Certification guide
CompTIA Security+ is the most widely held entry point into a cybersecurity career, a vendor-neutral certification that tells employers you can assess an organization’s security posture, recommend and implement controls, monitor hybrid cloud and on-premises environments, and operate with an awareness of the laws and policies that govern the work. It appears in more early-career security job listings than any comparable credential and satisfies U.S. DoD 8140 requirements for a long list of defense work roles.
The current exam version is SY0-701, released by CompTIA in November 2023. CompTIA typically refreshes the exam on a roughly three-year cycle, with a successor (SY0-801) expected to begin rolling out in late 2026 and SY0-701 remaining available for a transition period after that, check CompTIA’s official Security+ page for retirement dates before scheduling your test.
What the exam covers
CompTIA publishes official exam objectives that organize SY0-701 into five domains, each with a defined share of the exam. The domain names and weightings below are cited from those official objectives; the descriptions of what each one means in practice are our own.
General Security Concepts
The vocabulary and mental models everything else builds on: categories of security controls, the CIA triad and non-repudiation, Zero Trust principles, change management’s role in security, and foundational cryptography concepts from key management to hashing. Small in weight, but these ideas reappear inside questions across every other domain.
Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations
Know your adversary. This domain tests whether you can recognize threat actors and their motivations, spot attack techniques from phishing and business email compromise to injection attacks, malware families, and password attacks, understand common vulnerability classes, and pick the mitigation that actually addresses a given scenario.
Security Architecture
How to build environments that are defensible by design: comparing cloud, hybrid, virtualized, and industrial-control architectures; network design elements like segmentation, screened subnets, and secure remote access; protecting data across its states and jurisdictions; and the resilience patterns (clustering, backups, recovery sites) that keep a business running through failure.
Security Operations
The largest domain, and the day job: hardening and baselining systems, securing wireless and mobile fleets, vulnerability management and alerting, identity and access management from SSO to just-in-time privilege, automation, and the incident response lifecycle through forensics fundamentals. Expect scenario questions that read like tickets from a real SOC queue.
Security Program Management and Oversight
The governance layer: policies and standards, risk management from registers to quantitative analysis, third-party and vendor risk, compliance and privacy obligations, audits and penetration-test concepts, and building a security-awareness program. This is where technical practitioners often lose easy points, and where a well-drilled candidate quietly banks them.
How our practice exam prepares you
Our Security+ mock is built to the same blueprint: up to 90 questions in a 90-minute timed sitting, with the question mix weighted to the five domains in the same proportions as the official objectives. Every question is tagged to its domain, the order shuffles on every attempt, and each question comes with a full explanation covering why the right answer is right and why each distractor is wrong, because the explanation you read after a miss is where the real studying happens. Retake it as often as you like; your score history tracks your progress on your results page.
CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) — Practice Exam
Randomized full-length SY0-701 practice exam drawn from a large, blueprint-weighted bank. Every attempt is a fresh 90-question stratified draw matching the official domain blueprint (General Security…
Subscribe to startFrequently asked questions about SY0-701
What is the CompTIA Security+ certification?
Security+ is CompTIA’s vendor-neutral cybersecurity credential and the most widely held entry point into a security career. It tells employers you can assess an organization’s security posture, recommend and implement controls, monitor hybrid cloud and on-premises environments, and operate with an awareness of the laws and policies that govern the work. It also satisfies U.S. DoD 8140 requirements for a long list of defense work roles.
How many questions are on the SY0-701 exam and how long is it?
Up to 90 questions in a 90-minute sitting, an average of about one minute per item. Because the count is a maximum rather than a fixed number, plan your pacing around the full 90 rather than assuming a shorter form.
What is the passing score for Security+?
750 out of 900 on CompTIA’s scaled scoring system. A scaled score is not a straight percentage of questions answered correctly, so treat consistent strong performance on blueprint-weighted practice exams, not a single lucky run, as your readiness signal.
What kinds of questions does SY0-701 use?
A mix of multiple-choice items and performance-based questions. The performance-based questions put you into a simulated task rather than asking you to recall a term, and the multiple-choice items lean heavily on scenarios: Domain 4 in particular reads like tickets pulled from a real SOC queue.
What are the five SY0-701 domains and their weights?
General Security Concepts (12%), Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations (22%), Security Architecture (18%), Security Operations (28%), and Security Program Management and Oversight (20%). Security Operations is the single largest domain and deserves the most study time.
Which domain is the hardest to prepare for?
Security Program Management and Oversight surprises people. At 20% of the exam it is the second-heaviest domain, but it is governance rather than technology, policies and standards, risk registers and quantitative analysis, third-party risk, compliance and privacy, audits, and security-awareness programs. Technical practitioners often lose easy points there, and a well-drilled candidate quietly banks them.
Which Security+ version is current, and when does it retire?
SY0-701, released by CompTIA in November 2023. CompTIA typically refreshes the exam on a roughly three-year cycle, and a successor (SY0-801) is expected to begin rolling out in late 2026, with SY0-701 remaining available for a transition period after that. Check CompTIA’s official Security+ page for retirement dates before scheduling your test.
How should I prepare for the SY0-701 exam?
Download the complete official exam objectives from CompTIA at comptia.org, then drill against them under timed conditions. Our Security+ mock is built to the same blueprint, up to 90 questions in a 90-minute timed sitting, with the question mix weighted to the five domains in the same proportions as the official objectives. Every question is tagged to its domain, the order shuffles on every attempt, and each question carries a full explanation covering why the right answer is right and why each distractor is wrong.
What is the difference between Security+ and CySA+?
Security+ is the entry point: broad coverage of concepts, threats, architecture, operations, and governance, aimed at someone stepping into their first security role. CySA+ (CS0-004) is the analyst-level credential further along the same path, going deeper into detection and response work. Most candidates take Security+ first and use it as the foundation for CySA+.
Trademark and content notice. Certifym.net is operated by Certifym Exam Services, LLC and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by CompTIA, Inc. CompTIA® and Security+® are registered trademarks of CompTIA, Inc. The SY0-701 exam objectives, including the domain titles and weightings referenced above, are the copyrighted property of CompTIA, Inc., and are cited here for identification and educational reference only. Candidates should download the complete, official exam objectives directly from CompTIA at comptia.org.
All practice questions, answers, and explanations on this site are original content created by Certifym; they are not actual CompTIA exam questions and are not derived from any live exam content. Use of this site does not guarantee a passing score on any certification exam. Exam details (question counts, duration, scoring, and version timelines) are subject to change by CompTIA, always verify current details on CompTIA’s official website.