CyberArk Certified Defender - Privileged Access

Exam format

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CyberArk Certified Defender - Privileged Access Exam Format

PAM-DEF

Everything the official exam blueprint specifies: question count, time limit, scoring and the weight each domain carries. The CyberArk Certified Defender - Privileged Access certification is a professional-level credential designed to validate a candidate's technical proficiency in implementing and managing the CyberArk Privileged Access Manager (PAM) solution. As organizations face increasing identity-based attacks, this certification ensures that professionals can effectively deploy, configure, and maintain the security controls necessary to protect administrative accounts and sensitive credentials. The exam covers the full spectrum of the CyberArk ecosystem, from core Vault management to advanced session monitoring and automated credential rotation. Candidates must demonstrate an ability to handle complex architectural requirements and integrate CyberArk into existing enterprise security frameworks, ensuring robust defense against lateral movement and unauthorized access.

60 questions
120 min
70% to pass
5 domains

Exam facts at a glance

What we know about this exam, and where the information comes from.

SpecificationValue
Questions60
Time limit120 minutes (120s per question)
Passing score70%
Domains5
LevelAssociate
Question bank here60 questions
SourceCertilum's own record — the vendor does not publish this figure

Official domain weights

The percentage of the exam each domain carries. Weight your revision by these numbers, not by what you find hardest.

DomainWeightTopicsPractice Qs
Credential Management20%
  • Secret management lifecycles
  • Application Identity Management (AIM/AAM)
  • API integration for automated retrieval
  • +1 more
12
Integration & Architecture15%
  • High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR)
  • Component communication and networking
  • Integration with Active Directory
  • +1 more
9
Privileged Account Security30%
  • Vault architecture and components
  • Safe management and permissions
  • CPM (Central Policy Manager) operations
  • +2 more
18
Privileged Threat Analytics15%
  • Identifying anomalous behavior
  • Threat detection patterns
  • Alerting and reporting
  • +1 more
9
Privileged Session Management20%
  • PSM (Privileged Session Manager) installation
  • Session recording and monitoring
  • Isolation techniques
  • +2 more
12

The heaviest domain is Credential Management at 20%, and that is where lost points cost you the most. Certilum scores you per domain so you can see the difference between a knowledge gap and a formatting problem.

Note from the vendor record: PRICE: No official price published: neither the CyberArk certifications page (cyberark.com/university/certification) nor the CyberArk program page on Pearson VUE show exam fees. The USD 200 figure for Defender/Sentry quoted by third-party sources (itcareerroadmap, techsolidity, Koenig) does not come from the vendor. Note: since 1-Nov-2025 CyberArk no longer offers OnVUE proctoring (Pearson test centres only).

More about the CyberArk Certified Defender - Privileged Access exam

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Everything you need to know about the CyberArk Certified Defender - Privileged Access exam.