CA final exam to be held only twice a year

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has made drastic changes in the final exams of the Chartered Accountant (CA) course. The decision has been taken keeping in mind the welfare of the students and the time they have to prepare for the exam.

Last year, it was announced and implemented that the CA final exams would be conducted three times a year, in January, May and September. However, there were complaints that students were not able to prepare properly due to the exams coming up one after the other and this was causing stress. Following this, it has been announced that the CA final exam will again be conducted only twice a year from May 2026.

CA final exams will now be held only in May and November every year. The exams that were held in January and September have been cancelled.  Although the final exam has been changed, there is no change in the CA preliminary and intermediate exams. They will be conducted thrice a year as usual.

There has also been a slight change in the date of the CA Intermediate examination scheduled for this year (2026). The Intermediate examinations, which were scheduled to begin on May 3, have been announced to begin on May 5 due to unavoidable reasons.

Group 1 exams will be held on May 5, 7 and 9, while Group 2 exams will be held on May 11, 13 and 15. There is no change in the exam timings (2 pm to 5 pm). These changes are expected to provide sufficient time for students to prepare for the exams.