CA Final Exam Dates, Timetable and Exam Pattern

This guide covers the timetable, exam form, fees, eligibility and exam pattern. For the syllabus of each paper and the Self-Paced Online Modules, see CA Final subjects under the new scheme.

CA Final timetable, November 2026

Sources: ICAI exam announcement (2 May 2026) and ICAI's Guidance Notes for Final, November 2026.

• Reading time: every Final paper starts with 15 minutes of advance reading time, from 1.45 PM to 2 PM Indian time.
• Public holidays: ICAI says the schedule will not change if any exam day is declared a public holiday.
• Overseas centres: papers start at 12.30 PM local time in Dubai, 11.30 AM in Bahrain and 2.15 PM in Kathmandu, all equal to 2 PM Indian time.

When CA Final exams are held

When ICAI announced the change on 6 April 2026, Final exams were being held three times a year, in January, May and September. From the May 2026 exam onwards, they are held twice a year, in May and November. The January 2027 session is for Foundation and Intermediate only (ICAI announcement, 23 September 2026).

Sources: ICAI's Important Dates notices for May 2026 and for September and November 2026, its notice re-opening the November 2026 Final forms, its Final guidance notes for both sessions and its press release of 18 June 2026.

ICAI announces each session in an "Important Announcement" from its Examination Department, then publishes the guidance notes, fee chart, city list and form dates on a session page on icai.org. For November 2026 that page is Examinations, September and November 2026.

Important dates for November 2026

Sources: ICAI's Important Dates notices, the exam announcement of 2 May 2026 and the Guidance Notes for Final, November 2026.

Exam form and fees

You apply for each session online on ICAI's Self Service Portal (eservices.icai.org) and pay the fee online. There is no paper form. ICAI's guidance notes for November 2026 ask you to check these points before you fill it in:

• Course code: if your dashboard shows a course code other than NEWFIN23 or CONFIN23, convert to the new Final course first. Conversion is free.
• Articleship status: it must show as "Registered" on the portal.
• Exam city, group and medium: check them on the confirmation page before you pay. If you choose Hindi, it applies to every paper of the group or groups you take; there is no paper-wise choice.
• Exemptions: valid exemptions appear in the form automatically. Write to final.exemption@icai.in if one is missing.
• Refunds: the fee is not refunded once paid; only failed transactions and double payments are considered for refund.

In 20 large cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune, exam centres are grouped into zones. ICAI tries to place you in the zone you chose but may move you to another zone if seats run short, and it does not accept requests to change the centre in that case.

Source: ICAI Fee Chart, September and November 2026. The late fee is ₹600 (India and Kathmandu) or US$10 (Bahrain and Dubai), and there is no separate form fee. You pay the exam fee each time you apply; it is separate from the ₹22,000 fee for registering for the Final course (ICAI FAQs, Q 4.2).

Who can sit the November 2026 exam

ICAI's guidance notes and requirements for November 2026 set these conditions:

• Registration: you are registered for, or have converted to, the new Final course.
• Articleship: if you are on 2-year practical training, it must be completed, including any excess leave, on or before 30 April 2026. This follows ICAI's rule that training must end six months before the first day of the exam month (FAQs, Q 4.5). Students still on 3-year articleship under the old scheme have separate conditions, listed in the guidance notes.
• Advanced ICITSS: completed on or before 10 October 2026.
• Self-Paced Online Modules: candidates admitted to the Final exam from November 2024 onwards must qualify SET A, B, C and/or D, as applicable, by 10 October 2026. Some students admitted up to May 2024 are exempt from SET C and SET D and may clear SET A and SET B before applying for membership; the cases are explained in our guide to CA Final subjects and modules.

ICAI does not issue the admit card until you meet these conditions. For how the 2-year training works, see our guide to CA articleship.

CA Final exam pattern

Sources: ICAI Guidance Notes for Final, November 2026; ICAI FAQs, Q 4.3, Q 4.8 and Q 4.9.

ICAI's 2024 FAQs describe 30% MCQs in all six papers, but its guidance notes for the May and November 2026 exams put the MCQ share at 40% in Paper 6. Follow the guidance notes for your session.

Passing marks

To pass a group, you need at least 40% in each paper and 50% in the aggregate of the group at one sitting. If you take both groups together, you pass with 40% in each paper and either 50% in each group's aggregate or 50% across both groups taken together. You can also pass the groups in different sittings (ICAI FAQs, Q 4.10).

If you appear in all papers of a group and fail it, any paper in which you scored 60% or more is exempt for the next three exams (FAQs, Q 4.11). ICAI does not allow you to reappear in a group you have already passed to improve your marks.

Admit card and exam-day rules

These rules come from ICAI's Guidance Notes for Final, November 2026:

• Admit card: download and print it from eservices.icai.org, generally 14 days before the exam. No admit card is sent by post. Check your name, registration number, centre, medium and group as soon as you print it.
• Mobile phones: phones and other electronic gadgets are not allowed in the exam hall. Even having a phone with you, switched off or on silent, counts as unfair means, and the candidate may be debarred for 5 years.
• Calculator: a battery-operated calculator with up to 6 functions, 12 digits and two memories is allowed. Scientific calculators are not.
• Paper 6 (open book): you may bring your own material in hard copy, such as ICAI study material, practice manuals, revision test papers, textbooks, bare Acts and your own notes. Electronic devices are not allowed, you cannot share material in the hall, and answers must be in your own handwriting, not pasted from the material.
• Answer book: write your roll number only in the space provided, and do not write any symbol or distinguishing mark; ICAI treats both as unfair means.
• Question paper concerns: if you think a question was outside the syllabus or ambiguous, you can send a representation in ICAI's prescribed format to examfeedback@icai.in within a week of the last exam day.

CA Final result

ICAI's guidance notes say the November 2026 result is likely to be declared in December 2026 or January 2027 and will be hosted on icai.nic.in. The statement of marks follows by post within 4 to 5 weeks. For how to check the result, past pass percentages, verification and certified copies, see the CA Final result guide.

Preparing in the last weeks

For the November 2026 exam, ICAI's Board of Studies runs these:

• Mock Test Papers: Series I ran from 9 to 21 September 2026 and Series II from 23 September to 5 October 2026, from 2 PM to 5 PM, in physical or virtual mode. The question papers and answers can be downloaded from the BoS Knowledge Portal and the ICAI BoS app (announcement, 10 August 2026).
• Success at CA Exam: virtual sessions by Board of Studies faculty start on 6 October 2026, with the schedule on boslive.icai.org (announcement, 10 August 2026).
• Other material: the BoS Knowledge Portal also carries Revision Test Papers, past question papers and suggested answers.

Some general advice from our side:

• Write at least one full mock paper for each subject in three hours (four for Paper 6), so you get used to the timing.
• Stick to a few good sources, such as ICAI's study material, RTPs and MTPs, rather than collecting more notes.
• For Paper 6, practise finding things quickly in the material you plan to take into the hall.
• Keep regular sleep, meals and some exercise during the exam weeks.

For a weekly routine built around ICAI's study resources, see our guide to self-study for CA at home.