What is the Arcitura Cybersecurity Specialist exam?
The Arcitura Cybersecurity Specialist exam is the certification sitting for Arcitura's vendor-neutral Certified Cybersecurity Specialist credential - code CS90.01 in Pearson VUE's system. Arcitura's certification page publishes the format plainly: 110 minutes covering topics from all three modules in the Cybersecurity Specialist track, with no prerequisites and no required course purchase. Arcitura does not publish a question count or a passing grade. The sitting can be taken online from home via OnVUE or at a Pearson test center - verified per exam in Pearson's live registration flow on 2026-10-10.
What does the Cybersecurity Specialist syllabus actually cover?
The official Training and Certification Guide names the coverage module by module. Module 01, Fundamental Cybersecurity, builds the frame: the history of asset protection, business and technology drivers, protection characteristics and functions, common threat terminology, cybersecurity framework components, digital risk assessment and management, industry standards and frameworks, the intersection of cybersecurity with machine learning and AI, and resilience, risk, and effectiveness metrics.
Module 02, Advanced Cybersecurity, is the inventory module, and the guide names the inventory: 15 cybersecurity mechanisms including honeypots, biometric scanners, intrusion detection, malicious code analysis, and user behavior analytics systems; 9 monitoring mechanisms including malware monitors, network intrusion monitors, and data loss protection monitors; 13 cybersecurity processes including attack surface reduction, continuous vulnerability management, and network monitoring and defense. Against those defenses stand 13 common cyber threats and attacks - botnets, tunneling, remote code execution, and 8 types of malware - plus insider threats, social engineering, phishing, and advanced persistent threats.
Module 03, Cybersecurity Lab, turns the inventory into judgment: case-study exercises across the ENO Bank, ITI, Auto-Mech, and Top Sector Financial scenarios - a data breach, hidden malware, ransomware, phishing, a botnet and denial-of-service investigation, a software exploit with SQL injection, and a malicious insider. Arcitura estimates about ten hours of self-study per module.
What is the exact CS90.01 exam format?
What Arcitura publishes is exact, and what it does not publish is worth naming. Exact: the exam runs 110 minutes and covers topics from all three track modules; the sitting is proctored; passing earns the Certified Cybersecurity Specialist credential with a free digital Certificate of Excellence and an Acclaim/Credly badge issued automatically. Not published: the question count and the passing grade. Any site quoting a specific item count or pass percentage for CS90.01 is guessing - Arcitura's own pages do not carry those figures.
The scoring language Arcitura does publish is the honors rule on its help page: an honors designation requires a grade at least 10 percentage points above the required passing grade. The 78 percent in that explanation is an illustrative example, not the Cybersecurity Specialist pass mark.
Results logistics are published: it can take several business days for Arcitura to receive your result from Pearson VUE, and the vendor asks candidates to inquire if an exam is not listed in their history within 5 business days of sitting it.
What does the exam cost, and what are the retake rules?
The official Arcitura store lists the Cybersecurity Specialist complete certification exam from USD 249.00 - the operative figure on the vendor's own checkout, retrieved 2026-10-10. The complete-exam collection header adds the term that changes the risk math: the vouchers include exam retake vouchers.
Read that alongside Arcitura's general retake policy on the exams page - an exam voucher redeems for a single exam session, and each retake requires the purchase of a separate voucher at the regular cost. The store listing's included retake is the operative purchase term today; the exams page is the standing rule for any voucher without an included retake.
No course purchase is required to sit. Arcitura's help page states plainly that you are only required to pass the necessary exams - the Cybersecurity course, its practice questions, and instructor-led options are preparation choices, not gates. The full cost ladder across all Arcitura tiers, from the USD 199 professional exams to the USD 349 architect exams, is mapped in the companion cost explainer.
Can you take the Cybersecurity Specialist exam online?
Yes - and the verification here is per exam, not per program. On 2026-10-10, Pearson's live ARCITURAEDUCATI registration flow was opened in a real browser: the public catalog lists roughly eighty Arcitura exams, and the delivery-models step for CS90.01 (exam id 46793) presented both "In-person at a test center" and "Online with OnVUE". That is the strongest public tier of evidence - the scheduling flow itself, not a marketing line.
The OnVUE route carries hard minimums from the dedicated Arcitura OnVUE page: Windows 10 or macOS 14 or higher, webcam, microphone and speaker with no headphones, one display only, at least 6 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up, and every other application closed. Virtual machines, VPNs, corporate networks, and second screens are prohibited - note the irony: the stack a security professional runs daily is exactly what the exam machine must not run.
Arcitura adds a route Pearson does not run: direct online proctoring arranged by emailing [email protected] with your scheduling preferences. On-site proctoring at instructor-led workshops rounds out the map. The full route-by-route breakdown lives in the delivery-map companion.
Want the sitting handled instead?
If what you actually need is the credential - not another month of mechanism taxonomies - the service route is direct: Exam Assist handles the CS90.01 sitting end to end. Scheduling through your own Pearson account, the environment preparation against the published OnVUE minimums, the proctored sitting itself, and the result posting. A vetted security professional sits the exam; the syllabus above is their daily environment.
The commercial model is the one this whole site runs on: the service fee is due only after the agreed result posts. You buy the official voucher - with its included retake - and that purchase stays yours regardless. If the result does not post, you do not pay the service fee.
Send your background, your window, and your deadline through the booking page. You get an honest feasibility answer within hours, not a sales script.
The short version
The Arcitura Cybersecurity Specialist exam is one 110-minute proctored sitting - code CS90.01 - covering three modules from framework fundamentals through the named mechanism-and-threat inventory to case-study labs. It costs from USD 249 on the official store with a retake voucher included, requires no prerequisites and no course purchase, and can be taken at home via OnVUE or at a Pearson center - verified per exam on 2026-10-10. Arcitura publishes no question count and no pass mark, and this page says so instead of inventing them.
Whether you sit it yourself or hand it to someone who lives in the material, the credential is the same Certified Cybersecurity Specialist title with the free Credly badge. If you want it handled, the fee is due only after the agreed result posts - that is the offer, plainly.