NISM Series XIII Previous Year Papers
No official past paper exists for Series XIII. The published format and the 10-unit curriculum give you what one would have.
NISM does not publish previous year papers for Series XIII, the Common Derivatives Certification Examination. The exam runs on demand all year at test centres, and each candidate gets a paper drawn from a question bank. There is no annual paper to release, so a file titled as the 2024 or 2025 Series XIII paper is not an official document.
What NISM does publish is enough to build your own: the paper's structure, a 10-unit curriculum across equity, currency and interest rate derivatives, and a free workbook. This page lays out what the paper looks like, the question each unit produces, and how to practise against it.
About the PDFs that claim to be real papers
Files sold or shared as leaked or memory-based Series XIII papers are recollections at best. They carry no answer key you can trust, and NISM's re-evaluation policy says the question bank is confidential. Do not pay for one.
What the Series XIII paper looks like
Every fact below is from NISM's exam page.
| Item | Series XIII |
|---|---|
| Questions | 150 multiple-choice questions, 1 mark each |
| Total marks | 150 |
| Duration | 3 hours |
| Pass mark | 90 out of 150 (60%) |
| Wrong answer | 0.25 mark deducted (25% of the question's marks) |
| Where | NISM test centre, slot of your choice, no fixed exam date |
| Syllabus | 10 units on NISM's curriculum page |
The question each unit produces
NISM publishes no unit weightage, so ignore any site that prints one. What you can predict is the shape of the question, from the sub-topics under each unit.
- check_circleUnit I, Basics of Derivatives: identify a participant, a market type or a risk from a one-line description.
- check_circleUnit II, Introduction to the Underlying Markets: definitions and small sums from the three underlyings, with YTM, duration and PVBP on the bond side.
- check_circleUnit III, Introduction to Forwards and Futures: pricing. Cost of carry for equity, interest rate parity for currency, and conversion factor and cheapest-to-deliver bond for interest rate futures.
- check_circleUnit IV, Strategies Using Futures: classify a described position as hedge, speculation or arbitrage, then work out its profit or loss.
- check_circleUnit V, Introduction to Options: option vocabulary and payoffs: moneyness, European versus American, what a Greek measures, long and short call and put payoffs.
- check_circleUnit VI, Option Trading Strategies: match a market view to a strategy, or a strategy to its payoff or maximum loss. Straddle, strangle, covered call, protective put, collar and butterfly are all named.
- check_circleUnit VII, Trading, Clearing, Settlement and Risk Management: who does what and when. Open positions, mark to market, SPAN margining and position limits.
- check_circleUnit VIII, Legal and Regulatory Environment: which Act, committee, regulator or RBI direction governs a given point. L C Gupta, J R Verma, FEMA and FIMMDA each produce a question.
- check_circleUnit IX, Accounting and Taxation: how a derivative contract is booked and taxed. Short unit, direct questions.
- check_circleUnit X, Sales Practices, Code of Conduct and Investor Protection: scenario questions on the code of conduct, risk profiling, KYC, grievance redressal and exchange arbitration.
Free account, this exam preselected.
How NISM Series XIII tests this material
Series XIII is three exams in one paper, and that is the first trap. Series I, IV and VIII each cover one derivatives segment. XIII asks the same concepts across all three, so a candidate who learned futures pricing on an index must also price a currency future and a bond future. Questions that switch segment mid-paper catch those who revised only the segment they trade.
The second trap is the numerical. Units II to VI carry calculations: futures prices, hedge quantities, option payoffs, breakevens and bond risk measures. The four options are usually near-neighbours: the right answer, a sign error, a premium left out and a plausible invention. Work every workbook example on paper, not by reading the solution.
The third trap is the negative mark across a long paper. At 0.25 off per wrong answer, four failed guesses cost a full mark, and 150 questions give guesses room to pile up. The exam-pattern page works the arithmetic in full.
How to practise without past papers
A past paper would give you the format, the style and a score. You can build all three.
- 1
Turn the curriculum into a question list
Write one question for every lettered sub-topic under every unit on NISM's curriculum page. That list covers everything the paper can ask.
- 2
Use the workbook's own questions first
NISM's FAQ for this series points candidates to the chapter-end sample questions and worked examples in the workbook. Do every one before touching third-party sets.
- 3
Do every calculation in all three segments
When you finish a futures or options sum on an equity example, redo it with a currency pair and a bond. If the method does not transfer, you learned the example, not the concept.
- 4
Sit timed sets scored at the real penalty
A practice set is useful only if it is 150 questions in 3 hours, scored 1 mark right and 0.25 off wrong. Treat 90 marks as the line and aim for a margin above it.
- 5
Fix the unit, not the question
Group your wrong answers by unit and by segment. Two or more misses in one unit means re-reading that unit, not memorising the missed questions.
Checking a third-party question set
Compare a set's stated format with the table above. A set built for 100 questions or 2 hours was written for Series I, IV or VIII, not XIII, and will miss at least one segment. The study-material page lists what to read alongside the workbook.
FAQs
Where can I download NISM Series XIII previous year question papers?expand_more
Nowhere official. NISM does not release past papers or answer keys for any certification, including Series XIII. Files offered online under that name are recollections or third-party sets, not NISM documents.
Does NISM repeat questions in the Common Derivatives exam?expand_more
Each paper is drawn from a question bank, so two candidates on the same day can see different questions. Topics repeat because the curriculum is fixed; wording does not.
Is NISM Series XIII difficult?expand_more
It is longer than most NISM papers: 150 questions in 3 hours across 10 units, with calculations in half of them and negative marking. The difficulty is breadth: all three derivatives segments in one sitting. NISM publishes no pass rate.
Can I take the NISM Series XIII exam from home?expand_more
No. NISM lists Series XIII as a test-centre exam, not a remote-proctored one. You book a centre, date and time slot through the certification portal; there is no fixed exam date, and you get a temporary mark sheet at the end of the test.
Next steps
Create a free accountFree study material and a free diagnostic test.