To excel in the PFRDA Grade A 2026 exam, candidates must master the comprehensive syllabus and exam pattern for both Phase 1 and Phase 2. Our guide covers subject-wise topics for all streams, including General, Finance, and IT. Access and download the official PFRDA Grade A syllabus PDF via the link below.
PFRDA Grade A Syllabus 2026
The PFRDA Assistant Manager selection process is structured into three rigorous stages: Phase I (Prelims), Phase II (Mains), and the Interview. The examination evaluates candidates on their analytical aptitude, domain-specific expertise, and general knowledge to recruit top-tier talent for the organization.
The PFRDA Grade A syllabus for Phase I comprises two papers testing English Language, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning, General Awareness, and Professional Knowledge. Phase II focuses on a Descriptive English paper and an objective assessment of stream-specific Professional Knowledge.
A deep understanding of this syllabus is vital for building a high-impact preparation strategy.
PFRDA Grade A Syllabus and Exam Pattern – Highlights
| 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 Duration: 40 minutes |
| Phase II Duration | Paper I: 60 minutes
Paper II Duration: 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 |
PFRDA Grade A Exam Pattern 2026
Familiarity with the PFRDA Exam Pattern 2026 is essential for understanding question distribution, marking schemes, and subject requirements. Both phases feature two papers: Paper 1, evaluating general aptitude, and Paper 2, assessing stream-specific professional knowledge. The detailed structure for both phases is provided below.
PFRDA Grade A Phase I Exam Pattern
Candidates will first undertake the Phase I online examination, consisting of two papers worth 100 marks each. The following sections provide a clear overview of the Phase I exam structure.
Negative Marking: A deduction of 1/4th of the marks assigned to a question applies to each incorrect answer in Phase I (Paper 1 & 2).
| PFRDA Assistant Manager Exam Pattern for Phase 1 | ||||
| Paper | Sections | No. of Questions | Marks | Duration |
| Paper I (All Streams) | English Language | 20 | 25 | 60 Minutes |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 20 | 25 | ||
| Reasoning | 20 | 25 | ||
| General Awareness | 20 | 25 | ||
| Total | 80 | 100 | ||
| Paper II | General Stream: Multiple choice questions on subjects Commerce, Accountancy, Management, Finance, Costing, Companies Act, Economics and Pension Sector. | 50 | 100 | 40 Minutes |
| 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 | |
PFRDA Grade A Phase II Exam Pattern
The PFRDA Assistant Manager Phase 2 exam pattern is detailed below. Note that a negative marking of 1/4th the assigned marks is applicable for all incorrect answers in Paper II.
| PFRDA Assistant Manager Exam Pattern for Phase 2 | ||||
| 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 |
| 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 | |
Note: All question papers, with the exception of the English language test, will be provided bilingually in both Hindi and English.
PFRDA Grade A Syllabus
Review the detailed PFRDA subject-wise syllabus in the table below. We advise candidates to carefully analyze these topics to create a structured and disciplined study schedule.
| Subjects | Topics |
| English Language |
|
| Quantitative Aptitude |
|
| Reasoning Ability |
|
| General Awareness |
|
PFRDA Grade A Syllabus for Professional Knowledge
The PFRDA Grade A syllabus is tailored to specific streams, including General, Legal, Finance & Accounts, IT, Research (Economics), and Official Language (Rajbhasha). For the General stream, the curriculum spans Economics, Finance, Cost Accounting, Commerce, Management, and a comprehensive overview of the Indian Pension Sector.
Specialized streams such as Legal, IT, and Finance emphasize technical competencies, regulatory frameworks, and financial statutes pertinent to those specific professional disciplines.
1. General Stream (For Both Phases)
| 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 |
2. Information Technology Stream (For Both Phases)
| 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.
|
3. Research (Economics) – (For Both Phases)
| 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).
|
4. Research (Statistics)- (For Both Phases)
- Probability Theory,
- Descriptive Statistics,
- Probability Distributions,
- Statistical Inference,
- Sampling Techniques,
- testing of Hypothesis,
- Economic Statistics,
- Time Series Analysis,
- Operations Research,
- Statistical Quality Control,
- Statistical computing.
5. Legal Stream (For Both Phases)
- PFRDA Act, 2013
- PMLA, 2002
- Constitution of India –Preamble, Part I, Part III, Part IV, Part IVA, Part V, Part VI, Part VIII, Part IXA, Part IXB, Part XI, Part XII, Part XIII, Part XIV, Part XIVA, Part XX,
- Law of Contracts –Indian Contract Act, 1872 (Chapters I to VI and VIII to X), Indian Partnership Act, 1932, Specific Relief Act, 1963,
- Criminal Law–Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Chapters I, II, III, IV, VII, XII, XVII, XIX) Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023
- Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023
- Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 –Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VII, Part VIII (Schedule-I -OrderI, II, IV, VII, VIII, X, XI, XVI, XXXIX, XLVII)
- Administrative Law and Principles of Natural Justice,
- Jurisprudence and Interpretation of Statutes,
- Law of Torts and Consumer Protection Act, 2019,
- Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 –Part I, Part III, Part IV,
- Transfer of Property Act, 1882 –Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V,
- Law of Trusts – Principles of trust, Parties to a Trust Deed and Duties of Trustees,
- Corporate Law –Companies Act, 2013 (Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VII, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX, Chapter X, Chapter XI, Chapter XII, Chapter XIII, Chapter XV, Chapter XVI, Chapter XXVII, Chapter XXVIII, Chapter XXIX); Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008; Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Part I, Part II),
- Taxation –General principles
- The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023
- Intellectual Property Rights- Concepts
- RTI Act, 2005
6. Finance and Accounting Stream (For Both Phases)
| 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 (Go through all these laws with amendments) |
|
|
Income Tax Act
|
|
| GST | |
|
Knowledge of It and Digital Transaction
|
|
|
Compliance of KYC Norms
|
|
|
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
a) Basics of Derivatives: Forward, Futures and Swap b) Recent Developments in the Financial Sector c) Financial Inclusion- use of technology d) Alternate source of finance, private and social cost-benefit, Public-Private Partnership e) Direct and Indirect taxes; Non-tax sources of Revenue, Finance Commission, Fiscal Policy, Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBM), f) Inflation: Definition, trends, estimates, consequences, and remedies (control): WPI, CPI – components and trends. g) Economics: Capital market, Money market, Micro and macro economics concepts and Updates related to money market and RBI policies |
7. Official Language Stream (For Both Phases)
|
Official Language Stream
|
|
| 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.
|
PFRDA Grade A Syllabus PDF
The PFRDA Grade A Syllabus PDF is an essential resource, providing a roadmap for your Assistant Manager exam preparation. By utilizing this PDF, you can clearly identify key topics and prioritize your efforts. Use the direct link below to download your copy.
FAQs
The selection process consists of three distinct phases:
Phase I: Preliminary Online Examination
Phase II: Mains Online Examination
Phase III: Interview
Candidates must qualify in each stage to advance.
Phase I includes two papers:
Paper I: General Aptitude (English, Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude, and General Awareness)
Paper II: Professional Knowledge (Specific to your stream)
Yes, a penalty of 1/4th mark applies for every incorrect answer in both Paper I and Paper II across Phase I and Phase II exams.
Phase II includes: Paper 1: Descriptive English (Essay, Precis & Letter Writing) – 100 marks, and Paper 2: Stream-specific Professional Knowledge – 50 MCQs, 100 marks.
Answer: Yes, all question papers, excluding the English Descriptive Test, are provided in both Hindi and English.
You can access the official PFRDA Grade A Syllabus 2026 PDF at www.pfrda.org.in or via the direct download link provided in this article.