What is officially published
FINRA does not publish Series 7 pass rates. The closest official data point is from 2019: FINRA shared “pass-through” rates for candidates who passed the SIE on their first try and then took the Series 7. For that group, 71% passed the Series 7 on the first attempt (Oct 2018 - Jan 2019 data), and 71% in data through March 31, 2019.
That is not the same thing as an overall Series 7 pass rate: it covers only first-time SIE passers, in the first months after the 2018 restructuring. FINRA has not updated it since. Other pass-rate figures that circulate online are prep-vendor estimates or unsourced; we do not repeat them.
How the passing score works
The Series 7 passing score is a scaled score of 72. FINRA places every candidate’s result on a common scale through equating, which adjusts for small differences in difficulty between exam forms. That means “72” is not “72% of questions right,” and FINRA does not publish the raw number of correct answers needed.
What makes it hard
Function 3 is 73% of the exam (91 questions). Options strategies, municipal securities, suitability and tax treatment carry most of the difficulty, and the exam is long: 3 hours 45 minutes.
Once our practice-test data is large enough, we will publish anonymized section-level miss rates here, labeled as our own data.
Current FINRA rule: wait 30 days after a first or second failed attempt, and 180 days after three failures in a row. Coming change: FINRA filed SR-FINRA-2026-014 (June 29, 2026) to cut those waits to 15 days and 60 days; FINRA says the new periods take effect on a date it will announce in a future Regulatory Notice. As of 2026-09-23 we found no implementation notice, so plan on 30/180.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the Series 7 pass rate?
There is no current official figure. FINRA’s last data (2019) showed a 71% first-attempt pass-through rate for candidates who had passed the SIE first.
What is the Series 7 passing score?
A scaled score of 72.
How hard is the Series 7?
Function 3 is 73% of the exam (91 questions). Options strategies, municipal securities, suitability and tax treatment carry most of the difficulty, and the exam is long: 3 hours 45 minutes.
How soon can I retake the Series 7?
30 days after a first or second failure; 180 days after a third consecutive failure under current rules. FINRA has filed to shorten these to 15 and 60 days on a date still to be announced.
Sources
- FINRA - Series 7 General Securities Representative Exam (accessed 2026-09-23)
- FINRA - Series 7 Content Outline (2025) (accessed 2026-09-23)
- Knopman Marks - FINRA SIE and top-off exam statistics (Apr 2019, reporting FINRA data) (accessed 2026-09-23) - Third-party report of figures FINRA shared in 2019; dated.
- Knopman Marks - FINRA 2019 Annual Conference exam statistics (May 2019) (accessed 2026-09-23) - Third-party report of figures FINRA shared in 2019; dated.
- FINRA - Reduces Waiting Periods for Retaking Qualification Exams (SR-FINRA-2026-014) (accessed 2026-09-23)
- FINRA - SIE Exam and Exam Restructuring FAQ (accessed 2026-09-23)