Aspirants preparing for the upcoming recruitment drive must thoroughly analyze the updated PFRDA Grade A Syllabus 2026 and exam structure for Phase 1 and Phase 2. Candidates can download the comprehensive PFRDA Grade A Syllabus PDF through the direct link provided below.
PFRDA Grade A Syllabus 2026 Overview
To design a highly productive study plan, candidates must identify the core topics and their respective weightage in each section. Since the Professional Knowledge syllabus is tailored individually for General, Legal, Research, IT, and Actuarial streams, candidates must strictly follow the syllabus designated for their chosen stream.
Because Phase I centers entirely on multiple-choice questions while Phase II introduces descriptive test elements, preparation must target speed and accuracy in objective reasoning along with strong, articulate writing skills.
| Particulars | Details |
| Exam Name | |
| 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
|
| Professional Streams |
General, Information Technology, Research (Economics), Research (Statistics), Legal, Finance & Accounts, and Official Language (Rajbhasha)
|
| Language of Exam | Hindi and English |
Latest PFRDA Grade A Exam Pattern 2026
A clear understanding of the PFRDA Assistant Manager Exam Pattern allows candidates to strategically schedule their preparation around subjects, question counts, and marking systems. Both Phase I and Phase II feature two distinct papers: Paper 1 evaluates general aptitude, whereas Paper 2 centers on stream-specific Professional Knowledge. Review the detailed exam layout below.
PFRDA Grade A Phase I Exam Pattern (Prelims)
The first step in the selection process is the Phase I online computer-based exam, which is split into two papers carrying 100 marks each. The key subjects and sections tested in Phase I are outlined below for your reference.
Negative Marking: A penalty of 0.25 (1/4th) mark is deducted for each incorrect answer in both Phase I Paper 1 and Paper 2.
| PFRDA Assistant Manager Exam Pattern for Phase 1 (Revised) | ||||
| Paper | Sections | No. of Questions | Marks | Duration |
| Paper I (All Streams) | English Language | 20 | 25 | 60 Minutes |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 20 | 25 | ||
| Reasoning | 30 | 25 | ||
| General Awareness | 20 | 25 | ||
| Total | 90 | 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 subjects related to stream. | 50 | 100 | 40 Minutes | |
Note: Candidates must secure separate individual cut-offs in each paper alongside the total aggregate cut-off score.
PFRDA Grade A Phase II Exam Pattern (Mains)
The structured Phase 2 exam pattern for the PFRDA Assistant Manager selection is explained in this section. Please note that a negative marking penalty of 1/4th mark applies to incorrect answers in Paper II.
| PFRDA Assistant Manager Exam Pattern for Phase 2 (Revised) |
|||||
| Paper | Streams/Subject | Maximum Marks | No. of Questions | Duration | Weightage |
| Paper 1 | All Streams: English (Descriptive Test) to test drafting skills | 100 | 3 | 60 minutes | 1/3rd |
| Paper 2 | General Stream: MCQs on Commerce, Accountancy, Management, Finance, Costing, Companies Act, Economics, and Pension Sector, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Media, Marketing & Communication (newly added) |
100 | 50 | 40 minutes | 2/3rd |
| IT, Finance & Accounts, Research (Economics/Statistics), Legal, and Official Language (Rajbhasha) Streams: Multiple-choice questions on specialised subjects related to the stream | 100 | 50 | 40 minutes | 2/3rd | |
Note: All question papers (for both Phase I and Phase II online tests, with the exception of the English Language Descriptive Test) will be presented bilingually in English and Hindi.
Subject-Wise PFRDA Grade A Syllabus
The exhaustive, subject-specific PFRDA Syllabus is organized in the tables below. We recommend candidates carefully analyze these key topics and implement a step-by-step study schedule to ensure complete coverage before the exam date.
| Subjects | Topics |
| English Language |
|
| Quantitative Aptitude |
|
| Reasoning Ability |
|
| General Awareness |
|
PFRDA Grade A Professional Knowledge Syllabus
The professional exam syllabus is designed specifically to match the stream chosen by the applicant. Candidates can apply under key specializations including General, Legal, Finance & Accounts, IT, Research (Economics), and Official Language (Rajbhasha).
While the General stream focuses heavily on core concepts like Economics, Finance, Commerce, Management, Cost Accounting, and the Pension Sector, the other specialized streams focus strictly on topics aligned with their respective domains, such as legislative statutes, corporate auditing, or network systems.
1. General Stream Syllabus (For Phase I & Phase II)
| 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 (IT) Stream Syllabus (For Phase I & Phase II)
| Topic | Details |
| Database Concepts |
ER model, Relational model: relational algebra, tuple calculus, integrity constraints, normal forms. File organisation, 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) Stream Syllabus (For Phase I & Phase II)
| 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) Stream Syllabus (For Phase I & Phase II)
- 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 Syllabus (For Phase I & Phase II)
- 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 -Order I, 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 Syllabus (For Phase I & Phase II)
| Subject |
Syllabus Topics
|
| Finance and Accounts |
The Basic Financial Statement
|
| Trial Balance | |
| Balance Sheet | |
|
Cash flow statement
|
|
|
Income Statement
|
|
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Analysis of Financial Statement Ratio
|
|
|
Break-even analysis
|
|
| IND AS | |
|
Standard on Auditing
|
|
|
Cost accounting concepts (basics)
|
|
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Marginal costing
|
|
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Cost-volume-profit analysis
|
|
| Cost sheet | |
| Forecasting | |
|
Management accounting
|
|
| Cost of capital | |
|
Capital structure
|
|
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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
|
|
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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 (Rajbhasha) Stream Syllabus (For Phase I & Phase II)
|
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.
|
Download PFRDA Grade A Syllabus PDF
The official PFRDA Syllabus PDF acts as a structural roadmap detailing all topics needed to ace the Assistant Manager exam. Downloading this PDF helps candidates easily prioritize high-yield sections and systematically cover the curriculum of their selected stream. Find the active download link shared below for instant access.
Preparation Tips to Crack the PFRDA Grade A Exam 2026
- Know your stream syllabus well: Professional Knowledge differs by stream (General, Legal, Research, IT, Actuarial), 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
FAQs
What is the selection process for PFRDA Grade A (Assistant Manager)?
The official selection process consists of three core stages:
Phase I: Preliminary Online Exam (Objective)
Phase II: Mains Online Exam (Descriptive and Objective)
Phase III: In-person Interview
Candidates must clear the qualifying scores in each phase to advance to the next step.
How many papers are there in PFRDA Grade A Phase I exam?
The Phase I exam comprises two distinct papers:
Paper I: General Aptitude testing English, Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude, and General Awareness.
Paper II: Stream-specific Professional Knowledge related to your chosen discipline.
Is there negative marking in the PFRDA Grade A Exam?
Yes, a penalty of 1/4th (0.25) mark is deducted for each incorrect answer in both Paper I and Paper II across Phase I and Phase II examinations.
What is the structure of the PFRDA Phase II Exam?
Phase II contains: Paper 1: Descriptive English Language Test (comprising Essay, Precis, and Letter Writing) for 100 marks; and Paper 2: Professional Knowledge customized to your stream, consisting of 50 MCQs for 100 marks.
Is the exam bilingual?
Ans: Yes, all online question papers (except the Descriptive English Language paper) are provided bilingually in English and Hindi.
Where can I download the official PFRDA Grade A Syllabus PDF?
You can easily download the official PFRDA Grade A Syllabus 2026 PDF from the portal www.pfrda.org.in or directly via the download links highlighted in this comprehensive article.