You can see it againUnder pressure people bring back shapes and positions long after the wording has gone.
Picture superiority · Shepard 1967, Standing 1973
EC-COUNCILEC-Council Certified SOC Analyst
The EC-Council Certified SOC Analyst (CSA) certification validates your ability to detect, investigate, and respond to security threats in a Security Operations Center. It covers SOC operations, SIEM deployment, log management, incident triage, and threat intelligence. Earning CSA demonstrates you have the hands-on skills to monitor, analyze, and escalate alerts effectively, making you a valuable asset to any security team.
DeliveryPearson VUE
Free questions701
Content last reviewed 30 July 2026 · Up to date
The certification
What EC-Council Certified SOC Analyst proves, and what it asks of you
What this certification covers, who it is written for, and what the exam itself looks like on the day.
6domains
15objectives
130concepts
US $250exam fee
What it is
What this certification is
What it validates, who it is written for, and the experience it assumes.
About this certification
The EC-Council Certified SOC Analyst (CSA) program equips learners with essential skills in security operations, threat intelligence, and incident response. It covers the processes, technologies, and techniques used to detect, investigate, and respond to threats while covering attack vectors, SIEM deployment (with 350 use cases), and SOC development. Students gain proficiency in Centralized Log Management, incident triaging, investigating IoCs, and applying the cyber kill chain.
They also learn to create effective reports and leverage AI-enabled tools and platforms to enhance SIEM capabilities, automate threat detection, prioritize alerts, and support threat hunting—critical skills for building a successful SOC analyst career. With 50 hands-on labs and 120 tools, the program builds job-ready skills that are globally recognized and in-demand.
Who it’s for
The Certified SOC Analyst (CSA) certification is designed for individuals who are starting or advancing their careers as Security Operations Center (SOC) analysts. It is ideal for those who want to build a strong foundation in SOC operations, threat detection, and incident response. This certification is also well-suited for IT professionals looking to transition into cybersecurity roles, as well as current SOC team members who want to formalize their skills and demonstrate their expertise to employers.
Recommended experience
While EC-Council does not mandate specific prerequisites, a foundational understanding of networking, operating systems, and basic security concepts is recommended. Hands-on experience in a SOC environment or related IT security role is beneficial. Familiarity with network protocols, operating systems, and basic security concepts; Experience with log analysis, SIEM tools, or security monitoring is helpful; A background in IT support, network administration, or cybersecurity fundamentals
The syllabus
What you’ll learn
Every domain and objective EC-Council measures, with the weight they carry on the exam.
The official EC-Council exam outline · checked 30 July 2026 · See the source
Security Operations and Management
- Security Operations Center (SOC) Fundamentals
- SOC Components, Workflow, and Metrics
Cyber Threats and Attack Methodology
- Understanding Cyber Threats and Attacks
- Indicators of Compromise (IoCs)
- Attacker Methodology and Cyber Kill Chain
Log Management and SIEM
- Log Management and Correlation
- SIEM Deployment and Architecture
Incident Detection and Triage
- Incident Detection with SIEM
- Use Case and Correlation Rule Development
- Alert Triaging and Analysis
Proactive Threat Detection
- Threat Intelligence
- Threat Hunting
Incident Response, Forensics and Cloud SOC
- Incident Response Process
- Forensic Investigation and Malware Analysis
- SOC for Cloud Environments
On the day
The exam itself
Everything EC-Council publishes about sitting it, and nothing we inferred.
Prerequisites
No mandatory prerequisites — this certification has no required predecessor exam or credential.
CertificationEC-Council Certified SOC Analyst
DeliveryPearson VUE
PricingUS $250
After you pass
Where this credential goes next
The path EC-Council lays out, how the credential is kept, and where to book.
Step-by-step path to EC-Council Certified SOC Analyst
Credential earnedEC-Council Certified SOC Analyst Certification Renewal and maintenance
EC-Council certifications require renewal through continuing education credits. Stay current with the latest technologies and maintain your certification.
Learn more about renewal requirements Lifecycle status
This certification is currently active and available. EC-Council maintains this certification to validate current skills and industry relevance.
Exam status: ActiveMaintained by EC-Council
Exam registration
Register for the exam through Pearson VUE, EC-Council’s authorized testing partner.
Schedule your examVisit the official EC-Council certification page for exam policies and requirements.
View the official pageYour coach
And when you are serious, your coach Pip takes over
Your coach in the app reads what you have answered with the book closed and tells you one thing to do tonight. It will not count an answer you gave with the page open, and it will tell you when you are not ready.
See how the coach worksBefore you book
Questions people ask
Is the CSA exam performance-based or does it include hands-on labs?
The CSA program includes 50 hands-on labs and 120 tools as part of the training, but the exam format itself is not detailed on the official page. EC-Council exams typically include multiple-choice questions, but you should check the official exam guide for the most accurate format.
What job roles does the CSA certification map to?
The CSA certification is designed for SOC analysts, security operations center team members, and IT professionals looking to transition into cybersecurity roles focused on threat detection and incident response.
Can I recertify by passing a different EC-Council exam?
EC-Council certifications require renewal through continuing education credits. Passing a higher-level EC-Council exam may contribute to your continuing education requirements, but you should verify with EC-Council for specific policies.
How does the CSA certification relate to the SOC Essentials (S|CE) series?
The SOC Essentials series is a fundamentals-level program that provides an introduction to SOC concepts. The CSA certification is a professional-level credential that builds on those foundational skills with more advanced SOC operations, SIEM, and incident response training.
Are there any regional differences in how the CSA exam is delivered?
EC-Council offers the CSA exam through Pearson VUE, which has test centers worldwide. Online proctoring is also available, but availability may vary by region. Check the Pearson VUE website for specific locations and online proctoring options.
Information freshness · Content last reviewed on 2026-07-30 Up to date
Practice free questions 701 questions, free, no account needed.
The curriculum
The whole exam, mapped and written
Every domain, every objective, and every concept EC-Council measures — each one written out.
6domains
15objectives
130concepts
144free pages
The domains, and what sits inside them
Every objective below is a page you can open and practise now, without an account.
The official EC-Council exam outline · checked 30 July 2026 · See the source
1Security Operations and Management86 questions
2Cyber Threats and Attack Methodology148 questions
3Log Management and SIEM91 questions
4Incident Detection and Triage115 questions
5Proactive Threat Detection100 questions
6Incident Response, Forensics and Cloud SOC161 questions
Not a table of contents
Every line on this map already opens
In front of every objective the practice pages are already there, free and without an account. This is one objective, opened.
Security Operations Center (SOC) Fundamentals9 pagesOpen →
Free in front of it
45 questions on this objective, five to a page. Every range above is a real page, open now, with no account.
Reading the map is not the same as knowing the ground
The curriculum tells you what is on the exam. Proving you know it is a different job — and it is the one the closed-book run does.
Free questions
701 questions. No account, no card.
The whole bank is open. 5 questions to a page, every answer explained, and a discussion thread on each one.
701questions
144pages
15objectives
Freealways
Browse by domain
Every objective, and every page range, is a link — so you can pick up exactly where you left off.
1Security Operations and Management86 questions
2Cyber Threats and Attack Methodology148 questions
3Log Management and SIEM91 questions
4Incident Detection and Triage115 questions
5Proactive Threat Detection100 questions
6Incident Response, Forensics and Cloud SOC161 questions
What a practice page gives you
1Five to a page
Short enough to finish, long enough to matter.
2Every answer explained
Not only which one is right — why the others are wrong.
3A discussion on each
Ask, answer, and vote. Every question has its own thread.
A question, and the idea behind it
Every question comes from a concept
These are not trivia. Each one is written against a concept in the book, so when you get one wrong there is somewhere to go and find out why.
The visual book
See it once. Carry it into the exam.
The pages shown here come from our AI-900 book — an example of how each concept is written in plain language and, where the idea needs one, drawn as a full page you can take in at a glance.
130concepts
701free questions
Why a picture, and not another paragraph
Three reasons, and each one is a real finding rather than a slogan.
You can see it againThe whole idea at onceWhere it starts, what happens in the middle, what comes out, and the mistake to avoid.
Multimedia principle · MayerThe look-alikes sit togetherThe pairs the exam tests are drawn side by side, so the difference is seen, not told.
Dual coding · PaivioWhat one page is made of
You are never asked to read a poster here — only to see how one is built. After that, every other page is legible at a glance.
1A numbered strip on top
The idea as a sequence, followed with a finger before a word is read.
2Panels for the parts
What it is, how the machine learns it, when it is the right tool.
3The trap, framed
The distinction the exam tests, given its own box instead of buried in prose.
4One line at the bottom
The sentence to carry into the exam room.
Open book, on purpose
Answer it with the picture beside you
This is the part that teaches. The illustration and the written explanation stay where they are while you work, so a scenario stops being a memory test and becomes something you can simply look at.
It teaches · it does not count
A smartphone uses AI to unlock when the owner looks at the camera. Which AI capability is being used?
AImage classification
BFacial recognition
COptical character recognition
DObject detection
Look at the five steps. Detect finds a face, align straightens it, encode turns it into numbers, search compares it with a stored face, and decide answers one question: is this the same person? Classification would only say “a face”. Detection would only draw a box. Neither decides whose.
Then the page shuts, and it starts counting
The same questions come back with the book closed — that run is the one that counts. After it, your coach picks one thing for tonight, sized to the time you have, and brings pages back before you lose them.
Testing effect · Roediger & Karpicke 2006 · spacing effect · Cepeda et al. 2006
Official resources
Straight from EC-Council
Where the exam is defined, scheduled and scored.
2official links
130concepts mapped
The source
EC-Council’s own pages
We link to them rather than repeat them, so nothing here goes stale behind them.
Checked against the source
Every objective on the official EC-Council outline already has questions here
We build from the official skills outline, not from a summary of it — 15 objectives, 130 concepts written under them, and free questions against every one. When EC-Council changes the outline, this page changes with it.
15objectives on the outline→130concepts written→701free questions
An official page tells you what will be asked. It cannot tell you what you will get right.
That is the only question worth answering the night before, and no link answers it. You answer it by taking the questions with the book closed, and seeing what comes back.