IFCE Insurance Foundations Exam Content: The 7 Learning Outcomes and Question Counts

Last verified: 18 October 2026. Exam details and the syllabus can change, so check the Insurance Foundations Certificate Exam page on the Financial Academy website before you start studying. This is an independent study guide and is not affiliated with the Financial Academy, the Insurance Authority or any government body.

The exam tests your understanding of risk and insurance, the legal principles of insurance contracts, and the rules that govern the Saudi market. Most questions are short concepts and cases with one correct answer out of four, so understanding and applying matter more than word-for-word memorising.

Exam format at a glance

Fees, registration and dates are in the registration guide, and who must sit the exam is in the suitability guide.

Which syllabus do we follow? Seven learning outcomes, not six chapters

The exam page on the Academy website still shows "chapters and weights" from the older six-chapter edition (risk management and insurance basics 10%, nature of the Saudi insurance sector 20%, insurance products and related services 20%, technical and legal principles of insurance 20%, insurance processes and policies 10%, operational risks and obstacles in insurers 20%). We have built this guide and our questions on the May 2025 syllabus printed in the official study text (4th edition, September 2025, 236 pages), which has seven learning outcomes.

Why: the two study-material links on the exam page (Arabic and English) both open this same book, the Academy's preparation programme page lists units that match its eleven chapters. One more warning: when we checked on 18 October 2026 the "English" link opened the Arabic file.

The seven learning outcomes and question counts

The 4th edition says the number of questions per outcome is approximate and can be one or two higher or lower, and that it is a study guide rather than the exact make-up of each paper:

Outcome 1: Risk and insurance (about 18 questions)

Seven items: the concept of risk and how it is perceived, how risks are categorised, the risk management function and process, the components of risk, applying the principles of risk to given circumstances, the need for insurance, and co-insurance, dual insurance and self-insurance. An easy introductory section; you should collect most of its questions.

Outcome 2: The insurance market in Saudi Arabia (about 10 questions)

Two items: how the insurance market is structured, and the main features of the different types of insurer. This is factual content that suffers when organisations are renamed, so make sure your notes come from the current edition.

Outcome 3: Legal principles of insurance contracts (about 36 questions)

By far the largest outcome, with twelve items:

• Contract and agency: the essentials of a valid contract of insurance, how contracts end, how an agency is created and becomes binding, and the duties of agent and principal.
• Insurable interest and disclosure: the requirements for insurable interest, and how disclosure and representation apply.
• Proximate cause: what it is and how it applies to non-complex claims.
• Indemnity and what follows from it: the principle of indemnity and how it is provided, how contracts modify it, underinsurance and average, contribution in sharing claims in straightforward property cases, and subrogation.

This is where the cases and small calculations appear (average, sharing a claim between two insurers). Do them in your head, because calculators are not allowed.

Outcome 4: Regulatory and legal principles (about 12 questions)

Four items: why the insurance industry is regulated, why capital adequacy must be set and maintained, the growing importance of combating financial crime, and fraud and its impact on the industry. Questions are built on the laws and regulations in force as published on the regulations page of the Insurance Authority website.

Outcome 5: Ethics and governance (about 2 questions)

Only two items: treating customers fairly and achieving good outcomes for them, and the objectives of fit and proper requirements and the risk of unsuitability. Few questions (possibly three given the tolerance), but it is short, so read it carefully once.

Outcome 6: Insurance process procedures (about 10 questions)

Two items: the typical organisational structure of an insurer, and the main insurance operations procedures in the Saudi market.

Outcome 7: Products and related services (about 12 questions)

Two items: the types of insurance product in the Saudi market, and the basic principles of effective customer service. It needs memory for product names, what each covers and what it excludes; linking each product to the principles from Outcome 3 helps.

How to split your revision time

• Outcome 3 first: 36 questions, more than a third of the paper. Give it a third of your time or more, and practise cases, not just definitions.
• Outcomes 1, 4 and 7: 18, 12 and 12 questions, 42 together. With Outcome 3 that makes 78 of 100.
• Outcomes 2 and 6: 10 questions each; the content is descriptive and is learned by repeated reading.
• Outcome 5: only two questions, so it is not a priority, but do not skip it.

You need 70 correct answers, so you can miss 30 questions. Mastering Outcome 3 alone is not enough: miss a third of its questions (12) and you have only 18 mistakes left for the rest of the paper. Spread your effort by weight, but do not drop a whole outcome.

What the questions are built on

The foundation is the official study text (September 2025 edition, May 2025 syllabus), which has self-test questions for each chapter and an index of the regulations it cites. The second source is the laws, regulations and circulars published on the Insurance Authority website. Anything written for the old edition or with names of bodies that have since changed (for example what used to be attributed to the central bank) may no longer be right, so we updated or removed it in our questions.

Start here

Try the free practice test: 10 free questions covering the main outcomes, no sign-up needed, with an explanation for every answer, then practise in the question bank, beginning with Outcome 3. To go back to the exam page: IFCE Insurance Foundations Certificate Exam.