Download the certification brochure (Spanish): Click here

Exam Details

• Exam Name: Secure Software Development Certified Associate (SSDA)
• Exam Format: Multiple choice, online with remote supervision (proctoring)
• Exam Delivery: Safe Exam Browser
• Number of Questions: 60 questions: 70% scenarios / 30% conceptual
• Exam Duration: 75 minutes
• Passing Score: 65% (39 out of 60 correct answers)
• Available Languages: Spanish / English
• Attempts: Maximum 2 attempts (minimum 15 days between attempts)
• Validity: 3 years · 15 CPD credits per year

Main Subjects

• SDLC security fundamentals and maturity models (14%): Shift left; NIST SSDF; OWASP SAMM and BSIMM; Security Champion.
• Secure design and threat modeling (STRIDE) (14%): Least privilege; Defense in depth; DFDs and trust boundaries; STRIDE.
• Secure coding: OWASP Top 10 and CWE Top 25 (22%): SQL injection and XSS; IDOR; Deserialization and path traversal; Input validation.
• Applied cryptography and data protection (14%): AES-256-GCM, RSA and ECC; bcrypt and Argon2; TLS 1.2/1.3; Key management.
• Authentication, session and access control (14%): NIST SP 800-63B and MFA; OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect; Secure cookies; RBAC and ABAC.
• Security verification and testing (SAST, SCA, ASVS) (14%): SAST, SCA and DAST; OWASP ASVS v5.0; Semgrep and Snyk; Quality gates.
• Vulnerability lifecycle management (8%): CVSS v3.1; Risk acceptance; Responsible disclosure; NVD.

Who is this certification for?

• Software developers: Who write secure code from the design stage.
• Software architects: Who integrate security into the architecture.
• Security Champions and DevSecOps engineers: Who lead security within their teams.

Prerequisites

No mandatory prerequisites: no prior experience, training or certification is required. Registration is direct with CertJoin or through an authorized partner. Recommended (not mandatory): basic programming experience in any language.