SEBI Grade A (Assistant Manager) Guide: Pattern, Cut-Off, Salary

Most government exams promise a job. SEBI Grade A promises something rarer: a seat inside the regulator of India's securities market, a starting package that crosses a lakh and eighty thousand rupees a month in Mumbai, and work that touches real policy. The catch is that the number of seats is small, the competition is serious, and the exam is a different animal from SSC or banking. If you are a graduate or a working professional wondering whether it is worth your next year, this guide walks through everything: the streams, who can apply, the two online phases, the interview, how cut-offs have moved, what you earn, where the career goes, and a day-by-day style 90-day plan.

A note on sources before we start. The pattern, eligibility, pay and weightage below are taken from the official SEBI recruitment notice for Officer Grade A (Assistant Manager) 2025, whose exams were scheduled for January and February 2026. That is the most recent notice we could confirm. SEBI can change its rules at any time, so always read the fresh notice on the SEBI website the day it is published. Where a number differs across websites or we could not confirm it, we say so plainly.

At a glance

Item	What the 2025 notice says
Post	Officer Grade A (Assistant Manager)
Streams	General, Legal, Information Technology, Research, Official Language, Engineering (Electrical), Engineering (Civil)
Vacancies (2025 notice)	110 in total: General 56, Legal 20, IT 22, Research 4, Official Language 3, Electrical 2, Civil 3
Age limit	30 years as on 30 September 2025, with relaxations for reserved categories
Stages	Phase 1 (online screening), Phase 2 (online exam), Phase 3 (interview)
Phase 1	Two MCQ papers of 100 marks each; used only for shortlisting
Phase 2	Two papers of 100 marks each; English descriptive plus a stream paper
Negative marking	One-fourth of the marks for each wrong MCQ
Final merit	85% Phase 2 marks and 15% interview
Starting pay	About Rs 1,84,000 a month gross in Mumbai without accommodation; about Rs 1,43,000 with accommodation
Probation	Two years

One discrepancy worth knowing: some preparation websites quote 135 vacancies and a different stream split for the 2025 cycle. The SEBI notice itself lists the seven streams above, and those numbers add up to 110. We have used the official figure.

What is SEBI Grade A and why do people want it

The Securities and Exchange Board of India is a statutory body set up by an Act of Parliament to protect investors, develop the securities market and regulate it. Officers at Grade A are the entry rung of the officer cadre. You are not a clerk or a trainee. You join as an officer, and the notice states that recruits may be posted to any department of SEBI irrespective of their stream, and to any location in India where SEBI has an office.

The appeal comes from three things. First, pay: the scale is competitive with the best public-sector jobs. Second, the work: surveillance, enforcement, corporate finance, investment management, market regulation, legal drafting, technology oversight and economic research all sit inside the same organisation. Third, the exit options: SEBI experience is respected in law firms, investment banks, exchanges, rating agencies and compliance roles.

The seven streams explained

You choose a stream while applying, and the notice says a separate online application with a separate fee is needed for each stream. Your qualification decides which streams you can pick.

General stream

This is the largest stream, with 56 of the 110 posts in the 2025 notice. You qualify with a Master's degree or a Post Graduate Diploma of at least two years in any discipline, or a Bachelor's degree in Law, or a Bachelor's degree in Engineering, or a professional qualification such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Financial Analyst, Company Secretary or Cost Accountant. In plain terms, almost any graduate-plus profile can try the General stream, which is why the competition is heaviest here.

Legal stream

A Bachelor's degree in Law is mandatory. Two years of post-qualification experience as an advocate, after enrolment under the Advocates Act, is listed as desirable rather than compulsory. For this stream, relevant experience also earns up to 3.75 marks at the interview stage, which we explain below. There were 20 posts in the 2025 notice.

Information Technology stream

You need a Bachelor's degree in Engineering in any branch, or a Bachelor's degree in any discipline with a two-year postgraduate qualification in computer science, computer applications or information technology. The notice lists 22 posts. The Phase 2 paper here is the longest of all: 180 minutes of MCQs on logic flow, debugging, syntax, dry runs and data analysis.

Research stream

This stream is for postgraduates in economics, commerce, business administration, econometrics and related fields, or in finance and its variants, or in statistics, data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analytics. A Master's in Mathematics with a one-year postgraduate diploma in statistics or a related subject also counts. The notice lists only 4 posts, so competition per seat is intense. Phase 2 is a descriptive paper.

Official Language stream

Aimed at Hindi and translation graduates. The notice accepts a Master's in Hindi or Hindi Translation with English at graduation level, a Master's in Sanskrit, English, Economics or Commerce with Hindi at graduation level, or a Master's in both English and Hindi or Hindi Translation. There were 3 posts. The Phase 2 paper is eight translation tasks, from simple paragraphs to office notings.

Engineering (Electrical) and Engineering (Civil)

These need a Bachelor's degree in Electrical or Civil Engineering respectively, with 2 and 3 posts in the 2025 notice. Desirable experience covers building systems, maintenance and construction project administration. Like Legal, these two streams can earn experience marks at the interview.

Eligibility beyond the degree

• Citizenship: applications are invited from Indian citizens.
• Age: not more than 30 years on 30 September 2025, meaning born on or after 1 October 1995. Upper age relaxation is up to five years for SC and ST, up to three years for OBC (non-creamy layer), five years for ex-servicemen, ten years for PwBD candidates, thirteen years for PwBD (OBC) and fifteen years for PwBD (SC/ST), where the conditions in the notice are met.
• Fee: Rs 1,000 plus 18 percent GST for Unreserved, OBC and EWS candidates; Rs 100 plus 18 percent GST as intimation charges for SC, ST and PwBD candidates. Fees are non-refundable.
• Certificates: OBC (NCL) and EWS income and asset certificates must have been issued on or after 1 April 2025 and be produced at the interview stage.
• Experience: where an experience is called desirable, it must have been obtained on or before 28 November 2025 to count.

Because the age cap is 30, many candidates get only a few attempts. Treat your first serious cycle as the one that counts.

The selection process in one picture

There are three stages. Phase 1 is an online screening test. Phase 2 is an online exam with two papers. Phase 3 is the interview. The key surprise for first-timers is that Phase 1 marks do not count towards the final merit. They only decide who moves on to Phase 2. The final rank is built from Phase 2 (85 percent) and the interview (15 percent).

Phase 1 in detail

Phase 1 has two multiple-choice papers of 100 marks each, with one-fourth negative marking on both.

Paper	Content	Marks	Time	Minimum
Paper 1 (all streams)	General Awareness (including some Financial Sector questions of easy to moderate level), English Language, Quantitative Aptitude, Test of Reasoning	100	60 minutes	30%, no sectional cut-off
Paper 2 (General)	Commerce, Accountancy, Management, Finance, Costing, Companies Act, Economics	100	40 minutes	40%
Paper 2 (other streams)	Specialised subject of your stream	100	40 minutes	40%
Aggregate	Across both papers			40%

You must clear the minimum in each paper and the aggregate. The notice says all candidates who clear these thresholds are shortlisted for Phase 2, so Phase 1 is a qualifying gate rather than a ranking contest. The notice does not state how many questions Paper 1 contains or how they split by section, so do not trust any website that quotes an exact breakdown unless it cites the notice. What the notice does confirm is that there is no sectional cut-off in Paper 1, which lets you lean on your strong sections.

The time pressure problem

Paper 2 for General is 100 marks in 40 minutes. That is a speed test of concepts you must already know cold. You cannot work out an accounting standard from first principles in twenty seconds. This is why Finance, Accountancy and Management revision has to start early and be repeated.

Phase 2 in detail

Phase 2 has two papers of 100 marks each. Paper 1 is common: English (Descriptive Test), 60 minutes, to test drafting skills, with a minimum of 30 percent and a one-third weightage. Paper 2 is stream specific, carries a two-thirds weightage and needs a minimum of 40 percent. The aggregate needed is 50 percent. MCQs in Paper 2 carry one-fourth negative marking.

Stream	Paper 2 format	Time
General	MCQs on Commerce, Accountancy, Management, Finance, Costing, Companies Act and Economics	90 minutes
Legal	70 one-mark MCQs plus 3 descriptive questions of 10 marks each, answers typed on a keyboard	60 minutes for MCQs plus 60 minutes for descriptive, as listed in the notice
Information Technology	MCQs on logic flow completion, debugging, syntax, program dry runs, data analysis	180 minutes
Research	Descriptive paper on economics, financial markets and statistics, typed	120 minutes
Official Language	Eight English-Hindi and Hindi-English translation tasks, typed	90 minutes
Engineering (Electrical)	MCQs on stream subjects	40 minutes
Engineering (Civil)	MCQs on stream subjects	40 minutes

For typed descriptive answers, candidates may type in Hindi using Inscript or Remington (GAIL) layouts. All papers except the English test are set bilingually in Hindi and English. Candidates equal to three times the number of vacancies are shortlisted for the interview, in order of merit.

The General stream syllabus

The official syllabus is shared between Phase 1 and Phase 2 for General Paper 2. It covers accountancy topics such as accounting standards, cash flow and fund flow statements, ratio analysis, share capital transactions, ESOPs and buy-backs and company final accounts. Management covers the process of management, leadership, HRD, motivation and communication. Finance covers the financial system, regulators, primary and secondary markets, derivatives basics, financial inclusion, taxes, GST, Finance Commission, FRBM and inflation measures. Costing covers methods of costing, standard and marginal costing, budgets and lean concepts such as JIT, Kaizen, 5S, TPM and Six Sigma. Economics and the Companies Act complete the list. Read the full annexure of the current notice, because it is the only syllabus that counts.

The interview

Only shortlisted candidates are called, and you may choose Hindi or English. Phase 2 marks carry 85 percent weightage and the interview carries 15 percent. Inside that 15, Legal, Electrical and Civil candidates can earn up to 3.75 marks for relevant post-qualification experience, provided they declared it in the online form and can support it with certificates. For these streams, the interview itself is worth 11.25 marks. For other streams, the full 15 is the interview.

The notice does not publish a question list, and we will not pretend to know what the panel asks. What a regulator reasonably tests is clarity about why SEBI, awareness of current market and regulatory developments, your academic and work background, and basic composure. Prepare your own profile thoroughly and read SEBI's recent press releases and board decisions.

Vacancy and cut-off trends

How many seats

Vacancy numbers move from year to year. Aggregator websites report roughly 120 posts for the 2022 cycle and 97 for 2024, and the official 2025 notice lists 110. We could confirm 110 from the SEBI notice itself; the 2022 and 2024 figures come from secondary sites and should be treated as approximate. The pattern to take away is that the exam is small, usually around a hundred seats across all streams, with General taking about half.

What cut-offs have looked like

SEBI publishes separate cut-offs by stream and category. The figures below are the Phase 2 minimum marks for the 2022 cycle as reported by a preparation website. We could not open the official result PDF, so check the SEBI website for the original before relying on any number. The maximum-marks scale is not stated by the source, so read these as relative levels, not as targets.

Stream (2022, Phase 2)	Unreserved cut-off reported
General	62.34
Legal	67.67
Information Technology	50
Research	64.33
Official Language	75.33

For 2024, a website reports Phase 2 cut-offs of roughly 62.5 to 66.5 for General and 65.5 to 71.33 for Legal across categories. We treat that as unconfirmed. For earlier cycles the same sources only give broad ranges, and the Phase 1 papers and weightage have changed over the years, so comparing 2018 or 2020 numbers with today's is misleading.

What can we say with confidence? Cut-offs are stream-wise, they differ widely between streams, and Research and Official Language have historically had high levels because very few candidates compete for very few seats. The General stream has the most candidates but also the most seats. Plan to beat the cut-off by a safe margin rather than aim at it.

Salary, perks and career growth

The official pay scale for Grade A is Rs 62,500 rising in stages up to Rs 1,26,100 over 17 years. The notice states that the gross emolument at Mumbai at the minimum of the scale is around Rs 1,84,000 a month without accommodation and around Rs 1,43,000 a month with accommodation. That gross figure includes SEBI's contribution to the National Pension Scheme and allowances such as grade, special, dearness, family, local, learning, special grade and special compensatory allowance.

Listed benefits include leave fare concession, medical expenses, eye refraction, a knowledge upgradation allowance, briefcase, conveyance expenses, house cleaning allowance, a staff furnishing scheme, a computer purchase scheme and a subsidised lunch. Accommodation is provided subject to availability. Recruits go through two years of probation, and confirmation depends on satisfactory performance.

On career growth, the notice describes only the entry scale. We do not have a verified, official promotion timeline, so we will not quote one. In general terms, officers can move into higher grades over time and work across departments, because postings are not limited by stream. Many officers value that early exposure: a lawyer may end up in a market department, an engineer in a technology team, an economist in policy. Ask serving officers or read SEBI's published service rules before making a long-term plan.

Section-wise strategy for Paper 1 and the English paper

General Awareness

Paper 1 includes general awareness with some financial sector questions of easy to moderate level. Read one good daily newspaper's business pages, keep a notebook of regulatory news (SEBI board meetings, RBI policy, budget announcements, new schemes), and revise static topics such as international organisations, constitutional basics and important reports. Spend the most time on finance-linked news, since it overlaps with your Paper 2 and your interview.

English

Phase 1 tests reading and grammar in MCQ form. Phase 2 tests drafting in a descriptive paper, worth one-third of your Phase 2 marks, with a 30 percent minimum. Practise short essays, formal letters, precis and report-style writing. Write in simple, correct sentences and finish on time. Many MCQ-strong candidates lose rank here because they never practised writing by hand or on a screen.

Quantitative Aptitude

Expect standard topics: percentages, profit and loss, interest, ratio, time and work, data interpretation and number series. Because there is no sectional cut-off, you can choose to be selective, but do not skip the basics. Practise data interpretation under a timer, since calculation speed is the real test.

Reasoning

Puzzles, seating arrangements, syllogisms, inequalities and coding-decoding are the usual building blocks of this kind of test. They respond well to regular timed practice. Do a few sets daily and review every error, because the same trap types return.

Finance and Management

This is the core of General Paper 2. Learn financial markets, instruments, regulators, derivatives basics, taxes, inflation measures and recent developments. For management, make short notes on leadership, motivation theories, HRD and communication. These are concept-heavy and quickly forgotten, so revise them every week.

Accountancy, Costing and Companies Act

Practise ratio analysis, cash flow statements, share capital, buy-back and ESOP questions until the formulas are automatic. For costing, concentrate on standard and marginal costing, budgets and the lean topics. For the Companies Act, keep a clean summary of directors, meetings, shares and compliance basics. CA, CS and CMA candidates have an advantage here; others should give this section extra weeks.

Economics and Social Issues

The General Paper 2 list includes economics. Cover micro and macro basics, inflation, fiscal policy, monetary policy, banking, balance of payments and growth indicators. Keep a short list of current economic data points and recent policy changes. The notice's syllabus also names financial inclusion, public-private partnership and the Finance Commission, so link current affairs to these themes.

A 90-day preparation plan

This plan assumes the General stream and about four hours a day on weekdays and six on weekends. Adjust it for your stream. IT, Legal, Research, Official Language and Engineering candidates should replace the commerce blocks with their own stream syllabus from the annexure.

Days 1 to 30: build the base

• Read the official notice fully and make a one-page checklist of the syllabus.
• Take one diagnostic Paper 1 and one Paper 2 mock to see where you stand, then write down weak topics.
• Cover accountancy and costing first, one topic every two days, with practice questions.
• Start daily news reading and a current affairs notebook.
• Do 40 minutes of quant and 40 minutes of reasoning daily.
• Write one short English piece a day.

Days 31 to 60: finish the syllabus and add speed

• Finish finance, management, economics and Companies Act notes.
• Switch quant and reasoning to timed sets.
• Take one full Paper 1 and one Paper 2 mock every week, with at least two hours of analysis each.
• Revise your notebook of errors every Sunday.
• Practise descriptive English twice a week with a strict clock.

Days 61 to 90: revise, test, simulate

• Take two full mock sets per week, mimicking the exam time, including the 40-minute Paper 2 sprint.
• Revise formulas, definitions and regulator facts in short daily bursts.
• Do one descriptive English paper per week and ask a friend or mentor to review it.
• Prepare a two-minute introduction and answers about your background and why SEBI.
• In the last week, stop new topics; revise only and sleep properly.

Ninety days is tight for a first attempt, particularly for non-commerce candidates. If you have more time, stretch the same structure over 150 days.

SEBI Grade A versus RBI Grade B and NABARD Grade A

Many aspirants prepare for all three together because the syllabus overlaps. The comparison below is qualitative. Check each organisation's latest notice for exact numbers, since patterns, vacancies and pay change.

Point	SEBI Grade A	RBI Grade B	NABARD Grade A
Employer role	Securities market regulator	Central bank	Agriculture and rural development bank
Typical vacancies	Around a hundred, as per recent notices	Check latest notice	Check latest notice
Stages	Two online phases plus interview	Phases plus interview	Prelims, mains and interview
Phase 1 counts for merit	No, only for shortlisting	Check latest notice	Check latest notice
Core subject flavour	Commerce, accounting, finance, law, IT, research	Economic and social issues, finance and management	Agriculture, rural economy, economics and social issues
Work profile	Market regulation, enforcement, policy	Monetary policy, supervision, financial markets	Rural credit, development finance

The honest advice: choose by the work you want, not by the headline salary. SEBI leans towards accountancy, finance and law, while RBI and NABARD put more weight on economic and social issues and, for NABARD, agriculture. If you have a commerce background, SEBI Paper 2 may feel the most natural.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Treating Phase 1 as a rank exam. It only qualifies you, so use it to build accuracy, not to chase marks you will not need.
• Ignoring the English descriptive paper. It has a 30 percent minimum and a one-third weightage in Phase 2.
• Not respecting negative marking. One-fourth of the marks is deducted per wrong MCQ, so guess only when you can eliminate options.
• Skipping accountancy and costing. Non-commerce candidates often delay these and then run out of time.
• Applying to the wrong stream. Check the notice's qualification wording, since a rejected profile wastes a fee and a year.
• Applying to multiple streams carelessly. Each stream needs a separate application and fee, and Paper 2 may fall in different shifts.
• Last-minute certificates. OBC (NCL) and EWS documents must carry a date on or after 1 April 2025 for this cycle and be ready at the interview.
• Relying on random websites. We found conflicting vacancy numbers across sites. Trust the notice.

Frequently asked questions

Is SEBI Grade A the same as SEBI Assistant Manager? Yes. The official post name is Officer Grade A (Assistant Manager).

Can a final-year student apply? The notice asks for the qualification to be held by the closing date of applications, so you should check the exact wording in the current notice before applying.

What is the age limit? In the 2025 notice, 30 years as on 30 September 2025, with relaxations of up to five years for SC and ST, three for OBC (NCL), five for ex-servicemen, and ten or more for PwBD.

Do Phase 1 marks count in the final merit? No. The notice says Phase 1 marks are used only for shortlisting for Phase 2.

Is there negative marking? Yes, one-fourth of the marks for each wrong MCQ in both Phase 1 papers and the MCQ parts of Phase 2 Paper 2.

How is the final merit calculated? Phase 2 carries 85 percent and the interview 15 percent. For Legal, Electrical and Civil streams, up to 3.75 of the 15 marks go to relevant post-qualification experience.

How many candidates are called for the interview? Candidates equal to three times the number of vacancies, in order of merit, subject to the cut-offs.

What is the salary? The notice states about Rs 1,84,000 a month gross in Mumbai without accommodation and about Rs 1,43,000 with accommodation, at the minimum of the scale.

Can I apply to more than one stream? Yes, but each stream needs its own application and fee.

Is there a Phase 1 question count I can rely on? The notice gives marks and time but not the question count or section split for Paper 1, so rely on mocks built around the official marks and time.

Closing thoughts

SEBI Grade A rewards candidates who start early, learn the finance and accounting core properly and treat the English paper seriously. The seats are few, so your plan needs to be steady, not frantic. Follow the official notice, use the 90-day plan as a skeleton and keep a log of every mistake you make in practice. When you are ready to test yourself under real conditions, take timed full-length mock tests on Pareeksha, analyse each one, and repeat until your accuracy is stable. Good luck.