CS Professional Previous Year Question Papers with Answers

Syllabus 2022 question papers with answers

Source: ICSI's Guideline Answers page, checked on 7 October 2026. The links open ICSI's own PDFs; check that page for sessions added later.

Each PDF reproduces the full question paper of every paper in the group, question by question, with ICSI's answer after each one. In the June 2026 sets:

• Group 1 has Paper 1 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) – Principles & Practice, Paper 2 Drafting, Pleadings & Appearances, Paper 3 Compliance Management, Audit & Due Diligence, and all six Elective 1 papers (4.1 to 4.6).
• Group 2 has Paper 5 Strategic Management & Corporate Finance, Paper 6 Corporate Restructuring, Valuation and Insolvency, and all five Elective 2 papers (7.1 to 7.5).

Earlier sets do not always cover every elective: the December 2025 Group 1 PDF, for example, has no paper for the IFSCA – Regulations, Listing and Compliances elective. You only need the paper for the elective you chose; the full list of papers and electives is in our CS Professional syllabus guide.

Drafting, Pleadings & Appearances papers

Drafting is Paper 2 of Group 1, so its past papers are inside the Group 1 PDFs (from page 28 of the June 2026 set). In June 2026 it had six questions in two parts, all compulsory, with an alternative question offered for Questions 4 and 6. The questions are built around business situations and ask you to explain the law and draft documents.

ICSI's model question paper for Drafting shows the kind of drafting asked: a deed of mortgage, an arbitration agreement, a specimen service agreement, a public notice and a deed of bank guarantee all appear in its first question.

ICSI's model question papers

ICSI's Indicative Model Question Paper page has a model paper for each of the five compulsory papers and for every elective except 4.5 Advanced Direct Tax Laws & Practice: 15 papers, dated 9 September 2026 on the page. They are question papers only, without answers, so use them once you have worked through the past papers.

Older papers (modules)

The Guideline Answers page keeps sets going back to June 2015. Sets marked "Syllabus 2017" or "New Syllabus", and the older ones, are arranged by module (Module 1, 2 and 3) rather than by group, because they belong to earlier syllabuses with different papers. In our view they are still useful for topics that carry over, such as drafting or insolvency, but start with the Syllabus 2022 sets. The icsi.edu/media/webmodules download links that this article used to list no longer work.

How the papers are set

The June 2026 papers and ICSI's December 2026 time table show the format:

• Every paper carries 100 marks and is written in 3 hours. In the December 2026 session, papers run from 2:00 PM to 5:15 PM, and the first 15 minutes are for reading the question paper.
• In June 2026 each paper had 4 or 6 questions, and the instructions said "Answer ALL Questions".
• The two elective papers (Papers 4 and 7) are open book exams.
• To pass a group you need at least 40% in each paper and 50% in the aggregate of that group's papers, in one sitting (Regulation 40, Company Secretaries Regulations, 1982).

Exam dates, the exam form and the full marking scheme are in our CS Professional exam date and pattern guide.

How to use past papers

• Check which law applies. ICSI says its guideline answers are based on the law at the time they were prepared and are "indicative rather than exhaustive". Amendments up to 31 May apply to the December exams, and amendments up to 30 November of the previous year apply to the June exams. Before you learn an answer from an older set, check the provision against the current ICSI study material and supplements.
• Start with the latest sets. The June 2026 and December 2025 papers are the closest to what you will face. Use the 2024 and 2025 sets next, then the model papers.
• Write full answers against the clock. Attempt a whole paper in 3 hours before you open the answers, then mark your own work. ICSI calls its answers model answers, "not as exhaustive", so judge whether you covered the same provisions and reasoning, not the same wording.
• Draft by hand for Paper 2. In our experience, writing out full drafts of deeds, notices and petitions is what builds speed for the Drafting paper; reading model drafts alone is not enough.
• Practise your electives with your material. As the electives are open book, practise finding provisions quickly in the material you will take into the exam.

If you are also preparing for, or have just passed, CS Executive, ICSI's Executive papers are on the same page; our CS Executive question paper guide covers them.