The CAIA Level I exam covers 200 questions across eight topic areas. That breadth is part of what makes it difficult — you can't specialise your way through it. Gaps in any section will cost you points you can't afford at a 45% pass rate.
This post goes through each topic area in detail: what it covers, how it's tested, where candidates typically struggle, and what the 2026 curriculum changes mean for your preparation. If you're building your study plan, start with our complete CAIA Level I candidate guide, then use this breakdown to understand what you're actually walking into.
Weight: approximately 10% of the exam
This section warrants more explanation than the others, because what changed in 2026 is genuinely significant and isn't well understood by candidates using older study resources.
Until 2025, CAIA Level I ethics was examined using the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct. Many candidates — especially those who had already studied for or passed the CFA — treated this as familiar territory and prepared accordingly. That approach no longer works.
From 2026, the CAIA Association replaced the CFA standards entirely with a proprietary framework: the CAIA Ethical Principles. The new framework was developed specifically for the alternative investment industry, designed to address the professional situations that arise in private markets, institutional asset management, and complex multi-party investment structures.
The framework is built around eight core principles. These aren't a restatement of existing professional ethics content under a new name. They represent a distinct approach to ethical reasoning in investment management — one oriented toward fiduciary responsibility, judgment under uncertainty, and professional conduct in markets where there is often no established precedent.
Candidates sitting in 2026 who assume their CFA ethics preparation transfers are going to find the exam tests something different from what they studied.
The ethics questions at Level I are scenario-based. You're given a professional situation — a conflict of interest, a disclosure question, a duty-of-care problem — and asked to identify what the appropriate conduct is under the CAIA Ethical Principles. The questions are designed to test applied judgment, not definition recall.
Scenario-based ethics questions require you to understand the intent behind each principle, not just its surface content. Questions are often constructed so that two or three of the answer options represent reasonable-sounding professional conduct under different frameworks — the task is to identify which one reflects the CAIA principles specifically.
Don't treat ethics as a quick review. Candidates who do this consistently leave reliable points on the table.
Weight: the largest single section
This section is the conceptual foundation of the entire exam. Everything that comes after it — the sections on specific asset classes, strategies, and portfolio construction — assumes you understand the framework this section establishes.
The introduction section covers what makes alternative investments distinct: liquidity profiles and the liquidity premium, return distribution characteristics, fee structures and their impact on net returns, benchmarking challenges in illiquid markets, and the regulatory and structural environment in which alternative funds operate.
It also covers fund structures in detail: LP/GP dynamics, capital calls and distributions, and the role of fund documents like limited partnership agreements and private placement memoranda.
The most common failure mode in this section is surface familiarity. Many candidates work in or adjacent to alternatives and feel like they already know this material. The exam tests it at a level of precision that professional intuition doesn't always match. Don't skim this section because it seems like familiar territory.
Weight: approximately 14–20%
Real assets covers four distinct categories: real estate, infrastructure, commodities, and natural resources. Each has its own valuation framework, risk profile, and role within an institutional portfolio. The section is broad and requires genuine preparation across all four areas.
The real estate content covers direct investment and indirect vehicles, valuation approaches (income, sales comparison, cost), debt versus equity positions, and listed versus unlisted vehicles. The commodities content is technically demanding — the exam tests the mechanics of commodity futures markets in detail, including spot versus futures prices, contango and backwardation, and roll yield. For a full treatment, see our real assets guide.
Weight: significant, with private debt expanded in 2026
Private equity covers the full spectrum: venture capital, growth equity, leveraged buyouts, and distressed investing. The exam tests fund mechanics — LP/GP structures, carried interest, the J-curve, IRR versus TVPI — as well as the investment characteristics of each strategy. Private debt has been meaningfully expanded in the 2026 curriculum. For a full breakdown, see our private equity and private debt guide.
Weight: one of the most heavily tested sections
The hedge fund section has three distinct layers: strategy identification, comparative reasoning across strategies and market environments, and mechanical performance measurement. Candidates who only prepare for the first layer consistently underperform on the second and third.
Strategies covered include long/short equity, global macro, event-driven, relative value, and managed futures. Structure and fee mechanics — high-water marks, gates, side pockets, lock-up periods — are tested in detail. Performance measurement covers return distribution characteristics (negative skewness, excess kurtosis), limitations of the Sharpe ratio, survivorship bias, and backfill bias. See our hedge funds guide for a full breakdown.
Weight: expanded in 2026 with second reading added
The digital assets section covers distributed ledger technology, cryptocurrencies, tokenised assets, and — new for 2026 — a dedicated reading on allocating to cryptocurrencies within an institutional portfolio.
The exam tests the technical foundations at a conceptual level: what blockchain technology is, the distinction between different types of digital assets, and the valuation challenges that arise when applying traditional frameworks to assets with no cash flows. The new 2026 reading covers how institutional investors evaluate cryptocurrency as a portfolio component — the diversification argument, risk characteristics, regulatory considerations, and practical challenges of custody and execution.
Don't treat this section as optional preparation because the content is newer. The exam will test it.
Weight: covers portfolio construction and multi-manager vehicles
The final section covers funds of hedge funds and private equity funds of funds — their rationale, structure, and the additional fee layer they impose — and portfolio-level thinking about alternatives allocation.
Portfolio management content covers illiquidity management, rebalancing challenges with private assets, and risk-adjusted performance metrics in the context of alternative investments. This section rewards candidates who can think at the portfolio level. The exam questions here often present a scenario and ask you to evaluate a portfolio decision — they're testing judgment, not just recall.
MockSmith CAIA Level I
2,500 exam-style questions across all eight topics. Full explanations for every option. Full mock, half mock, and targeted drill modes.
Get access — $199 →The CAIA Level I curriculum is broad, but it's coherent. Each section builds on the ones before it, and the exam increasingly tests your ability to reason across sections. The candidates who find this exam manageable are the ones who treated every section with the same seriousness and arrived having worked through the full curriculum under exam conditions before the actual exam date.
For more on how to structure your preparation from start to finish, see our CAIA Level I study plan guide.