CREST CPSA (Prac­ti­tio­ner Security Analyst)

CPSA is a single written multiple-choice paper of 120 questions sat over 2 hours, with a 2.5-hour maximum session at a Pearson VUE test centre. It is closed book — no notes, internet or devices are allowed. Each question is worth one mark with no negative marking, and the pass mark is 60% (72 of 120 marks).

CPSA costs £275 (exclusive of VAT), booked through Pearson VUE. A pass is valid for three years from the date you sit the exam. CREST publishes current pricing and booking details on crest-approved.org, so check there before you book.

CPSA has no prerequisites and is CREST's entry-level qualification, testing knowledge of assessing operating systems, common network services and web applications. A valid CPSA is itself the prerequisite for the CREST Registered Penetration Tester (CRT) examination.

It follows the CREST CPSA Technical Syllabus v2.5 (December 2023), the current published version. The ten topics map onto the syllabus's ten appendices (A to J). Where the syllabus still lists older material — for example the Data Protection Act 1998 — PassNova teaches the current position (the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR) and notes the change in the explanation.

No — these are original practice questions written from the public syllabus, not CREST's confidential exam content, and PassNova is not affiliated with CREST. The first 15 questions are free with no sign-up; the full 200-question bank, a study guide and the Nova AI tutor unlock with PassNova Premium (£4.99/month or £39.99/year, with a 7-day free trial).

CREST's entry-level exam for security testers, covering infrastructure and web vulnerability assessment; a valid CPSA is the prerequisite for the CRT. Junior penetration tester: CREST says CPSA demonstrates the knowledge for hands-on pen test roles, and it is the prerequisite for the CRT. Security analyst (vulnerability assessment): CREST: candidates show they can run basic infrastructure and web application vulnerability scans with common tools and interpret the results.

You can practise a free 15-question taster with no sign-up. To unlock the full 200-question bank, an AI study tutor and a downloadable study guide, upgrade to PassNova Premium — £4.99/month with a 7-day free trial.

Premium unlocks every Premium course in full, plus Nova (the AI study tutor), smart spaced-repetition practice, a daily task list from your study plan, mock pass certificates and downloadable PDF study guides — for £4.99/month or £39.99/year. Cancel anytime.

PassNova has 200 exam-style CREST CPSA (Practitioner Security Analyst) questions and 6 timed 25-question practice tests, each with a clear explanation. A free 15-question taster is spread across the topics; the rest unlock with Premium.

CPSA (CREST Practitioner Security Analyst) is CREST's entry-level infrastructure and web-application security-testing certification and the prerequisite for the CREST Registered Penetration Tester (CRT). Verified against crest-approved.org and Pearson VUE's CREST page in September 2026: the exam is 120 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours (with a 2.5-hour maximum session at Pearson VUE), sat closed book, and the pass mark is 60% — that is 72 of 120 marks, one mark per question with no negative marking. It is delivered at Pearson VUE test centres, costs £275 (exclusive of VAT), and a CPSA pass is valid for three years. The current syllabus is the CPSA Technical Syllabus v2.5 (December 2023), whose ten appendices (A to J) are the ten topics used here. Because CPSA is assessed entirely by multiple choice, this bank can mirror its question format closely; what it cannot reproduce is CREST's confidential exam content or the closed-book test-centre conditions. PassNova's questions are original, written from the public syllabus and general security references (RFCs, vendor documentation, NIST, OWASP and legislation.gov.uk); current UK law is taught where the syllabus still names the repealed Data Protection Act 1998, which was replaced in 2018 by the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR. PassNova is independent of, and not endorsed by, CREST.

No — deliberately. Every PassNova question is written from the published exam objectives, not copied from a live exam. Sites that republish real questions ("exam dumps") breach the candidate agreement you accept when you book, and using them can void your result or cost you a credential you already hold. PassNova matches the real exam's style, difficulty and domain weighting without reproducing its content.