ISC2 Certification Exam Prep

ISC2 groups its certifications by experience. Early-career credentials are Certified in Cybersecurity (CC), which needs no experience, SSCP and CGRC. The experienced level is CISSP, CCSP for cloud security and CSSLP for secure software. The advanced level is the CISSP concentrations in architecture (ISSAP), engineering (ISSEP) and management (ISSMP). ISC2 has also announced an AI security certification now in development.

CISSP, the best known, requires five years of paid work in at least two of its eight domains. A relevant degree or one approved credential can cover one year, but not both. You can sit the exam before you have the experience: passing makes you an Associate of ISC2, and you then have six years to earn it.

After passing, an existing ISC2 member must endorse your experience within nine months. Certifications run on a three-year cycle, maintained with continuing professional education (CPE) credits and an annual maintenance fee; CISSP needs 120 CPEs per cycle. Exams are taken at Pearson VUE test centres.

MindMesh Academy currently prepares you for CISSP: a study guide across all eight domains written from first principles, a practice-exam bank and spaced-repetition flashcards, with a free sample to start. CISSP rewards judgement over memorisation, so practise reasoning through the manager's view of each scenario rather than recalling definitions.