CISI IAD Derivatives Past Papers: What Exists (2026)

Derivatives candidates arrive at this paper from two directions. Some work near the products already, on a trading desk or in operations, and expect the mechanics to be the easy part. Others are advisers adding the Investment Advice Diploma to a job they are doing, and are meeting margin, basis and option pricing properly for the first time. Either way the exam is usually employer-funded, the date is usually already booked, and the search for past papers follows. CISI does not publish them for this paper and never has. What exists officially is the workbook, currently Edition 16, the syllabus document beside it, and one free sample paper. Everything else circulating online is unofficial, undated, and frequently not this Derivatives paper at all.

The paper you are preparing for

The 80 questions are split across ten elements, and three of them dominate. Exchange Traded Futures and Options, OTC Derivatives, and Trading, Hedging and Investment Strategies are 14 each, so 42 of the 80 marks, more than half the paper, sit in three elements. Underlying Assets takes ten, Clearing seven, Delivery and Settlement five, Portfolio Research and Construction five, Introduction to Derivatives four, Investment Selection and Administration four, and Regulatory Requirements three. The small elements matter more than they look: the three smallest are 11 marks between them, and at 70% you can only afford to lose 24 in the whole paper. For the element-by-element detail and where candidates lose marks, see the IAD Derivatives exam guide.

What official material exists

Three things, and the first surprises people who have sat other units of this diploma. Derivatives has a syllabus published as its own document, at version 16, alongside the workbook at Edition 16. Securities does not, and prints its learning map inside the workbook instead, so if our IAD Securities page left you thinking CISI publishes no syllabus separately, that holds there and not here. Download the Derivatives syllabus first. It is free, and it gives the learning objectives element by element with the question count for each, which is the only weighting that counts. The third thing is one free CISI sample paper. Sit it early, and read it for the phrasing rather than the score: there is only one of it, and you only get to sit it cold once. Check the edition on the workbook cover and the version on the syllabus before you buy anything second hand.

Why old Derivatives material is a poor shortcut

The first problem is age. Edition 16 and syllabus version 16 supersede what came before them, and a question written against an earlier edition can test a margin methodology, a clearing arrangement or a named contract that has since changed, with nothing in the document to tell you it has. Unofficial PDFs add unchecked answer keys on top of that, and on a derivatives paper those bite hardest on the calculations: a keyed answer to a margin or payoff question reads exactly like a right one, and a mistake you have marked yourself correct is the one thing revision cannot fix.

The second problem is the name, and here it is worse than usual. CISI examines two different papers called Derivatives. This one is the Level 4 Investment Advice Diploma unit: 80 questions, two hours, workbook Edition 16, syllabus version 16. The other is the Derivatives unit of the Level 3 Capital Markets Programme, a different level with a different syllabus lineage and a different workbook. Search results do not separate them and most circulating PDFs do not say which they are. With most wrong material you notice inside a page. Not here: both papers use the same vocabulary of futures, options, swaps, margin and clearing houses, so the wrong one reads perfectly plausibly and you can be twenty pages in before anything jars. The quickest test is to hold a document's contents page against the ten elements above. If a document does not name the Investment Advice Diploma, and does not describe 80 questions in two hours, treat it as the wrong paper until you can prove it is not.

The alternative: current, weighted mock papers

Passkey gives Derivatives five full mock papers, each 80 questions in 120 minutes, weighted element by element like the real paper: 14 each on exchange traded futures and options, on OTC derivatives and on trading, hedging and investment strategies, ten on underlying assets, seven on clearing, five each on delivery and settlement and on portfolio research and construction, four each on the introduction and on investment selection and administration, and three on regulatory requirements. Four papers of 80 come out of a bank of 800, so you can sit all four without meeting the same question twice and still have 480 left for practice mode. Everything is written against syllabus version 16, every answer carries a full explanation, and practice mode sorts the bank by your weak elements, which is what makes twenty minutes between meetings worth spending. No mock score predicts a result: it tells you which elements are costing you marks now, not what the examiner will ask on the day. To find those elements before you plan anything, start with the Introduction diagnostic.

Every IAD Derivatives revision resource, in one list

• The official CISI Derivatives workbook, Edition 16, the Derivatives syllabus at version 16, which is a free download and carries the element weightings, and the one free CISI sample paper for this unit.
• Passkey: 800 IAD Derivatives questions, four weighted 80-question mock papers, 51 study-note sections, 432 flashcards, explanations and weak-spot tracking. £59 once covers every supported exam, for 90 days from purchase.
• Free IAD Derivatives practice questions, and the practice question banks for every paper we cover.
• The IAD Derivatives exam guide, element by element, including where the marks are lost.
• The Introduction diagnostic, for deciding what to revise first, and the complete guide to passing CISI exams.

Passkey is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment. If you are sitting more than one Investment Advice Diploma unit, the same account covers Securities, UK Regulation and Professional Integrity, Investment Risk and Taxation and Financial Planning and Advice. For the picture across every paper, see CISI past papers: what's actually available.

Sit a whole paper for free. The free 80-question IAD Derivatives mock exam runs to the real time limit and the real element weighting, with a score, an element breakdown and an explanation for every answer. No sign-up.