CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) Practice Test
Free practice tests built to the current SY0-701 objectives. Each one runs 20 questions on a 20-minute clock, matching the real exam's pace of roughly a minute per question. No account, no email, no paywall.
Mixed Set — CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) Practice Tests
Questions spread across all five domains in line with the official SY0-701 objectives. Security Operations carries the most weight on the real exam at 28%, so it appears most often here too.
Domain Wise — CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) Mock Tests
Twenty questions from a single domain, for when a mixed set has already told you where the gap is. Use these after a mixed test, not before.
Twenty questions tells you what you know.
Ninety questions tells you whether you'll pass.
The tests above are the right way to find your weak domain. They can't tell you how you'll hold up at question 70 with nineteen minutes left, and that is what decides most exam days. The full-length tests run the real thing: 90 questions, 90 minutes, scored 100–900 against the 750 line.
| Free tests above | Full-length tests | |
|---|---|---|
| Questions | 20 | 90 — the real maximum |
| Time limit | 20 minutes | 90 minutes |
| Coverage | Mixed sample or one domain | All five domains at 12/22/18/28/20 |
| Score you get | Percentage correct | Scaled 100–900 against the 750 pass mark |
| Per-domain breakdown | — | A percentage for every domain |
| Choose-TWO questions | — | Included, marked all-or-nothing |
| Exam conditions | Timed | Flagging, review screen, tab-switch detection, auto-submit at zero |
| Report | On-screen review | On-screen review, PDF download, emailed result |
| Number available | 10 | 10 (900 questions) |
| Price | Free | From $2₹99£1.47€1.70 a test |
How to Use These Tests in a Study Plan
Three stages, in order. Skipping straight to full-length tests before you know your weak domain wastes them, and doing nothing but 20-question sets leaves you untested on pacing.
Benchmark
Sit two or three mixed sets cold, before you revise anything. The score matters less than the pattern — you are looking for which domain keeps costing you marks.
Start with Practice Test 1 →Drill the gap
Take the domain test for whatever came out weakest, then go back to the objectives for that domain. Repeat until the domain test stops surprising you.
Start with Security Operations →Dress rehearsal
Two weeks out, sit full 90-question tests under the clock. This is where you find out whether your pacing holds and whether that scaled score is above 750 yet.
Get Full-Length Tests →About the CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) Exam
Current as of August 2026. CompTIA changed its pricing this June, so figures published earlier in the year are out of date.
What Is CompTIA Security+?
CompTIA Security+ (exam code SY0-701) is the most widely held cybersecurity certification in the world, with more than 700,000 holders. It launched on 7 November 2023 and replaced SY0-601, which retired on 31 July 2024. Security+ is vendor-neutral and sits at the entry-to-intermediate level, validating the core security skills expected of a security analyst, systems administrator, network engineer or cloud security specialist. The emphasis is operational: assessing risk, configuring controls, responding to incidents and supporting a security programme in a real environment.
Security+ is approved under U.S. DoD Directive 8570/8140 for IAT Level II, IAM Level I and IASAE Level I roles, which makes it a baseline requirement across a large slice of government and defence contractor work. The DoD approves the credential rather than a specific exam version, so a Security+ earned on SY0-701 carries the same weight as one earned on a later version. Typical entry roles include Security Analyst, SOC Analyst, Network Administrator, Systems Administrator, IT Auditor and Cloud Security Specialist.
Exam Format
Testing method: Computer-based and non-adaptive, at a Pearson VUE centre or through OnVUE online proctoring. You can flag questions and change answers before submitting.
Questions: A maximum of 90. Some sessions have fewer.
Duration: 90 minutes, so roughly a minute per question.
Question types: Multiple choice, both single and multiple-select, plus performance-based questions. PBQs come first.
Passing score: 750 on a 100–900 scale.
Exam fee: $439 USD as of 1 June 2026, up from $425. CompTIA raised prices across its whole lineup on that date. Authorised training partners and the academic store routinely sell the same voucher for less.
Eligibility and Renewal
Prerequisites: None. Anyone can register and sit the exam.
Recommended experience: CompTIA suggests Network+ and about two years in IT administration with a security focus. A recommendation, not a gate.
Minimum age: CompTIA recommends candidates be at least 13.
Renewal: Valid for three years. Renew by earning 50 CEUs across the cycle and paying the CE fee — around $50 a year, or $150 for the full three years — or by passing a qualifying higher-level certification. No resit required.
Retakes: No waiting period between your first and second attempt. From the third attempt onward you wait 14 calendar days from the previous one. There is no cap on attempts, and every attempt needs a full-price voucher.
Security+ (SY0-701) Domain Weights — Official Exam Objectives
Five domains covering the security operations lifecycle. Security Operations takes 28%, more than a quarter of the exam, which makes it the first place to spend study time.
| Domain | Topic | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Domain 1 | General Security Concepts | 12% |
| Domain 2 | Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations | 22% |
| Domain 3 | Security Architecture | 18% |
| Domain 4 | Security Operations | 28% |
| Domain 5 | Security Program Management and Oversight | 20% |
How Our Practice Tests Are Written
Original questions, written to the current objectives. Every question here is written from scratch against the published SY0-701 objectives. Nothing is carried over from SY0-601, and no live exam content is reproduced. If you find a site advertising "real exam questions", walk away — sitting an exam you have already seen breaches CompTIA's candidate agreement, and certifications get revoked over it long after the fact.
Applied scenarios, not definitions. SY0-701 rarely asks you to define a term. It describes a situation and asks which control fits, which incident response step comes next, or which architecture meets the requirement. The questions here are written the same way, with distractors that are plausible rather than obviously wrong. That is the whole difficulty of the exam: two answers look right and only one is best.
Weighted to the blueprint. Mixed sets distribute questions proportionally across the five domains. Domain 4 at 28% appears most, then Domain 2 at 22% and Domain 5 at 20%. Every set uses the same distribution, so comparing your score across two sets actually means something.
Timed at real pace. The exam gives 90 minutes for up to 90 questions. The free tests here are 20 questions in 20 minutes, holding that ratio exactly. Security+ is one of the tightest CompTIA exams per question, and PBQs at the start can eat far more than their share of the clock — which is why practising against a timer matters more here than on most exams.
What these tests do not do. They don't include performance-based questions. PBQs are hands-on simulations and they need a lab, not a multiple-choice engine. Use these for recall, reasoning and pacing across the bulk of the exam, and drill the simulations separately.
CompTIA Security+ Exam Preparation Tips
Study Strategy
Start with Security Operations. Domain 4 is 28% of the exam and covers identity and access management, endpoint hardening, vulnerability management, SIEM and log monitoring, the incident response phases, forensics and automation. Give it at least a third of your study time. Candidates who can recite the incident response lifecycle — preparation, identification, containment, eradication, recovery, lessons learned — tend to do well here.
Study in proportion, not equally. SY0-701 cut roughly 36% of the objectives from the previous version, and what survived is deliberately weighted. Domains 4 and 2 together are half the exam. Cover those first, then 5, then 3, then 1.
Make ports, protocols and crypto automatic. Protocol knowledge shows up across several domains. Know the common ports (22 SSH, 443 HTTPS, 3389 RDP, 636 LDAPS, 161 SNMP), know when symmetric beats asymmetric, and be able to separate hashing from encryption from digital signatures without thinking about it.
Test-Taking Strategy
Flag and return — the exam allows it. Security+ is not adaptive. You can flag a question, move on, and come back before you submit. Use that. If an item is unclear or slow, mark it and keep going. Never submit with a blank: there is no penalty for a wrong answer.
Handle the PBQ opening deliberately. Performance-based questions come first and each can absorb three to five minutes. Spend twenty minutes on them and you are rushing sixty-plus multiple-choice items on what's left. Give each PBQ your best answer inside a time budget and move on. Come back if the clock allows.
Pick the most defensible answer. When two options both look correct, choose the one favouring security over convenience, prevention over reaction, least privilege over open access. Security+ consistently rewards the disciplined, policy-aligned answer over the clever one.
Frequently Asked Questions
A maximum of 90, and your session may have fewer. The mix is multiple choice — single and multiple-select — plus performance-based questions, which appear at the start and simulate real security tasks. You get 90 minutes. Unlike adaptive exams, Security+ is non-adaptive, so you can flag questions and return to them before submitting.
750 on a 100–900 scale. Because the scoring is scaled, 750 does not map to a fixed percentage of correct answers — the number is adjusted for the difficulty of the questions in your particular session. Your score report includes a domain-by-domain breakdown.
$439 USD direct from CompTIA. That is up from $425 — CompTIA raised prices across its full certification lineup on 1 June 2026, so any figure you see quoted from earlier in the year is stale. Authorised training partners typically sell the same voucher for 10 to 15% less, and verified students can buy through the academic store for considerably less again. Every retake needs another full-price voucher, which is the real argument for testing your readiness properly before you book.
Yes. The tests on this page are 20 questions each and are built for diagnosis. The full-length 90-question practice tests are the complete exam simulation: 90 questions in 90 minutes, all five domains at CompTIA's published weights, scored 100–900 against the 750 pass mark, with choose-TWO questions marked all-or-nothing and a per-domain breakdown at the end. Ten of them, 900 questions in total, from $2 a test.
The ten tests on this page are free, with no account and no sign-up. Open any mixed set or domain test and start. The full-length 90-question exams are paid, and they are the only thing on the site that costs anything.
There is no waiting period between your first and second attempt — you can rebook immediately. From the third attempt onward, CompTIA requires at least 14 calendar days between attempts. Attempts are not capped, but each one costs a full voucher at $439, with no retake discount unless you bought a bundle that includes one.
SY0-701 is the only bookable Security+ exam today. Worth separating what is confirmed from what is circulating, because most sites blur the two.
Confirmed by CompTIA: Security+ V8 is in development and draft objectives have been published on CompTIA's exam objectives under development page. No retirement date for SY0-701 has been announced.
Reported, not published: the exam code "SY0-801" and a launch around mid-November 2026 come from the CompTIA Instructors Network and training partners rather than an official announcement. CompTIA has slipped these timelines before.
On precedent, the outgoing version stays bookable for at least six months after a new one reaches general availability, which points to SY0-701 running into mid-2027. Check CompTIA's own retirement dates page before you buy a voucher. And note that your certification stays valid for three years from your test date regardless of which version you sat.
For most people, no. A Security+ earned on SY0-701 is valid for three years and appears on your CV as "Security+" — nobody asks which version. SY0-701 study materials have had over two years to mature, whereas a brand-new version means thin books and shallow question banks for months. Waiting only makes sense if you genuinely won't be ready to study until well into 2027.
Objectives dropped by roughly 36%, domains went from six to five, and the standalone Implementation domain disappeared. Security Operations rose to 28% and became the largest domain. New material covers Zero Trust, cloud security models, automation and orchestration, AI-driven threats and supply chain attacks. Governance, Risk and Compliance was restructured and renamed Security Program Management and Oversight. SY0-601 retired on 31 July 2024, so any study material referencing it will leave you with gaps.
Four to eight weeks at one to two hours a day is typical for someone with IT experience. A strong networking or sysadmin background can compress that to two to four weeks. Complete beginners are usually better off allowing eight to twelve weeks, and often better off covering Network+ concepts first. Whatever the timeline, timed practice is the part people skip and then regret — the 90-minute window is tight, and it doesn't feel tight until you're in it.
It is the standard first one, and for good reason. More than 700,000 people hold it, it is the security certification employers name most often in job postings, and it is DoD 8570/8140 approved for a range of government and defence contractor roles. Being vendor-neutral, it also transfers cleanly to whatever stack you end up working with, and it feeds naturally into CySA+, PenTest+, SecurityX or ISC2 credentials later.
Security Analyst, SOC Analyst at Tier 1 and 2, Network Administrator, Systems Administrator, IT Auditor, Cloud Security Specialist, Compliance Analyst and Vulnerability Analyst are the common ones. In federal and defence work it satisfies DoD 8140 baseline requirements for cyber defence, incident response and vulnerability analyst roles. From there, CySA+ moves you toward defensive analysis, PenTest+ toward offensive testing and SecurityX toward architecture.
Ready to Test Your Security+ Knowledge?
Start with a free mixed set to find your weakest domain. When you're two weeks from exam day, sit a full 90-question test under the clock and see where that scaled score lands.
