May 22, 2026
CISA Practice Test Comparison 2026: ISACA QAE vs. Gleim vs. Hemang Doshi vs. Indie Options
If you're three to four months out from your CISA exam, you've probably realized that picking practice tests is harder than picking a study guide. The Review Manual market is consolidated — most candidates use the official ISACA Review Manual or one of two well-known alternatives. Practice tests are a different story. There are dozens of products at wildly different price points, ranging from $5 Udemy bundles to $400 institutional question banks, and the marketing copy on most of them sounds nearly identical.
This guide compares the practice test products that actually matter in 2026, what each one does well, what each one is bad at, and how to think about combining them. The honest answer is that no single product is enough on its own. The candidates who pass tend to layer two or three products, each used for a different purpose.
The four product categories
The market splits into four categories. Understanding which category a product belongs to matters more than the brand name, because category determines what the product is actually good for.
Authoritative question banks are licensed or built by organizations with official ties to the exam. ISACA's QAE database is the only true representative of this category. The questions are written by the same body that writes the exam, which makes them the closest thing to a leaked question pool that legally exists.
Comprehensive third-party question banks are large databases — typically 1,000 to 4,000 questions — built by established prep companies. Gleim is the dominant product here. The questions are written in the style of CISA but are not licensed; quality varies by domain and by question writer.
Author-driven study products are built around a single recognizable author or instructor. Hemang Doshi's CISA materials are the best-known example. These products usually combine a study guide with practice questions and tend to be tightly integrated, with the questions reinforcing the author's specific teaching framework.
Simulation-focused products are built around the timed exam experience rather than question volume. cisamock.com is in this category, along with a small number of other indie products. The point isn't to drill thousands of questions; it's to rehearse the four-hour sitting under realistic conditions and get diagnostic feedback on pacing and thinking errors.
Most candidates need at least one product from category one (authoritative content) and at least one from category four (simulation rehearsal). Categories two and three are useful additions but not strictly necessary.
ISACA QAE Database
What it is: The official ISACA Question, Answer & Explanation database. About 1,000 questions, mapped to the current job practice domains, written by ISACA itself.
What it's good for: Authoritative content. Because the questions come from ISACA, they're the closest you'll get to the style, difficulty, and topic distribution of the actual exam. The explanations cite ISACA's official position on each topic, which matters for the questions where ISACA's view differs slightly from common industry practice.
What it's bad at: Pacing rehearsal. The QAE platform is a quiz interface, not an exam simulator. You can't take a 4-hour, 150-question timed sitting that mimics the Pearson VUE interface. The interface is also dated, and the experience of working through it doesn't feel anything like the actual exam.
Cost: Around $185 for a one-year subscription as of 2026. ISACA members get a meaningful discount.
When it's worth it: Always. The QAE is the authoritative reference for what ISACA considers a correct answer. Even if you don't drill every question, you should review enough of them to calibrate your answer style to ISACA's preferences — particularly on the questions where industry practice and ISACA position differ.
When it's not enough: It's never enough on its own. The QAE doesn't rehearse exam-day timing or give you diagnostic feedback on why your wrong answers were wrong. You need a simulation-focused product alongside it.
Gleim CISA Test Prep
What it is: A large third-party question bank — typically 1,500+ questions — with explanations, performance tracking, and study planner integration. Gleim has been in the certification prep business for decades, primarily on the CPA and CIA side.
What it's good for: Volume drilling. If you're early in your prep and want to expose yourself to as many CISA-style questions as possible across all five domains, Gleim has the inventory. The platform tracks your performance over time and surfaces weak areas, which is useful for guiding which content to review.
What it's bad at: Question style consistency. Some questions feel exactly like ISACA-written questions; others feel slightly off in ways that's hard to articulate but matters on exam day. Gleim's strength is volume, not perfect calibration to ISACA's style.
Cost: Around $300–400 for the full Test Prep package as of 2026, depending on bundle and discount status.
When it's worth it: If you're a candidate who learns by doing many questions, and you have at least 10 weeks until your exam. Gleim's value is in the volume, and you need time to actually work through it.
When to skip it: If you're already comfortable with the content and just need rehearsal, you don't need 1,500 more questions — you need realistic timed sittings. Spending $400 on volume drilling when your weakness is pacing or pattern recognition is a poor use of money.
Hemang Doshi CISA Materials
What it is: A study guide and question bank built around Hemang Doshi's specific teaching framework. The product has a strong following on Reddit and YouTube, and Doshi himself runs a recognizable prep brand in the IS audit space.
What it's good for: Conceptual frameworks. Doshi's strength is making CISA concepts memorable through specific frameworks and mnemonics. Candidates who struggle to remember the difference between similar-sounding concepts (preventive vs. detective controls, qualitative vs. quantitative risk assessment) often find Doshi's framing finally makes the distinction stick.
What it's bad at: Exam simulation. Like the QAE, Doshi's question bank is a learning tool, not a rehearsal tool. You can drill questions but you can't take a realistic timed sitting.
Cost: Variable. Books are inexpensive ($30–50). Online courses and question banks range from $50 to $200 depending on bundle.
When it's worth it: If you've struggled with the conceptual side of CISA and the Review Manual feels too dry, Doshi's products are a strong supplement. The teaching style is more accessible than ISACA's official materials.
When to skip it: If conceptual recall isn't your weakness, the framework focus may not give you much you don't already have.
cisamock.com (and other simulation-focused products)
What it is: Two full-length, ISACA-style mock exams — 150 questions each, 240-minute timed sittings, with per-question pacing analysis and wrong-answer pattern coaching that explains the thinking error behind each wrong answer, not just the correct answer.
What it's good for: Exam-day rehearsal. The product is built for one purpose: simulating the four-hour CISA exam under realistic conditions and giving you diagnostic feedback that tells you why you got questions wrong. The pattern coaching tags each wrong answer with the specific thinking error (missed qualifier, scope too broad, sequence error, definition trap) so you can fix the behavior rather than just memorize the correct answer.
What it's bad at: Volume drilling. Two mocks is 300 questions total, which isn't enough if you're early in prep and need to drill broad content coverage. cisamock.com is designed to be used alongside a question bank, not as a replacement.
Cost: $25 per mock, or $40 for both as a bundle.
When it's worth it: In the final two to four weeks before your exam, when you've covered the content and need to practice executing under timed conditions. Most candidates don't fail CISA on knowledge — they fail on pacing and on missing question patterns. Simulation-focused products fix the failure mode that volume drilling can't.
When to skip it: If your exam is more than three months out and you haven't finished the Review Manual, you're not ready for full-length timed mocks. Use this category in the final stretch, not at the start.
How to combine products
The candidates who pass CISA on their first sitting tend to layer products by phase of prep:
Months 4–3 before exam: ISACA Review Manual + Gleim or Hemang Doshi for content coverage and broad question exposure. The point at this stage is breadth and conceptual recall.
Months 3–1 before exam: ISACA QAE for authoritative calibration. Drill enough QAE questions to confirm you're answering in ISACA's preferred style on the questions where it matters.
Final 2–4 weeks before exam: Full-length timed mocks for rehearsal. Take at least one mock under realistic conditions (4 hours, no breaks beyond what Pearson VUE allows, no notes). Review the pacing chart and wrong-answer patterns carefully — these tell you what behaviors to fix on exam day.
If your budget is tight, the minimum viable combination is ISACA QAE plus a simulation-focused product. QAE handles authoritative content; the simulation handles rehearsal. Skip the third-party question banks if you're confident in your content knowledge and just need exam-day execution practice.
What about Udemy practice tests?
Udemy bundles practice tests for $5–20 each. They're cheap because most are written by anonymous instructors with no ties to ISACA, no consistent quality control, and no diagnostic feedback. The questions vary wildly in style and accuracy. Some Udemy bundles are surprisingly good; most are mediocre to bad.
If you want low-cost volume exposure and you've already covered the content thoroughly enough to spot bad questions when you see them, Udemy bundles can work as a supplement. If you're using them as your primary practice, you're risking calibrating your answer style to questions that don't reflect how ISACA actually writes the exam.
The honest recommendation
For a candidate three to four months out from the exam: ISACA Review Manual + ISACA QAE + a simulation-focused product like cisamock.com in the final stretch. Total cost is around $250–280, which is less than half of what most candidates spend on prep.
If you have more time and want broader question exposure, add Gleim or Doshi in the middle of your prep window. If you're already strong on content and just need rehearsal, you can skip the third-party question banks entirely and put that money toward retaking the simulation closer to exam day.
The most expensive mistake isn't picking the wrong product — it's picking too many products and spreading your prep time across all of them instead of going deep on the ones that actually fix your specific weakness.