Skip to content
CertGPS

CompTIA Security+

Vendor-neutral proof of core security administration skills, tested partly through performance-based tasks and mapped by CompTIA to DoD 8140 work roles

EntryCompTIA

The exam

Exam cost
$439
Study time
3-6 months
Passing score
750 (scale of 100–900)
Valid for
3 years

Before you book

  • None required
  • Recommended: CompTIA Network+
  • Recommended: two years of hands-on experience in a security or systems administrator role

What it covers

Security domains

Career

US pay and outlook from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the closest BLS occupation to each role this certification fits. BLS doesn't report pay by certification, and counts most of these roles only within a wider occupation, so the figures describe that occupation, not the role or the credential.

Where people with it work

  1. Entry level

  2. Mid level

  3. Senior level

Where it leads

  1. CompTIA Security+

    You are here

  2. CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst+

    Intermediate

    Next step. Moves from recognizing threats to analyzing alerts, and earning it renews Security+

  3. CompTIA PenTest+

    Intermediate

    Next step. Takes the offensive side that Security+ only surveys, and also renews Security+

  4. Certified Information Systems Security Professional

    Expert

    Next step. Security+ counts for one of the five years of experience CISSP requires

Study guide

Last updated

CompTIA Security+ Study Guide: SY0-701 or SY0-801, the Exam, and a Plan

Security+ is CompTIA's test of whether you can do the daily work of a junior security administrator: harden a host, use a firewall log in an investigation, set up multifactor authentication, explain a risk register. There are no formal prerequisites. Decide first which exam you'll sit. SY0-701 (V7) retires in English on June 11, 2027, and its replacement, SY0-801 (V8), launches on November 17, 2026.

Who Security+ suits, and who can skip it

It fits a system administrator, network technician or help desk analyst who already does security work and wants it recognized, and anyone applying for a first analyst job that names Security+ in the posting. CompTIA writes the exam for security administrators with about two years of hands-on experience, and it maps the certification to US Department of Defense 8140 work roles such as cyber defense analyst and incident responder. If you're hired onto a DoD contract, check which work role you're filling before choosing any other first certification.

If subnetting and ports still feel shaky, take Network+ first, as CompTIA recommends. ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity covers similar ideas at less depth if you're still testing your interest. If you already triage alerts in a security operations center (SOC), skip ahead to CySA+, which sits above Security+ in CompTIA's certification hierarchy.

SY0-701 and SY0-801 at a glance

V7 (SY0-701)V8 (SY0-801)
AvailabilityNow; English retires June 11, 2027, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and Thai on August 13, 2027From November 17, 2026, English only; retirement estimated three years after launch
Questions and timeUp to 90 multiple-choice and performance-based, 90 minutesSame
Passing score750 on a 100–900 scaleSame
Price (US list)$439 voucher, $579 with one retakeNot yet listed
DeliveryPearson VUE test center or OnVUE onlineSame
PrerequisitesNone; Network+ and two years in a security or systems administrator role recommendedNone; two years of hands-on security administration recommended
ValidityThree years; renew with 50 CEUs and a $150 fee, or other routes belowSame

Sit V7 before June 2027, or start with V8?

Both exams lead to the same Security+ certification, with the same pass mark and a three-year clock that starts on the day you pass.

Sit V7 if you're already partway through V7 material and can be ready by early spring 2027. The resources are mature: Mike Chapple and David Seidl's Sybex study guide (9th edition), Professor Messer's free video course and CompTIA's CertMaster products all cover SY0-701. Leave room for a fail. CompTIA allows a second attempt straight away but makes you wait 14 days before a third, and June 11 won't move.

Start with V8 if you're beginning from nothing this month, because a realistic plan runs past November 17 anyway. V8 adds objective 2.6 on threats from artificial intelligence (prompt injection, poisoning, jailbreaking, hallucinations), lists agentic AI and chatbots under automation, and adds passkeys to identity. Blockchain is gone. Books will lag the launch, though. Wiley lists the SY0-801 edition of the Chapple and Seidl guide for December 2026, and Total Seminars lists McGraw Hill's SY0-801 All-in-One Exam Guide, by Bobby Rogers and Mya Heath, for the same month.

Candidates testing in Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish or Thai have no choice to make: V8 launches in English only, so V7 is their exam until August 13, 2027.

Buy vouchers with the retirement date in mind. CompTIA's terms say vouchers are tied to an exam series and sometimes an exam code, that an exam's retirement overrides a voucher's expiry, and that retake vouchers can't move to another version. The V7 voucher is sold with 12 months' validity, so one bought in spring 2027 can lapse with the exam.

What the five domains cover

Weights by version, from CompTIA's exam pages:

  • General Security Concepts: 12% in V7, 16% in V8
  • Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations (V8: Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Attacks): 22%, then 24%
  • Security Architecture: 18%, then 19%
  • Security Operations: 28%, then 27%
  • Security Program Management and Oversight: 20%, then 14%

Security Operations is the largest domain in both, and the hands-on objectives cluster there. Four of its nine V7 objectives begin "Given a scenario": securing computing resources; changing firewall, intrusion detection, DNS filtering and email security settings; identity and access management; and using log data in an investigation. Seven of V7's 28 objectives are written that way, against nine of 27 in V8, which moves V7's mitigation objective into Security Operations and renames domain 2 to match.

Expect breadth over depth. V7 asks you to tell a deterrent control from a directive one, to spot impossible travel and out-of-cycle logging as indicators of compromise, and to know what SPF, DKIM and DMARC each check. In V8, governance drops from 20% to 14% and General Security Concepts picks up most of the difference. CompTIA doesn't publish how many items are performance-based or how 750 converts to a percentage, so treat forum figures for either as guesses.

A study plan built around the scenario objectives

Work from CompTIA's objectives PDF for your version rather than a book's contents page. It's the list you're tested against, 24 pages for V7 and 27 for V8. Mark every bullet you couldn't explain to a colleague, and study those first.

CompTIA's own estimates make a usable budget even if you buy none of its products: 25 to 40 hours for CertMaster Learn, 15 to 25 for CertMaster Labs, 10 to 20 for CertMaster Practice. We'd plan on about 40 hours of reading or video, 20 hands-on and 15 of timed practice, with Security Operations getting the biggest share of each.

Put the hands-on hours into the scenario objectives. Write and reorder firewall rules on a virtual machine, then search Windows Security event logs and a Linux authentication log for failed logins followed by a success. Set up multifactor authentication and role-based groups in a test directory, and pull a real domain's SPF, DKIM and DMARC records with dig. CertMaster Labs ($199 for V7) covers similar ground if you'd rather not build a lab.

Choose one main text: the Sybex guide with its online test bank, Professor Messer's videos or CertMaster Learn ($599). For V8, read the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications next to objective 2.6. Where the outline gives only a term, OWASP describes how several of these attacks work in practice, starting with prompt injection.

Renewal, retakes and what to earn next

Renewing through continuing education takes 50 continuing education units (CEUs) and a $150 fee per three-year cycle, paid in parts or at once. Pay only when you have CEUs to upload, since CompTIA doesn't refund fees toward an unfinished renewal. There's no fee if you pass the latest version of the exam, complete CertMaster CE ($209 on the V7 page) or earn a higher CompTIA certification. A V7 holder can therefore renew by passing V8 later, though CompTIA won't let you resit a code you've already passed without its consent.

Three next steps, the first two of which also renew Security+:

  • CySA+ for detection and analysis work in a SOC.
  • PenTest+ if you'd rather attack systems than defend them.
  • CISSP, later. It needs five years of experience in two of its eight domains, and Security+ is on ISC2's list for a one-year waiver.

Our view

Security+ earns its reputation as a broad, vendor-neutral baseline, accredited under ISO 17024 and rewritten about every three years. Its weakness comes from the same breadth. The exam checks that you can pick the right control or indicator in a short scenario, which says little about whether you can run an investigation end to end; we treat it as a hiring filter more than a skills test. At $439 it's worth buying when a job you want lists it or a contract requires it. With several years in security and no posting asking for it, spend the money on CySA+ or a practical exam.

Sources