Free SY0-701 practice exams are available here, covering all five domains of the CompTIA Security+ certification. Whether you are preparing for your first cybersecurity certification or refreshing your knowledge before exam day, these questions are designed to match the style and difficulty of the real exam.
What SY0-701 covers
The CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 is structured around five domains:
- Security Operations (28%) covers the largest portion of the exam, testing incident response procedures, identity and access management, vulnerability management, monitoring, and endpoint security.
- Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations (22%) tests your knowledge of attack techniques, malware categories, social engineering, application vulnerabilities, and threat intelligence.
- Security Program Management and Oversight (20%) covers governance frameworks, risk management, data privacy regulations, compliance requirements, and third-party risk.
- Security Architecture (18%) addresses network design principles, cloud security models, infrastructure security, secure network protocols, and zero trust architecture.
- General Security Concepts (12%) covers foundational topics including cryptographic algorithms, PKI, authentication methods, authorisation models, and security controls.
The exam contains up to 90 questions in multiple choice and performance-based formats, with a 90-minute time limit. A score of 750 on a scale of 100 to 900 is required to pass. The exam is delivered through Pearson VUE.
What's in these practice exams
Six sets of 20 questions each give you 120 unique SY0-701 practice questions in total. Every question includes a detailed explanation of the correct answer and why the other options are wrong.
Topics covered across the sets include:
- Symmetric vs asymmetric encryption and when to use each
- PKI components including certificates, CAs, CRLs, and OCSP
- Common attack types: phishing, SQL injection, buffer overflow, and pass-the-hash
- Incident response phases and the role of forensics
- IAM concepts including RBAC, ABAC, least privilege, and MFA
- Zero trust principles and microsegmentation
- Cloud security shared responsibility and misconfigurations
- Risk management frameworks and business impact analysis
- Data classification and handling requirements
The first set is completely free. No account required to get started.
How to use these questions effectively
Security+ is a scenario-based exam. Most questions present a situation and ask you to identify the best security control, response action, or risk mitigation approach. Reading answer explanations thoroughly matters more than drilling through questions quickly.
Pay particular attention to Security Operations, which is weighted highest at 28%. If incident response, identity management, or vulnerability scanning questions are giving you trouble, spend dedicated time reviewing those topics before attempting additional sets.
The Professor Messer SY0-701 video course is a strong free resource to pair with these practice questions. Once you are consistently scoring above 80% across multiple sets, you are well positioned for the real exam. Performance-based questions on the actual exam will require hands-on thinking, so supplementing practice questions with lab work helps.