CISI IAD Securities Past Papers: What Exists (2026)

Securities candidates arrive at this paper from two directions. Some are advising already and are adding the Investment Advice Diploma to a job they are doing, so the instruments unit is the part they expect to find easy. Others are moving into advice from paraplanning, operations or branch banking, and are meeting bond arithmetic 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, and everything else circulating online is unofficial, undated, and frequently not this Securities paper at all.

The paper you are preparing for

The 80 questions are split across eight elements, and two of them dominate. Fixed-Income Securities is 20 and Equities is 20, so half the paper is settled before you reach anything else. Collective Investments, Securities Analysis and Portfolio Construction take eight each, Settlement, Safe Custody and Prime Brokerage seven, Cash, Money Markets and the Foreign Exchange Market five, and Investment Selection and Administration four. The tail is not negligible: those last two are nine marks together, more than a tenth of the paper, and both are short. For the element-by-element detail and where candidates lose marks, see the IAD Securities exam guide.

What official material exists

The official workbook, and unusually little around it. Securities is one of the CISI units with no standalone syllabus document: there is no separate PDF to download, because the learning map and the exam specification are printed inside the workbook itself. If you have spent an evening searching for the syllabus and finding nothing, that is why, and it is worth knowing before you conclude that you are looking in the wrong place. The current edition is Edition 16, set against syllabus version 16.1, which covers exams sat up to 30 December 2026. Check that date and the edition number on the cover before you buy anything second hand, rather than trusting the seller description.

Why old Securities material is a poor shortcut

The first problem is age. Edition 16 and version 16.1 supersede what came before them, and a question written against an earlier edition can test a settlement convention, a fund structure, a tax treatment or a named market that has since changed, with nothing in the document to tell you it has. Unofficial PDFs add unchecked answer keys on top of that, which is worse than no practice at all: a wrong answer you have marked yourself correct is the one thing revision cannot fix.

The second problem is the name, and it is the bigger trap. CISI examines two different papers called Securities. This one is the Level 4 Investment Advice Diploma unit: 80 questions, two hours, workbook Edition 16. The other is the Securities 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 of the circulating PDFs do not say which they are. 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. This single confusion is the commonest reason a candidate spends a fortnight revising from material that was never going to match the exam.

The alternative: current, weighted mock papers

Passkey gives Securities five full mock papers, each 80 questions in 120 minutes, weighted element by element like the real paper: 20 questions on Fixed-Income Securities, 20 on Equities, eight each on Collective Investments, Securities Analysis and Portfolio Construction, seven on settlement and custody, five on cash and foreign exchange, four on investment selection and administration. Five papers of 80 come out of a bank of 800, so you can sit all five without meeting the same question twice and still have half the bank left for practice mode. Everything is written against syllabus version 16.1, every answer carries a full explanation, and practice mode sorts the bank by your weak elements, which is what makes twenty minutes between client meetings worth spending. If you would rather find the weak elements before you plan anything, start with the Introduction diagnostic.

Every IAD Securities revision resource, in one list

• The official CISI Securities workbook, Edition 16, set against syllabus version 16.1 for exams up to 30 December 2026. The learning map and the exam specification are inside it; there is no separate syllabus document to find.
• Passkey: 800 IAD Securities questions, five weighted 80-question mock papers, explanations and weak-spot tracking. £59 once covers all fourteen supported exams, for 90 days from purchase.
• Free IAD Securities practice questions, and the practice question banks for every paper we cover.
• The IAD Securities 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 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 Securities 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.