the pass rate has varied across examination sessions:

The historical data shows that Level 1 pass rates have changed considerably over the years. For example, the Level 1 pass rate was 43% in 2017 and 43% in 2018, compared with 39% in May 2026.

CFA Level 2 Pass Rate Recent Trends

The CFA Level 2 pass rate was 43% in May 2026, with 18,111 candidates tested. The February 2026 session recorded a 50% pass rate among 10,342 candidates, while November 2025 recorded 42% among 15,003 candidates.

Across the complete 1963–2026 period, the Level 2 average pass rate was 46%, while the 2017–2026 average was 45%.

CFA Level 3 Pass Rate Recent Results

The latest CFA Level 3 results show the pass rate across recent examination sessions, while the official historical data provides longer-term averages for comparison. The table below brings together the recent results and historical averages in one place.

Year-by-Year Historical CFA Pass Rates ( 1963 to 2026)

The official CFA historical results document covers examination data from 1963 to May 2026, including the total candidates tested, candidates who passed, candidates who failed, and pass percentage.