What does the ISC2 CISSP complexity score measure?

It measures how structurally demanding the questions are, not the official pass rate. We score every question in our ISC2 CISSP 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 ISC2 CISSP domain is the hardest?

By our measurement, Communication and Network Security is the hardest domain in the ISC2 CISSP bank, scoring 2.4 out of 10. The most approachable domain is Identity and Access Management (IAM) at 1.9.

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No, and we do not publish one, because vendors do not release reliable per-domain pass rates.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

ISC2 CISSP

Name: ISC2 CISSP exam question complexity by domain
Creator: CERTILUM

CISSP

We scored 150 real ISC2 CISSP exam questions 1-10 on question complexity and broke the result down by exam domain.

150 questions scored

8 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

Asset Security15 questions · complexity 2.0/10 · Gentle
33% multi-select · 0% scenario · 33% interactive
Communication and Network Security20 questions · complexity 2.4/10 · Gentle
40% multi-select · 5% scenario · 30% interactive
Identity and Access Management (IAM)19 questions · complexity 1.9/10 · Gentle
32% multi-select · 0% scenario · 32% interactive
Security Architecture and Engineering20 questions · complexity 2.3/10 · Gentle
35% multi-select · 10% scenario · 30% interactive
Security Assessment and Testing18 questions · complexity 2.0/10 · Gentle
33% multi-select · 0% scenario · 33% interactive
Security Operations19 questions · complexity 1.9/10 · Gentle
32% multi-select · 0% scenario · 32% interactive
Security and Risk Management24 questions · complexity 2.0/10 · Gentle
33% multi-select · 0% scenario · 33% interactive
Software Development Security15 questions · complexity 2.0/10 · Gentle
33% 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
Asset Security	10%	15	5	5	5	2.0/10Gentle
Communication and Network Security	13%	20	7	7	6	2.4/10Gentle
Identity and Access Management (IAM)	13%	19	7	6	6	1.9/10Gentle
Security Architecture and Engineering	13%	20	7	7	6	2.3/10Gentle
Security Assessment and Testing	12%	18	6	6	6	2.0/10Gentle
Security Operations	13%	19	7	6	6	1.9/10Gentle
Security and Risk Management	16%	24	8	8	8	2.0/10Gentle
Software Development Security	10%	15	5	5	5	2.0/10Gentle

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 ISC2 CISSP 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 ISC2 CISSP Foundation question bank, 150 questions, 8 domains. Published by CERTILUM. This is Certilum’s own measurement of its own question bank and is not an official ISC2 statistic.

Questions analysed: 150
Exam domains: 8
Hardest domain: Communication and Network Security (2.4)
Most approachable domain: Identity and Access Management (IAM) (1.9)
Question mix: 52 single · 50 multi · 48 interactive
Measured on: Foundation

Back to the ISC2 CISSP practice page Read the questions

Frequently asked questions

What our ISC2 CISSP complexity numbers mean and how they are produced.