PFRDA Grade A Syllabus 2025: Check Exam Pattern, Subject-Wise Important Topics, Download PDF

PFRDA Grade A Syllabus 2025: The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority has released 40 vacancies for the posts of Officer Grade ‘A’ (Assistant Manager) for the General, Finance and Accounts, Information Technology, Research (Economics), Research (Statistics), Actuary, Legal and Official Language (Rajbhasha) Streams. The candidates will be selected for the post based on their performance in Phase 1, Phase 2, and the interview. As per the official notification, the phase 1 online exam is scheduled for September 6, 2025. As the examination is around the corner, aspirants must check the syllabus and commence their preparation accordingly. It will help them focus only on the topics that are important from the exam perspective. They should also check the PFRDA Grade A exam pattern to get a clear picture of the exam requirements. Further details about the PFRDA Grade A Syllabus and Exam Pattern on this page.

PFRDA Grade A Syllabus 2025 Highlights

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority has announced the PFRDA Grade A syllabus and exam pattern in the official notification PDF. The syllabus can guide you well and simplify your exam preparation. Check the key highlights of the PFRDA Grade A recruitment drive shared below.

PFRDA Grade A Exam Pattern 2025

Candidates must check the PFRDA Grade A Exam Pattern to gain insights into exam format, question type, section-wise questions, maximum marks, marking scheme, and other details. It will help them formulate their exam techniques based on the test requirements and structure. Check the PFRDA Assistant Manager Exam Pattern for Phase 1 and Phase 2 discussed below.

PFRDA Grade A Exam Pattern for Phase 1

The PFRDA Grade A Phase 1 exam will be conducted online. It is divided into two papers, i.e. Paper 1 and Paper 2. Each paper carries 100 marks. There shall be negative marking of 1/4th of the marks for each wrong answer in Paper 1 and Paper 2 in Phase I. Check the PFRDA Grade A Exam Pattern for Phase 1 in the table below.

PFRDA Grade A Exam Pattern for Phase 2

The PFRDA Grade A Phase 2 exam is a computer-based test. It consists of two papers, i.e. Paper 1 and Paper 2. Each paper carries 100 marks. There shall be negative marking of 1/4th of the marks for each wrong answer in Paper 2 in Phase II. Check the PFRDA Grade A Exam Pattern for Phase 2 in the table below.

PFRDA Grade A Syllabus 2025 PDF

Having free access to the PFRDA Grade A syllabus can simplify your preparation. It ensures that you focus only on exam-relevant chapters and achieve mastery in all the concepts. Get the direct link to download the syllabus PDF on this page.

PFRDA Grade A Syllabus 2025 Subject-Wise

The PFRDA Grade A syllabus is divided into two stages, i.e. Phase 1 online examination and Phase 2 online examination. Each phase is subdivided into two papers, i.e. Paper 1 and Paper 2. Each paper comprises a wide range of topics from which questions can be asked in the exam. Aspirants must master the basics and practice advanced-level questions to maximise their chances of success. Here is the phase-wise PFRDA Assistant Manager syllabus discussed below for reference purposes.

PFRDA Grade A Syllabus for General Subjects

The PFRDA Grade A Paper 1 syllabus of the Phase 1 exam is divided into four subjects for all the streams. It covers subjects like English Language, Quantitative Aptitude, Test of Reasoning, and General Awareness (including some questions related to the Financial Sector. Have a look at the subject-wise PFRDA Grade A Syllabus for Paper 1 of Phase 1 is shared below.

PFRDA Grade A Syllabus for Professional Knowledge

The PFRDA Grade A Paper 2 syllabus is common for both Phase 1 and Phase 2 online examinations. It covers various streams including General, Information Technology, Finance and Accounts, Research (Economics), Research (Statistics), Legal and Official Language (Rajbhasha) Streams. Have a look at the subject-wise PFRDA Assistant Manager Syllabus for Paper 2 of both phases are shared below for the clarity of the candidates.
PFRDA Assistant Manager Syllabus for General Stream(Common Syllabus for both phases)
Here is the PFRDA Grade A syllabus for General Stream for both Phase 1 and 2, shared below for reference purposes:
A. Commerce & Accountancy
a) Accounting as a financial information system;
b) Accounting Standards with specific reference to Accounting for Depreciation, Inventories, Revenue Recognition, Fixed Assets, Foreign Exchange Transactions, Investments.
c) Cash Flow Statement, Fund flow statement, Financial statement analysis; Ratio analysis;
d) Accounting for Share Capital Transactions including Bonus Shares, Right Shares.
e) Employees Stock Option and Buy-Back of Securities.
f) Preparation and Presentation of Company Final Accounts.
B. Management
a) Management: its nature and scope; The Management Processes; Planning, Organization, Staffing, Directing and Controlling;
b) The Role of a Manager in an Organization. Leadership: The Tasks of a Leader;
c) Leadership Styles; Leadership Theories; A successful Leader versus an effective Leader.
d) Human Resource Development: Concept of HRD; Goals of HRD;
e) Motivation, Morale and Incentives: Theories of Motivation; How Managers Motivate; Concept of Morale; Factors determining morale; Role of Incentives in Building up Morale.
f) 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.
C. Finance
1) Financial System
a) Role and Functions of Regulatory bodies in Financial Sector.
2) Financial Markets
a) Primary and Secondary Markets (Forex, Money, Bond, Equity, etc.), functions, instruments, recent developments.
3) 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, GST, Finance Commission, Fiscal Policy, FiscalResponsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBM),
f) Inflation: Definition, trends, estimates, consequences, and remedies (control): WPI, CPI - components
and trends.
D. Costing
1. Overview of Cost and Management Accounting - Introduction to Cost and Management Accounting
Objectives and Scope of Cost and Management Accounting.
2. Methods of Costing - Single Output/ Unit Costing, Job Costing, Batch Costing, Contract Costing,
Process/Operation Costing, Costing of Service Sectors.
3. Basics of Cost Control and Analysis - (i) Standard Costing, (ii) Marginal Costing, (iii) Budget and
BudgetaryControl.
4. Lean System and Innovation:-
a) Introduction to Lean System
b) Just-in-Time (JIT)
c) Kaizen Costing
d) 5 Ss
e) Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
f) Cellular Manufacturing/ One-Piece Flow Production Systems
g) Six Sigma (SS)
h) Introduction to Process Innovation and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR).
E. Companies Act
The Companies Act, 2013 – Specific reference to Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter VIII, Chapter X,
Chapter XI,Chapter XII and Chapter XXVII.
F. Economics
a) 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
b) Balance of Payments, Foreign Exchange Markets, Inflation, Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Non-banking Financial Institutions.
G. Pension Sector
a) Status of pension sector in India
b) Types of retirement schemes in India and their features
c) National Pension System
d) Atal Pension Yojana
e) Annuity Plans
f) Basics of investment

PFRDA Assistant Manager Syllabus for Information Technology Stream (Common for both Phases)

Here is the PFRDA Grade A syllabus for the Information Technology for both Phase 1 and 2, shared below for the ease of the candidates:
Database Concepts: ER‐model. Relational model: relational algebra, tuple calculus, Integrity constraints, normal forms. File organization, 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, DynamicProgramming, Divideand-conquer)
Networking Concepts: ISO/OSI stack, LAN Technologies (Ethernet, Tokenring), 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
PFRDA Assistant Manager Syllabus for Research (Economics) Stream
Here is the PFRDA Grade A syllabus for the Research (Economics) shared below for the ease of the candidates:
Economics: Demand and Supply, Market Structures, National Income, Determination of output and employment, Investment Function, Multiplier and Accelerator, Demand and Supply for Money, IS-LM, Inflation and Phillips Curve, Business Cycles, Inflation, Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Banking Functions, Public Goods, Tax & Non-Tax Revenue, Direct & Indirect Taxes, Fiscal Balance, Public Debt, Public Budget and Foreign Trade and Balance of Payments.
Statistics and Econometrics: Measures of Central tendency & dispersions, 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 Market, Secondary Market, 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.
PFRDA Assistant Manager Syllabus for Research (Statistics) Stream
Here is the PFRDA Grade A syllabus for the Research (Statistics) shared below for reference purposes:
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, etc

PFRDA Assistant Manager Syllabus for Legal Stream (Common Syllabus for both phases)

Here is the PFRDA Grade A syllabus for the Legal Stream for both Phase 1 and 2, shared below for the ease of the candidates:
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 -OrderI, 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
PFRDA Assistant Manager Syllabus for Finance and Accounts Stream (Common for both Phases)
Here is the PFRDA Grade A syllabus for the Finance and Accounts for both Phase 1 and 2, shared below for reference purposes:
1. The Basic Financial Statement
• Trial Balance
• Balance Sheet
• Cash flow statement
• Income Statement
2. Analysis of Financial Statement Ratio
3. Break Even Analysis
4. IND AS
5. Standard on Auditing
6. Cost accounting concepts (basics)
• Marginal costing
• Cost volume profit analysis
• Cost sheet
• Forecasting
7. Management accounting
• Cost of capital
• Capital structure
• Capital budgeting
• Sources of finance
8. Corporate accounting
9. Business law
• Negotiable instruments
• Contract act
• Partnership act
• Company law (Go through all these laws with amendments)
10. Income Tax Act
11. GST
12. Knowledge of IT and Digital Transaction
13. Compliance of KYC Norms
14. Financial System: Role and Functions of Regulatory bodies in Financial Sector.
15. Financial Markets: Primary and Secondary Markets (Forex, Money, Bond, Equity, etc.), functions, instruments, recent developments.
16. 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

PFRDA Assistant Manager Syllabus for Official Language (Rajbhasha) Stream (Common for both Phases)

Here is the PFRDA Grade A syllabus for the Official Language (Rajbhasha) Stream for both Phase 1 and 2, shared below for reference purposes:
1. भारत सरकार की राजभाषा नीतत (Official Language Policy of the Govt. of India) सेसंबंधित प्रश्न
2. हिन्दी सेअंग्रेजी अनुवाद [शब्द / वाक्ांश / वाक् / Terms / Phrases / Sentences]
3. अंग्रेजी सेहिन्दी अनुवाद [शब्द / वाक्ांश / वाक् / Terms / Phrases / Sentences]
4. हिन्दी सेअंग्रेजी - ववधिक शब्दावली (Legal Terminology)
5. अंग्रेजी सेहिन्दी - ववधिक शब्दावली (Legal Terminology)
6. हिन्दी सेअंग्रेजी – पेंशन / प्रशासतनक / बकैंकंग / प ंजी बाजार / अर्थशास्त्र / सामाजजक सुरक्षा शब्दावली (Pension / Administrative / Banking / Capital Market / Economics / Social Security Terminology)
7. अंग्रेजी सेहिन्दी - पेंशन / प्रशासतनक / बकैंकंग / प ंजी बाजार / अर्थशास्त्र / सामाजजक सुरक्षा शब्दावली (Pension / Administrative / Banking / Capital Market / Economics / Social Security Terminology)

PFRDA Assistant Manager Syllabus for Actuarial Stream (Common for both Phases)

Here is the PFRDA Grade A syllabus for the Actuarial Stream for both Phase 1 and 2, shared below to simplify candidates’ preparation:
Insurance and Management
Part 1 - Insurance
a) History of Indian Insurance, principles of Insurance;
b) Risk and uncertainty, pooling and diversification of risk, Indemnity and Insurable interest;
c) Legal foundations of Insurance, basics in Group/Health Insurance/Pensions; Intermediation: role in mobilising savings, evolution of various types and Bancassurance in India;
d) Functions performed by Insurers: Product design, pricing, distribution, underwriting, claims,
Investment and Reinsurance; Group Insurance (Superannuation Funds)
e) Insurance lines and products: Life Insurance and Annuities and Health Insurance; Liability risks and Insurance, valuation and Solvency requirements, Specialist Insurance lines in India - Reinsurance, GIC of India, obligator sessions and retention of risk within the Country.
Part 2 – Management
a) Its nature and scope;
b) Management Processes - Planning, Organisation, Staffing, Directing and Controlling; role of a Manager in an Organisation;
c) Leadership: The tasks of a leader; leadership styles; leadership theories; A successful leader versus an effective leader;
d) Human Resource Development- Concept of HRD; Goals of HRD; Career Planning – Training and Development;
e) Performance Appraisal - Potential appraisal and development - feedback and performance
counselling - rewards - employee welfare;
f) Motivation, Morale and Incentives: Theories of Motivation; How Managers Motivate; Concept of Morale; Factors determining morale; Role of Incentives in Building up Morale;
g) 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;
h) Role of Information Technology;
i) Corporate Governance: Factors affecting Corporate Governance; Mechanisms of Corporate Governance.

PFRDA Assistant Manager Syllabus for Paper 1 of Phase- II: English Writing Skills

Here is the PFRDA Grade A syllabus for Paper 1 of Phase II, i.e. English Writing Skills discussed below to simplify the candidate’s preparation:
The PFRDA Grade A paper on English shall be designed to evaluate the writing skills, including expression and understanding of the topic, including precise writing/ essay writing/ comprehension.

Also Check:

PFRDA Grade A Eligibility Criteria

PFRDA Grade A Salary

How to Cover the PFRDA Grade A Syllabus 2025

The PFRDA Grade A exam preparation requires consistency, smart planning, and the right techniques. Here are the tips and tricks to excel in the written exam, shared below for the candidate’s reference.

• Review the PFRDA Grade A syllabus to discover relevant chapters.

• Create a study plan based on your subject knowledge, daily commitment, and learning choices.

• Practice mock tests and previous year question papers to identify your strengths and weak areas.

• Revise all the key areas and topics regularly to score well in the exam.