Does ICAI Repeat Questions? What Past CA Papers Actually Show

No. In the papers I have worked through, ICAI almost never prints a past question again word for word. What comes back is the standard, the section and the shape of the question. The May 2025 Financial Reporting paper tested Ind AS 103, 109, 34, 36, 33, 16, 102, 115, 28, 2 and 113. Open any recent FR paper and most of those standards are there again, with new facts and new figures.

Past papers tell you which topics will come. They do not tell you which questions.

TL;DR

• Exact repeats are rare. Topic repeats are the norm, because the section-wise weightage ICAI publishes fixes how many marks each area gets.
• RTP and MTP questions are practice material. A similar question sometimes appears, with different numbers. Nobody at ICAI promises more than that.
• The thing that repeats most reliably is the mistake. ICAI's own examiners' comments list the same errors attempt after attempt.
• Use past papers to build a topic grid, the latest RTP for amendments, and MTPs for timed writing.

What do past CA papers actually show?

ICAI publishes the question paper, the suggested answers and a short report called Examiners' Comments after every attempt. The comments go question by question and name the standard or section each one tested. Read four or five of these for one paper and the pattern is obvious. The standards are the same. The questions are not.

Take Final Paper 1. In the May 2025 examiners' comments, Question 1 was a consolidation under Ind AS 103, Question 2 had an Ind AS 109 loan modification and an Ind AS 34 interim adjustment, Question 3 had an Ind AS 36 impairment with goodwill and an Ind AS 33 EPS with anti-dilutive shares. I have not seen that exact set of facts in any earlier paper. I have seen an Ind AS 103 consolidation, an Ind AS 109 computation and an EPS question in almost every FR paper under the new scheme.

The one place where something closer to a repeat happens is theory. A short question such as the conditions for capitalising borrowing costs, or the limits on dividend out of reserves, has only one correct answer, so it reads like a repeat even when the words differ. The Inter January 2026 comments on Paper 1 mention exactly that dividend question, and most students still got the 10% and 15% limits wrong.

Past papers are a map of topics, not a bank of questions. Build your preparation around the standards and sections that appear every attempt.

Do RTP and MTP questions come in the exam?

The Board of Studies releases a Revision Test Paper for every paper before each attempt, and two series of Mock Test Papers. Both are on the BoS knowledge portal. The RTP carries the amendments and notifications that apply to that attempt, which is its real value. If a Finance Act change or a new SA is examinable for the first time, the RTP is usually where ICAI shows how it expects you to handle it.

Does a question from the RTP then appear in the exam? Sometimes a question of the same type does, with different figures. I would not plan an attempt around that hope. The MTP is written to copy the exam format: 30 marks of case-scenario MCQs and 70 marks of descriptive questions in Inter and in Final Papers 1 to 5. Its job is to let you practise the clock, not to leak the paper.

What ICAI itself says about objective questions

Since the new scheme began on 1 July 2023, 30% of assessment at Inter and Final is objective. ICAI's Board of Studies says in its case scenario booklets that it launched an MCQ practice portal and the booklets so students could practise application-based MCQs. The booklets carry the answer and a reason for each MCQ. They are closer to what the exam asks than any compilation of past MCQs, because the exam MCQs are new each time.

Treat the RTP as the amendment update and the MTP as the dress rehearsal. Neither is a question bank for the real paper.

Why do the same mistakes repeat when questions do not?

This is the part of the examiners' comments that I would read before anything else. The errors listed for May 2025 Final FR are not about rare standards. They are about method.

• Question 1, Ind AS 103: many examinees could not compute the fair value of identifiable net assets, and some skipped the Notes to Accounts.
• Question 3(a), Ind AS 36: the question asked candidates to cite the relevant provisions. Some did not, and some computed the impairment loss as ₹9.2 crore instead of ₹22.2 crore because they ignored goodwill.
• Question 5(a), Ind AS 115: most students reached the right conclusion on the software sale and the franchise fee, but could not support it with the provision.

At Inter, the January 2026 Paper 1 comments say a common error in the EPS question was using profit before tax instead of profit after tax. That is not a knowledge gap. It is a reading gap, and it costs the same marks every attempt.

In the answer sheets I check, the pattern is identical. The student knows the standard. The answer loses marks because the provision is not stated, the working is not shown, or the conclusion is missing. Those three habits repeat far more than any question does.

How should you use past papers, RTPs and MTPs?

1. Take the last five or six attempts of your paper from the ICAI suggested answers pages and write a one-page grid: topic down the side, attempt across the top, marks in each cell. This takes an evening and shows you where 70% of the marks sit.
2. Read the examiners' comments for those attempts and list the errors that appear more than once. Keep that list next to you during revision.
3. Solve the latest RTP fully, with special attention to amendments. Older RTPs are useful in Costing and FM. In Tax, anything older than the current attempt will mislead you on rates and limits.
4. Write both MTP series in the real time slot, in one sitting, by hand. Then compare your answer with the suggested answer line by line for structure: provision, analysis, conclusion.
5. Repeat the topics in your grid with new questions, not the same ones. The exam will give you new facts. Practise on new facts.

You can find the ICAI papers and suggested answers for every recent attempt in our CA Final suggested answers post and the CA Inter suggested answers post, both linked to the official PDFs.

Practise on new questions, checked the ICAI way

Gradehunt's CA Final test series gives you fresh papers on the ICAI pattern, written by hand and checked by ex-examiners within 48 hours. The checker marks each step and writes where the provision, working or conclusion was missing. Your first paper is checked free, so you can see your own repeat mistakes before the exam does.