The 9 CIRE Elements, Complete Study Guide
Quick answer
The Canadian Investment Regulatory Exam (CIRE) has 9 blueprint elements. The January 2025 syllabus assigns an indicative question count to each, adding up to 110. Element 7 (securities, managed products and mutual funds) is the largest at 21 questions. Element 3 (scope of client relationships) is next at 17. Elements 4 and 8 are the smallest, at 6 each. CIRO does not publish percentage weights or a cut score.
Each element page below has the weight, outcomes covered, rule citations to know cold, common traps, and how to study it. Independent prep platform. Not affiliated with CIRO, CSI, or Fitch Learning.
- Elements
- 9
- Outcomes
- 99
- Practice Qs
- 3,165+
All elements
Each element, with weight and depth
Click into any element for the full study guide: rule citations, outcomes covered, common mistakes, and the prep approach that works for it specifically.
- E1
Regulatory framework
Element 1 of the CIRE covers the structure of Canadian securities regulation: the CSA and the provincial regulators, CIRO (formed in 2023 from IIROC and the MFDA), marketplaces and clearing agencies, investor-protection bodies such as CIPF and OBSI, and the anti-money-laundering, privacy and anti-spam laws that apply to dealers.
11 of 110 questions11 outcomes · 417+ Qs - E2
Prospective client relationships
Element 2 covers what happens before and during onboarding: the client relationship model, telling retail clients from institutional clients, accredited investors under NI 45-106, the know-your-client information a dealer must collect, third parties in the client's life, the role of cost, and the documents in the account agreement and welcome package.
11 of 110 questions11 outcomes · 354+ Qs - E3
Scope of client relationship
Element 3 covers the scope of the client relationship: what Registered Representatives and Investment Representatives may do, relationship disclosure, account appropriateness, product due diligence and know-your-product (KYP), and suitability determination for retail and institutional clients.
17 of 110 questions (second-largest)17 outcomes · 411+ Qs - E4
Client complaints handling
Element 4 covers how a dealer receives, investigates, reports and responds to client complaints, and what recourse a dissatisfied client has.
6 of 110 questions7 outcomes · 230+ Qs - E5
Market and company analysis
Element 5 covers the economic and company factors that drive securities prices: economic theories, monetary and fiscal policy, economic indicators, industry analysis, financial statements and continuous disclosure, takeover and issuer bid rules, and fundamental, quantitative and technical analysis.
9 of 110 questions9 outcomes · 369+ Qs - E6
Market integrity, trade execution and settlement
Element 6 covers the rules that govern how trades are executed and settled: the Universal Market Integrity Rules (UMIR) on best execution, manipulative and deceptive practices and front running, gatekeeping duties, order types, order handling and confirmations, account types, margin, and settlement and delivery.
13 of 110 questions12 outcomes · 377+ Qs - E7
Securities, managed products and mutual funds
Element 7 covers the products a registrant deals in: equities, fixed income, market indices, mutual funds, closed-end funds, ETFs, REITs and other managed products, plus hedge funds, structured products, alternative investment funds, crypto assets and ESG products.
21 of 110 questions (largest)12 outcomes · 423+ Qs - E8
Derivatives
Element 8 covers derivatives at the Remember level: options (puts and calls, American and European style), futures, forwards, swaps and CFDs, how derivatives are used for hedging, speculation and arbitrage, what drives option premiums, listed versus OTC markets, basic strategies, the account documents a derivatives client signs, and prohibited trading practices.
6 of 110 questions8 outcomes · 193+ Qs - E9
Conflicts of interest, ethics
Element 9 covers conflicts of interest and ethics: how a dealer identifies, addresses and discloses conflicts under CIRO IDPC Rules 3110 to 3114, standards of conduct, personal financial dealings with clients, positions of influence, outside activities, client confidentiality, information barriers and cybersecurity.
16 of 110 questions12 outcomes · 391+ Qs
Weighting
Where the marks concentrate
Three elements carry almost half the exam. Element 7 (21 questions), Element 3 (17) and Element 9 (16) make up 54 of the 110. Elements 1, 2 and 6 are the next band. Elements 4, 5 and 8 have 6 to 9 questions each, and they are still worth drilling because the rules they cover are finite. A reasonable split of prep hours follows the weighting, with the last 15% kept for full-length timed mocks.
- E7 · E3 · E9
- 54 of 110
- about 40% of prep hours
- E1 · E2 · E6
- 35 of 110
- about 30% of prep hours
- E4 · E5 · E8
- 21 of 110
- about 15% of prep hours
Study planning
Using the syllabus for study planning
The syllabus works best as a checklist, not as reading material. Three ways to use it.
Map the elements to your study weeks
Allocate the elements to weeks by their question counts and keep the schedule somewhere you will see it. Working through the elements in order without a schedule tends to overweight the early ones and leave too little time for Elements 7 and 9 at the end.
Learn what each IDPC rule series covers
The syllabus names the IDPC Rules and UMIR, and many questions describe a situation and ask what the rules require. A flashcard deck on the rule series earns marks across several elements: 3100 (dealing with clients, including conflicts of interest), 3200 (know your client and client accounts), 3300 (know your product), 3400 (suitability), 3600 (communications with the public) and 3700 (complaints).
Take a diagnostic before you set the plan
The free 25-question CIRE mock exam scores you by element, so you can see which elements need the most hours before you spend them.
FAQ
CIRE syllabus questions
- Where can I get the official CIRE syllabus?
- CIRO publishes it free on its Exam Hub at ciro.ca, together with the practice exam and the Guide for Studying. A preparatory course is not required.
- Has the CIRE syllabus changed since it was published?
- No. The current version is still the one dated January 2025, and CIRO had not published a new one or announced a change as of September 2026. Check the version date on the Exam Hub copy before you start studying.
- Is the syllabus the same as the blueprint?
- In practice, yes. CIRO publishes one syllabus per exam: the element list with indicative question counts on page 2, then the learning outcomes for each element. 'Blueprint' is our word for that weighting, not a separate CIRO document.
- How granular is the testing per learning outcome?
- The CIRE samples across the learning outcomes rather than testing every sub-point on every sitting. There are 99 outcomes, most with several sub-points, and 110 questions. Studying to the learning-outcome level gives reliable coverage; memorizing every sub-point is over-investment.
Next
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