The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) conducts the prestigious PFRDA Grade A (Assistant Manager) Exam to recruit dynamic professionals across various specialized streams. Aspiring candidates looking to build a career with the regulatory body must master the detailed syllabus, understand the examination structure, and follow a structured preparation roadmap. You can also Download PFRDA Grade A Syllabus 2026 PDF for offline reference.
PFRDA Grade A Exam Overview 2026
The selection process comprises three core stages: Phase I (Prelims), Phase II (Mains), and the Interview. The examination is conducted in both Hindi and English, excluding the English language tests.
| Particulars | Details |
|---|---|
| Exam Name | PFRDA Grade A (Assistant Manager) Exam 2026 |
| Conducting Body | Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) |
| Selection Process | Phase I (Prelims), Phase II (Mains), and Interview |
| Phase I Duration | Paper I: 60 minutes Paper II: 40 minutes |
| Phase II Duration | Paper I: 60 minutes Paper II: 40 minutes |
| Negative Marking | ¼ mark deducted for each wrong answer in Phase I and Phase II Paper II |
| Professional Streams | General, Information Technology, Research (Economics), Research (Statistics), Legal, Finance & Accounts, and Official Language (Rajbhasha) |
| Language of Exam | Hindi and English |
Professional Streams
Candidates can apply for multiple professional streams depending on their educational background and core competencies. The available streams include:
- General
- Information Technology
- Research (Economics)
- Research (Statistics)
- Legal
- Finance & Accounts
- Official Language (Rajbhasha)
Exam Pattern: Phase I and Phase II
The preliminary exam checks fundamental aptitude and professional knowledge, while mains evaluate advanced stream-specific expertise and descriptive writing skills. Negative marking applies with 1/4th of the marks deducted for incorrect answers.
| Paper | Sections | No. of Questions | Marks | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper I (All Streams) | English Language | 20 | 25 | 60 Minutes |
| Paper I (All Streams) | Quantitative Aptitude | 20 | 25 | 60 Minutes |
| Paper I (All Streams) | Reasoning | 20 | 25 | 60 Minutes |
| Paper I (All Streams) | General Awareness | 20 | 25 | 60 Minutes |
| Paper I (All Streams) | Total | 80 | 100 | 60 Minutes |
| Paper II | General Stream: Multiple choice questions on subjects Commerce, Accountancy, Management, Finance, Costing, Companies Act, Economics and Pension Sector. | 50 | 100 | 40 Minutes |
| Paper II | Information Technology, Finance and Accounts, Research (Economics), Research (Statistics), Legal and Official Language (Rajbhasha) Streams: Multiple choice questions on Specialised subject related to stream. | 50 | 100 | 40 Minutes |
| Paper | Streams/Subject | Maximum Marks | No. of Questions | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 | All Streams: English (Descriptive Test) to test drafting skills | 100 | 3 | 60 minutes |
| Paper 2 | General Stream: MCQs on Commerce, Accountancy, Management, Finance, Costing, Companies Act, Economics, and Pension Sector | 100 | 50 | 40 minutes |
| Paper 2 | IT, Finance & Accounts, Research (Economics/Statistics), Legal, and Official Language (Rajbhasha) Streams: Multiple choice questions on specialised subjects related to stream | 100 | 50 | 40 minutes |
Complete Syllabus Breakdown
Review the detailed topic-wise breakdown for both General Aptitude and Stream-Specific subjects.
| Subjects | Topics |
|---|---|
| English Language | Reading Comprehension Cloze Test Vocabulary Sentence Rearrangement Phrase replacement Error Detection Fill in the blanks Sentence improvement |
| Quantitative Aptitude | Bar Graph, Line Chart, Tabular, Caselet, Radar/Web, Pie Chart, Inequalities (Quadratic Equations), Number Series, Approximation and Simplification, Data Sufficiency, HCF and LCM, Profit and Loss, SI & CI, Problem on Ages, Work and Time, Speed, Distance and Time, Probability, Mensuration, Permutations and Combinations, Pipes and Cisterns, Averages, Ratios and Proportions, Problems on Boats and Stream, Partnership, Problems on Trains, Mixture and Alligation |
| Reasoning Ability | Syllogism Input-Output Puzzle Seating Arrangement Coding & Decoding Blood Relation Direction and Distance Inequality |
| General Awareness | Questions related to the Finance Sector Summits & Conferences Indexes Pension Scheme Banking & Financial Awareness Indian Economy & Budget Government Scheme & Policies Awards Current Affairs |
| Stream | Syllabus Topics |
|---|---|
| Commerce & Accountancy | Accounting Standards with specific reference to Accounting for Depreciation, Inventories, Revenue Recognition, Fixed Assets, Foreign Exchange Transactions, Investments. Accounting as a financial information system; Cash Flow Statement, Fund flow statement, Financial statement analysis, Ratio analysis; Accounting for Share Capital Transactions including Bonus Shares, Right Shares. Employee Stock Option and Buy-Back of Securities. Preparation and Presentation of Company Final Accounts. |
| Management | Management: its nature and scope; The Management Processes; Planning, Organisation, Staffing, Directing and Controlling; The Role of a Manager in an Organisation. Leadership: The Tasks of a Leader; Leadership Styles; Leadership Theories; A successful Leader versus an effective Leader. Human Resource Development: Concept of HRD; Goals of HRD; Motivation, Morale and Incentives: Theories of Motivation; How Managers Motivate; Concept of Morale; Factors determining morale; Role of Incentives in Building up Morale. Communication: Steps in the Communication Process; Communication Channels; Oral versus Written Communication; Verbal versus non-verbal Communication; upward, downward and lateral communication; Barriers to Communication, Role of Information Technology. |
| Finance | Financial System Role and Functions of Regulatory bodies in the Financial Sector. Financial Markets Primary and Secondary Markets (Forex, Money, Bond, Equity, etc.), functions, instruments, recent developments. General Topics Basics of Derivatives: Forward, Futures and Swap Recent Developments in the Financial Sector Financial Inclusion- use of technology Alternate source of finance, private and social cost-benefit, Public-Private Partnership Direct and Indirect taxes; Non-tax sources of Revenue, GST, Finance Commission, Fiscal Policy, Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBM), Inflation: Definition, trends, estimates, consequences, and remedies (control): WPI, CPI-components and trends. |
| Costing | Overview of Cost and Management Accounting – Introduction to Cost and Management Accounting, Objectives and Scope of Cost and Management Accounting. Methods of Costing – Single Output/ Unit Costing, Job Costing, Batch Costing, Contract Costing, Process/Operation Costing, Costing of Service Sectors. Basics of Cost Control and Analysis – (i) Standard Costing, (ii) Marginal Costing, (iii) Budget and Budgetary Control. Lean System and Innovation: Introduction to Lean System, Just-in-Time (JIT), Kaizen Costing, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), 5Ss, Cellular Manufacturing/ One-Piece Flow Production Systems, Six Sigma (SS), Introduction to Process Innovation and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR). |
| Companies Act | The Companies Act, 2013 – Specific reference to Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter VIII, Chapter X, Chapter XI, Chapter XII and Chapter XXVII. |
| Economics | Demand and Supply, Market Structures, National Income: Concepts and Measurement, Classical & Keynesian Approach Determination of output and employment, Consumption Function, Investment Function, Multiplier and Accelerator, Demand and Supply for Money , IS – LM, Inflation and Phillips Curve, Business Cycles Balance of Payments, Foreign Exchange Markets, Inflation, Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Non- banking Financial Institutions. |
| Pension Sector | Status of pension sector in India Types of retirement schemes in India and their features National Pension System Basics of investment Annuity Plans Atal Pension Yojana |
| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Database Concepts | ER-model, Relational model: relational algebra, tuple calculus, integrity constraints, normal forms. File organization, indexing (e.g., B and B+ trees), transactions, and concurrency control. |
| SQL Queries | Select, view, truncate, delete, update, alter, inner join, different types of outer joins, use of aggregate functions, union, intersection, except, in and exist clauses, nested queries. |
| Programming Concepts (Java / C C++) | Program control (iteration, recursion, functions), scope of variables, binding of variables & functions, parameter passing, functional and logic programming, OOPS concepts, inheritance, class and object, constructors, functions, exception handling. |
| Data Analytics Languages (Python / R) | Regex, slicing, data reshaping, dataframes, dictionaries and sets, file management, classes and functions, data mining, lists, importing and exporting data, charts and graphs. |
| Algorithms for Problem Solving | Tree and graph traversals, connected components, spanning trees, shortest paths; hashing, sorting, searching; design techniques (greedy, dynamic programming, divide-and-conquer). |
| Networking Concepts | ISO/OSI stack, LAN technologies (Ethernet, token ring), TCP/UDP, IP, basic concepts of switches, gateways, and routers, application layer protocols (DNS, SMTP, POP, FTP, HTTP), firewalls. |
| Information & Cyber Security Concepts | Cyber attacks, software development security, network security, authentication, CIA – confidentiality, integrity and availability, network audit, systems audit. |
| Data Warehousing | Data extraction, data cleaning, data transformation, data loading, metadata, data cube, data mart, data models. |
| Shell Programming | Shell scripting basics, shell variables, shell script arguments, if statement, loop, return, basic UNIX commands. |
| AI / ML | Machine learning, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, data preprocessing, model evaluation, linear regression, logistic regression, decision trees, clustering, feature engineering, Python for ML, Tensor Flow, PyTorch, scikit-learn, NLP, sentiment analysis, neural networks, overfitting and underfitting, cross-validation, reinforcement learning, cloud AI services, deployment basics. |
| Subject | Topics Covered |
|---|---|
| Economics | Demand and Supply, Market Structures, National Income, Output and Employment Determination, Investment Function, Multiplier and Accelerator, Money Demand and Supply, IS–LM, Inflation and Phillips Curve, Business Cycles, Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Banking Functions, Public Goods, Tax & Non-Tax Revenue, Direct & Indirect Taxes, Fiscal Balance, Public Debt, Public Budget, Foreign Trade, Balance of Payments. |
| Statistics and Econometrics | Measures of Central Tendency & Dispersion, Correlation, Sampling Methods, Sampling Distribution, Statistical Inferences, Hypothesis Testing, Regression Analysis, Panel Data Analysis, Time Series Properties and Analysis. |
| Financial Institutions and Markets | Asymmetric Information, Market Model, Market Efficiency, Money, Credit and Capital Markets, Primary and Secondary Markets, Commodity Markets, Mutual Funds, Stock Exchanges, Credit Rating Agencies, Pension and Insurance Markets, Foreign Exchange Markets, Role of International Financial Institutions (IS, IMF & World Bank). |
| Subject | Syllabus Topics |
|---|---|
| Finance and Accounts | The Basic Financial Statement, Trial Balance, Balance Sheet, Cash flow statement, Income Statement, Analysis of Financial Statement Ratio, Break Even Analysis, IND AS, Standard on Auditing, Cost accounting concepts (basics), Marginal costing, Cost volume profit analysis, Cost sheet, Forecasting, Management accounting, Cost of capital, Capital structure, Capital budgeting, Sources of finance, Corporate accounting, Business law (Negotiable instruments, Contract act, Partnership act, Company law - with amendments), Income Tax Act, GST, Knowledge of IT and Digital Transaction, Compliance of KYC Norms, Financial System (Role and Functions of Regulatory bodies), Financial Markets (Primary and Secondary Markets, Forex, Money, Bond, Equity, derivatives, recent developments), General Topics (Derivatives, Financial Inclusion, Alternate source of finance, Taxes, Finance Commission, Fiscal Policy, Inflation, Micro and macro economics concepts). |
| Official Language Policy | Details |
|---|---|
| Official Language Policy | भारत सरकार की राजभाषा नीति (Official Language Policy of the Govt. of India). |
| Hindi to English Translation | शब्द / वाक्यांश / वाक्य (Terms / Phrases / Sentences). |
| English to Hindi Translation | शब्द / वाक्यांश / वाक्य (Terms / Phrases / Sentences). |
| Legal Terminology (Hindi to English) | वर्धिक शब्दावली |
| Legal Terminology (English to Hindi) | वर्धिक शब्दावली |
| Administrative & Financial Terminology (Hindi to English) | Administrative / Banking / Capital Market / Economics / Social Security Terminology. |
| Administrative & Financial Terminology (English to Hindi) | Administrative / Banking / Capital Market / Economics / Social Security Terminology. |
Important Tips for PFRDA Grade A Exam 2026
Implement these proven strategies to maximize your scores and secure a top rank:
- Know your stream syllabus well: Professional Knowledge differs by stream, so focus only on topics relevant to your chosen stream
- Build a strong base in Quant and Reasoning: These sections are speed-based, so regular practice improves both accuracy and attempt rate
- Stay updated with current affairs: General Awareness carries significant weightage; revise daily rather than cramming
- Practice descriptive writing for Phase II: Work on essay and letter writing regularly to improve clarity, grammar, and structure within the time limit
- Take regular mock tests: Simulate exam conditions to improve time management and identify weak areas
- Manage negative marking wisely: avoid guesswork in Phase I and attempt only questions you're confident about