Study notes on CCSP Certification

for those planning to take this exam (April 2024 update). Please note that the exam itself will be updated (will be shorter duration and less questions ).

Background:

The CCSP is ideal for IT, cyber, information and software security leaders responsible for applying best practices to cloud security architecture, design, operations and service orchestration, including those in the following positions:

• Cloud Architect
• Cloud Engineer
• Cloud Consultant
• Cloud Administrator
• Cloud Security Analyst
• Cloud Specialist
• Auditor of Cloud Computing Services
• Professional Cloud Developer

There are 6 domains covered in the exam:

Domain 1. Cloud Concepts, Architecture and Design

Domain 2. Cloud Data Security

Domain 3. Cloud Platform & Infrastructure Security

Domain 4. Cloud Application Security

Domain 5. Cloud Security Operations

Domain 6. Legal, Risk and Compliance

I studied using 3 materials:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFZWMZIy5LM (The complete 6 domains material including downloadable PDF) Totaling in excess of 11 hours of video, I have omitted those which are repetitive or already known.
• the official Practice exam (updated 2022), sold in Amazon and some international bookstore near you. (I tried 700+ questions and the explanations really help)
• CCSP practice exam by Daniel Carter and also sold in Amazon

I have also found that the Google Cybersecurity Professional course on Coursera is very well done and can provide you with additional foundational knowledge on networking and other topics.

To summarize, after the test, I quickly compiled a list of all of the questions and topics that appeared. However, due to the agreement not to disclose the questions, I can only say that 99% of the questions from the practice exam did not appear exactly as they were. If you have a firm grasp of the concepts and can distinguish between the various contexts, you should be able to do well on the exam.

Please note that, the exam does not have a BACK BUTTON. So after you answer a question, there is no way for you to return back and change your answer.

I missed simple thing like SOC 2 type 1 vs type 2 and sometime you need to weight some keywords, like which one is more important/the key of the questions.

In total, I spent 2.5 hours out of the allocated 4 hours on the exam. I highly recommend taking the test at a testing center.

Good luck in your study and your journey to become a CyberSecurity Professional.

- YV