This has been a frequently asked question from many of our participants.

 Most common questions asked are:

1. I have 4 years of BA experience. Should I wait for 1 more year and take CBAP?
2. Is CCBA as recognized as CBAP?
3. Will CCBA be as difficult as CBAP?
4. How should my preparation be different?

Similarities between CCBA® and CBAP®

1. The reference guide for both examinations is BABoK® V3.
2. Reference requirements are the same.
3. Fees are same :(
4. Exam mode is the same i.e. Prometric.
5. Coverage is practically same – Entire BABoK® :(
6. Knowledge area coverage is quite similar

Differences between CCBA® and CBAP®

 1. Work Experience requirements

CCBA® is recommended for mid-level BA professionals. The work experience requirement is 3750 hours which can translate to roughly 2.5 years of work experience.

 CBAP® is recommended for mid-level BA professionals. The work experience
the requirement is 7500 hours which can translate to roughly 5 years of work experience.

 However, given the complexity of the CBAP® V3 examination, we strongly recommend 6+ years of business analysis experience for CBAP Certification.

2. PDU requirements

CCBA® requires 21 hours of PDUs.

CBAP® requires 35 hours of PDUs.

This means the cost of training will be lower compared to CBAP®.

3. Question pattern

CCBA® Question pattern

Question pattern for CBAP® V3 is significantly different from CCBA® V3
question pattern.

In CCBA®, there are 130 questions, most likely pattern being a majority
(approx. being 80%) being scenario-based questions and 20% definition oriented questions.

One more interesting aspect to observe is that the CCBA® V3 question pattern is much better than the CCBA® V2 question pattern.

CCBA® V2 questions had a lot of memorization questions that have been removed in CCBA® V3. This is indeed a welcome change.

 CBAP® Question pattern

Case-based questions are newly introduced in CBAP®.

In CBAP®, there are only 120 questions. Each case is around 1 to 2 pages long and likely to have 4 to 6 questions per case.

Of the 120 questions in CBAP®, around 40 to 50 questions (approx. 35% to 40%) are likely to be case-based and rest 70 to 80 questions (approx.60 to 65%) are likely to be scenario-based.

You also may see calculation oriented questions in CBAP® than in CCBA®.

If one is looking for CBAP® simulators, make sure that the CBAP® simulator provides you with a good number of case-based questions.

4. Exam durations

CBAP® is for 3.5 hours whereas CCBA® is for 3 years.

5. Preparation efforts

The recommended preparation effort for CCBA® will be between 100 to 150 hours.

Recommended preparation effort for CBAP® will be 150 to 250 hours depending on your experience and comfort with BA practices.

6. Brand recognition

CBAP® for sure better marketing reputation at present compared to CCBA®.

However, we believe given the emphasis now on CCBA® and making CBAP® a lot tougher to achieve, the market will start accepting CCBA® as well.

IIBA® per-se is seeing a lot more market visibility for the last couple of years.

Finally, a few words about us

My organization, Adaptive US provides CCBA® and CBAP® V3 online workshops with a success guarantee.

As a part of the success guarantee, Adaptive shall pay the re-take fees if needed.

Our CBAP® V3 simulator provides 1000+ questions of which approximately 200 are case-based, 400+ are scenario-based and 400+ are concept based.

Our CCBA® V3 simulator provides 700+ questions of which approximately 500+ are scenario-based and 200+ are concept based.

Happy reading and have a wonderful day and do provide your suggestions and comments.