CA (Chartered Accountancy) in India — eligibility, exams, fees, careers

CA is India's main professional qualification in accounting, audit and tax, run by ICAI, a statutory body. Since July 2023 it runs on ICAI's New Scheme of Education and Training: Foundation, Intermediate, two years of practical training (articleship), then the Final exam and four self-paced online modules. It suits a student who is steady with numbers, can study alone for long stretches, and is prepared for exams that many people fail more than once.

Know this. Families often think CA is a five-year course like any degree. It is not: it is a series of hard exams with no guarantee of a pass, and the real time taken is often six or seven years. The part people underestimate is that you can register for Foundation after Class 10, but you cannot appear until after Class 12, and after Intermediate you owe two full years of articleship before Final. Plan a parallel degree (usually B.Com through regular or open mode) so that you hold a graduate degree whatever happens with CA.

Getting in

Chartered Accountant — Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)

Who can apply

Foundation route: you can register for the Foundation course after passing Class 10, but you can only sit the Foundation exam after appearing in Class 12, and you must be registered at least four months before the exam month. Direct entry route to Intermediate (for graduates): a commerce graduate or postgraduate needs at least 55% marks; a graduate or postgraduate in any other subject needs at least 60%; students who have passed the Intermediate level of ICSI (CS) or ICMAI (CMA) can also enter directly. Final-year graduates can register provisionally. Any Class 12 stream is accepted; commerce is common but not required.

How admission works

There is no college admission and no counselling. You register online with ICAI's Board of Studies on its self-service portal, pay the course fee, and study from ICAI's own study material, usually with private coaching or ICAI's classes on top. Foundation has four papers (Accounting, Business Laws, Quantitative Aptitude, Business Economics); you pass with 40% in each paper and 50% aggregate in one sitting. After Foundation you register for Intermediate and must stay registered at least eight months before your first Intermediate attempt. Intermediate has six papers in two groups; you can take one group or both at a time. After passing both groups and completing a four-week IT and soft-skills course (ICITSS), you start two years of articleship under a practising CA, with the option of 9–12 months of industrial training in the last part. You then register for Final, complete the four self-paced online modules and the four-week Advanced ICITSS, and sit the Final exam after finishing articleship. Foundation and Intermediate exams are held three times a year, in January, May and September. Graduates using direct entry skip Foundation and go straight to Intermediate, which saves roughly a year.

Duration: About 4.5–5 years from Class 12 if every exam is cleared on the first attempt; most students take longer
Entrance: CA Foundation

What you study

Foundation: Accounting, Business Laws, Quantitative Aptitude (maths, logical reasoning, statistics), Business Economics
Intermediate Group I: Advanced Accounting, Corporate and Other Laws, Taxation (Income-tax and GST)
Intermediate Group II: Cost and Management Accounting, Auditing and Ethics, Financial Management and Strategic Management
Articleship: two years of real audit, tax, GST, accounting and compliance work in a CA firm
Final Group I: Financial Reporting, Advanced Financial Management, Advanced Auditing and Professional Ethics
Final Group II: Direct Tax Laws and International Taxation, Indirect Tax Laws, Integrated Business Solutions (open-book case study)
Self-paced modules: Corporate and Economic Laws, Strategic Cost and Performance Management, one elective (for example Valuation, Forensic Accounting, International Taxation), one multidisciplinary subject

Specialisations: Statutory and internal audit · Direct tax and international tax · GST and indirect tax · Corporate finance, FP&A and financial controllership · Valuation and transaction advisory · Forensic accounting and risk

Is it you?

A good fit if

You enjoy accounts in Class 11–12 and do not mind practising the same kind of problem many times
You can study on your own for months without a classroom routine pushing you
You want a qualification that is recognised by every Indian employer and does not depend on your college name
You are fine with a long route and can take a failed attempt without giving up
You like rules, detail and getting a number exactly right

Think twice if

You want a normal college life with a fixed end date
Long self-study with no teacher checking on you makes you drift
You dislike law and tax reading as much as you like numbers
Your family expects you to be earning a full salary by 21
You are choosing it only because a relative or friend did it

The honest part

Pass rates at each level are low, and many good students need more than one attempt at Intermediate or Final.
Articleship is a real job with long hours during audit and tax-filing season, on a stipend that is a fraction of a salary.
Rank holders and first-attempt qualifiers get the best campus offers; the gap between them and the rest is wide.
Doing B.Com in a regular college alongside CA is tiring; many choose distance or open-university B.Com for time.
A CA who fails midway still has useful skills; an Intermediate pass plus articleship earns ICAI's Business Accounting Associate certificate.

What it costs

Government: ICAI's own fees are low: about ₹9,000 to register for Foundation, ₹18,000 for Intermediate (both groups) and ₹22,000 for Final, plus exam fees each attempt.
Private: Coaching is where the money goes: roughly ₹30,000–1.5 lakh per level depending on city and teacher, so ₹1–4 lakh across the whole course. Many students also do a B.Com alongside, which adds that degree's fee.
Help: ICAI runs scholarships for needy and meritorious students, and articled assistants are paid a monthly stipend during the two years of training. Firms in big cities often pay above ICAI's minimum.

Rough 2026 ranges to compare routes. Fees differ by college and state and change every year.

After this

Study next

Or start work as

Audit associate / assistant manager at Big Four and mid-size CA firms (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC, Grant Thornton, BDO)
Tax consultant or GST consultant at firms and in-house tax teams
Financial reporting or FP&A analyst in companies, banks and GCCs
Internal auditor at listed companies and banks
Credit or investment analyst at banks, NBFCs and funds
Own practice — audit, tax filing, GST and advisory for local businesses

Starting pay

A newly qualified CA usually starts somewhere around ₹7–15 lakh a year; ICAI campus placements show a median in the lower half of that band, while a small group of rank holders and people joining consulting or investment banking roles start higher. CAs who start their own practice often earn little for the first two or three years. These are rough figures and depend heavily on city, firm and whether you cleared on the first attempt.

Or study it abroad

Careers this leads to

Each opens a full career guide — the work, a week in the life, skills and pay.

Questions families ask

Can a science student do CA?

Yes. ICAI accepts any Class 12 stream for Foundation. A PCM student often finds Quantitative Aptitude easy but has to learn accounting from scratch, which is doable with coaching. A science graduate can also use direct entry to Intermediate with at least 60% in graduation.

Should I do CA after Class 12 or after graduation?

After Class 12 through Foundation is the more common path and saves time if you are sure. Direct entry after graduation skips Foundation, and you join more mature, but you start articleship later. If you are unsure whether you like accounting, a B.Com first and direct entry later is a reasonable way to test it.

How long does CA really take?

On paper, about four and a half to five years from Class 12 with no failed attempts: Foundation, eight months to Intermediate, two years of articleship, then Final. In practice, one or two failed attempts are normal, so plan for five to seven years.

Do CA students earn during the course?

Yes, a little. During articleship you get a monthly stipend set by ICAI's minimum rates, which are a few thousand rupees a month and higher in big cities; many firms pay above the minimum. Industrial training in the last part of articleship has a higher minimum stipend.

Is CA worth it compared to an MBA?

They lead to different work. CA is a licence to audit and a deep technical skill in tax and reporting; an MBA is a general management credential whose value depends heavily on the college. Many people do both: CA first, then an MBA from a strong institute for a move into strategy, banking or leadership roles.

Sources, checked 2026-09-28: ICAI — FAQs on New Scheme of Education and Training · ICAI — New Scheme of Education and Training

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