Meet Nandini Agarwal, who became the world's youngest CA at the age of 19

Nandini Agrawal has always had a way with numbers. While her peers struggled to get their numbers straight in middle school, she navigated with sheer precision and speed, clearing her Class 10 board exams at 13. By 15, she had cleared her Class 12 exams, and four years later, she did something no woman in the world had ever done before. She cleared the Chartered Accountancy examination and walked straight into the Guinness World Records.

Morena Girl sets Guinness World Record

Born in Morena, a small town in Madhya Pradesh, Nandini Agrawal’s journey so far is nothing short of remarkable. She has always been a curious and studious child committed to her goals. After completing higher secondary school at age 15, Nandini set her sights on cracking one of the most competitive exams and entering the profession of Chartered Accountancy. She ended up scoring 614 out of 800 (76.75%) in the CA Final in 2021. She surpassed 83,000 candidates to secure the No. 1 rank. She was only 19 years, 8 months, and 18 days old, according to the India Book of Records website.

In fact, academic brilliance runs in the family. Her elder brother, Sachin (21 at the time), was ranked AIR 18 that year. He secured 568 marks.

When she was in Class 11, a Guinness World Record holder visited her school. Ever since, she had wanted to be on that list. “From then on, I dreamt of achieving a record that would be difficult to break,” Nandini told us earlier. And she did make it to both the India Book of Records and the Guinness World Records for being the world’s youngest Chartered Accountant. “At 3:45 PM on a seemingly ordinary day, my phone buzzed with an email notification: ‘Congratulations, now you are a Guinness World Records title holder,’” she shared in a post on LinkedIn.

An inspiration to the young

Nandini Agrawal has listed her achievements in her LinkedIn bio that reads, “Chartered Accountant (with B.Com) who has made a national record by getting AIR 1 in CA Finals at 19 years and AIR 31 in CA Inter at 16. I started my corporate journey with PwC as an article trainee and have been part of various dynamic teams and work cultures. I have three years of experience working in statutory audits, group reporting, referred reporting, IFRS assignments, tax audits, and forensic audits.”

Today, she wears several hats. She is a CA. She has worked with some of the biggest corporates across the globe. She is also a content creator with over 600K followers across multiple social platforms. She shares her insights on how to crack CA exams, investment options, financial literacy, and much more. “I made my first investment at 16—not because I had a lot of money, but because I built one simple habit early: invest before you spend. Almost eight years ago, I chose to invest in my future before upgrading my present, and that one decision quietly shaped my financial confidence,” she said in a post shared on Instagram, encouraging young people to invest early and secure a future free of financial liabilities.

At an age when many people are figuring out what to do with their lives, Nandini Agrawal has set a record—quite literally. She is proof that age does not define who you are. Only hard work does. The world belongs to those who dare to dream.