Failed the CISSP? Why It Happens and How to Pass on Your Next Try

Last updated September 2026

If you work in the cybersecurity field, then you know that there are only four types of people:

• People who passed the CISSP exam
• People who are studying for the CISSP exam
• People who failed the CISSP exam
• People who are too fearful of taking the exam

Having the CISSP certification is a must if you want to work in certain high-paying and highly rewarding environments. The CISSP exam is a gate. Those who have made it through that gate are often considered the elite in the cybersecurity field.

Even if you passed the CISSP exam, you likely did not do it on your first try. The statistics are not released publicly, but I work with people who passed on their 3rd and 4th try. That means many thousands of people have failed the exam.

The purpose of this article is to examine the reasons you may have failed. It’s also meant to help you fix what caused you to fail and give you the confidence to try again and pass.

A note on this update: Donald wrote this post in 2019, and the four reasons below are his. In September 2026 we added the sections on reading your score report, the retake rules and costs, a retake plan, practice tests and test-day tactics. All exam facts come from ISC2’s official pages, linked where they’re used.

Start with the report you walked out with

Your Pearson proctor hands you an unofficial result when you check out of the test center, and ISC2 emails the official result afterward (ISC2). If you failed, that printout is the most useful study document you own right now, so keep it.

There’s no numeric score on it. ISC2 doesn’t give scaled scores to anyone. What failing candidates get instead is a proficiency level for each of the eight domains (ISC2):

• Below proficiency: below the passing standard in that domain.
• Near proficiency: close to the passing standard.
• Above proficiency: above the passing standard.

The exam is compensatory. Strong results in a heavily weighted domain can make up for weaker ones elsewhere, and you don’t need “Above” in every domain to pass. So don’t treat the report as eight separate pass/fail grades. Treat it as a priority list, and weigh each level against how much of the exam that domain covers:

Weights are from the CISSP exam outline in effect since April 15, 2024 (ISC2). A “Below” in Domain 1 costs you more than a “Below” in Domain 2 or 8, so fix it first.

The length of your exam tells you less than you’d think. If yours ended at 100 questions, the algorithm simply reached a 95% confident decision early. ISC2 says a fail at the minimum length doesn’t necessarily mean you did very poorly (ISC2). If you went all the way to 150, you were close enough to the line that it needed more evidence. For more on how the adaptive engine decides, see our explainer on the CISSP CAT exam.

One caution: in some cases ISC2 holds official results for roughly six to eight weeks while it completes its statistical analysis (ISC2). The unofficial result at the test center is what most people plan around.

Four reasons people fail the CISSP

1. You studied hard, but your mindset held you back

I know dozens of highly technical cybersecurity professionals who failed the exam only because of their mindset. These folks are or have been system admins, penetration testers, policy writers, coders and other very technical experts in their field. Many of them are among the top in the industry. But they can’t seem to pass the CISSP exam.

One of the main reasons these folks have trouble with the test is that they rely on their technical expertise but have difficulty making the jump to the management mindset.

To be very clear: you can be a tech wizard and get a perfect score on every technical question on the test. But you still won’t pass unless you understand the management of security processes and personnel. That’s because many questions test your understanding of how to manage people, processes and incidents.

So, what should you do?

Don’t be discouraged! Your technical expertise gives you a tremendous advantage on the CISSP exam. You need to adjust your mindset to look at technology from the point of view of a manager, CIO or CSO. This shift is not as hard as you think.

You already know what is wrong and how to fix it, or you know the best way to resolve an issue. You have to think a little deeper to understand the best practice from a business’s point of view. More specifically, you need to understand the point of view that ISC2 considers correct.

The best way to get this understanding without going to business school is to do more practice tests that focus on management issues. You can find my recommendations on practice tests here: How I passed the CISSP exam without reading any books.

2. You relied on a CISSP boot camp

I am not a fan of boot camps for the CISSP exam, but they are helpful for many people. I believe these classes are often misused as a way to try to pass the test without the in-depth knowledge it takes to pass.

Boot camp providers often include the cost of the test in their tuition, and they promise to pay for your test the second time if you don’t pass on your first try.

That promise can give you a false sense of being prepared. It encourages you to take the test even though you might not be ready yet. Since you get a free “re-do”, you might as well give it a shot.

Nobody can expect to pass the CISSP exam after a week-long cram session. Even multiple weeks of cramming likely won’t do the trick for most people.

So, what should you do?

First, recognize that a boot camp is a tool, not a solution. A boot camp can be part of your study plan, but you should not rely on it as the only or even the primary study tool.

I studied for the CISSP exam for almost three months. Others I know have studied for six months or longer. There is no quick path to becoming CISSP certified. There are no shortcuts.

Your best plan of action is to create a daily study plan and stick with it. Don’t deviate from your plan even one day. The more committed you are to your study plan, the more likely you will pass the CISSP exam on the next try.

Schedule the test for 30, 60 or 90 days out. Then use the scheduled test date as the motivation to stick to your plan. If you study just 2 hours a day for 90 days, then you have 180 hours of studying under your belt! You will be far more prepared than after cramming in an instructor-led boot camp for a week.

3. You got tricked too many times

The questions on the CISSP exam are devilishly tricky. You only get one shot at each question. Once you answer a question and move to the next, you don’t get the opportunity to go back and double-check your answer.

It is very easy to get tricked by the wording or the content of the questions. If you get caught by these tricks too many times, you will be on the path to failure.

So, what should you do?

You need a good handle on the types of questions and their typical wording. Once you understand these things, you will know what to look out for, and you will be able to identify the correct answers more easily.

The only real way to prepare for the questions is to take practice questions from a reliable source. I took thousands of practice questions. I studied the questions, and I explored the answers. I took so many practice test questions that it was almost ridiculous. You can do this too. I believe that you should.

Practice questions will make you a better test taker and make sure you don’t get fooled by the tricks you will find on the CISSP exam. An excellent source of CISSP practice questions is CCCure.

4. You got burnt out

The CISSP exam is no longer a six-hour, 250-question exam. With the adaptive format, the test runs between 100 and 150 questions, with a three-hour limit (ISC2).

But there is a point where you may have hit a wall and given up. Not because of the length of the exam, but because of the mind-bending questions.

The questions are often very challenging, and they can bring you to the point of mental exhaustion quickly. Some people hit that point just 15 questions into the exam. Others start to lose it later on. If you succumbed to mental exhaustion during the test, you are not alone.

So, what should you do?

If you already failed the test, then you know what to expect next time. You have a tremendous advantage now!

The best way to prepare mentally so you don’t burn out is to work through full test simulations at home. Close the door and get rid of all distractions. Then take a practice test as if it’s the real test. Keep the timer going. Focus, and don’t stop until your practice test is complete.

After you do this a few times, you will have the confidence and mental stamina to keep from hitting a wall during the real CISSP exam.

Before your next attempt, stop studying entirely for 24 hours before the exam. Get some exercise: go for a walk or a jog. Listen to some soothing music, and get a good night’s sleep.

Which one was it? Pinning down your reason

Most people who fail have a mix of causes, but one usually dominates. Match what you remember about the exam, and what your report says, to the patterns below before you change how you study.

You answered like an engineer, not a manager

Signs: you recognized the technology in most questions, felt you knew the answer, and still failed. Your report may look stronger in the technical domains than in Security and Risk Management.

What to change: for every practice question, ask who you are in the scenario and what that person is accountable for. The CISSP usually rewards the answer that follows policy and process, deals with risk to the business and protects people first, over the answer that fixes the technical problem fastest. When two answers are both technically right, pick the one a security manager would sign off on.

You answered the question you expected, not the one asked

Signs: you changed your mind after rereading a question, or you remember getting stuck between two answers that both seemed correct.

What to change: read the last sentence of the question first, then the scenario. Circle the qualifier mentally: FIRST, BEST, MOST, LEAST, NOT. Cross out answers that are true but don’t answer what was asked. Then choose between what’s left. This is slower at first; it speeds up with practice.

You had real domain gaps

Signs: one or two domains marked “Below” that you know you skimmed, or topics you’d never worked with, such as secure software development or specific network protocols.

What to change: go back to the official CISSP exam outline and check yourself against every task and subtask in those domains rather than only the domain headings. ISC2 says it now weaves AI-related security tasks across all eight domains, so include those too (ISC2).

You ran out of energy or time

Signs: the last hour felt like guessing, you went past 130 questions tired, or you were watching the clock. That’s reason 4 above, and full-length timed practice is the fix.

Retake rules, waiting periods and what a second attempt costs

ISC2 applies two separate rules to retakes (ISC2):

• After your first attempt, you can retest after 30 test-free days.
• After your second attempt, you wait 60 test-free days from your most recent attempt.
• After your third attempt and every attempt after that, you wait 90 test-free days.
• You can attempt the exam no more than four times in any 12-month period.

There’s no discounted retake fee on ISC2’s pricing page, so plan to pay the standard registration price again: US$749 in the Americas, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, EUR 719.04 in Europe and GBP 606.69 in the UK. Taxes depend on where you test. Rescheduling costs US$50 and cancelling costs US$100 (ISC2 exam pricing).

ISC2 also sells the exam with “Peace of Mind Protection”: two attempts for US$998 on the CISSP product page, with 180 days from purchase to sit both, following the same retake rules (ISC2). If you’re buying your retake now and think you might need one more try after it, compare that with a single US$749 exam: the second attempt would still have to follow the 60-day wait. Check your region’s price at checkout.

A note on waiting: the 30 days are a minimum, not a target. If your report shows several domains “Below”, give yourself more time. An exam-only purchase must be scheduled and taken within 365 days, so there’s room to plan.

A retake plan built around the wait

This is an eight-week outline for someone with a full-time job. If your report was mostly “Near proficiency”, you may be able to compress it toward the 30-day minimum. If it was mostly “Below”, stretch it.

The miss log matters more than your practice score. If most misses are “wrong mindset” or “misread”, more content won’t fix them. More careful practice will.

Practice questions: how to use them this time

When I studied for the CISSP, I learned mainly with audiobooks and video, and then spent almost two months taking practice tests over and over. I fully expected to see the same questions on the exam. The actual test did not have a single one of them. But taking those practice tests again and again taught me how to analyze a question: I could discard one or two answers right away and then reason through the rest, even on subjects I knew little about. I wrote up the whole plan in How I passed the CISSP exam without reading any books.

That’s the point of practice questions: they train judgment, not memory. A few rules for the retake:

• Use a question bank written for the outline in effect since April 15, 2024. Older banks can still help with concepts, but their domain balance is out of date.
• Read the explanation for every answer, including the three wrong ones. If you can say why each wrong answer is wrong, you understood the question.
• Track results by domain and match them against your score report. Your weakest report domains should get the most questions.
• Don’t read too much into percentage scores. Real CAT questions are chosen so you have roughly a 50% chance of answering each one, so practice scores and the real exam won’t feel the same.

Stay away from brain dumps

Sites that sell “real CISSP exam questions” are a trap. There is no brain dump that will tell you which questions you’ll get: the adaptive format picks items for each candidate as the exam runs. Using or sharing exam content can also end your ISC2 career before it starts. If ISC2 finds fraud or a policy violation, it can cancel your results, revoke any certifications you hold and ban you from earning ISC2 certifications in the future (ISC2). When you write down what felt hard after a failed attempt, record topics, never questions.

On test day: tactics for the adaptive format

• Budget about 72 seconds a question. Three hours across a possible 150 questions works out to 72 seconds each. At question 50, you want to be at or under the one-hour mark.
• Answer at least 100 questions. If time runs out before you’ve answered 75 scored and 25 pretest items, ISC2 fails the exam automatically (ISC2). You can’t tell which items are the unscored pretest ones, so treat every question as if it counts.
• Commit and move on. Once you finalize an answer, you can’t review or change it. Flagging for later doesn’t exist on the CISSP.
• Take breaks, but know they cost time. ISC2 doesn’t limit the number or length of breaks, but the clock keeps running.
• Expect every question to feel hard. The engine aims each question at your level, so strong and weak candidates both feel like they’re struggling. Don’t try to read your result from how hard the questions seem.
• Don’t count questions. An exam that stops at 100 can be a pass or a fail. So can one that runs to 150.

The exam is only given in person at Pearson VUE test centers (Pearson Professional Centers and ISC2-authorized Pearson Select centers). There’s no online-proctored option for the CISSP (ISC2).

What has changed since this post was first written

Here are the current numbers, checked against ISC2’s pages in September 2026:

The 2024 refresh was small: Security and Risk Management went from 15% to 16%, and Software Development Security went from 11% to 10% (ISC2 refresh FAQ). ISC2 reviews the exam through a Job Task Analysis on a three-year cycle, but as of late September 2026 its outline page still lists the April 15, 2024 outline and gives no date for the next one. If you’re booking months out, check that page again before your test date.

If you pass the retake

Passing is step one. To hold the full CISSP you need at least five years of cumulative, full-time work experience in two or more of the eight domains. A relevant bachelor’s or master’s degree, or a credential from ISC2’s approved list, can cover one year, and only one year can be waived. Part-time work and internships can count (ISC2; experience requirements). Without enough experience, you become an Associate of ISC2 and have six years to earn it.

After you pass, an ISC2-certified professional endorses your application; ISC2 can act as the endorser if you don’t know one (ISC2). Certified members pay an annual maintenance fee of US$135, and Associates pay US$50 (ISC2). CISSPs need 120 CPE credits over each three-year cycle, with a suggested 40 a year (ISC2 CPE guide).

Why I would still take the harder road

I earned ITIL, then PMP, then CASP (now CompTIA SecurityX), and then the CISSP, working from easier to harder. I would do it the same way again, because each one prepares you for the next. ITIL preps you for the CISSP, and CASP preps you for the CISSP.

The CISSP is top dog. It covers technical material plus managerial material, and that combination is what makes it harder than CASP. I compared the two exams in more detail in CASP vs. CISSP: My Experience.

If you’re weighing whether to retake or change direction, these guides cover the neighbors: SecurityX for a hands-on senior technical credential, CISM for governance and program management, and CCSP for cloud-heavy roles. Our certification roadmap shows where each fits by career goal.

If you have failed the CISSP exam, don’t fret. You are in great company! Many CISSPs failed the exam one or more times before they passed it.

While the test is challenging, it is not impossible. If earning the CISSP credential is important to you, then you can do it. Dedication, study and the right mindset will be the key.

Don’t give up! It will all be worth it when the test administrator prints out your report and it says you passed!

Practice the manager’s view every morning. Reading how real incidents were handled, and mishandled, is some of the best mindset training there is. The CyberExperts Daily Brief covers what changed in security and why it matters, in five minutes each weekday. Get tomorrow’s brief.

Retake questions

Sources

• ISC2, Computerized Adaptive Testing (format, proficiency levels, retake policy, test centers): isc2.org
• ISC2, After your exam (unofficial and official results, retake policy, irregularities, endorsement): isc2.org
• ISC2, Before your exam (item types, passing score, languages): isc2.org
• ISC2, Exam pricing: isc2.org
• ISC2, CISSP certification (Peace of Mind Protection, AMF): isc2.org
• ISC2, CISSP Certification Exam Outline (effective April 15, 2024; experience requirements): isc2.org
• ISC2, CISSP Exam Refresh FAQ: isc2.org
• ISC2, CISSP experience requirements: isc2.org
• ISC2, Annual Maintenance Fees: isc2.org
• ISC2, Quick guide to CPE credits (PDF): isc2.org

Donald Korinchak, MBA, PMP, CISSP, SecurityX, ITILv3

Donald Korinchak is a Cybersecurity Professional in the Washington DC area. Donald holds an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh Katz School of Business. Donald is considered a thought leader in business, leadership, and cybersecurity issues.