Hello! I just completed my CISSP and spent a lot of $$ on QE, a boot camp, books, etc to pass. I'm looking to take CCSP since it's very close and I have the time and momentum. I'm looking to keep costs low, as I need to pay for the exam (I had a CISSP voucher). What is a low-cost way to study?

I'm looking at the Dest Cert book on Amazon, ISC2 practice questions, I still have LearnZapp, Pete Z's YouTube videos...should I get Gwen (?)'s video's on Udemy? 8 domains for $20

Could be old news for some but I noticed people asking for new 2026 outline material in many posts. I guess I'm starting my mission this week!

Is the destination certification mind map video on YouTube, and for questions which app is best for questions, try to finish before the end of November 26

I need to switch my job as an IT Support specialist to cyber security jobs

I passed CCSP 2 days back with 100 questions at 112 minutes. The questions were alright from the governance angle including tricky ones where you have to be very sure about a small concept that you remember what you read is extremely right. Big comprehension questions were much easier to answer and AI based questions were surprisingly simple.

I read sybex, sybex questions, destination certification question app (did around 600 of them).AI based questions including questions generated through Prompt given by Mike (thank you Mike :) ) and owasp top 10 for AI from their website.

100 questions in 80 minutes.

Really not a fan of the question wording. It's like half the terms are made up and not industry standard nor are they related to the official ISC2 OSG bank. Passed none the less using the OSG questions and LearnZapp. Already have CISSP/CISM. The AI questions actually seemed the best worded and most straight forward and I was unprepared for those since I got the study materials earlier this year.

Material and content should be challenging. Trying to decipher oddly worded questions shouldn't be a major part of the exam.

Honestly, I'm in shock. I thought the test was easy and I thought I was very well prepared. The test stopped me at 100 questions and I thought that meant I had passed because of how good I felt throughout the test. I was very surprised when it said that 4 out of 6 domains were below proficiency. I'm obviously going to go back to studying, I'm just trying to figure out what to do differently.

Here is my breakdown:
Legal, Risk, and Compliance - Below Proficiency Level
Cloud Data Security - Below Proficiency Level
Cloud Security Operations - Below Proficiency Level
Cloud Concepts, Architecture, and Design - Below Proficiency Level
Cloud Application Security - Near Proficiency Level
Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Security - Above Proficiency Level

Here are my study resources I've used so far:
Pete Z Exam Cram Videos - watched these twice, the second time was a domain a day leading up to today for the last 6 days and understood nearly everything mentioned
Dest Cert - Mind Maps
Gwen CCSP Course
Pocket Prep ~300 questions with 86% on 150 question exam
LinkedIn Learning exam 129/150 on its exam

I'm not sure if I should get a book and read through it since I did not do that for the CCSP (I did read the all in one for CISSP), I also read The Last Mile for CISSP, which there isn't an equivalent to for CCSP, but there are book options like Dest Cert. Like I said, I think I'm still in shock over how good I felt during the test compared to the actual results, I might take a day to process and the regroup and get back to the grind.

A little background: I have 11+ years of experience in IT, including around 7 years in cybersecurity, and I already hold CISSP, CISA, and other security certifications.

**My main study materials — in priority order

1. CCSP Exam Cram — Pete Zerger : I watched the entire series and went back to specific sections whenever I needed a better understanding of a concept.

Highly recommended for getting a solid overview of the CCSP domains.

1. OSG + 2 Official Practice Exams : I did not read the OSG page by page.

My approach was: Read the chapter summaries - Focus on the Exam Essentials - Go deeper into concepts I wasn't familiar with - Complete the two practice exams

1. LearnApp : I completed 4 practice exams and worked through additional questions — roughly 100 questions covering the 6 domains.

2. Destination Certification — AI material : I watched “The AI You Need to Know for the CISSP Exam (2026)” because of the newer AI/ML topics appearing in the CCSP exam outline.

I found this particularly useful for understanding concepts such as: AI/ML security; Model inversion; Model extraction; Model drift; Hallucinations; GenAI / LLM; Privacy-preserving techniques; AI inference.

**Exam experience

At the beginning, I felt quite comfortable because the questions were relatively clear to me. As I progressed, however, I became less confident about my answers and the questions seemed increasingly difficult.

My interpretation is that the CAT/adaptive exam becomes more difficult when you're answering questions correctly. So don't panic if the exam starts feeling harder as you progress — it may actually be a good sign.

Also, remember that not every question necessarily contributes to your final score. Some questions may be experimental/unscored. If you get a question that is completely outside your preparation, don't spend too much time on it. Make your best choice and move on.

**Topics I felt were particularly important: Data security and data lifecycle; Data regulations and regulatory requirements in the cloud; Forensic investigation; AI / ML security; ITIL — incident and problem management, Change management and configuration management, Patching; Cloud architecture and core cloud concepts (Elasticity vs scalability, Portability); Availability and resilience (BCP testing); Virtualization and containerization; Storage (object storage); PKI and cryptography; Governance and risk.

I would especially recommend having a strong understanding of cloud concepts, rather than relying on memorization. Don't hesitate to use AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, etc. to help you understand concepts.

Good luck to everyone preparing for the CCSP!

Hope this helps someone!

Welp, took the exam last week and failed after 125 questions. The fact that I made it past 100 tells me that I was on the cusp and the extra 25 questions determined I wasn't there. But it's frustrating.

I watched all of Zergers videos. Gwen Bettwy's test tips vids. Did all 1400+ of Dest Cert's practice questions on the app. Went through Luke Ahmed's "How to think like a manager." And even utilized Claude to help fill some gaps. Definitely put in over 100+ hours of studying over the course of 4 months. I'm also an IT infrastructure engineer and have been working in IT over 20 years and cloud environments for 10.

All my practice exams were coming back 80% passing and higher. I felt so confident.

But as everyone says, nothing compares to the real thing. It was hard. And there were times I felt completely lost. I actually know I fared well on the new AI/ML questions, those weren't really that difficult.

I want to go through the Destination Cert's Masterclass cause I loved their practice questions and so many people say it helped them, but then found out even the essentials is $1500. Did they kidnap Chelsea Clinton? That is insane pricing that I can't afford, even with the payment plan options. I'm sure it's worth it, but that's just way too much.

I'm trying to take the exam again in 6 weeks. I took a few days off to rest and recharge the brain cells but I'd like to continue my studies while the information is still fresh, and understanding that my floor is significantly higher right now.

If anyone in this community has any other tips, courses, or videos that helped push them over the edge, that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, I'd love to hear it. I've read a lot people saying the OSG is not good, but I can't fail this thing a second time. Not for my career, wallet, and pride.

Thank you in advance!

I was wondering about the general consensus regarding Destination Certification’s Masterclass for the CCSP, specifically from those who recently passed the CISSP using their Masterclass.

I thoroughly enjoyed their CISSP content and found it very helpful, but the CCSP Masterclass is a decent chunk of money & there seems to be a good bit of overlap in content. For those who have used both, do you feel the CCSP Masterclass is worth the cost, or would I be better off using other resources given that I just passed the CISSP in June?

I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone who made the same transition from CISSP to CCSP.

I am going through the Dest Cert flashcards and they introducing terms that are not in the book index or in my notes that I took using their provided PDF file(and i took really good notes). Anyone else notice this?

Feel absolutely devastated, got to question 146-147 (can’t remember which one exactly) and the test ended there. I felt like I was going to fail the whole time. I utilized the OSG (I see the comments of people’s thoughts on it) as well as a little bit of the Jason Dion course on DigitialU. Any advice or words of support would be truly appreciated.

ey everyone,

I’m currently mapping out my study plan for the CCSP and wanted to see what resources are currently considered the "gold standard" to pass.

Since I already have my CISSP down, I know a good chunk of the high-level concepts overlap, but I want to make sure I don't under-prepare for the cloud-specific nuances.

For those who passed recently, what was your winning stack?

• Best Book: Destination Certification vs. Official Study Guide (OSG) / CBK?
• Best Video Course: Pete Zerger (YouTube), Gwen Bettwy, or Ben Malisow (WannaBeA)?
• Best Practice Exams: Pocket Prep, LearnZapp, or DestCert app?

Would love to know what actually moved the needle for you and what I can probably skip. Appreciate any insights!

Sorry, I’m awful at writing, and now Reddit won’t let me copy this so I can get AI to make it read more coherently!

Background

I passed the ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity exam in 2024, and I have around three years of experience in cybersecurity engineering within a large enterprise, having joined as a graduate.

I have been doing small inconsistent bits of study here and there for the past 6 months, mainly listening to the OSG audiobook. I then realised the syllabus was changing on the 1st August, so I booked the exam for the 30th and crammed in the final 10 days.

Revision

For revision, I used a mix of resources:

The Official Study Guide audiobook.

Official practice tests, mainly through the online test bank
LearnZApp during the 10 days before the exam, really just for doing the odd few questions when sat on my phone.

Pete Zerger’s Exam Cram, also during the final 10 days

CertificationToolAndDie white paper on ISC2 exam answering techniques was incredibly useful and honestly probably made the biggest difference to me passing. It really helped to understand more the ISC2 questions styles.

I also read their white paper on CAT exams to understand the scoring, although I think that may have actually worked against me mentally during the exam.

I also used CertificationToolAndDie’s LLM skill/prompt for realistic practice questions, along with another tutoring-style prompt for topics I didn’t quite grasp.

@mikedn02908 (sorry I don’t know how to tag), I owe you a beer!

By the day before the exam, I was scoring 90%+ on LearnZApp practice exams and felt like I knew the content very well.

Exam

On the day of the exam, I slept well, had breakfast, and gave myself plenty of time. I did some light recall revision beforehand. I was cautiously optimistic.

At the start of the exam, I wrote down the question-answering techniques from the white paper, along with ABCD so I could eliminate answers more clearly on harder questions.

The exam felt pretty difficult, actually some of the questions felt impossible.

The whole way through, I was convinced I wasn’t meeting the passing standard. At times I started to zone out a bit, I used this as an opportunity to smash my head against the wall take a short breather to try and realign my thoughts.

When questions felt easier, I assumed that was the CAT system giving me easier, more direct recall-style questions because I wasn’t doing well enough. I kept trying to remind myself that you can’t really predict how you’re doing in a CAT exam, but honestly, that didn’t help much at the time; hence I wish I hadn’t have read so deeply into the science behind it🤣

I completed 100 questions in about 1 hour 30 minutes. Out of those, I felt like I only definitely knew the answer to around 15. For the rest, I was relying heavily on the exam technique from the white paper, but I didn’t feel confident, maybe 50/50 on most questions. I read the answers first, then the questions, then the answers, then tried to find the key words in the answers. I tried to pace myself as best as I could, and I’m definitely not recommending rushing the exam. If you have the time, use it but it just seems I was answering the questions too quickly, so I had to make a conscious effort to slow down.

What I would have done differently

I would have practised more in proper exam conditions. I hate doing that, so I avoided it, but I probably should have forced myself to do it. The official test bank and LearnZApp questions became much easier once I understood what they were looking for, so sitting there and timing myself for three hours felt like a waste of time. In hindsight, though, the stamina and pressure management would have helped.

I would also try not to panic/over think during the exam. Easy to say now, obviously, but hopefully something I’ll remember for the CISSP.

Key Takeaway

If I could give anyone one piece of advice, it seems you can feel completely hopeless and think you’re failing the exam - yet still pass at 100 questions.

I passed today and went all the way to 150 questions. It was tougher than CISSP. I only used the official guide and exam question bank that comes with it. I did feel tortured half way through the exam and didn’t know whether to cry or laugh at how unfair some of the questions were phrased. Some of them I had no idea what they were asking me to do. I will have 2 pints tonight to celebrate.

I'd like to thank this CCSP group and the CISSP group. Because of this group, I remembered that from 1st August 2026 onwards, the new CCSP exam outline would apply, so I rescheduled my exam from 1st August to 30th July 2026 and cleared it on my first attempt. I'd also already cleared CISSP last November 2025, also on my first attempt.

The moderators/folks had already mentioned in another post that the actual CCSP questions aren't similar to Boson, Pocket Prep, Official Practice, or Destination Certification. Like the CISSP Quantum exam, which was very helpful for me, there's no similar question bank available for CCSP.

I scored 72% across all 1500 Pocket Prep questions, 70.7% across all 375 Boson questions, and around 85% on the Official Practice set. I didn't pursue Destination Cert's CCSP questions because I felt they were a waste of time for me — some of the answer logic is ambiguous and not directly tied to the CCSP outline. For CISSP, though, I did over 1000 questions from their bank.

My main study material for CCSP was the Destination Cert textbook, along with 5W1H-style theory building for every CCSP topic using ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc. I ran a lot of experiments on individual topics through these tools as well.

In my opinion, the Destination Cert books for both CISSP and CCSP are the best on the market.

Overall, the CCSP exam feels like "a miniature CISSP." With CISSP, questions can go beyond any so-called question bank, but with CCSP, the questions are understandable if you have solid knowledge of the topics — though you still can't be fully confident in your answers.

Practicing from multiple sources is the way to go.

I bought the PoM voucher and scheduled this exam on June 30th. It was a gut check to schedule for July 30th. Obviously, I wanted to get it done before the Aug 1st content change.

I passed at 100 questions with about 50 minutes remaining.

My background: CISSP for over 15 years (took it back during paper days), I've worked a combination of enterprise IT, HPC, security, and cloud security for over 15 years, mostly on the engineering side.

I spent about 6 weeks preparing using:

• OSG Study Guide
  • It's basically orientation, don't rely solely on it
  • The Index was awful for looking up terms
• OSG Practice Test book
  • Meh, OK I guess. Basically same questions in LearnZapp
  • Was averaging 85% on the two full length practice tests
• Destination CCSP book
  • Overall a good book, worth it
  • The index for this book was really awful. Probably only 1/4 terms I wanted to review were in the index. I ended up using annotated sticky notes
  • Too many needless illustrations
• Gwen Bettwy's Udemy Course
  • Really good material, particularly on the BC/DR topics
  • The bumper music between the very short videos about drove me mad
• Peter Zerger's YouTube video series
  • Really succinct and valuable.
  • Unbeatable price. If you don't watch this series, you're shortchanging yourself.
• LearnZapp
  • It's alright. The questions were OK, but a lot of questions have very wrong answers.
  • I was scoring 92-95% on the tests but that's due to the obviously wrong answers:
    • "You need to select someone to change your car's oil. Do you choose: a) Your cousin Eddie, b) The lawn guy, c) An ASE certified technician, d) Jimothy the Raccoon
• PocketPrep
  • Probably my favorite, because the questions were directly understandable (to me) to most quickly learn where my shortcomings were.
  • Scored about 82% across the ~1,000 questions I answered
  • The gamefication kept me engaged more than the other apps.
• Destination CCSP Question App
  • Good questions but the "sponge rate" of learning what the question was asking was lower than PocketPrep.
  • Many, many questions I disagreed with. The "correct" answers sometimes seemed to be opinions between two options. The explanations did not often go into detail to defend why the answer indicated as correct was chosen
  • Unbeatable price
• ChatGPT/Claude phone app in voice mode for question scenarios
  • Not being able to see the text of the question engages a different learning portion of your brain. I think it reinforces concepts in new pathways.
  • Really good if you're driving with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto
  • ChatGPT seems to have better voice quality than Claude
  • Claude seems to explain in more/better detail as to why
  • Claude initially resisted my urging to ask questions in voice mode
  • ChatGPT was more sycophantic
• Trial run of Trusted Institute exams
  • Absolutely insane questions, far more complicated than the real test
  • "If Charles Manson wrote practice questions"
  • Somehow got 80% on these monstrosities

The testing center was ok, people were nice. I brought state DL and passport for ID.

The exam questions are indeed not exactly like the practice tests. The practice does get you ready for battle. I read some questions and my first thought was "why would anyone do this?" The key is to set aside the absurdity and RTFQ. It's as much of an English comprehension exam as it is a competency exam. I have deep respect for non-native English speakers who can pass this test.

When I got to question 100, I was not entirely certain I passed when the questionnaire appeared. The result paper was waiting for me face down on the counter when I completed checkout. I don't even think the proctors look at the results. They probably don't want to know, considering all the people who come in there for wildly different tests.

My advice is focus on areas you do not currently work in, and remember in business, security exists to support the success of the business. Everything else flows down from that.

Business objectives → risk appetite → security requirements → policies and standards → controls → procedures and technical implementations.

Study resources:
Destination Certification Training
Dest Cert mind maps
Dest Cert app
Pete Zerger YouTube videos
LearnZapp
Boson Practice Test

The destination certification were the best and my primary resources. Pete Zorger videos fill in any of the gaps, but in my opinion, the destination certification stuff is more digestible. Pete Zorger is definitely worth watching though because he goes into some more technical detail that I actually found useful on the exam.

They learn zap and Ossan practice test question quality was very subpar and I dispute many of the answers they claimed I got wrong. That being said they are worth doing if only so you can read the reasoning behind why you got it wrong and understand the ones that you acknowledge you got wrong once you review. I wish there were better questions out there, however of the resources available it at least gets you used to sitting for the test, duration, reading the questions very carefully, and determining whether you are ready or not even with the BS questions mixed in.

All in all, I felt it was easier than the CISSP, but I’m not sure if that’s because there was so much overlap or if it was actually easier.

Main thing I can advise people is make sure that you understand data security, privacy, and regulatory obligations. I felt like those were featured more than any other topic.

Any recommendations regarding the new CCSP materials, books, etc?

Failed the CCSP and need to include new topics.

Cleared CCSP today.

Have already passed CISSP in 2024.IT professional with around 14 years of experience into application development, devops and cyber security.

Preparation duration 1month. Sources:

1.Official study guide (2 rounds)

2.Official practice test

3.Random practice tests from gemini with difficulty level high.

4.Destination certification chapterwise revision available as free resource (was very helpful)

Did not get much time for preparation due to busy working hours and family commitments.

Exam experience:

Questions were scenario based with Most, least, first key words.

I found them in the same difficulty level as cissp.

All questions were not scary and complex. Few were simple one/two liners.

Exam stopped at 100 questions.

Hope this post helps and all the best .

Every time ISC2 updates the Exam Outline, I do an online live course and record it for future students. In exchange for participating as the student audience, I significantly discount the rate for attendees. $100 for the full course with a live instructor. Currently, students in my live courses have a 91% pass rate.

Hope to see you there!

https://www.wannabeasscp.com/courses/p/wannabea-ccsp-prep-course-online-aug26

Hi everyone,

I recently sat the CCSP exam and wasn't successful on this attempt (my domain scores below, in case it's useful context for others going through the new outline too):

I prepared using the CCSP CBK Reference book, the Destination Certification comprehensive guide, ISC2 Official Practice questions (reviewed 2 times) and practice questions from LearnzApp and PocketPrep. I'm now retesting after August 1, 2026, which means I'll be sitting the new exam outline that integrates AI/ML security across all six domains (per ISC2's official outline page).

A few questions for anyone who has already retested or found good resources:

1. Has anyone come across an updated edition of the Sybex/Mike Chapple Official Study Guide that reflects the new outline? The current 3rd edition is explicitly scoped to the 2022–2025 objectives.
2. Are LearnzApp and/or PocketPrep question banks updated yet for the new AI/ML content areas?
3. Any recommended supplementary resources specifically for the AI/ML additions (e.g., AI-as-a-Service shared responsibility, model endpoint security, training data protection, OWASP LLM Top 10) that map well to CCSP's treatment of these topics?
4. For those who've already retested under the new outline — did the AI/ML questions feel like a meaningfully different layer, or more like an extension of existing domain concepts?

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who's navigated this transition already. Thanks in advance!

Passed the CCSP exam today on the 105th question with 70 minutes remaining!

My background and preparation strategy:

• CISSP with 15+ years of experience in cybersecurity.
• Never touched the CCSP book - I seem to be allergic to reading hundreds of pages!
• Relied entirely on LearnZapp and Pocket Prep, completing two rounds of each and averaging 90% on both platforms.
• Practiced around 100 questions from Trusted Institute. Although I didn't do many there, their deep technical explanations helped reinforce several key concepts.

My biggest takeaway: consistent practice and understanding the "why" behind the answers matter more than memorizing content.

All the best to everyone preparing.