Certification bodies retire exams and refresh outlines all the time, and the change is easy to miss if you are working from an old study guide. While writing the detailed syllabi for our courses we checked each one against the awarding body's own published pages. These are the changes that matter most if you are booking an exam this year.
Exams that have retired
- Palo Alto Networks PCNSE retired on 31 July 2025. The nearest current credential is the Palo Alto Networks Certified Next-Generation Firewall Engineer.
- Microsoft AZ-500 retired on 31 August 2026, together with the Azure Security Engineer Associate credential. Microsoft's successor is the Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate.
- AWS Certified Security – Specialty SCS-C02 retired on 1 December 2025 and was replaced by SCS-C03 the next day.
- Check Point CCSA and CCSE R81.20 exams retired on 30 June 2026. The R82 exams replace them.
Exams that have changed version
- CompTIA CASP+ is now SecurityX (CAS-005), since December 2024.
- CompTIA CySA+ CS0-003 retires on 22 December 2026; CS0-004 is already published.
- Cisco CCNA moves from v1.1 to v2.0 on 3 February 2027, with a new domain covering AI and network operations.
- HashiCorp Terraform Associate 003 has been superseded by 004. Be careful — the 003 objectives are still online and are easy to study by mistake.
Outlines that have been refreshed
- PMP was refreshed in July 2026. The weightings moved sharply: Business Environment now carries far more of the exam than before.
- CCSP changed its outline on 1 August 2026 and now covers AI and machine learning.
- CISM changes its outline on 3 November 2026.
- CRISC changed on 3 November 2025, and CDPSE went from three domains to four on 2 June 2025.
What to do if you are preparing now
- Check the exam code on your booking against the awarding body's own website, not a reseller's page.
- If your exam is retiring, decide now whether to sit it before the date or prepare for the replacement.
- Ask us. Every course page has a syllabus request, and our advisers will tell you which version a batch is teaching.
Exam dates and codes change. Always confirm on the certification body's own site before you book.
