- What the Code C1000-162 Actually Identifies
- The Exam at a Glance
- Scope: Update Package 5 and What Is Excluded
- The Five Domains and Where the Points Sit
- How Questions Are Presented
- Foundational Knowledge IBM Expects You Already Have
- Registration, Fees and Delivery Mechanics
- Who Benefits From This Credential
- Sequencing Your Preparation Around the Domain Weights
- Frequently Asked Questions
- C1000-162 is the IBM Security QRadar SIEM V7.5 Analysis exam, the required exam for the IBM Certified Analyst credential.
- The exam has 64 questions in 90 minutes, and passing requires 41 correct answers.
- Threat Hunting (24%), Offense Analysis (23%) and Searching and Reporting (21%) carry about 68% of the exam.
- The guide specifies V7.5 Update Package 5; QRadar on Cloud SaaS and app-specific functions are excluded.
What the Code C1000-162 Actually Identifies
C1000-162 is the exam code for IBM Security QRadar SIEM V7.5 Analysis. Passing it earns the IBM Certified Analyst - Security QRadar SIEM V7.5 credential, which IBM Professional Certification catalogs under credential code C9005200. C1000-162 is the single required exam for that credential, so there is no multi-exam path to untangle.
The code is worth stating precisely because it is easy to misread. Some third-party sites label this code as an administration or cloud-architecture exam. IBM's own exam record is unambiguous: the focus is analysis. You are tested on how an analyst works inside QRadar, investigating offenses, hunting threats, writing searches and reports, and tuning rules, rather than on installing, scaling or deploying the platform. If you want a deeper treatment of the naming question, see our explainers on the C1000-162 meaning and what C1000-162 stands for.
The Exam at a Glance
The verified exam parameters are compact and worth memorizing before you plan anything else.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Exam name | IBM Security QRadar SIEM V7.5 Analysis |
| Credential | IBM Certified Analyst - Security QRadar SIEM V7.5 (C9005200) |
| Number of questions | 64 |
| Time allowed | 90 minutes |
| Passing requirement | 41 correct answers |
| Language | English |
| Prerequisite exam | None listed |
| Status | Live (verified 20 October 2026) |
| Delivery | Proctored, computer-based via Pearson VUE |
A few practical observations follow from these numbers. With 64 questions in 90 minutes you have roughly 85 seconds per question on average, which is tight for items that ask you to reason about an offense or order a sequence of steps. And because the pass criterion is expressed as a count of correct answers, 41 of 64, your target is concrete: you can miss at most 23 questions. For more on how that threshold plays out, read our breakdown of the C1000-162 passing score.
IBM has not published an issuer population pass rate, and no renewal interval was verified for this credential, so treat any figure you see quoted elsewhere with caution. Our page on the C1000-162 pass rate explains what can and cannot be said responsibly.
Scope: Update Package 5 and What Is Excluded
The study guide specifies V7.5 Update Package 5 Analysis as the target. That version pin tells you which console behavior and interface layout to practice against. If you have a lab or demo environment, make sure it matches this release family rather than an older 7.4 deployment or a much newer build.
Apps explicitly in scope
- Use Case Manager, relevant to mapping rules and content to frameworks and understanding rule coverage
- QRadar Assistant
- Log Source Manager
- Pulse, the dashboarding app
The guide also states that app extensibility is in scope, meaning you should understand how apps extend the platform even though you will not be examined on every app's internal functions.
What is excluded
- App-specific functions beyond the four included apps
- QRadar on Cloud (QRoC) SaaS
The Five Domains and Where the Points Sit
IBM publishes five formal exam objectives with approximate weights. The weights are issuer-published approximations, not per-form guarantees, but they tell you where to invest. For a fuller walkthrough, see our complete guide to all five C1000-162 content areas.
| Domain | Approx. Weight |
|---|---|
| Threat Hunting | 24% |
| Offense Analysis | 23% |
| Searching and Reporting | 21% |
| Rules and Building Block Design | 18% |
| Dashboard Management | 14% |
Domain 3: Threat Hunting (24%)
The heaviest domain. Expect scenario-driven questions about proactively finding suspicious activity rather than waiting for an offense to fire.
- Pivoting from an indicator to related events, flows and assets
- Using attack frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK to frame hypotheses
- Choosing the right data to query when the question describes a behavior
Domain 1: Offense Analysis (23%)
The core analyst workflow: understanding why an offense exists and deciding what to do about it.
- Reading offense summaries, contributing events and flows, and offense magnitude factors
- Understanding how offenses are indexed, grouped and attributed to sources and destinations
- Triage decisions: assign, follow up, protect, close, and the effect each has
Domain 5: Searching and Reporting (21%)
Hands-on query and output skills.
- Building, saving and refining event and flow searches, including AQL concepts
- Filters, grouping and time-range choices, and how they change results
- Generating and scheduling reports from search criteria
Domain 2: Rules and Building Block Design (18%)
Analysts do not just consume rules; they reason about them.
- The difference between rules and building blocks, and why reusable logic matters
- Reading rule tests and understanding what causes a rule to respond
- Tuning to reduce noise without losing detection value
Domain 4: Dashboard Management (14%)
The smallest domain, but the points are accessible if you have used the interface.
- Creating and customizing dashboards and widgets
- Using Pulse as an in-scope app for visualization
- Matching a visualization to the question an analyst is trying to answer
Note the arithmetic: the top three domains together account for roughly 68% of the exam. A candidate who is strong on investigation and querying but weak on dashboards can still clear the bar, though ignoring any domain entirely is risky given only 23 misses are allowed.
How Questions Are Presented
IBM's official sample document demonstrates single-answer multiple choice, multiple-answer multiple choice and an ordering or build-list task. Exam metadata additionally flags hot-area items, although the exact mix on any individual exam form is not specified.
- Multiple-answer items require you to pick every correct option; partial recognition is not enough, so read the stem for how many selections are expected.
- Ordering tasks test process knowledge, for example the sequence of steps in an investigation or configuration workflow. Memorizing the order, not just the components, is what pays off.
- Hot-area items test interface familiarity: you may be asked to identify a location or element on a screen. Time in the actual console is the best preparation.
Key Takeaway
IBM's sample is a 12-page document, and IBM itself notes it is not exhaustive and does not predict exam success. Use it to learn the item styles, then build real depth through console practice rather than treating it as a preview of the exam.
Foundational Knowledge IBM Expects You Already Have
The study guide separates prior knowledge from measured objectives. You are not tested directly on the foundational items, but the exam assumes you can use them without stopping to think:
- TCP/IP and general networking, because events and flows are meaningless without them
- IT security fundamentals
- Browser skills, since the QRadar console is web-based
- Regular expressions, relevant to custom properties and searches
- Attack types, including familiarity with MITRE ATT&CK
- Awareness of separately licensed features such as Network Insights and Incident Forensics
That final point is subtle: knowing these licensed features exist and what they add is expected context, but they are not a substitute for mastering the core analyst console. See our page on C1000-162 requirements and prerequisites for how this plays into eligibility.
Registration, Fees and Delivery Mechanics
IBM exams are delivered through Pearson VUE as proctored, computer-based tests. Whether you can sit at a test center, take the exam remotely through OnVUE, or both depends on the selected exam and your country, so confirm availability when you schedule.
Fee
The issuer review records an indicative U.S. list fee of USD 200, and the current exam record shows a price field of 200 without a currency label. Treat USD 200 as an indicative U.S. figure and confirm the final amount, taxes and any regional pricing at checkout. Our C1000-162 certification cost breakdown covers the surrounding costs such as training and retakes.
OnVUE remote delivery requirements
- A completed system check before exam day
- A matching photo ID
- A private testing space
- Books and notes are prohibited
Run the system check well ahead of your appointment instead of on exam morning. For scheduling windows and timing questions, see C1000-162 exam dates and scheduling.
Who Benefits From This Credential
This is an analyst credential for a specific platform, so its value concentrates where QRadar is deployed. Typical fits include:
- SOC analysts (tier 1 and tier 2) who triage offenses daily
- Threat hunters and detection engineers who write searches and tune rules and building blocks
- Managed security service provider staff operating QRadar for multiple clients
- Security engineers who support analysts and need to speak the same language
Employers that run QRadar often list platform familiarity in job postings, and a vendor credential gives a recruiter a quick signal that you have been measured against IBM's own objectives. It does not replace experience, and any specific salary claim should be viewed skeptically; we discuss the evidence in our C1000-162 salary guide, explore openings in C1000-162 jobs, and weigh the trade-offs in whether the certification is worth it.
Sequencing Your Preparation Around the Domain Weights
You do not need a generic study framework here; you need an order that respects dependencies between domains. Searching underpins hunting, and rule logic underpins offense understanding, so build from the tools toward the judgment calls.
Searching and Reporting (21%)
- Learn event and flow search construction and AQL basics first, since later domains reuse these skills
- Refresh RegEx and TCP/IP gaps identified in the guide's prior-knowledge list
Rules and Building Block Design (18%)
- Study rules versus building blocks so offense generation makes sense
- Inspect existing rules in the console and read what each test does
Offense Analysis (23%)
- Walk offenses end to end: contributing events, flows, assets, magnitude and disposition actions
Threat Hunting (24%) and Dashboards (14%)
- Practice hypothesis-driven hunts mapped to MITRE ATT&CK
- Build Pulse dashboards and revisit weak areas with timed practice
Adjust the length to your experience; a working QRadar analyst may compress this considerably, while someone new to SIEM should stretch it. For a fuller plan, use our C1000-162 study guide, quick-review facts in the C1000-162 cheat sheet, and the training options overview. IBM also describes a two-hour preparation course, but that is a course length and should not be confused with the 90-minute exam timer. When you are ready to test yourself under realistic conditions, take a timed run on our C1000-162 practice tests. If you are weighing difficulty before committing, read how hard the exam is, and for the formal overview return to the main C1000-162 certification page.
Frequently Asked Questions
C1000-162 is the exam code for IBM Security QRadar SIEM V7.5 Analysis. It is the required exam for the IBM Certified Analyst - Security QRadar SIEM V7.5 credential issued by IBM Professional Certification.
The exam has 64 questions to be completed in 90 minutes. IBM states the passing requirement as 41 correct answers, so you can miss at most 23 questions.
No prerequisite exam is listed. However, the study guide assumes foundational knowledge of TCP/IP, IT security, browser and RegEx skills, and attack types including MITRE ATT&CK.
Threat Hunting is the largest at about 24%, followed by Offense Analysis at 23% and Searching and Reporting at 21%. Rules and Building Block Design is about 18% and Dashboard Management about 14%.
No. The study guide excludes QRadar on Cloud (QRoC) SaaS and app-specific functions beyond the included apps: Use Case Manager, QRadar Assistant, Log Source Manager and Pulse. The target release is V7.5 Update Package 5.
In short, C1000-162 is a focused, analyst-level measure of how well you can investigate, hunt, search and tune inside IBM QRadar SIEM V7.5. Learn the five domains in proportion to their weights, practice in the real console, and use IBM's official exam page and study guide as your source of truth.