About the course and certification

Hello and welcome to Cybr’s CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 certification course. I know you’re excited to get started but please give me a few minutes first because there is some important information in this lesson.

The Security+ exam is considered by many to be one of the easier certifications to start with if you’re interested in cybersecurity. That’s not to say that the exam is super easy, especially if you don’t have much background in IT or if you have a hard time taking exams. However, my goal with this course is to make the exam seem like a walk in the park.

Domains

It does cover a wide range of topics, and that’s where most of the studying complexity comes from. In fact, there are 5 different domains:

• 1.0 General Security Concepts – which is 12% of the exam
• 2.0 Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations – which is 22% of the exam
• 3.0 Security Architecture – which is 18% of the exam
• 4.0 Security Operations – which is 28% of the exam
• 5.0 Security Program Management and Oversight – which is 20% of the exam

I personally passed the Security+ exam, so I’ve been through what you’re about to go through both in terms of studying and in terms of taking the exam, and that also means I know what you can expect to see on the exam. I’ve used that experience to craft this course, and to craft practice exams.

Practice Exams

Speaking of practice exams, by enrolling in the course on the Cybr website, you automatically receive access to our exams as well. They are not in the same syllabus, although there will be a link to them at the end of this syllabus in order to take you directly there once you’re ready. Otherwise, you can find the practice exams on our Courses page.

There are two main types of questions that you will see on the exam. Multiple-choice and Performance-based questions, which can include things like:

• Ordering
• Fill in the blank – such as configuring networking security on devices, for example
• Matching

The reason for the range in the number of questions is because not everyone will get the same number on their exam. I only got 82 questions, including 3 performance-based ones, which means I only got 79 multiple-choice questions. Others that I’ve talked to have gotten 85, and so on… But it will always be a maximum of 90 questions.

Passing score

In order to pass the real exam, you need to get at least a 750 on a scale of 100 – 900. For that reason, I recommend that you consistently get at least an 80% pass rate on my practice exams before you consider taking the real exam.

Experience needed?

CompTIA recommends that you have at least 2 years of work experience, and while I’ve known people with zero experience who have passed the exam after a few months of studying, I do expect that you have some IT knowledge, but I will also try not to make too many assumptions, and I will cover what you need to know in order to pass.

If you are a beginner and there are some concepts that you’re struggling with, don’t rush! This is not a race. Take your time and re-visit the lessons as many times as you need. Also, join our Discord community where I can help answer questions and where you can meet other students going through a similar journey.

Conclusion

There are a lot of exciting topics in this course, and then there are some drier or more boring topics. Either way, I’m going to do my best to keep it interesting and entertaining because I want you to be prepared and I want you to pass your CompTIA Security+ exam.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask — you can ask questions directly at the bottom of this page, or again, on our Discord community.

With that, let’s get started!