What does the ISACA CISA complexity score measure?

It measures how structurally demanding the questions are, not the official pass rate. We score every question in our ISACA CISA bank on four measurable signals and combine them into a 1-10 score. Higher means more multi-select items, longer scenario questions, more interactive code items and deeper explanations — that is, questions that require reasoning rather than recall.

Which ISACA CISA domain is the hardest?

By our measurement, Protection of Information Assets is the hardest domain in the ISACA CISA bank, scoring 2.2 out of 10. The most approachable domain is Information Systems Acquisition, Development and Implementation at 2.0.

Is this the official pass rate?

No, and we do not publish one, because vendors do not release reliable per-domain pass rates. This is our own measurement of the bank. Treat it as a map of where the demanding questions sit in the blueprint, not as a prediction of your score.

Measured data

ISACA CISA

Name: ISACA CISA exam question complexity by domain
Creator: CERTILUM

CISA

We scored 150 real ISACA CISA exam questions 1-10 on question complexity and broke the result down by exam domain.

150 questions scored

5 domains

2.1/10 overall complexity

certilum

Complexity by exam domain

Higher scores mean more demanding question formats. The exam score is computed over the whole bank, not averaged across domains.

Exam complexity score2.1/10Gentle · measured across 150 bank questions

Governance and Management of IT27 questions · complexity 2.1/10 · Gentle
37% multi-select · 0% scenario · 33% interactive
Information Systems Acquisition, Development and Implementation18 questions · complexity 2.0/10 · Gentle
33% multi-select · 0% scenario · 33% interactive
Information Systems Auditing Process27 questions · complexity 2.0/10 · Gentle
33% multi-select · 0% scenario · 33% interactive
Information Systems Operations and Business Resilience39 questions · complexity 2.0/10 · Gentle
33% multi-select · 0% scenario · 33% interactive
Protection of Information Assets39 questions · complexity 2.2/10 · Gentle
38% multi-select · 0% scenario · 33% interactive

Full per-domain breakdown

Blueprint weight, bank size and question format mix for every domain of the exam.

Domain	Blueprint	Questions	Single	Multi	Interactive	Complexity
Governance and Management of IT	18%	27	9	9	9	2.1/10Gentle
Information Systems Acquisition, Development and Implementation	12%	18	6	6	6	2.0/10Gentle
Information Systems Auditing Process	18%	27	9	9	9	2.0/10Gentle
Information Systems Operations and Business Resilience	26%	39	13	13	13	2.0/10Gentle
Protection of Information Assets	26%	39	13	13	13	2.2/10Gentle

How the score is calculated

The formula is fixed and public, so anyone can reproduce these numbers from the same bank.

Every question in the ISACA CISA bank is measured on four signals that can be read directly from the database. Each signal is expressed as a share of the questions in the domain, and the four shares are combined with fixed weights:

Multi-select questions (40% weight). Items with more than one correct answer. The candidate has to find all of them, which is the single hardest format in the bank.
Scenario questions (30% weight). Questions longer than 150 characters, which describe a situation instead of a definition and therefore test reasoning rather than recall.
Interactive questions (20% weight). Items that require reading code or a configuration snippet.
Deep explanations (10% weight). Questions whose explanation runs past 300 characters, which signals a concept with real nuance behind it.

The combined share is multiplied by ten to produce a 1-10 score. The exam-level score is computed over the whole bank rather than averaged across domains, so a small domain cannot distort the total. Figures on this page are recomputed from the live bank on every crawl.

Data set: Certilum ISACA CISA Foundation question bank, 150 questions, 5 domains. Published by CERTILUM. This is Certilum’s own measurement of its own question bank and is not an official ISACA statistic.

Questions analysed: 150
Exam domains: 5
Hardest domain: Protection of Information Assets (2.2)
Most approachable domain: Information Systems Acquisition, Development and Implementation (2.0)
Question mix: 50 single · 50 multi · 50 interactive
Measured on: Foundation

Back to the ISACA CISA practice page Read the questions

Frequently asked questions

What our ISACA CISA complexity numbers mean and how they are produced.