This CISA cheat sheet boils ISACA's five-domain Certified Information Systems Auditor exam down to a printable quick reference of the facts and distinctions that decide the most questions. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free CISA toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
CISA exam at a glance
- Questions: 150 multiple-choice items
- Time: 4 hours (240 minutes)
- Passing score: Scaled 450 on a 200–800 scale (not a raw percentage)
- Certifying body: ISACA — delivered at PSI test centers or remotely proctored
- Experience: 5 years IS audit/control/security within the prior 10 (up to 3 waivable)
- Cost: About US$575 member / US$760 nonmember (verify at ISACA.org)
What’s on the CISA cheat sheet
- IS Operations & Business Resilience (26%) — the largest domain (Domain 4) — change and incident management, SLAs, the BIA, BCP/DR, and RTO/RPO recovery objectives.
- Protection of Information Assets (26%) — tied largest (Domain 5) — IAM and least privilege, MFA factor categories, symmetric vs. asymmetric crypto, and detection and response.
- Information System Auditing Process (18%) — Domain 1 — ITAF standards, risk-based planning, control types, compliance vs. substantive testing, evidence, and CAATs.
- Governance & Management of IT (18%) — Domain 2 — COBIT's governance-vs-management split, policy hierarchy, segregation of duties, and risk treatment.
- IS Acquisition, Development & Implementation (12%) — the smallest domain (Domain 3) — the SDLC, UAT, and changeover strategies from parallel to direct.
How to use it in your final week
- Front-load Domains 4 and 5 — Operations & Business Resilience and Protection of Information Assets are 26% each, so more than half your score rides on the two largest domains.
- Drill the recurring distinctions until they're reflex: compliance vs. substantive testing, RTO (time to recover) vs. RPO (data you can lose), and MFA factors from different categories (know / have / are).
- Practice thinking like an auditor — most items ask for the best control or audit action among several plausible options, not just a technically correct fact.
- Read the sheet the morning of the exam for a final pass on the memory hooks, then pace yourself at roughly 96 seconds per question to finish 150 items inside the 4-hour window.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your CISA practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
CISA cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the CISA cheat sheet downloads as a PDF with no sign-up and no account. It sits alongside the rest of Career Employer's free CISA toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards, all 100% free.
It condenses the five ISACA job practice domains into a single quick reference — the Auditing Process, Governance and Management of IT, Acquisition/Development/Implementation, Operations and Business Resilience, and Protection of Information Assets — plus the exam logistics (150 questions, 4 hours, scaled 450 to pass) and the highest-yield memory hooks like RTO vs. RPO and MFA factor categories.
No — the CISA rewards applied audit judgment, so the sheet is a review and last-week cram layer, not a replacement for working scenario questions. Use it to lock in definitions and framework distinctions, then prove your readiness on full-length, domain-weighted practice tests before you book your date.
Weight your attention on Domains 4 and 5 — IS Operations and Business Resilience (26%) and Protection of Information Assets (26%) — which together make up 52% of the exam. The sheet flags those two so you spend your final passes where the most points live.
It is built from ISACA's current CISA exam content outline that took effect on 1 August 2024, and we review it against ISACA's published materials regularly. Always verify fees and scheduling at ISACA.org before you register, since those change.
References
- 1.ISACA. “CISA Certification | Certified Information Systems Auditor.” ISACA.org, 2026. ↑
- 2.ISACA. “CISA Exam Content Outline (effective 1 August 2024).” ISACA.org, 2026. ↑
- 3.ISACA. “Get CISA Certified — Requirements.” ISACA.org, 2026. ↑
- 4.ISACA. “Maintain Your CISA Certification (CPE Policy).” ISACA.org, 2026. ↑
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