A Ranked Look at the Hardest CISSP Domains

Security and Risk Management is always the hardest area for CISSP candidates, and for good reason. In this area, you need to think like a manager, not a technician. You need to know the laws and rules in many places, understand complicated risk management systems, and find a way to meet security needs while still meeting business goals. The problem isn’t with the technology; it’s with the idea. Most security professionals spend their whole careers working on technical implementation, but this area requires thinking about governance, compliance, and risk tolerance on a bigger scale.

A lot of candidates have a hard time understanding all of the different frameworks and standards, like ISO 27001, NIST, COBIT, and others. You need to know when and how to use each one because they all have their own way of managing risk. The questions often put you in situations where more than one answer seems correct, and you have to pick the best one from a management point of view, not a technical one. Learn more about risk frameworks in our article on Cybersecurity Risk Management Best Practices.

Security Assessment and Testing is hard because it needs to cover a lot of ground and go into a lot of detail with different testing methods. You should know what vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, security audits, and synthetic transactions are, but you should also know when to use each one. The domain includes everything from tools for technical testing to audit processes and management reviews.

The fact that you have to understand testing from three different points of view—technical execution, management oversight, and compliance requirements—makes this area especially hard. A lot of the time, questions are about how to choose the right kind of test for a given situation, what the limits of different testing methods are, and how to understand results in a business setting. Many professionals have used some testing methods before, but they haven’t used all of the ones that are used in this field.

Security Operations covers so many different areas that a lot of people find it too much to handle. You need to know both the technical and procedural parts of security operations in this field. This includes logging and monitoring, incident response, investigations, and forensics. Not only is it hard to cover a lot of ground, but it’s also hard to figure out how everything fits together. Read our Incident Response Planning Guide for practical insights.

Candidates who don’t have any real-world experience in forensics and investigations have a hard time with these parts. You need to know how to handle evidence, the chain of custody, and different kinds of investigations, like criminal, civil, and administrative ones. The domain also covers basic ideas like patch management and configuration management, but from a strategic point of view instead of a hands-on one.

IAM is the fourth hardest because it requires both technical and business process knowledge. You need to know everything there is to know about provisioning workflows, identity governance, Kerberos, and SAML. OAuth, OpenID Connect, RADIUS, and TACACS+ are all important technical protocols that you should study. However, you also need to know how they fit into larger identity management plans. Our article on Zero Trust Security Model explains modern IAM approaches.

When you add in privileged access management, identity proofing, and the different access control models (MAC, DAC, RBAC, ABAC), the problem gets harder. A lot of professionals only work with one or two IAM technologies in their jobs, so they don’t know about the whole ecosystem. Questions often ask you to choose the best way to authenticate or authorize someone for a certain business situation. This requires both technical and business knowledge.

Asset security is not too hard, but it does require knowing how to classify information and handle data throughout its life. It’s not that the ideas are hard to understand; it’s that you have to think about how to protect data from the time it’s made until it’s destroyed. You need to know the rules about keeping data, privacy laws, and the different states of data (at rest, in transit, and in use).

You need to know both military and commercial classification schemes and handling requirements because they are very different. A lot of candidates have trouble with the privacy parts, especially if they haven’t worked with rules like GDPR or CCPA before. The domain also includes data security controls and retention policies, which means you need to think about long-term data governance instead of just short-term protection.

This area has a lot of technical information, but many security professionals find it easy to understand because it fits in with what they do every day. The problem is that there are so many topics to cover, such as secure design principles, security models, cryptography, and security architectures for different technologies. This part can be hard to understand if you don’t know a lot about cryptography. You need to know not only how encryption works but also when to use different algorithms and key management practices.

The security models section (Bell-LaPadula, Biba, Clark-Wilson) often confuses people because these are theoretical ideas that don’t come up very often in real life. But people who work in engineering often find this area easier than the ones that focus on management. Our article on Security Architecture Fundamentals breaks down these concepts.

Network security is not too hard, but it can be hard for people who don’t have a lot of experience with networking. You need to know the OSI model inside and out, as well as the different network protocols and security controls at each layer. The domain includes everything from VPNs to software-defined networking to secure network components to network architecture.

Network security is a basic part of most security jobs, which makes this doable for a lot of candidates. You probably know how to use firewalls, understand network segmentation, and deal with secure communications, even if you’re not a network engineer. The challenge is that you need to know more than just that VPNs let you talk securely; you also need to know the differences between IPSec tunnel and transport modes.

Some people might be surprised to learn that Software Development Security is often the easiest domain, but this really depends on your background. If you’ve worked in development before, terms like the SDLC, secure coding practices, and application security testing should be familiar to you. A lot of security professionals have worked with development teams before, so they know what these ideas mean even if they don’t know how to code.

The domain includes secure coding practices, application security testing, and the secure software development lifecycle. The ideas behind database security and software-defined security may be new, but they are usually easier to understand than the abstract frameworks in Domain 1 or the broad operational requirements in Domain 7. For more on secure development, check our article on Secure Software Development Lifecycle.

There are a number of things that will make each domain harder for you. Your work history is the most important thing. Network engineers have no trouble with Domain 4 but have a hard time with Domain 1. Auditors, on the other hand, have the opposite problem. The fact that the material is abstract is also very important. Domains that are mostly about frameworks and governance are harder than those that are mostly about concrete technical controls.

The amount of memorization needed is very different in each domain. Domain 1 requires you to remember a lot of rules and frameworks, while Domain 3 requires you to understand cryptographic algorithms and security models. Some candidates find it easier to remember things than to understand them, while others prefer the opposite. Read our CISSP Study Tips and Memory Techniques for effective learning strategies.

When it comes to the hardest areas, like Security and Risk Management, try to understand the ideas instead of just memorizing facts. When you answer questions, try to think like a manager or executive. If you don’t know much about a topic, look for real-world examples and case studies to help you understand it better.

Think about spending more time on areas where you don’t have a lot of professional experience. It’s easy to want to only work on your weak areas, but remember that every subject will be on the test. When you answer practice questions, don’t just look at what you got wrong; also think about why you chose the wrong answers. This is especially important for management-focused areas where your way of thinking is just as important as your knowledge.

The CISSP is hard not because of one area, but because it requires a lot of knowledge and a change in perspective from technical to managerial. Knowing which areas are the hardest for you to learn will help you use your study time more wisely. Keep in mind that the test is not about how good you are with technology; it’s about how well you can think like a security manager. Instead of memorizing facts, try to figure out why some answers are right in certain situations. This will help you do better on the test.