CFA® Level I Exam Portfolio Management Practice Questions
Portfolio Management is renamed Portfolio Construction in the 2027 curriculum and stays at 8–12% of the CFA® Level I exam. Practice original questions on portfolio math, the CAPM, performance measures, planning and behavioral finance.
180 three-choice questions in two timed sessions of 135 minutes, weighted like the real exam, with a score by topic and the full working for every answer. 18 of the 180 questions are portfolio construction.
Or try the free portfolio drill- 60 original portfolio construction questions with worked answers
- 8–12% of the exam under the 2027 curriculum, session 2
- 18 of the 180 questions in our full mock
An investor is choosing between an open-end mutual fund and an exchange-traded fund tracking the same index. Compared with the mutual fund, the ETF most likely:
What our portfolio construction questions cover
- Risk aversion and utility, the capital allocation line and the optimal portfolio
- Two-asset portfolio standard deviation, diversification and the efficient frontier
- The capital market line, systematic and nonsystematic risk, beta, the CAPM and the security market line
- Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, M² and Jensen’s alpha
- Investor types, pension plans, pooled investment products and the asset management industry
- The investment policy statement: objectives, constraints, risk tolerance and strategic asset allocation
- Cognitive and emotional behavioral biases; the risk management framework
This list is our own summary of the topic, written for practice. The official topic outline and learning outcomes are published by CFA Institute for registered candidates. The 2026 curriculum called this topic Portfolio Management.
Drill portfolio construction, then sit the full mock
180 three-choice questions in two timed sessions of 135 minutes, weighted like the real exam, with a score by topic and the full working for every answer. 18 of the 180 questions are portfolio construction.
Or try the free portfolio drillIdeas the questions test most
- Combining assets whose returns are less than perfectly correlated lowers portfolio risk below the weighted average of the assets’ standard deviations.
- Investors are compensated only for systematic risk, which beta measures; nonsystematic risk can be diversified away.
- The Sharpe ratio divides excess return by total risk (standard deviation); the Treynor ratio divides it by beta. Jensen’s alpha is the return above what the CAPM predicts.
- Risk tolerance has two parts: the ability to take risk (time horizon, wealth, liquidity needs) and the willingness to take risk. When they conflict, the lower usually governs.
- Cognitive errors (such as confirmation bias or anchoring) are easier to correct with information; emotional biases (such as loss aversion or overconfidence) are usually accommodated instead.
Start the free portfolio construction drill · Full Level I mock exam · Mixed drill
Common questions
Is Portfolio Management the same as Portfolio Construction?
Yes. The 2027 CFA Program curriculum calls the topic Portfolio Construction; the 2026 curriculum called it Portfolio Management. It is 8–12% of the Level I exam in both years and is tested in session 2.
Which portfolio calculations come up on Level I?
Two-asset portfolio return and standard deviation, utility, beta, the CAPM expected return, and the Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, M² and Jensen’s alpha.
180 three-choice questions in two timed sessions of 135 minutes, weighted like the real exam, with a score by topic and the full working for every answer. 18 of the 180 questions are portfolio construction.
Or try the free portfolio drillMore Level I topics
- Ethical and Professional Standards · 10–15%
- Quantitative Methods · 11–14%
- Economics · 6–9%
- Financial Statement Analysis · 11–14%
- Corporate Finance · 6–9%
- Equities · 11–14%
- Fixed Income · 11–14%
- Derivatives and Risk Management · 6–9%
- Alternative Investments · 6–9%
Topic weights and exam format: CFA Institute: Level I exam (format and topic weights), checked November 2026.
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