CIRO Director and Executive Exam is best thought of as a governance, liability, and risk-oversight exam.
Exam snapshot: 75 multiple-choice questions, 150 minutes. Confirm the latest official details on the Resources
page before booking.
What the exam is really testing
- thinking like a director or senior executive who must challenge, oversee, and remediate material risks
- connecting governance duties to risk management, internal controls, and reporting lines
- distinguishing strategic oversight questions from branch-level operational supervision
- recognizing where UDP accountability, board oversight, and ethical obligations drive the answer
Common question styles
- board-level or executive governance scenarios
- duty, liability, defence, and accountability questions
- risk management and control-design questions
- business-model and offering/distribution oversight questions
- UDP responsibility and remediation scenarios
Current live topic map
- Element 1 — General regulatory framework
- Element 2 — Investment Dealer business model and related areas
- Element 3 — Offering and distribution of securities
- Element 4 — Corporate governance and ethics
- Element 5 — Duties, liabilities and defences
- Element 6 — Risk management and internal controls
- Element 7 — Significant areas of risk
- Element 8 — Ultimate Designated Person (UDP) responsibilities
How to prepare efficiently
Frame each question as an oversight problem: what risk is being governed, what control should exist, who is accountable, and what challenge or escalation should happen now.
- Start with the syllabus
so you can see the whole scope.
- Convert misses into one-sentence rules using the cheat sheet
.
- Shift quickly into practice
once you understand the topic map. Reading alone is not enough for a CIRO scenario exam.