The CIW Security Professional exam is divided into three objective categories, with a minimal amount of overlap: “Network Security and Firewalls”, “Operating Systems Security”, and “Security Auditing, Attacks and Threat Analysis”. Seventy-five minutes are allotted for the exam, and it consists of 60 questions, with distribution between objective categories as follows:

Network Security and Firewalls – 22 questions
Operating Systems Security – 16 questions
Security Auditing, Attacks and Threat Analysis – 22 questions

At the conclusion of the exam, the score report will show how well you did on the questions within each category. The minimum passing score is 75% (45 questions correct), and you must score at least 70% within each of the three exam categories.

If you do not pass the exam, you must wait 24 hours before you can take it again. If you fail it a second, or subsequent time, you must wait 30 days before being able to take it again. If you pass an exam, you cannot take it again (ever) unless the objectives for the exam change.

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