CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 — the complete study guide

Everything Security+ actually tests, domain by domain, with a six-week study plan and the question patterns that catch people out.

Security+ is the exam most people sit first. It is also the one most people prepare for badly, and I nearly did the same thing.

This guide follows the exam's own structure, and tells you where the marks actually are.

Tip

The vocabulary layer. Get this wrong and every other domain becomes harder, because the exam writes its questions in this language.

The domain people enjoy, which is why it is usually the best-prepared one.

Careful

Design decisions and their trade-offs.

The largest domain. If your study time is limited, this is where it goes.

Tip

The domain technical candidates lose marks on. Do not skip it.

These appear as straightforward calculation questions. They are free marks.

Hand to paper for all of this. I make flowcharts and tables rather than re-reading — if I can draw it from memory, I know it.

Four patterns cover most of the exam:

Careful

Security+ rewards steady preparation far more than intensity. Six focused weeks beats two frantic ones, and the people I have seen fail are almost always the ones who only studied the half of the syllabus they found interesting.

Work the objectives list. All of it.

Are you studying for this one? What is your exam date? Tell me how it goes.

Keep going!

Contents

Exam domains