SOCPA Audit: Syllabus, Topics and a Study Plan

If you hold a US CPA, you will probably never sit this paper. Auditing is one of the subjects SOCPA exempts for holders of the CPA, the ICAEW ACA, the Canadian CA and CPA Australia, on both the English and the Arabic versions of its rules, which disagree about almost everything else. Those who do sit it are Saudi and Gulf accounting graduates, ACCA and CMA holders whom SOCPA does not exempt, and CPA candidates who passed AUD but never finished the licence.

For all of them the paper has a shape that catches people out. Most of it is the International Standards on Auditing, the ISAs an ACCA student in Dubai or a Big Four senior in Riyadh already works under. Around them sits a Saudi layer: the profession law, SOCPA's licence and quality review, the Capital Market Authority's register of listed-company auditors, the auditor articles of the Companies Law, and the certificates Zakat returns depend on. No ISA textbook covers any of it. SOCPA's syllabus for this paper names only the quality review from that list, and examines the profession law and the Companies Law in the Laws subject. A scenario can still turn on the local rules, though, and at a 60% pass mark that is where a candidate who has studied only the standards can lose the decisive marks.

The exam at a glance

Item	Auditing
Subject	Auditing, one of the six Fellowship subjects
Format	90 multiple-choice questions in 180 minutes, then 4 essay questions in 120 minutes
Length	5 hours, as two papers on one day
Score weighting	75% multiple choice, 25% essays, since the third cycle of 2025
Passing score	60 out of 100, and at least 5 of the 25 essay marks
Sittings	Four cycles a year, every subject in every cycle; 2026: 5 to 8 April, 28 June to 1 July, 27 to 30 September, 20 to 23 December, registration about six weeks before each
Fees	SAR 1,000 first registration (SAR 500 for a later sitting) plus SAR 300 per subject
Language	Arabic or English, the candidate's choice, since the September 2025 cycle
Delivery	Computer-based at test centres in ten Saudi cities, booked through the National Center for Assessment (ETEC) e-services
Credit expiry	A pass lapses four calendar years and thirty days after the sitting date if the Fellowship is not completed by then
Exemption	Holders of AICPA, ICAEW, CICA and CPA Australia qualifications are exempt from this subject

SOCPA publishes a minimum and a maximum weight for each topic area of the paper.

Topic area	Weight
The international framework for assurance engagements	3 to 5%
Objectives, principles and general responsibilities in auditing financial statements	10 to 15%
Planning the audit of financial statements	10 to 15%
Obtaining audit evidence	16 to 22%
Forming the opinion and the independent auditor's report	10 to 17%
Review engagements as assurance engagements	5 to 8%
Other assurance engagements that are neither audits nor reviews	5 to 10%
Related services engagements	3 to 9%
Quality management for audit firms	6 to 12%
The International Code of Ethics for professional accountants	7 to 12%

What the subject covers

SOCPA publishes the official syllabus in a topics document linked from its annual professional examinations guide, and the Arabic edition is the one kept current; a February 2026 guidance framework breaks each area into the tasks a candidate must perform. The ten areas weighted above cover the IAASB's auditing, review, assurance and related services standards, ISQM 1 and 2 and the IESBA Code, as applied in the Kingdom, and the map below groups them into layers. Its Saudi row goes wider than the syllabus: the guidance framework names SOCPA's quality control programme, the Capital Market Authority's corporate governance rules and the legal and regulatory requirements for the auditor's report, while the profession law and the Companies Law are examined mainly in the Laws subject and Zakat in Zakat and Tax. Confirm it against the current guide before you plan.

Layer	What sits inside it	Character
Endorsed ISAs and quality management	The assurance framework, ISA 200 to 810 as endorsed by SOCPA, ISQM 1 and 2	The bulk of the paper, examined as scenarios.
The IESBA Code as adopted	Fundamental principles, threats and safeguards, the International Independence Standards	Rules driven and decidable. Cheap marks.
Engagements other than audits	Reviews, other assurance engagements, agreed-upon procedures, compilations and forensic accounting services	Short and under-studied.
The Saudi professional and legal layer	The profession law, SOCPA licensing and quality review, CMA registration, the Companies Law's auditor articles, Zakat certification	Memorisation. Nothing international covers it.

"Endorsed" carries more than it suggests. SOCPA requires the ISAs as issued by the IAASB for every statutory audit, passes each new or revised standard through its Auditing Standards Board (the revised ISA 570 on going concern was approved in 2026), and has adopted ISQM 1 and 2 and the IESBA Code with its International Independence Standards. Endorsed ISAs are full ISAs with local additions that do not change the requirements. If you understand how SOCPA endorses IFRS, you understand this.

The standards that carry the marks

Standard	What it asks of you	How it tends to be examined
ISA 200, 210, 220	Reasonable assurance, professional scepticism, engagement terms, engagement quality	Definitions and acceptance scenarios.
ISA 230	What the file must let an experienced reviewer understand	Short, precise, frequent.
ISA 240	Fraud: two types, presumed risks in revenue and management override	Who could override which control.
ISA 315 and 330	Assess risks of material misstatement, respond at statement and assertion level	The spine of the paper. See below.
ISA 500 series	Sufficiency and appropriateness; confirmations; inventory and litigation; analytics; related parties	Which procedure answers which assertion.
ISA 530	Sampling risk, tolerable misstatement, projecting errors	Small computations, one trap: sampling versus non-sampling risk.
ISA 540	Estimates: inherent risk factors, management bias, three response routes	IFRS heavy: expected credit losses, impairment.
ISA 560, 570, 580	Subsequent events, going concern, written representations	Going concern is the classic reporting trap.
ISA 700 series	The opinion, key audit matters, modifications, emphasis and other matter, comparatives	Decidable grids. Secure completely.
ISA 720	Other information in the annual report	What "read and consider" obliges.

The risk-to-response chain

ISA 315 and ISA 330 are one argument with three links: what could go wrong in a specific assertion, how likely and how large it is given the entity and its controls, and what the auditor does about it in nature, timing and extent. SOCPA scenarios are usually Saudi ones, a contractor with retentions, a family group with related-party transactions, a bank with expected credit losses, and the question asks for risks and responses. The mechanics are in the audit risk model and internal control.

Reporting, and key audit matters

The opinion is a two-by-two grid, misstatement or scope limitation against material or pervasive, set out in Audit Opinions: Unmodified, Qualified, Adverse and Disclaimer. What SOCPA adds is ISA 701. Key audit matters are mandatory in the report on listed entities; each says why the matter was significant, how it was addressed and where it is disclosed, and none modifies the opinion. Candidates from the US exam have never been examined on it, and it is worth several marks here.

The Saudi layer

This is the part no international qualification prepares you for, and it is finite. Each instrument is described by name; where a number could not be checked against an official Saudi text it is left out. Read the originals, not a summary.

Instrument	What you need to know
The Law of the Profession of Accounting and Auditing	Issued in 2021, replacing the 1991 law: who may practise, the licence, the register, the duty to apply SOCPA's standards, discipline. A 2025 amendment moved licence issuance from the Ministry of Commerce to SOCPA.
SOCPA licensing and quality review	Licence requires the Fellowship plus experience. Mandatory quality review of firms at least every three years for auditors of public companies and banks, every five years for others, against ISQM 1.
CMA Rules for Registering Auditors of Entities Subject to the Authority's Supervision	Issued 2018, amended 2022. Firm and CPA both registered before auditing a listed company; the CPA holds the Fellowship, has five years of post-licence practice including three supervising such audits, and works full time. Firms publish an annual transparency report.
Companies Law, Articles 18 to 20 and 261	Royal Decree M/132 of 2022, in force from January 2023. Appointed by the partners or general assembly, licensed in the Kingdom, term capped by the regulations for firm and partner; micro and small companies exempt unless listed, issuing debt, foreign or in a group. Independent under the Kingdom's approved standards, no management role, shares or advisory work, a right of access, a duty to report violations of the Law, joint and several liability. Failing to report a suspected criminal violation carries up to a year's imprisonment and a fine of up to SAR 1 million.
Zakat and tax certification	The Zakat return is due within 120 days of year end with statements audited by a SOCPA-licensed CPA, unless Article 19 exempts the company. A licensed CPA's certificate is needed to deduct foreign investments and, from 2024, to confirm the transfer pricing policy.

Much of this is one idea from four directions. The ISAs say be independent; the IESBA Code says how; Article 20 makes it a legal duty and lists the disqualifying relationships; the CMA adds registration. A question can come from any of the four, and the answer is complete only when it names the right layer.

Where CPA AUD study carries over

The AICPA's standards were converged with the ISAs by the clarity project, so a candidate who studied AUD properly already owns most of this paper.

Area	Carries over?	Note
Risk, internal control, materiality, evidence, sampling, estimates	Almost entirely	Same structure, same vocabulary of sufficiency, appropriateness, relevance, reliability.
Subsequent events, going concern, opinions	Yes	The same grid. Emphasis of matter is not a modification in either.
Key audit matters	No	ISA 701 is not tested on the CPA exam.
Ethics and independence	Partly	Same threats-and-safeguards framework; the independence rules differ on public interest entities, fee dependency and partner rotation. Learn the IESBA version.
Other engagements	Partly	SOCPA examines ISRE, ISAE and ISRS, not SSARS and SSAE.
PCAOB, integrated audits, US government auditing	Not needed	None of it is on this paper.
The Saudi layer	No	Entirely new. Budget real time.

If you hold the CPA itself, check SOCPA's exemptions before studying any of this, because you are probably exempt. If you are still a CPA candidate, the CPA AUD study guide covers the section whose content is most of this paper.

The exam format, as far as SOCPA states it

Each subject is examined separately and marked out of 100, with a pass mark of 60% and no compensation between subjects. The paper mixes multiple choice with essay questions, and since the third cycle of 2025 the multiple choice portion carries 75 of the 100 marks and the essays 25; a pass also needs at least 5 of the 25 essay marks, however high the total. Sitting length runs from roughly 120 to 300 minutes depending on the subject, there are four cycles a year, and since the September 2025 sitting the paper can be taken in Arabic or English, chosen at registration. Fees and eligibility are in the SOCPA Fellowship exam guide.

Arabic or English, and the terminology problem

The English paper uses the IAASB's wording. The Arabic paper uses SOCPA's official translation of the ISAs, whose terms differ from those of most Arabic auditing textbooks, which come from Egypt or the Levant. The subject itself is المراجعة in SOCPA usage where most of the Gulf says التدقيق, and fraud is الغش. Five terms that decide whether an Arabic answer reads as the standard or as a paraphrase of it:

English	SOCPA's Arabic term
Material misstatement	التحريف الجوهري
Materiality	الأهمية النسبية
Professional scepticism	الشك المهني
Those charged with governance	المكلفون بالحوكمة
Key audit matters	الأمور الرئيسة للمراجعة

Choose the language you write fastest in under pressure, not the one you read best, then study the endorsed text in that language so your essay uses the examiner's terms.

A nine-week plan

Nine weeks at ten to twelve hours suits a working candidate. The order follows the audit itself, from acceptance to report, with the Saudi layer late enough to stay fresh.

Week	Focus	Why here
1	Assurance framework, ISA 200 to 220, the IESBA Code	Decidable. Secure it early and stop revisiting it.
2	ISA 315: the entity, internal control, materiality, risk	Everything after this responds to it.
3	ISA 330, 240, 230	Responses, fraud and documentation while the risks are fresh.
4	Evidence: the 500 series, confirmations, related parties	The largest area. Tie every procedure to an assertion.
5	ISA 530, 540, 560 to 580	Computation and judgement together, before reporting.
6	The 700 series, ISA 701, ISA 720	The grid, the KAM structure, other information.
7	Reviews, other assurance, related services	Three levels of assurance and their reports.
8	The Saudi layer, from the original texts	Memorisation, late enough to hold.
9	Timed mixed practice and essays in the exam language	Where the chain is examined as writing.

One habit specific to this paper: for every wrong answer, note which layer, ISA, Code or Saudi law, the right one came from. Most lost marks here are answers drawn from the wrong layer.

What to pair it with

Auditing pairs naturally with Financial Accounting, because the subject matter of one is the object of the other: an estimate you can account for under IFRS 9 is an estimate you can audit under ISA 540. If you audit for a living it is also the right first subject. The full sequencing argument, with a twelve-month plan and a spare cycle, is in What Order to Sit the SOCPA Fellowship Exams In.

Where to practise this

Scenario questions do the work here, because the skill examined is naming a risk, matching a response and choosing the right report in the standard's own words. Prepito's Audit course covers the framework, planning, evidence, reporting, other engagements and the code of ethics with practice questions, simulations and full explanations in Arabic and English. For the qualification as a whole, see the SOCPA Fellowship programme.

If you are sitting the US exam instead, the same risk, evidence and reporting content is in the AUD course.

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This is a study guide, not legal advice or a substitute for the standards and laws it describes. Sources: IFAC profile of Saudi Arabia on the adoption of the ISAs, ISQM and the IESBA Code, SOCPA announcement on adopting ISA 570 (Revised), SOCPA quality control programme, CMA Rules for Registering Auditors of Entities Subject to the Authority's Supervision, Companies Law, Royal Decree M/132, ZATCA guideline on Zakat documents, SOCPA announcement on opening the Fellowship worldwide. Standards are re-endorsed as the IAASB revises them, laws and regulations change, and SOCPA sets the syllabus, format and fees; confirm the current examinations guide on SOCPA's site, where the Arabic pages are the ones kept current.