topic Re: is CCSK required before appearing for CCSP ? in Become A Member

is CCSK required before appearing for CCSP ?

amitk — Wed, 23 May 2018 18:02:14 GMT

Hi,

I am thinking of getting a cloud certification. Which is best , CCSK or CCSP?

can I appear for CCSP exam without passing CCSK?

Please suggest.

Thanks,

Amit Kumar

Re: is CCSK required before appearing for CCSP ?

Caute_cautim — Wed, 23 May 2018 19:48:41 GMT

My suggestion is it depends on your background: some prefer to study the CCSK with its 14 domains, as it provides good study material for CISSP purposes or for revision, if studying a concentration. If you have the drive, passion and objectivity, I believe it provides a great study pathway to the CCSP. These are my personal thoughts.

Regards

John

Re: is CCSK required before appearing for CCSP ?

amitk — Thu, 24 May 2018 03:48:10 GMT

Thanks for the reply !!

so CCSK is not prerequisite to complete CCSP ?

Re: is CCSK required before appearing for CCSP ?

dswomley — Thu, 24 May 2018 03:48:23 GMT

@umar,

It's hard to say which is better, it really depends on you, your background, experience and future aspirations. I strongly encourage you to visit both the CSA & ISC2 sites and review the requirements, test questions (samples) and Domains that are covered.
If I'm not mistaken, CCSP was designed to be a bit more comprehensive in terms of knowledge & experience. I could be wrong though.

Ultimately, unless your employer is paying, I think you'd want to avoid taking both certs. It gets quite costly and there is a significant overlap.
All the best!

Re: is CCSK required before appearing for CCSP ?

Caute_cautim — Thu, 24 May 2018 03:51:49 GMT

No it is not.

Re: is CCSK required before appearing for CCSP ?

Caute_cautim — Thu, 24 May 2018 03:53:46 GMT

I agree, if you or your employer is prepared then go for it.

Re: is CCSK required before appearing for CCSP ?

dswomley — Thu, 24 May 2018 04:19:12 GMT

Right! Absolutely no requirement for CCSK in order to take CCSP.

Re: is CCSK required before appearing for CCSP ?

markoer — Thu, 24 May 2018 17:24:44 GMT

There is no hard requirement for the CCSK in order to obtain the CCSP certification.

I am not sure where you may have got this impression. Probably from the fact that practically speaking, the content found in the CCSK is a kind of "subset" of the content found in the CCSP, and both are prepared by/in collaboration with the Cloud Security Alliance.

While it is true that most content can be overlapping (i.e. the CSA Security Guidance, the CSA CCM, etc.), the structure and type of questions you find in the CCSP is really different. From what some people have testified, the biggest help in passing the CCSP has been studying for the CISSP before that - more than studying for the CCSK; this is really because of the way the exam is structured by the (ISC)2, but also because of the content itself.

The CCSP is clearly more complete, but also more expensive. CCSK is a kind of nice badge if you did an earlier version (like v2 or v3) as it testifies that you were an "early adopter". If you go for CCSK v4, it has more updated content which may overlap less with the CCSP as the latter is slower in updates (it won't contain any GDPR for instance). CCSK is definitely cheaper and it less prestigious, as you can obtain it basically by reading a couple of PDF documents and taking the exam from home from your web browser, open book. So, you get the idea of what is worth (I am not suggesting it is worth nothing, but clearly the CCSP is on another level. Of course, you pay for that level).

It is hard to say what is best for you, and you should do your research and decide what is best for your career, based on the information you collect.

I hope it helps.

Re: is CCSK required before appearing for CCSP ?

Radioteacher — Thu, 24 May 2018 18:12:48 GMT

I did pass the CCSKv3 before I took and passed the CCSP.

The time I took to study for the CCSK was well spent. After the CCSK test, most of the domains of the CCSP reinforced the information I had already learned.

Besides the review of the CCSK material the two domains that needed to be reinfored from my CISSP training was (SDLC) "Cloud application security" and "Legal and compliance".

So even through it was not required to take the CCSK before the CCSP, I found it very helpful.

Paul

Re: is CCSK required before appearing for CCSP ?

auppor — Sun, 05 Aug 2018 13:45:41 GMT

Amit,

I recently passed CCSK, If u have experience with cloud and security it not tough exam to pass. I used 2 days training from Intrinsic (company paid) and documents from CSA. Good luck.

Anand

Re: is CCSK required before appearing for CCSP ?

billclancy — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 15:12:53 GMT

I took a CCSK on line class, on my own nickle, and learned a lot and rather enjoyed it, but my boss wanted me to get the CCSP. I then took an on line CCSP boot camp, which I didn't enjoy at all, but I still gathered an abundance of knowledge. It took me two tries to pass the exam, & the boot camp provided both vouchers.

I feel the CCSP has better acceptance in the industry, and a more formal approach. If the value of the CISSP , CAP, and SSCP are any forcast...the CCSP will hold a good value for some time to come.