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Exam Information
Official specifications published by CompTIA
Exam Format
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Skills this practice test covers
- Classify security controls as technical, managerial, operational or physical, and by what they do.
- Recognize the indicators of malware, password and application attacks in a described scenario.
- Secure cloud, on-premises and industrial systems with segmentation and zero trust design.
- Track a vulnerability from the scan and its CVSS score through remediation and validation.
- Set up identity and access management with MFA, single sign-on and privileged access management.
- Assess a vendor's risk and pick the agreement that fits, such as an SLA or an MOU.
Explore related topics
SY0-701 exam content
5 domains · 28 topics · 351 of 1,483 questions are written for SY0-701
General Security Concepts12%44 questions
This domain sets the vocabulary for the rest of the exam: control types, the CIA triad, zero trust and cryptography. It also covers change management, because an unplanned change can open a gap in security.
Skills tested
- Sort controls by category and type, such as a technical preventive control or a physical deterrent.
- Explain the zero trust control and data planes, including the policy engine and the policy enforcement point.
- Choose between symmetric and asymmetric encryption, hashing, salting and digital signatures.
- Describe how a PKI issues, checks and revokes certificates.
- Follow a change process with approval, a backout plan and updated documentation.
Official topics
- Compare and contrast various types of security controls
- Summarize fundamental security concepts
- Explain the importance of change management processes and the impact to security
- Explain the importance of using appropriate cryptographic solutions
Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations22%68 questions
This domain takes the attacker's view: who attacks, through which vectors, and which weaknesses they use. Candidates then match each threat with the mitigation that blocks it.
Skills tested
- Compare threat actors such as nation-state groups, insiders and hacktivists by skill, resources and motive.
- Identify message, voice and human vectors, from smishing and vishing to business email compromise.
- Recognize weaknesses such as buffer overflows, injection and cross-site scripting.
- Read indicators of malicious activity, such as impossible travel or repeated account lockouts.
- Pick mitigations such as segmentation, patching, application allow lists and hardening.
Official topics
- Compare and contrast common threat actors and motivations
- Explain common threat vectors and attack surfaces
- Explain various types of vulnerabilities
- Given a scenario, analyze indicators of malicious activity
- Explain the purpose of mitigation techniques used to secure the enterprise
Security Architecture18%61 questions
This domain is about design choices. Candidates weigh the security effects of cloud, on-premises, IoT and industrial systems, then protect data and plan for recovery.
Skills tested
- Compare architecture models such as serverless, microservices and infrastructure as code.
- Place firewalls, IDS and IPS sensors, jump servers and proxies in a network design.
- Protect data at rest, in transit and in use with encryption, masking and tokenization.
- Plan resilience with hot, warm and cold sites, backups and high availability.
Official topics
- Compare and contrast security implications of different architecture models
- Given a scenario, apply security principles to secure enterprise infrastructure
- Compare and contrast concepts and strategies to protect data
- Explain the importance of resilience and recovery in security architecture
Security Operations28%109 questions
The largest domain covers daily defense work: hardening systems, managing identities, watching alerts and handling incidents. Many of its objectives start from a scenario.
Skills tested
- Harden servers, mobile devices and wireless networks from secure baselines.
- Manage accounts with provisioning, MFA, single sign-on, federation and privileged access management.
- Tune alerts and monitoring with a SIEM, log data and dashboards.
- Follow the incident response process from preparation to lessons learned.
- Keep the chain of custody intact when collecting digital evidence.
Official topics
- Given a scenario, apply common security techniques to computing resources
- Explain the security implications of proper hardware, software, and data asset management
- Explain various activities associated with vulnerability management
- Explain security alerting and monitoring concepts and tools
- Given a scenario, modify enterprise capabilities to enhance security
- Given a scenario, implement and maintain identity and access management
- Explain the importance of automation and orchestration related to secure operations
- Explain appropriate incident response activities
- Given a scenario, use data sources to support an investigation
Security Program Management and Oversight20%69 questions
This domain treats security as a program. Candidates work with policies, risk registers, vendor checks, compliance and audits, and with the training that keeps staff alert to phishing.
Skills tested
- Separate guidelines, policies, standards and procedures, and name who owns each one.
- Calculate ALE from SLE and ARO, then choose to accept, avoid, mitigate or transfer a risk.
- Assess vendors with questionnaires, right-to-audit clauses and agreements such as an MSA.
- Explain attestation, internal and external audits, and penetration tests.
- Run a security awareness program with phishing campaigns and clear reporting steps.
Official topics
- Summarize elements of effective security governance
- Explain elements of the risk management process
- Explain the processes associated with third-party risk assessment and management
- Summarize elements of effective security compliance
- Explain types and purposes of audits and assessments
- Given a scenario, implement security awareness practices
Requirements
- No formal prerequisites: anyone can book the exam.
- Recommended: CompTIA Network+ or the same level of networking knowledge.
- Recommended: two years of IT administration work with a focus on security.
About the SY0-701 exam
SY0-701 is the entry-level CompTIA Security+ exam for IT administrators who are moving into security roles. Its five domains run from cryptography and zero trust to incident response, vendor risk and audits. Several objectives begin with "Given a scenario", so many questions describe a situation and ask for the best control or response. The certification stays valid for three years, and CompTIA's continuing education program renews it.
The PlanetCert practice test covers all five domains and has the most questions in Security Operations, which is also the largest domain on the exam. Every answer comes with an explanation, which helps most where two options look alike, such as a hot site and a warm site, or SAML and OAuth. Flashcard mode suits the many acronyms, from AAA to XSS. Brainy AI Assistant can explain which detail in a scenario points to an attack, or how a policy enforcement point differs from a policy engine.
How to earn the certification
- Earns
- CompTIA Security+Entry-Level to Intermediate
Security+ is valid for three years and renews through CompTIA's continuing education program.
- Before
- N10-009 CompTIA Network+
Recommended by CompTIA. It covers the networking that many Security+ questions assume.
- 220-1201 CompTIA A+ Core 1
Optional. A+ needs Core 1 and Core 2 and is a common first step into IT support.
- N10-009 CompTIA Network+
- After
- CS0-004 CompTIA CySA+ (Cybersecurity Analyst)
The analyst path: threat detection, vulnerability management and incident response in more depth.
- PT0-003 CompTIA PenTest+
The offensive path: planning and running penetration tests and reporting the results.
- CAS-005 CompTIA SecurityX
CompTIA's advanced exam for experienced security architects and engineers.
- CS0-004 CompTIA CySA+ (Cybersecurity Analyst)
How to prepare for SY0-701
- 1
Turn the objectives into a checklist
CompTIA's exam objectives list every topic and acronym the exam can use. Tick off each item once it can be explained in one plain sentence.
- 2
Build a two-machine home lab
Run one Linux and one Windows virtual machine, harden one from a secure baseline, and scan both with a free vulnerability scanner. Then read the logs that each step produces.
- 3
Rehearse the incident response steps
Learn the order: preparation, detection, analysis, containment, eradication, recovery and lessons learned. Then walk one scenario, such as a ransomware alert, through every step.
- 4
Drill the governance vocabulary
The governance domain rests on exact definitions: policy versus standard, MOU versus MSA, internal versus external audit. Drill them in flashcard mode until each pair is easy to tell apart.
- 5
Finish with scenario practice under time
Take the SY0-701 practice test in timed mode once each domain feels solid. Review every scenario question that went wrong, and ask Brainy AI Assistant which detail pointed to the right answer.
Start a timed SY0-701run
CompTIA's own study materials for this exam are CertMaster Learn, CertMaster Labs and CertMaster Practice for Security+, together with the official CompTIA Security+ Study Guide.
Who SY0-701 is for
- System and network administrators who already handle security tasks.
- Help desk and IT support staff who plan a move into a security role.
- Employees of government contractors, where many security jobs list Security+ as a requirement.
- Junior auditors and analysts who need a broad base before they specialize.
Typical job titles: Security administrator · Security analyst · Systems administrator · Network administrator · IT auditor
SY0-701 glossary
18 terms from the exam objectives and the vendor's official material, each defined in a sentence.
- ALE
- Annualized loss expectancy: the expected yearly cost of a risk, found by multiplying the single loss expectancy (SLE) by the annualized rate of occurrence (ARO).
- Authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA)
- The framework that proves who a user is, decides what the user may do, and records what the user did.
- Business email compromise
- A scam in which an attacker uses or imitates a real business mailbox to ask for payments or data.
- Certificate revocation lists (CRLs)
- Lists, published by a certificate authority, of certificates that must not be trusted any more.
- Chain of custody
- The record of who handled a piece of digital evidence, when and why, so that it can be trusted later.
- CIA Triad
- Confidentiality, integrity and availability: the three goals that most security controls protect.
- Cross-site scripting (XSS)
- A web attack that injects a script into a trusted site, so that the script runs in other users' browsers.
- Hashing
- A one-way function that turns data into a fixed-length value, used to check that the data has not changed.
- Hot site
- A recovery site with equipment and current data ready, so that operations can move there almost at once.
- Impossible travel
- A sign of account misuse: two logins from places too far apart for one person to travel between in the time given.
- Infrastructure as code
- Defining servers, networks and settings in files that tools deploy automatically, the same way every time.
- Jump server
- A hardened host that administrators connect to first, before they reach the systems in a protected zone.
- Policy enforcement point
- The zero trust component in the data plane that allows or blocks a connection, based on the decision made in the control plane.
- Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
- The certificate authorities, certificates and keys that let systems prove who owns a public key.
- Risk register
- A list of identified risks with their owners, ratings and planned responses.
- Salting
- Adding random data to a password before hashing it, so that two identical passwords produce different hashes.
- Security information and event management (SIEM)
- A system that collects logs from many sources, links related events and raises alerts.
- Zero trust
- A security model that checks every access request, wherever it comes from, instead of trusting anything inside the network.