HKSI Pass Rate and Difficulty Data: 126K Real Answers Across Papers 1, 7 and 8

People searching HKSI pass rate, hksi database or an hksi past paper usually want a practical answer: which of Papers 1, 7 and 8 is hardest in practice, and where should limited revision time go? We refreshed all three production banks on 18 August 2026. Across 125,919 real answers, Paper 8 has the lowest practice correct rate (54.1%), Paper 7 comes next (59.2%), and the much broader Paper 1 is the most stable (66.8%).

Difficulty overview across three papers

Paper 8 sits at 54.1%, Paper 7 at 59.2%, and Paper 1 at 66.8%. Note that the combined 66.3% is essentially Paper 1's own figure: 119,379 of the 125,919 answers come from that one bank. Do not read the gap as an official probability of passing. Treat it as a revision-priority signal inside our original banks: Paper 8 needs the most product-classification, market-process and calculation practice; Paper 7 needs pricing and relationship work; Paper 1 is broad but becomes more stable once rules are sorted into a consistent framework.

Nine high-value weak spots across 22 topics

The three banks contain 22 topics. These are the nine lowest rates — every one of them from Paper 7 or Paper 8, with no Paper 1 topic making the list. Paper 1's weakest, Raising public capital at 60.8%, ranks tenth. Question and answer counts are in brackets; read the small ones as directional.

Even Paper 1's weakest topic at 60.8% remains above every Paper 7 and Paper 8 topic. That does not prove Paper 1 is easier in the official exam; it shows that market relationships, product classification and calculations are harder to master in our practice banks after a single read.

Paper 8 Securities: the paper that loses the most marks

Paper 8 topics span 42.4% to 66.9%, the widest and lowest spread of the three papers. The weakest is “Securities analysis” at 42.4% on 250 answers; the largest topic, “Types of securities”, has 384 questions and 575 answers at 50.3%. The weakness is paper-wide: product features, trade procedures, valuation and participant roles must be distinguished together. Bear in mind Paper 8 has only 1,887 answers in total and 200–575 per topic — a thin sample, best read as direction rather than measurement.

Paper 7 Financial Markets: the second trouble spot

Paper 7's hardest spot is Global financial system at 56.1%, followed by FX & derivatives markets (56.6%) and debt markets (56.9%). “Hong Kong financial system” is most stable at 66.5%. Candidates cope better with the local system than with the exact direction of price, rate, currency and risk relationships across markets. The paper has 4,653 answers in total, so the sample is thin.

Paper 1 Fundamentals of Regulation: broadest but relatively stable

Paper 1's hardest spot is Raising public capital at 60.8% on 9,714 answers; licensing & registration follows at 61.3% — 480 questions and 24,505 answers, the largest topic in the paper, just 0.5 points behind. “Business operations and practice” is most stable at 79.8%. Paper 1 is the only paper here with a firm sample (119,379 answers), so these figures are the most trustworthy of the three. Build one comparison framework for regulated activities, roles, exemptions, subsidiary legislation and client-asset rules instead of memorising isolated clauses.

Paper 1 vs Paper 7 vs Paper 8: full comparison

*This row is an editorial recommendation derived from the correct-rate gap, not a measured statistic — adjust to your own strengths and weaknesses.

Study priority heat table: what to attack first

Split the key topics into four tiers: below 55% is “highest priority”, 55–60% is “high priority”, 60–70% is consolidated according to your own error history, and above 70% is simply maintained.

From data to a study plan: practical tactics

If you're sitting all three together, don't split time evenly. Based on the 4 tables above, three practical takeaways stand out:

• Attack the 3 "highest priority" topics first — securities analysis (42.4%), types of securities (50.3%) and securities investment overview (54.1%), all in Paper 8 and all below 55%, give the highest return on drilling time. Remember Paper 8 rests on 1,887 answers, so treat the ordering as directional.
• For Paper 1, don't split evenly — focus on the biggest chapter — licensing & registration accounts for 480 questions and 24,505 answers at 61.3%, the largest chapter in the whole paper, so drilling it lifts the overall correct rate the most; other topics (like the regulation overview) are already relatively stable and need less time to consolidate.
• Understanding-based topics need repetition, not rote memory — the low correct rates on Papers 7 and 8 show that rote memorisation doesn't work; building real understanding of market mechanics and product structure needs volume — lots of original practice questions plus wrong-question review. If you're after an hksi past paper feel, the official body releases very few real past papers, so original hksi study material modelled closely on the exam's question logic and repeated drilling is the more practical route.

In short, putting limited time into the low-correct-rate topics gives the highest return; and while Paper 1 is the broadest paper, mastering its largest chapter — licensing & registration — lifts the correct rate fastest. To see how the three papers combine and the licensing exam order, read the HKSI LE exam guide; for single-paper deep dives, see the Paper 1 guide, the Paper 7 guide and the Paper 8 guide; to compare the two and decide which you need, see the Paper 7 vs Paper 8 comparison.