SEBI Grade A Officer Exam Dates - 2026 & Calendar

When Will the SEBI Grade A 2026 Notification and Application Process Begin?

The SEBI Grade A online application process will begin as per the details mentioned in the upcoming exam notification, the deadline will open and close exactly as stated in that notification.

Aspirants shouldn't feel discouraged about the lack of details right now; once the link opens, eligible candidates can send in their applications and fees without delay.

If you didn't make the cut in last year's recruitment, or didn't manage to clear the exam, you have a fresh shot at this year's cycle as long as you remain eligible.

For the most current and specific information about SEBI job openings, candidates are recommended to regularly check SEBI's official website where vacancy details, application procedures, and other relevant updates are posted regularly.

What Is the Expected SEBI Grade A Exam Date 2026?

While the official notification hasn't been released yet, here are the expected dates for the 2026 cycle, based on historical recruitment trends:

These dates are estimates based on past cycles and are not officially confirmed by SEBI. Two key factors support this expected timeline:

• SEBI's Expansion Plan: SEBI has announced plans to expand its presence beyond metro cities to improve local outreach, with new offices expected in cities like Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Vijayawada, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru. This expansion is likely to increase manpower requirements, making a fresh Grade A recruitment cycle in 2026 more probable.
• Completion of the 2025 Recruitment Cycle: SEBI Grade A 2025 interviews were scheduled between 3 May and 4 June 2026. Since the final result typically follows 1–2 months after the last interview, results were also announced on June 23, 2026. After that, SEBI generally needs a few months to plan the next cycle, which puts the 2026 notification in the October–November 2026 window, followed by Phase 1 in December 2026–January 2027.

Prepare for your exam promptly once these dates are confirmed. Start strategizing your SEBI Grade A syllabus coverage without delay, and utilize SEBI Grade A mock tests and previous year papers to comprehensively practice and grasp the syllabus.

Can the SEBI Grade A 2026 Exam Be Cancelled or Delayed?

The SEBI Grade A exam is not a strictly annual recruitment exercise. However, whenever SEBI has released a notification in the past, the exam has always been conducted without cancellation. A few patterns worth noting:

• Since 2018, SEBI has generally conducted the Grade A exam every alternate year.
• Notifications were released in both 2024 and 2025, indicating consecutive recruitment cycles rather than the older alternate-year pattern.
• This slightly increases the possibility of a delay in the 2026 cycle (since back-to-back years is less common historically), but outright cancellation remains highly unlikely.

Delays, when they do happen, are usually due to the completion timeline of the previous recruitment cycle, internal manpower planning, or administrative approvals, not a signal that the exam itself is at risk.

Even if the SEBI Grade A 2026 exam gets delayed, it simply gives aspirants more time to prepare; the level of competition remains the same, and those who start early continue to hold the advantage.

What Is the Official Source for the SEBI Grade A Exam Date?

The official and only reliable source for SEBI Grade A exam dates (Phase 1 and Phase 2) is the detailed notification released on SEBI's official website. The interview schedule is typically announced separately, only after Phase 2 results are declared. If a notification mentions tentative exam dates, SEBI will later confirm the final dates through a separate official notice, so candidates should always treat early dates as provisional until confirmed.

What Has Been the SEBI Grade A Exam Date Trend Over the Past 5 Recruitment Cycles?

Reviewing the exact historical dates gives a clearer picture of what to expect for 2026:

A few observations from this history:

• SEBI has not followed a fixed annual calendar, recruitment has historically been irregular.
• The pandemic clearly disrupted the 2020–21 cycle (nearly a year between notification and Phase 1).
• Recent back-to-back notifications in 2024 and 2025 suggest stronger and more consistent recruitment momentum going forward, likely linked to SEBI's ongoing expansion into new cities.

What Do These Historical Gaps Tell Us About the 2026 Timeline?

Based on the pattern across these 5 cycles, here are the typical gaps between each stage:

It's also worth noting that SEBI notifications have historically been released in different months altogether confirming there is no fixed annual schedule for this exam, unlike some other regulatory recruitment cycles.

What Were the Results of the SEBI Grade A 2024 Phase 2 Exam?

The SEBI Grade A Recruitment Exercise 2024 declared the results of its Phase 2 online exam, held on 31 August 2024, for candidates across the General Stream, Legal Stream, Research Stream, Official Language Stream, and Engineering (Electrical) Stream.

These stream-wise results are published separately by SEBI and are available for reference on ixamBee's website.

Can the SEBI Grade A Exam Date 2026 Clash with RBI, NABARD, or IRDAI Exam Dates?

This is very unlikely in terms of the exact exam day, though the overall recruitment months may overlap.

SEBI Grade A exam dates are usually planned in separate windows from other major regulatory exams like RBI Grade B, NABARD Grade A, or IRDAI Assistant Manager, and the exact exam date rarely falls on the same day even when the months coincide.

Even if two Phase 1 exams do end up falling within the same week for different exams, preparation remains manageable, since there's significant syllabus overlap between these regulatory exams, especially in Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning, English, and General/Economic Awareness.

Preparing for one of these exams naturally strengthens your preparation for the others, so the possibility of an exam-date clash should not stop aspirants from preparing for multiple regulatory exams in parallel.

Should Aspirants Wait for the SEBI Grade A Exam Date 2026 to Start Preparing?

No. The SEBI Grade A exam date 2026 may still be months away, but preparation should not wait for the notification.

If the notification is released in October–November 2026 as expected, aspirants would realistically get only 1 to 1.5 months before Phase 1, which is enough time for revision and mock practice, but not for building concepts from scratch.

Serious aspirants should ideally begin preparation at least 6–8 months before the expected exam dates, which allows enough time for:

• Building conceptual clarity across all Phase 1 subjects.
• Developing strong answer-writing practice for the Phase 2 descriptive paper.
• Going through multiple rounds of revision before the actual exam.

Waiting for the official notification to begin preparation puts aspirants at a real disadvantage, since many serious candidates are already well into their preparation by the time the notification is out.

How Are SEBI Grade A Exam Centres Allotted?

Since the SEBI Grade A exam is held in online mode, various examination centres are selected and allotted to conduct it properly. Once you're allocated a particular centre, no request to get it changed will be entertained.

SEBI designates examination centres for both Phase 1 and Phase 2 on a "first-apply-first-allot" basis. If your preferred centre is unavailable, you'll need to select from the remaining options, since centre-change requests aren't considered after allotment.

For both phases, you may choose only one examination centre, and your selection may differ between Phase 1 and Phase 2, since Phase 2 typically has fewer available centres.

It's essential to attend the examination at your own risk and expense, as SEBI does not arrange travel or lodging for candidates. SEBI also reserves the right to modify the list of centres if necessary, and any such change will be communicated through the call letter.

What Are the SEBI Grade A Phase 1 Exam Centres?

The exam centre for Phase 1 is chosen at the time of filling out the application form. Candidates get up to three choices, and SEBI allots one of them.

Fill this in carefully, since no changes will be entertained after submission. The following are the expected SEBI Grade A Phase 1 exam centres, spread across the country:

What Are the SEBI Grade A Phase 2 Exam Centres?

For Phase 2, candidates get a choice at the time of application, but only one centre will be allotted.

The list of Phase 2 centres is comparatively shorter than Phase 1, so if your preferred centre isn't listed, you can opt for the nearest available city.

What Are the SEBI Grade A Phase 2 IT Stream Exam Centres?

Paper 2 of Phase 2 for the Information Technology stream is held separately, on a different day from the other streams, and has its own dedicated set of exam centres: