The CISA exam: format, passing score, results and scheduling
The CISA exam is 150 multiple-choice questions in four hours. ISACA reports results on a scale from 200 to 800 and requires 450 to pass. You see a preliminary result on screen when you finish, and the official score follows within 10 working days.
See the CISA practice questions →
How long is the CISA exam?
Four hours — 240 minutes — for 150 multiple-choice questions. That works out at just over a minute and a half per question, which is enough for a careful read but not for revisiting many items at the end.
The questions are spread across five job practice domains, and ISACA publishes their weights:
- Information Systems Auditing Process — 18%
- Governance and Management of IT — 18%
- Information Systems Acquisition, Development and Implementation — 12%
- Information Systems Operations and Business Resilience — 26%
- Protection of Information Assets — 26%
Source: ISACA — CISA exam content outline. Checked 9 October 2026.
CISA passing score — and why there is no passing percentage
ISACA uses a scaled score from 200 to 800, and candidates need 450 or higher to pass. A scaled score is not the share of questions you got right, so there is no official CISA passing percentage, and 450 should not be read as “56%” or any other percentage of 800.
Domain-level results are reported for information only, and ISACA does not provide question-level results. If you need to know which questions you missed, the score report will not tell you.
Source: ISACA — Certification Exam Candidate Guide (CISA, CISM, CGEIT, CRISC, CDPSE), version 1.26. Checked 9 October 2026.
CISA pass rate: what ISACA publishes
ISACA does not publish a CISA pass rate. Neither the certification page nor the candidate guide gives a CISA exam pass rate or a CISA exam pass percentage, so any figure you see for the CISA passing rate comes from a survey or a training provider, not from the issuer.
What ISACA does publish is the retake policy, which tells you how much room you have: four attempts within a rolling 12-month period, with waits of 30 days after the first attempt and 90 days after the second and third. Each attempt is paid for in full.
Source: ISACA — Certification Exam Candidate Guide (CISA, CISM, CGEIT, CRISC, CDPSE), version 1.26. Checked 9 October 2026.
How hard is CISA exam day?
Is the CISA exam hard? Without a published pass rate, nobody can answer that with a number. What makes it demanding is the format: four hours of scenario questions where several options are technically correct and the task is to choose what an auditor should do first, or what gives the strongest evidence.
The weighting matters as much as the difficulty. Operations and business resilience and protection of information assets together account for more than half of the exam, while acquisition, development and implementation is the smallest domain at 12%. If you work in audit, the process and governance domains often feel familiar; if you come from security, the reverse is common.
How long is CISA exam preparation supposed to take? ISACA publishes no study-hours figure, and because the certification itself requires five years of relevant experience, the right amount depends on how much of the outline you already do at work.
Source: ISACA — CISA exam content outline. Checked 9 October 2026.
CISA preliminary pass and official exam results
When you submit the exam, you see your preliminary passing status on screen straight away. A CISA preliminary pass is not yet the official result: ISACA emails the official score and makes it available online within 10 working days.
Once the official CISA exam results are released and you have passed, you can pay the one-time US$50 application fee and apply for certification. The pass stays valid for that purpose for five years, and the application also has to show five or more years of relevant work experience.
Source: ISACA — Certification Exam Candidate Guide (CISA, CISM, CGEIT, CRISC, CDPSE), version 1.26. Checked 9 October 2026.
CISA exam dates and scheduling
There are no fixed CISA exam dates. ISACA states that CISA exam registration is continuous: you can register at any time, and from that day you have a six-month eligibility period to sit the exam.
After you register for CISA, schedule exam appointments through the PSI dashboard. The earliest slot is 48 hours after you pay the registration fee, appointments are only available 90 days in advance, and you choose between a PSI testing centre and a remotely proctored exam. So the CISA exam schedule is the one you set yourself within those limits.
You can move your CISA exam date without penalty inside the eligibility period if you do it at least 48 hours before the appointment. Within 48 hours you either take the exam or forfeit the fee.
Source: ISACA — CISA certification. Checked 9 October 2026.
Practise under the same conditions
Because the score report gives no question-level feedback, the useful time to find your weak areas is before exam day. Certsqill’s CISA practice questions are expert-developed against ISACA’s five domains, every answer option comes with an explanation, and the readiness score is broken down by domain so you can see where the 26% domains are still costing you points. There is a 7-day money-back guarantee.
CISA exam: questions people ask
How long is the CISA exam?
Four hours (240 minutes) for 150 multiple-choice questions. Source: ISACA candidate guide, checked 9 October 2026.
What is the CISA pass rate?
ISACA does not publish one. The candidate guide gives the passing score — 450 on a 200–800 scale — but no pass rate, checked 9 October 2026.
Is CISA exam hard to pass on the first attempt?
ISACA publishes no first-attempt or overall pass rate, so there is no official answer. It does allow four attempts within a rolling 12-month period, each paid in full. Source: ISACA candidate guide, checked 9 October 2026.
Is the 450 passing score a percentage?
No. It is a scaled score on ISACA’s 200–800 scale, not the share of questions answered correctly. Source: ISACA candidate guide, checked 9 October 2026.
When do I get my CISA exam results?
You see a preliminary passing status on screen when you finish. The official score is emailed and available online within 10 working days. Source: ISACA candidate guide, checked 9 October 2026.
How do I schedule CISA exam appointments?
Register and pay with ISACA, then book through the PSI dashboard. You can schedule from 48 hours after payment, up to 90 days ahead, at a PSI testing centre or as a remotely proctored exam. Source: ISACA CISA page, checked 9 October 2026.
What happens after I have passed the CISA exam?
Once the official score is released, you pay the one-time US$50 application fee and apply for certification, showing five or more years of IS audit, control or security experience. You have five years from passing to apply. Source: ISACA, checked 9 October 2026.
