Representative-level

It is 4:40 on a Friday and a customer sale that should have settled this morning is still
open. The shares never reached the depository, the buyer's side has sent a DK, and the
close-out clock has started. Someone has to own that break, and at a broker-dealer that
person is usually a registered Operations Professional. To become one you pass the SIE and
the Series 99: 50 scored questions in 90 minutes, with 68 needed to pass.

Who at a broker-dealer has to register as an Operations Professional?

The Series 99 is not a sales licence, and it is not a badge for everyone who sits in an
operations department. FINRA created the registration category so that the people who run,
approve and commit capital to the back office are identified and qualified. The rule that
sets this out is FINRA Rule 1220(b)(3), and it names three kinds
of covered person:

The FINRA Series 57, officially the Securities Trader Representative Exam, is the qualification you need to trade equity, preferred or convertible debt securities for a firm's own account or to handle customer orders. Administered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), it runs 50 scored questions in 105 minutes, costs USD $105 and needs 70% to pass. This guide covers the syllabus, the cost, the study time and the strategy that gets candidates through.

What is the FINRA Series 57 exam and who needs to pass it?

The FINRA Series 57 exam is designed to ensure that securities traders possess the fundamental knowledge required to perform their duties competently and ethically within the highly regulated financial markets. This qualification is crucial for individuals who execute trades in various equity and debt securities, including those involved in market making activities. Passing this exam demonstrates a thorough grasp of the complex rules and procedures that protect market integrity and investor interests. The certification underscores a professional's commitment to compliance and excellence in the fast-paced trading environment.

Updated on 19 September 2026. What’s new: exam time corrected to 90 minutes, with FINRA's current question count, fee and passing score of 70.

To pass the FINRA Series 82 exam on your first attempt, you need exact command of private placement rules, above all Regulation D, plus timed practice on scenario questions. The exam has 50 questions in 90 minutes, costs USD $100 and needs a passing score of 70. Half of it tests how you seek business for private offerings, so study that area first and hardest.

The Series 82, FINRA's Private Securities Offerings Representative Exam, qualifies a representative to solicit and sell private placement securities as part of a primary offering. It is shorter and narrower than the Series 7, and that is exactly why many candidates underestimate it. The questions go deep into a small body of rules: exemptions from registration, accredited investor status, placement agent duties, suitability and the records a firm must keep.

This guide explains what the exam covers, how hard it really is, how long to study, the details most candidates miss, what to do on test day and what to do if you have already failed once. Every exam figure below comes from FINRA's published exam details.

A direct participation program is an ordinary business - an apartment block, an oil
well, a fleet of leased equipment - wrapped in a limited partnership so that its income,
losses, deductions and credits pass straight through to the investors instead of being taxed
at the entity first. The Series 22 licenses you to sell interests in those programs. Most
candidates meet the product for the first time in this exam, which is why it feels unfamiliar
even to people who have sold securities for years.

That unfamiliarity, not the length of the exam, is what catches people out. The Series 22
is short: 50 scored questions and 90 minutes. But almost every question assumes you already
know how a limited partnership behaves, who carries the liability, which costs are deductible
and which are not, and why an interest that cannot be sold on next week is not automatically
unsuitable. This guide starts with the product, then works outward to the exam that tests
it.

What exactly is a direct participation program?

The phrase is literal. In a direct participation program the investor participates
directly in the cash flow and the tax items of the underlying business. There is no corporate
layer in between taking a bite of the profits first. FINRA's content outline calls this the
conduit nature of the entity: the program files an informational return on IRS
Form 1065, allocates each partner a share of profits, losses, deductions and credits, and
reports that share to the investor on a Schedule K-1. The investor pays the tax.