ISACA CDPSE

Pass rate

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ISACA CDPSE Pass Rate

CDPSE

The score you need to pass the ISACA CDPSE certification exam, what the cut score actually means, and how to read your mock results against it.

75% to pass
120 questions
2/10 difficulty

The number you need to hit

Published cut score for this certification.

Passing score
75%
450/800 scaled score (scale 200-800)
Margin
25%
room for wrong answers, on a flat mock
Wrong answers allowed
30
out of 120 questions

Pass score vs pass rate

Two different numbers that get mixed up constantly.

Pass score (cut score)

The scaled score the vendor publishes. For the ISACA CDPSE it is 75%. This is the number you can actually prepare against, and it is the one that decides your result on exam day.

Pass rate (percentage of candidates)

The share of candidates who pass. ISACA generally does not publish this for individual exams, and the numbers you find online usually come from candidate self-reported surveys. We would rather tell you nothing than tell you a figure we cannot source.

Where you lose points

The exam is not scored flat. Each domain carries its own weight, so a domain where you lose everything can sink a score that looks fine on paper.

Privacy Governance20%

Losing this domain entirely costs you 20% of the exam, and it has 24 practice questions here.

Privacy Engineering39%

Losing this domain entirely costs you 39% of the exam, and it has 47 practice questions here.

Data Life Cycle Management23%

Losing this domain entirely costs you 23% of the exam, and it has 27 practice questions here.

Privacy Risk Management and Compliance18%

Losing this domain entirely costs you 18% of the exam, and it has 22 practice questions here.

The practical version: the ISACA CDPSE is not passed by knowing most of the content. It is passed by being strong in the domains that carry weight, and by not leaving one of them empty.

More about the ISACA CDPSE exam

Explore the rest of this page series: format, cost, difficulty, requirements and how to prepare.

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Frequently asked questions

Everything you need to know about the ISACA CDPSE exam.