CA Foundation January 2027 Exam Dates and Paper Timings

The CA Foundation January 2027 exam date is 3, 5, 7 and 9 January 2027, one paper on each day. ICAI fixed these dates in its announcement of 23 September 2026, No. 13-CA (EXAM)/JANUARY/2027. Papers 1 and 2 run from 2 PM to 5 PM. Papers 3 and 4 are shorter, from 2 PM to 4 PM, and they are the two papers with negative marking.

Four papers on alternate days, and the two-hour objective papers at the end are where a careless guess costs a quarter mark each.

TL;DR

• Dates: 3, 5, 7 and 9 January 2027.
• Papers 1 and 2: 2 PM to 5 PM, three hours, 15 minutes of reading time. Papers 3 and 4: 2 PM to 4 PM, two hours, no reading time.
• Exam form on eservices.icai.org from 3 to 16 November 2026, late fee of ₹600 until 19 November.
• Fee: ₹1,500 at Indian centres.
• The dates stay even if one becomes a public holiday.

When is the CA Foundation January 2027 exam?

ICAI's notice gives four dates and a timing table. It does not print paper names against dates, but the papers are numbered 1 to 4 and are held in that order, and the timing table pairs Papers 1 and 2 with three hours and Papers 3 and 4 with two hours. So the working timetable is this. Check it against your admit card.

• Sunday 3 January 2027: Paper 1, Accounting, 2 PM to 5 PM.
• Tuesday 5 January 2027: Paper 2, Business Laws, 2 PM to 5 PM.
• Thursday 7 January 2027: Paper 3, Quantitative Aptitude, 2 PM to 4 PM.
• Saturday 9 January 2027: Paper 4, Business Economics, 2 PM to 4 PM.

The first paper is on a Sunday. The notice says plainly that the schedule will not change if any exam day is later declared a public holiday. Centres are in the cities listed in the notice, subject to enough candidates opting for each, and overseas in Dubai, Bahrain and Kathmandu at the local time equal to 2 PM IST.

Four papers, 3 to 9 January 2027, each one two days after the last.

Why are Papers 3 and 4 only two hours?

Because they are objective papers. Under the new scheme, Paper 3 (Quantitative Aptitude, which covers business mathematics, logical reasoning and statistics) and Paper 4 (Business Economics) are MCQ papers of 100 marks each, and ICAI's FAQ on the scheme says a wrong answer in these two papers costs 0.25 mark. Papers 1 and 2 are descriptive and have no negative marking.

The notice also says there is no advance reading time in Papers 3 and 4. In Papers 1 and 2 you get 15 minutes from 1.45 PM to 2 PM with the question paper. In the objective papers the clock starts at 2 PM with the paper in front of you, so 120 minutes for 100 questions is the whole budget. That is 72 seconds a question, with no separate reading slot.

What this means on the day

• In Paper 3, do the logical reasoning section first. It is fast and it settles nerves. Leave the long statistics computations for the last 30 minutes.
• Skip, do not guess, when you have no idea. Four wrong guesses wipe out one correct answer.
• In Paper 4, read the question stem twice. In practice tests the error I see most is a student answering the opposite of what was asked because the question said "which of the following is not".

Papers 3 and 4 are two-hour MCQ papers with 0.25 negative marking and no reading time, which is why they are shorter.

When does the exam form open and what is the fee?

The form is online at eservices.icai.org. Register on the portal first if you never have, with your SRN as the username.

• Form opens: 3 November 2026.
• Last date without late fee: 16 November 2026.
• Last date with late fee of ₹600: 19 November 2026.
• Correction window for city or medium: 20 to 22 November 2026.
• Fee: ₹1,500 at Indian centres, US$325 at overseas centres other than Kathmandu, ₹2,200 at Kathmandu.

You can answer in English or Hindi; choose the medium in the form. Eligibility is set by your Foundation registration date, which had to be at least four months before the first day of the exam month. For January 2027 that meant registration by 1 September 2026. If you registered later, your first attempt is May 2027.

The form window is 3 to 16 November 2026, the fee is ₹1,500, and 19 November is the last day with a late fee.

What should the twelve weeks before 3 January look like?

1. Finish Accounting and Business Laws first, by mid-November. These two are descriptive and need writing practice, which takes longer to build than MCQ speed.
2. From 15 November, solve one chapter of Paper 3 or Paper 4 MCQs every day, timed at 72 seconds a question, and keep a list of the question types you got wrong.
3. Write two full Accounting papers and two Business Laws papers by hand in the 2 PM to 5 PM slot in December. Get them checked, because the pass rule is 40% in each paper and 50% in aggregate, and a presentation habit that loses five marks a paper is enough to miss it. Our post on how to prepare for CA Foundation has the subject-wise reading order.
4. Write the two MCQ papers as full two-hour sittings at least twice each, with negative marking applied when you score them.
5. Keep 26 December onwards for revision of marked mistakes only. Download the admit card as soon as ICAI puts it on the portal, usually about two weeks before the first paper.

In Foundation Accounting copies the marks go on format: a journal entry without narration, a ledger with no balancing figure, final accounts with no working for closing stock. Gradehunt's CA Foundation test series gives you full papers on the ICAI pattern, written by hand and checked by ex-examiners within 48 hours, with step-wise marks and the format errors pointed out. The first paper is checked free, and mentorship plans are available if you want the twelve weeks mapped out.