SEBI’s eligibility rules are short, but two of them quietly disqualify a large number of applicants every cycle: the age cut-off date moves with each advertisement, and the stream you pick is locked the moment you submit. This page covers both properly.
Age limit
The limit is 30 years. What changes each cycle is the date on which your age is measured.
In the 2025 advertisement the reference date was 30 September 2025, which meant a candidate had to be born on or after 1 October 1995. SEBI sets this date close to the month of the advertisement, so if the 2026 advertisement appears in October 2026, expect the reference date to sit around 30 September 2026 — and the birth cut-off to move forward by about a year. Do not calculate your eligibility from last year’s date.
There is no minimum age stated beyond what the qualification implies.
Age relaxation
| Category | Relaxation |
|---|---|
| SC / ST | 5 years |
| OBC (non-creamy layer) | 3 years |
| PwBD (unreserved) | 10 years |
| PwBD + OBC | 13 years |
| PwBD + SC / ST | 15 years |
| Ex-servicemen | 5 years |
Relaxations are cumulative where more than one applies. EWS gets reservation in vacancies but no age relaxation — that is a common misreading of the advertisement.
Educational qualification, stream by stream
SEBI TOPPER 2024Tap to play · from the C4S channel
These are from the 2025 advertisement and have been stable across cycles.
| Stream | Qualification |
|---|---|
| General | Master’s degree in any discipline, or a two-year (minimum) postgraduate diploma, or Bachelor’s in Law, or Bachelor’s in Engineering, or CA / CFA / CS / Cost Accountant |
| Legal | Bachelor’s degree in Law from a recognised university or institute |
| Information Technology | Bachelor’s in Engineering in any branch, or a Bachelor’s in any discipline together with a postgraduate qualification of at least two years in computer science or information technology |
| Research | Master’s in Economics, Commerce, Finance, Statistics or Mathematics, with the relevant postgraduate diplomas the advertisement lists |
| Official Language | Master’s in Hindi, Sanskrit, English, Economics or Commerce, with the specific Hindi–English subject combinations named in the advertisement |
| Engineering (Electrical) | Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering |
| Engineering (Civil) | Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering |
Notice what the General stream quietly allows: a plain B.E. or an LL.B. qualifies you for General even though there are separate Engineering and Legal streams. Engineers and law graduates therefore have a real choice, and it is worth thinking about rather than defaulting.
General or your own stream?
The General stream is the largest — 56 of 110 posts last cycle — but it is also where almost everyone applies, so the competition per post is far higher. Legal (20 posts), IT (22) and the small streams have fewer applicants and a Paper 2 you already know. Against that, the specialist streams carry a narrower long-term posting profile, and in Legal and Engineering, relevant post-qualification experience can add up to 3.75 marks in the final merit, which favours candidates who already have it.
The practical rule: if your degree opens a specialist stream and you would rather write Paper 2 on your own subject than on Commerce and Costing, take the specialist stream. If your subject knowledge has gone cold and you are building Commerce from scratch anyway, General is not the harder choice it looks like.
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There is no attempt limit. You can sit SEBI Grade A as many times as your age allows. In practice that gives most candidates a window of five to eight cycles — which is generous compared with the exams that cap attempts, and a reason not to treat one cycle as final.
Nationality
Indian citizens, along with the other categories the advertisement lists (subjects of Nepal and Bhutan, and certain persons of Indian origin who have migrated from specified countries). Non-citizens in those categories need an eligibility certificate from the Government of India.
Where applications actually get rejected
- Degree not complete by the last date of application. The qualification must be held by then. Final-year students awaiting results have generally not been eligible — check the clause in the live advertisement before you pay the fee.
- Age calculated from the wrong date. Use the reference date printed in the current advertisement, not the exam date and not last cycle’s date.
- OBC certificate without the non-creamy-layer clause, or an outdated one. The certificate must be in the prescribed format and current as on the date the advertisement specifies.
- Stream chosen carelessly. It cannot be changed after submission, and it fixes your Paper 2 in both phases.
- Document sizes. Photograph, signature, left thumb impression and the handwritten declaration all have specified formats. Prepare them before you open the form.
Next
- Notification, dates and vacancies — current status and the last cycle’s official timeline.
- Syllabus and exam pattern — what each stream’s Paper 2 actually asks.
- Salary and job profile — what the post pays and what the work is.
- Previous year papers and the daily current affairs quiz, both free.
