SY0-701 practice test

CompTIA has announced a successor exam, Security+ SY0-801, with a launch planned for November 2026. SY0-701 stays available until the retirement date CompTIA publishes, so check comptia.org for the current dates before you book. If you plan to test soon, study the objectives for the exact exam version you will sit.

SY0-701 has up to 90 questions (a mix of multiple-choice and performance-based questions) in 90 minutes, with a passing score of 750 out of a possible 900. The performance-based questions — drag-and-drop, matching, and simulated scenarios — trip up candidates who only memorized flashcards. Our practice questions include the same PBQ formats so you build real pattern recognition, not just recall.

Yes. Security+ is on the U.S. Department of Defense 8570/8140 approved baseline certification list for several cybersecurity workforce categories, making it a common requirement for government and defense-contractor IT security roles. It is also the most widely held vendor-neutral security certification, recognized across nearly every industry hiring for security-adjacent roles.

Five domains: General Security Concepts (12%), Threats/Vulnerabilities/Mitigations (22%), Security Architecture (18%), Security Operations (28% — the largest domain), and Security Program Management and Oversight (20%). Security Operations and Threats/Vulnerabilities/Mitigations together make up exactly half the exam.

There's no hard prerequisite, but CompTIA recommends Network+ certification plus about two years of IT administration experience with a security focus before attempting SY0-701. Candidates without that background can still pass with disciplined study, but expect the operational/scenario questions to take longer to internalize.

CompTIA does not publish an exact PBQ count, but they appear early in the exam and are weighted more heavily than individual multiple-choice items. Common formats include drag-and-drop (matching controls to threats, or steps to an incident response phase) and scenario-based simulations. Practicing the format matters as much as knowing the underlying concept.

Three years from the date you pass. You can renew by earning Continuing Education Units (CEUs) through CompTIA's CE program (training, higher certifications, relevant activities) or by retaking the current version of the exam before it expires.

SY0-701 launched in November 2023 and shifted emphasis toward zero trust architecture, cloud security, automation/orchestration, and IoT/OT security compared to SY0-601. If you're studying now, SY0-701 is the current, correct version — SY0-601 has been retired.

CompCertQuiz's questions are original content, independently authored to CompTIA's published exam objectives — not reconstructed or memorized real exam items. CompTIA's Candidate Agreement prohibits sharing real exam content and actively pursues brain-dump sites; our approach is both the legally compliant one and, we'd argue, the better way to actually learn the material instead of memorizing leaked answers.