How we research

Every exam fee and published price on a certification page comes from the certification body's or provider's own page, with the date it was checked (dates are in Coordinated Universal Time). Study-time figures are our estimates, and first-attempt totals are our arithmetic.

Exam facts

Fees, formats, experience rules, renewal requirements and version dates come from the certification body's own pages: Cisco, CompTIA, ISC2, ISACA, PMI, Microsoft, AWS and so on. When two of its pages disagree, we say so and link both. When a body announces a new exam version, we update the page and say which version it covers.

Training prices

We record the published list price of named courses from each provider's own course page: the course name, format, length, whether the exam voucher is included, and the date. We do not use prices from resellers, review sites or search snippets. A published price is not a quote: providers change prices, run promotions and charge more for late registration, and a team can ask for a private-class quote. We aim to recheck the prices on each page every 30 days, and each row shows the date it was last checked. We keep older observations, so a page can say when a price changed.

Estimates

Study-time figures are our estimates for a typical candidate and are labelled as estimates. Total-cost figures add the exam fee to a published course price unless the provider says the voucher is included.

Writing and review

Alexander Shick, the editor, researches and drafts pages with AI assistance, including reading issuer and provider pages and recording the prices they show. A separate AI review checks each page against its sources before publication. We have not taken or tested these courses, interviewed providers or had pages reviewed by outside subject experts. The editor is accountable for what goes live. We summarize exam domains in our own words with the official weights, and we never copy a certification body's objective lists, exam questions or course material.

Mistakes

If you find an error, we will fix it and note the change on our corrections page. Corrections can be sent through the request form once it opens.