Passed CCSP Exam - My Experience

[Masahiro]

I (provisionally) passed the CCSP exam today. Good luck to the next one!

Related Certifications

• Dec-2019: Certificated as CISSP (attended official training）
• Dec-2019: Certificated as CCSK by CSA (attended official training）

Relevant Work Experience

• Developed security guidelines for AWS, Azure and GCP users based on CIS Benchmarks
• Developed security guidelines for users of cloud services based on CIS Controls and ISO/IEC 27017
• Support for CASB demonstration experiments
• Support for defining digital workplace requirements (zero-trust security)

Motivation for taking CCSP exam

• To provide an opportunity to relearn cloud security experience in a systematic and comprehensive way
• To be a pioneer since there is probably no one in our company who has taken CCSP

Study period and time

• Period: July 4, 2021 - October 5, 2021
• Daily time: 1 to 2 hours/day
• Total time: about 140 hours

Materials used

1. CCSP Official Practice Tests Online Test Bank (Chapter 1 - 6)
2. Textbook of CCSK Plus (CCSK official training)
3. CSA Guidance V4.0
4. CCSP For Dummies with Online Practice (Kindle version)

Collaborators

1. Japan Chapter's Cloud Security Study WG members
2. Several people who replied to my questions in (ISC)2 Community
3. Experts in my company

Study procedure

1. Each day, I solved 20 questions of the material #1
2. First, I focused on extracting questions that I got wrong, and ones that I got right but wasn't confident about (setting flags).
3. Next, I re-solved the questions I got wrong, flagged the questions I got right but wasn't sure about, and repeated until I got all the questions right.
4. Then, as I solved the flagged questions, I removed the flags from the questions that I got wrong and the ones that I answered correctly and with confidence.
5. Finally, I repeated steps 3 and 4 until I answered all the questions correctly and the flags were removed.

Mindset

1. When I am in a questions-setting situation in the consulting field, I ask myself if I can accurately give correct advice to my client with reasons.
2. First of all, try to clear my doubts by using the materials and the Internet.
3. If I still have questions, ask them first to the WG, then to the experts or to (ISC)2 Community, and leave no question unclear.

Thoughts on the exam

1. I left about 40 minutes after finishing the exam and felt it was easy to finish the exam in 180 minutes.
2. There were many unfamiliar words and questions that I had never seen before, but I think I was able to cope with them because I had a deep understanding of each question in CCSP Official Practice Tests.
3. I was a little worried that I had not read through CCSP reference books such as the material #4, but it was not a problem.
4. As expected, I feel that I was able to organize, cover, and strengthen my knowledge of cloud security.

[ccboy981]

Congratulations!

[Masahiro]

Thanks!

[JOHN_ONI]

Congratulations

[Lapa]

Congrats!

Also, I passed CCSP Exam a week ago, and I'd like to add my experience on achieving that certification.

Related Certifications (both self-study approach)

• 2008: CISSP
• 2014: CISM

Study period and time, August/September 2021 (8 weeks, a couple of hours daily)

Materials used

1. CCSP Official Guide 2nd Edition
2. CCSP Practice Tests 2nd Edition (It gives you an idea of the items you should study harder)
3. CSA Guidance V4.0 (really important)

IMPORTANT:

1. I used most of the time, leaving only 5 minutes left out of those 180 minutes. Had to read some of the questions several times. But I took that risk to spend more time on some of them.
2. It's unlikely you find familiar questions, I did not find questions I answered during my preparation. Many unfamiliar words and questions that I had never seen before.
3. On the bright side, I was able to removed 2 out of 4 answers in no time, so realistically, you would need to choose between the best option between 2 of them, and that's where the experience in the field helps.
4. Having CISSP and CISM helped as well.

Gerardo Lapadula

CISSP / CISM / CCSP / ITILv3

[Lapa]

Related Certifications (both self-study approach)

• 2008: CISSP
• 2014: CISM

Study period and time, August/September 2021 (8 weeks, a couple of hours daily)

Materials used

1. CCSP Official Guide 2nd Edition
2. CCSP Practice Tests 2nd Edition (It gives you an idea of the items you should study harder)
3. CSA Guidance V4.0 (really important)

IMPORTANT:

1. I used most of the time, leaving only 5 minutes left out of those 180 minutes. Had to read some of the questions several times. But I took that risk to spend more time on some of them.
2. It's unlikely you find familiar questions, I did not find questions I answered during my preparation. Many unfamiliar words and questions that I had never seen before.
3. On the bright side, I was able to removed 2 out of 4 answers in no time, so realistically, you would need to choose between the best option between 2 of them, and that's where the experience in the field helps.
4. Having CISSP and CISM helped as well.

Gerardo Lapadula

CISSP / CISM / CCSP / ITILv3

[csjohnng]

Congratulations! Masahiro san.

Good sharing and welcome to the club.

[csjohnng]

Congratulation Gerardo.

Indeed CSA Guidance V4.0 is well written and a good piece of reference.

I did not read that when I took my CCSP back in the old days but recent read CSA Guidance V4.0, it's valuable.

[abhattac5]

First, a hearty congratulations!  Well done!

Your detailed insights are very appreciated - I just started my journey towards this certification - your post has been most helpful in getting me started, and many thanks for that!

[rhe]

Congratulations!

Thank you for the detailed writeup. I'm just starting my CCSP journey now, so this is very helpful.

[naiduchr]

I recently finished Online Instructor Training for CCSP track through ISC2, did the CCSP Practice tests (1000+ questions), scored 90+% in all the tests. However, I failed the exam. I'm registering for training again next week. Can some one please guide me on how to ACE this exam ? Thanks in advance.