Series 24 guide for the FINRA General Securities Principal Exam, covering registration, broker-dealer supervision, customers, trading, banking, and research.
Use this Series 24 exam guide when you are preparing for the General Securities Principal Exam. Series 24 is a broad principal-level supervisory path, so the exam is less about selling products and more about whether you can supervise personnel, communications, accounts, and firm activity in a compliant way. That makes it one of the places where workflow and escalation logic matter as much as product familiarity.
The guide combines full chapter-based lessons with quick-reference pages such as the Cheat Sheet and FAQ. The educational chapter sequence follows the official FINRA exam functions, with chapters on registration and personnel management, general broker-dealer activity, customer-related supervision, trading and market making, and investment banking and research. That structure is deliberate: Series 24 is written as a principal’s supervisory job, so the guide should be learned the same way.
Use the chapter pages when you need full lesson coverage and principled reasoning. Use the cheat sheet when the rules are already familiar and you want a faster retention pass.
Series 24 exam snapshot
Fact
Current FINRA summary
Registration context
General Securities Principal Qualification Exam
Exam focus
Principal-level supervision of general securities broker-dealer activity
Scored items
150
Time limit
3 hours 45 minutes
Passing score
70
Corequisite paths
SIE plus Series 7, 57, 79, 82, 86/87, or Series 16 depending on principal registration
What to study first
Start with general broker-dealer activities, then customer-related supervision. Those two areas create most of the day-to-day principal-control questions: written supervisory procedures, branch and desk controls, compensation and conflicts, records, account opening, AML, communications, recommendations, complaints, and escalation. Registration is important, but it is not where most of the exam-day pressure sits.
Series 24 study sections
Use this route when you want the exact Series 24 section path instead of only the broad chapter view. Function 2 is the largest block, so it should be studied as seven separate controls rather than as one general supervision bucket.
Learn the broker-dealer registration, branch classification, individual-registration, disclosure, CE, and personnel-supervision rules that open Series 24.
Review the supervisory systems, conduct, compensation, disciplinary, records, financial-responsibility, and operational controls that dominate Series 24.
Learn how Series 24 tests associated-person conduct, conflicts of interest, outside business activities, private securities transactions, customer funds, personal trading, MNPI, and investigations.
Study how Series 24 tests new product approval, product risk, product training, suitability, DPPs, variable annuities, investment companies, exempt securities, private placements, and sales-parameter controls.
Review how Series 24 tests net capital, customer protection, clearing arrangements, margin, Regulation T, hypothecation, short interest, fidelity bonds, financial reporting, SIPC, and cash controls.
Review how Series 24 tests principal supervision of account opening, AML, communications, recommendations, disclosures, complaints, and ongoing account activity.
Learn the order-handling, market-structure, clearance, settlement, reporting, surveillance, and market-access controls a Series 24 principal must supervise.
High-yield Series 24 review for principal supervision, WSPs, communications approvals, customer accounts, Reg BI, trading controls, books and records, banking, and research.
Official FINRA resources for Series 24, including the General Securities Principal exam page, content outline, corequisite guidance, and registration logistics.