My Experience with CCSK

So I recently took the CCSK (Certified Cloud Security Knowledge) of Cloud Security Alliance. This certification is an open-book, web-based (non-proctored) certification exam that tests the candidates knowledge of cloud security. While this may be an open-book exam, it was indeed a hard one to crack. My exam was company-sponsored so I didn't have to shell out $395. But this exam being “free” would play with your mind and your attitude in a negative way.

CCSK would test you in the following domains:

Domain 1: Cloud Computing Concepts and Architectures (6 questions)
Domain 2: Governance & Enterprise Risk Management (2 questions)
Domain 3: Logical Issues, Contracts & Electronic Discovery (3 questions)
Domain 4: Compliance & Audit Management (3 questions)
Domain 5: Information Governance (2 questions)
Domain 6: Management Plane & Business Continuity (4 questions)
Domain 7: Infrastructure Security (6 questions)
Domain 8: Virtualization & Containers (5 questions)
Domain 9: Incident Response (4 questions)
Domain 10: Application Security (6 questions)
Domain 11: Data Security & Encryption (6 questions)
Domain 12: Identity, Entitlement & Access Management (3 questions)
Domain 13: Security as a Service (SecaaS) (2 questions)
Domain 14: Related Technologies (1 question)

My IT industry background is almost 2 decades and the last 3 years handling for the most part, cloud infra and its security. So, I must say that I know my way with cloud. But man, the universe will definitely give you the finger if you are too arrogant. Good thing is that I am that knowledge-hungry geek that devours youtube/udemy/cybrary tutorial videos everyday. Albeit informal and irregular, that helped a lot with the exam.

Well luckily, I got 86% of the 80% passing requirement. Lesson learned: There is no magic to achievement. It’s really about hard work, choices and persistence. Thanks Michelle Obama for the wisdom!