Security+ SY0-701
Everything to plan, pass, and pay for CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701): cost, passing score, difficulty, salary, objectives, and free practice.
1,808 questions · 3 practice exams free — no signup needed
CompTIA Security+ is a vendor-neutral, entry-level cybersecurity certification and one of the most widely recognized security credentials on the market. The current version, SY0-701, validates the baseline skills employers expect from someone stepping into a security role — assessing threats, securing systems and networks, responding to incidents, and understanding governance and risk.
It's often the first security certification people earn after A+ or Network+, and it's approved under the U.S. Department of Defense DoD 8140 framework, which makes it a hard requirement for many government and contractor roles. Because it's vendor-neutral, the skills transfer across employers and tool stacks — the reason it shows up in so many job descriptions as a minimum bar.
Below: what it costs, how it's scored, how hard it is, what it pays, and what's on the exam.
Deep dives on every part of the SY0-701 exam.
The SY0-701 voucher is $439 in 2026 — plus retakes, renewal, and discounts.
Full cost breakdown750 out of 900 (~83%), and exactly how many questions you can miss.
Passing score explainedHow hard Security+ really is, rated by your starting background.
How hard is it?What Security+ roles pay, and the jobs it opens with no experience.
Security+ salary guideAll 5 SY0-701 domains with their official weights.
Domains & weightsThe full Security+ acronym list, grouped by exam domain.
Acronym glossaryTrain the performance-based questions that trip people up.
PBQ practice1,808 questions, 3 full exams free — no signup.
Start practicingThe SY0-701 exam is organized into 5 domains. Security Operations alone is 28% of your score.
Security controls, the CIA triad, zero trust, physical security, and change-management and cryptographic fundamentals (PKI, hashing, encryption).
Threat actors and vectors, common vulnerabilities, indicators of malicious activity, and the techniques used to mitigate them.
Securing cloud, on-prem, and hybrid architectures; data protection; resilience and recovery in enterprise design.
The largest domain: hardening, monitoring, identity and access management, automation, incident response, and digital forensics.
Governance, risk management, third-party/vendor risk, compliance, audits, and security-awareness practices.
CompTIA Security+ (current exam code SY0-701) is a vendor-neutral, entry-level cybersecurity certification that validates the core skills needed for security roles — threats and vulnerabilities, security architecture, operations, and governance. It's one of the most widely recognized baseline security certs and is approved under the U.S. DoD 8140 framework.
A single SY0-701 exam voucher costs $439 in the US as of 2026 (raised from $425 on June 1, 2026). That covers one attempt and doesn't include training or a retake. See the full cost breakdown, including retakes, renewal, and discounts.
The Security+ SY0-701 passing score is 750 out of 900 on CompTIA's scaled scoring system — roughly 83%. With up to 90 questions, that's a miss budget of about 15.
Difficulty depends on your background. People with IT or networking experience often find it a 5–6/10; complete beginners closer to 8/10. Most candidates pass with 2–3 months of study and consistent 85%+ practice-exam scores.
Plan for roughly 80–120 hours of focused study, which for most people is 6–10 weeks. The single best predictor of readiness is scoring 85%+ on full-length practice exams across all five domains.
For anyone targeting a cybersecurity or IT-security role, yes — it's a baseline many job postings and DoD roles require, and it's cheaper and faster than most alternatives. Its value comes from being an employer-recognized floor, not a ceiling.
1,808 SY0-701 practice questions across 75 exams, weighted to the real domains. 3 full exams free — no signup, no credit card.
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