Study guide
The complete syllabus, taught chapter by chapter.
Single-user licence. You may print this file and write on it. You may not redistribute, resell or post it. © Sitonce 2026.
Study guide, 2026 edition.
Copyright © 2026 Sitonce. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by the single-user licence above.
Preface
The complete syllabus for the HKSI Licensing Examination Paper 1. Read all 9 chapters and you have been taught every one of the 55 subtopics the examiner tests.
The next chapter, The exam at a glance, is what makes the rest of this book useful. It says how many questions each topic carries, and the study plan on the page after converts those weights into hours. Two topics carry 25 of 60 marks between them; the lightest carries 2. Time spent should follow that, not the order the chapters happen to be printed in.
Once you have read a chapter, drill on it. 300 practice questions live on the Sitonce website (sitonce.com). They adapt to what you keep getting wrong, keep a notebook of your own mistakes, and explain each miss against the option you actually chose. That adaptation is where the website earns its place; a paper file cannot do it.
When you have worked through the chapters and the practice questions, sit the five mock papers that ship alongside this book. Each carries its answer key at the back of the same file. Sit them the way you will sit the real one - a mock done in pieces over three evenings measures your notes, not your recall.
The exam at a glance
Everything about the exam itself: what it is, how it runs, what it costs, and how it is scored. Read this before you plan your revision.
| Authority | Hong Kong Securities and Investment Institute (HKSI Institute) |
|---|---|
| Delivered by | HKSI Institute (computer-based examination) |
| Format | Multiple choice, computer-based, closed book |
| Language | English and Traditional Chinese |
| Questions | 60 |
| Time | 90 minutes |
| Sittings | Monthly |
| Fee | HKD 1,800 (retake HKD 1,800) |
| Results | - |
| Validity | - |
70% is the published pass mark.
The paper is drawn to fixed weights per topic. This is the arithmetic behind the study plan on the next page:
| Ch. | Topic | Marks | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Regulatory Overview of the Hong Kong Financial Industry | 2 | 3% |
| 2 | Hong Kong Law and the Companies Ordinance | 2 | 3% |
| 3 | The Securities and Futures Ordinance | 8 | 13% |
| 4 | Licensing, Registration and Subsidiary Legislation | 14 | 23% |
| 5 | Business Conduct and Client Relations | 11 | 18% |
| 6 | Business Operations and Practices | 10 | 17% |
| 7 | Participating in the Hong Kong Exchanges | 6 | 10% |
| 8 | Accessing Public Capital | 4 | 7% |
| 9 | Market Misconduct and Improper Trading Practices | 3 | 5% |
| Total | 60 | 100% |
Study plan
The commonest wrong strategy is to spend equal time on every chapter. The paper is not weighted equally; the plan should not be either. The share column below is what matters; the hours column applies a 40-hour reference total for scale.
| Ch. | Chapter | Weight | of 40 h |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Regulatory Overview of the Hong Kong Financial Industry | 3% | 1 h |
| 2 | Hong Kong Law and the Companies Ordinance | 3% | 1 h |
| 3 | The Securities and Futures Ordinance | 13% | 5 h |
| 4 | Licensing, Registration and Subsidiary Legislation | 23% | 9 h |
| 5 | Business Conduct and Client Relations | 18% | 7 h |
| 6 | Business Operations and Practices | 17% | 7 h |
| 7 | Participating in the Hong Kong Exchanges | 10% | 4 h |
| 8 | Accessing Public Capital | 7% | 3 h |
| 9 | Market Misconduct and Improper Trading Practices | 5% | 2 h |
| Total | 100% | 40 h |
Whatever total time you decide on for this paper, allocate this share of it to each chapter. Pick the total from your own baseline: how many marks you dropped the first time you attempted a mock, and how many hours a week you can give it.
Chapter 1
Who regulates what, and who answers to whom. The easiest marks on the paper, and the foundation for every topic after it.
By the end of this chapter you will be able to explain:
HKSI LE Paper 1: the whole syllabus taught, the questions that test it, 5 timed mocks, and all 6 PDFs to print.