CSI Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield CSI facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. When configuring a safety PLC for a safety integrity level (SIL) 2 application, which requirement is mandatory? → Redundant input channels with cross-checking (1oo2 or 2oo3 voting) must be implemented
2. In a CSI project, the integration acceptance test plan should be developed: → During the design phase before coding or configuration begins
3. A system integration project has three vendors with overlapping scopes. From a governance perspective, what is the MOST important document to establish? → Clear interface control documents with defined responsibilities per vendor
4. During a stress test, which condition signals that a system has reached its 'breaking point'? → Error rate rises sharply and throughput drops simultaneously
5. A project manager needs to estimate project duration with high uncertainty. Which technique uses optimistic, pessimistic, and most-likely estimates? → Three-point estimating (PERT)
6. In capacity planning, the term 'headroom' refers to: → The unused resource capacity reserved for traffic spikes
7. What is the role of encryption in system security? → To protect sensitive data by converting it into an unreadable format
8. During integration testing, a 'stub' is used to: → Simulate a downstream component that is not yet available
9. A company using AWS and Azure wants a single pane of glass for cloud cost management. Which category of tool addresses this need? → Cloud Management Platform (CMP) or FinOps tool
10. Which OAuth 2.0 grant type is most appropriate for a server-to-server REST API integration with no user involvement? → Client Credentials
11. Which middleware pattern is best suited to aggregate responses from multiple microservice calls into a single API response? → Backend for Frontend (BFF) pattern
12. A post-implementation review (PIR) after a major integration deployment should focus on: → Evaluating what went well, what failed, and lessons learned to improve future deployments
13. A vendor's SLA guarantees 99.9% uptime. What maximum annual downtime does this translate to? → 8.76 hours per year
14. Which quality assurance method is most commonly applied in it project governance to verify that CSI professional standards are being met? → Structured audits, peer reviews, and performance metrics aligned with industry benchmarks
15. A transformation that replaces sensitive data with a format-preserving but fictitious value is called: → Data masking
16. A risk that has occurred and is now actively affecting the project is reclassified as a(n): → Issue
17. In event-driven integration, what does 'event sourcing' refer to? → Storing state changes as an immutable sequence of events rather than current state only
18. What does 'throughput' measure in the context of system performance benchmarking? → The number of requests or transactions completed per unit of time
19. When a project sponsor requests a reduction in project scope to recover schedule, what should the project manager document first? → A formal scope change request with impact analysis on cost, schedule, and quality
20. Which compliance regulation primarily governs the protection of cardholder data in payment processing systems? → PCI DSS
21. Which of the following is a fundamental principle of system-to-system integration patterns as it applies to Certified System Integrator? → Systematic evaluation and adherence to established industry standards
22. What is the primary purpose of a project communication plan? → To define who receives what information, how often, and through which channel
23. Which quality assurance method is most commonly applied in security architecture & iam to verify that CSI professional standards are being met? → Structured audits, peer reviews, and performance metrics aligned with industry benchmarks
24. In the context of API versioning strategies, which approach embeds the version number directly in the URL path? → URI path versioning
25. A system integrator is deploying an ICS environment. Which security framework is specifically designed for industrial control systems? → IEC 62443
26. In a multi-cloud strategy, which tool is commonly used to manage infrastructure consistently across AWS, Azure, and GCP? → Terraform
27. Which governance artifact formally documents the authority levels for project decisions and who must approve each type? → Decision authority matrix (RACI)
28. In cryptography, what is a 'salt' used for in password hashing? → To add a random value to each password before hashing, preventing rainbow table attacks
29. Which integration pattern uses a central component to query multiple backend services and combine their results into a single response for the caller? → Scatter-Gather
30. A CSI is hardening an Active Directory environment. Which configuration MOST reduces the attack surface for credential theft? → Enabling Protected Users security group and disabling NTLM where possible