Investment banking representative exam
Series 79: the investment banking representative exam, explained — with free practice
The Series 79 (Investment Banking Representative Qualification Exam) is the FINRA exam you pass to be registered as an investment banking representative, the person at a member firm who works on securities offerings, M&A, tender offers and restructurings. It gives you 150 minutes for 75 scored questions across three functions and asks for a passing score of 73 on a scaled basis. Four free items sit further down this page, and the full practice test has 60 more.
Qualification exam
Series 79
Investment Banking Representative
75
scored items
plus 5 unscored pretest items
150
minutes
one sitting, 2 h 30 min
3
functions
37 · 20 · 18 items
Outline © 2025 · checked Oct 2026
The registration
What the Series 79 is and who has to take it
FINRA Rule 1220(b)(5)
Investment Banking Representative
- SIE + Series 79
- Sponsored by a FINRA member firm
- Filed on Form U4 through Web CRD
Principal level: add the Series 24
Passing the Series 79, together with the SIE, lets a FINRA member firm register you as an Investment Banking Representative under FINRA Rule 1220(b)(5). The registration belongs to the job rather than to you: the firm sponsors it, files it and holds it while you work there.
The rule asks for it if you advise on or facilitate any of these for your firm:
- debt or equity offerings, public or private: origination, underwriting, marketing, structuring, syndication, pricing, allocation and stabilization
- mergers and acquisitions, tender offers and other business combinations
- financial restructurings, reorganizations, asset sales and divestitures
- fairness and solvency opinions on any of the above
In practice that means the analyst who builds the model, the associate who drafts the offering memo and everyone else on the deal team’s distribution list. Two carve-outs: a new hire in a firm training programme gets up to six months of investment banking work before the registration is due, and a banker limited to private placements can register through the narrower Series 82 instead.
The terms
Series 79 at a glance
Eighty questions, 150 minutes, four choices each. Five of the eighty are unscored pretest items FINRA is trying out; they look exactly like the scored 75 and turn up in random positions, so every item deserves your full attention. There is no penalty for guessing, which makes a blank the only answer guaranteed to be wrong.
You sit it at a Prometric test centre. Online delivery exists only as an approved accommodation, for instance if you are immunocompromised or live more than 150 miles from a centre. No reference materials are allowed either way.
The exam fee is currently $395 per FINRA (checked Oct 2026); confirm it on the FINRA Series 79 page before you enroll. Your sponsoring firm handles the enrollment itself.
A page that describes a five-hour exam with 175 questions is describing the version FINRA retired on October 1, 2018, when the general-industry content moved into the SIE.
Series 79 at a glance
- Exam
- Series 79 — Investment Banking Representative Qualification Exam
- Developed and run by
- FINRA; delivered by Prometric
- Where you sit it
- Prometric test centres (online only with an approved accommodation)
- Items
- 75 scored + 5 unscored pretest, 4 choices each
- Time
- 2 hours 30 minutes
- Passing score
- 73, on an equated scale
- Also required
- the SIE (corequisite) and a sponsoring member firm
- Outline
- F1 37 items · F2 20 · F3 18 (49 / 27 / 24%)
The outline
What’s on the exam: the three functions
FINRA’s content outline (© 2025) splits the 75 scored items into three functions, and the split is lopsided: Function 1 alone carries 37 items, nearly half the exam.
| Function | Scope | Items | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | Collection, Analysis and Evaluation of Data | 37 | 49% |
| F2 | Underwriting/ | 20 | 27% |
| F3 | M&A, Tender Offers and Financial Restructuring Transactions | 18 | 24% |
Function 1 is data and valuation. Function 2 is the law and mechanics of raising capital, from the Securities Act registration periods to Regulation D. Function 3 takes the deal side: M&A process, fairness opinions, tender offers and Chapter 11.
F1 · 37 items · 49%
Collection, Analysis and Evaluation of Data
Statements, ratios, DCF, comps and accretion/dilution, plus the diligence that keeps the numbers honest. Most items want a calculation before they want an answer.
Open the Function 1 guideF2 · 20 items · 27%
Underwriting/New Financing Transactions, Types of Offerings and Registration of Securities
Registration statements, the waiting period, communication safe harbors, syndicate economics, the greenshoe and private placements.
Open the Function 2 guideF3 · 18 items · 24%
M&A, Tender Offers and Financial Restructuring Transactions
Sell-side and buy-side process, fairness opinions, tender offer timing, and who gets paid first in a restructuring.
Guide in preparation. Drill it now under the F3 tab of the practice test.
The Series 79 study guide turns the outline into a prep order, starting with the function that carries the most items.
Taster
Try four items before anything else
Four original items from our bank: two from Function 1, because it is half the exam, and one each from Functions 2 and 3. Pick an option and the item locks; the memo underneath gives the verdict, the reasoning and a note on every option.
Four-item taster 4 items
Item 1 of 4
F1 · Data & valuation
A target company has a core standalone enterprise value of $1,200 million. It owns a 40% unconsolidated stake in a joint venture. The JV generates $50 million in annual EBITDA, aligns with peer multiples of 8.0x EV/EBITDA, and holds $100 million in net debt. What is the target's total enterprise value?
Pick A–D (or press 1–4). The reasoning lands here, with a note on every option — including the ones that were only trying to look helpful.
| Function | Outline | Answered | Right | Flagged |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F1 Data & valuation | 49% | 0/2 | 0 | 0 |
| F2 Underwriting | 27% | 0/1 | 0 | 0 |
| F3 M&A & restructuring | 24% | 0/1 | 0 | 0 |
| Book | — | 0/4 | 0 | 0 |
Four items say nothing about your score, and the book does not pretend otherwise: it counts right, wrong and flagged by function and stops there. For a fuller read, run the 60-item Series 79 practice test, split 29 / 16 / 15 across the three functions.
The path
How bankers get registered: SIE + Series 79 + a sponsoring firm
120
days
to sit the exam once the firm enrolls you
4
years
an SIE pass stays valid
Pass the SIE
The Securities Industry Essentials exam is the corequisite. Unlike the 79, you can enroll in it yourself, and a pass stays valid for four years. The order of the two exams does not matter; the registration needs both.
Join a FINRA member firm
The Series 79 requires association with and sponsorship by a member firm. There is no self-enrollment, so the job comes first and the exam second.
The firm files Form U4
Your firm requests the Investment Banking Representative registration on Form U4 through Web CRD. That enrolls you and opens a 120-day window to take the exam.
Book Prometric and sit it
Schedule a seat at a Prometric test centre inside the window. Once the SIE and the Series 79 are both passed, the registration can take effect.
After that the registration needs upkeep: the Regulatory Element of continuing education every year, and a two-year clock on the qualification if you leave the industry. The Series 79 license guide covers each step and the lapse rules. Many firms also have bankers sit the Series 63, a state-law requirement that depends on what the firm does; Series 79 and 63 explains when it applies.
Difficulty
How hard is the Series 79?
Hard in a narrow, technical way. With 37 of the 75 scored items in Function 1, the exam spends half its time asking you to value something, and the four options are usually four answers you could plausibly reach. Three of them are where a common slip lands you.
The slips are predictable once you have seen them: a diluted share count that skips the treasury-stock method, a precedent-transaction value placed at the low end when the control premium usually puts it at the top, a tender offer clock counted in calendar days instead of business days. Function 2 has the opposite problem: few calculations, many rules that differ by one word. The Function 1 guide works the formulas; the Function 2 guide lays out the offering periods and exemptions.
FINRA publishes no pass rate to calibrate against; the pass-rate page explains why any figure you meet elsewhere deserves a raised eyebrow. If you already hold the Series 7, the 79 vs 7 comparison shows how little of this exam your sales-side knowledge covers.
FINRA publishes no Series 79 pass rate. The number worth watching is your own accuracy, function by function.
The desk
Free Series 79 practice and study guides
One tile per page: the practice test to see where you stand, the study guide to decide what to read first.
- 60Practice testSixty original items across all three functions, each with the reasoning and a note on every option.
- The examFormat, scoring and what happens inside the 150 minutes.
- LicenseSponsorship, the SIE, Form U4 and keeping the registration alive.
- Study guideThe outline turned into a prep order, function by function.
- Pass rateWhat a passing score of 73 means, and why there is no rate to quote.
- 79 vs 7Two exams for two different jobs on the same floor.
- 79 and 63Why many firms add the state-law exam to the banker’s list.
Questions people ask
FAQ
What is a Series 79 license?
Strictly, a registration: FINRA registers you as an Investment Banking Representative once you have passed the Series 79 and the SIE while sponsored by a member firm. It stays with that firm, and if you leave the industry the qualification lapses after two years unless you keep it through FINRA’s Maintaining Qualifications Program. The license guide has the details.
What does a Series 79 allow you to do?
It lets you advise on or facilitate securities offerings, M&A, tender offers, restructurings and similar transactions for your firm, including work on fairness opinions. It does not cover selling securities to investors, which needs the Series 7 or 82. It also does not make you an accredited investor today: on Sep 30, 2026 the SEC asked for comment on adding the Series 79 to the qualifying list, and until it acts, only the 7, 65 and 82 count.
Is the Series 79 a hard exam?
It is technical rather than broad. Nearly half the scored items sit in Function 1, valuation and financial analysis, and FINRA publishes no pass rate, so judge your readiness by your accuracy per function on practice items.
Who needs the Series 79?
Anyone at a FINRA member firm who advises on or facilitates offerings, M&A, tender offers, restructurings or fairness opinions: the analyst on the model as much as the banker who runs the deal. A new hire in a firm training programme gets up to six months first, and a banker limited to private placements can take the Series 82 instead. Selling to investors needs the 7 (or the 82) as well; the full comparison covers who needs which.
How do you sign up for the Series 79?
You don’t; your firm does. A FINRA member firm enrolls you by filing Form U4, you then have 120 days to book a Prometric appointment, and the fee is currently $395 per FINRA (checked Oct 2026). The license guide has the steps in order.
Carry the desk with you
The Series 79 practice app runs the same kind of items, each one explained — useful in the gap between a model refresh and the next request for “just one more sensitivity”.