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How hard is CompTIA Security+? An honest difficulty guide

By the founder of CertOwl • July 2026 • 3 min read

Security+ has a reputation as the certification that opens the door to cybersecurity, and with that reputation comes a fair question: how hard is it really? The short version is that SY0-701 is a moderate exam. It is a step up from the A+ or Network+ for most people, but it is very much passable with steady preparation. The difficulty is less about trick questions and more about breadth and the way it makes you apply what you know.

What the exam actually looks like

The current version is SY0-701, and it follows the familiar CompTIA format: up to 90 questions in 90 minutes, a mix of multiple choice and performance-based questions, and a passing score of 750 on a scale that runs from 100 to 900. That 750 works out to roughly 83 percent, which sounds steep until you remember the scoring is weighted and not every question carries the same value. The full structure is laid out in our SY0-701 exam guide.

There is no formal prerequisite, but CompTIA suggests you hold Network+ first and have around two years of IT experience with a security focus. Plenty of people pass without either, but coming in with some networking under your belt makes a real difference.

Why people find it harder than Network+

Security+ covers a lot of ground. The exam spans five domains, and the topics run from cryptography and identity management to incident response, risk, and governance. Memorising definitions is not enough. Questions frequently give you a scenario and ask what you would do, so you need to understand why a control exists, not just what it is called. Compared with the more concrete, configuration-focused feel of the Network+, Security+ leans conceptual and situational.

The performance-based questions are where a lot of candidates lose time. These drop you into a simulated task, matching attacks to defences or configuring a setting, and they usually sit at the start of the exam. The common mistake is sinking twenty minutes into the first few and then racing through the multiple choice at the end. Flagging the heavy PBQs and returning to them later is the single most useful exam-day habit you can build.

The domains that trip people up

The five domains are not weighted evenly. Security Operations is the largest at 28 percent, Threats, Vulnerabilities and Mitigations is 22 percent, and Security Program Management is 20 percent. Security Architecture sits at 18 percent and General Security Concepts at 12 percent.

Most candidates rate Security Architecture as the toughest, because it pulls networking, cloud and design ideas into questions that expect you to reason about trade-offs. General Security Concepts, by contrast, is usually the gentlest section and a good place to build early confidence. Knowing this shape lets you study in the right order rather than spreading your hours evenly across everything.

How much study it really takes

For someone with a little IT background, most people need somewhere between six and ten weeks of consistent study to feel ready. The approach that works is not marathon cramming but short, regular practice: work through the objectives, drill practice questions, and pay close attention to the ones you miss, because those reveal the gaps the exam will find too.

Acronyms are a genuine hurdle. Security+ is dense with them, from RADIUS and SIEM to SAML and EDR, and a chunk of the exam simply expects you to know what they stand for and where they fit. Little and often beats a last-minute list. Plan for one clean attempt as well, because there is no free retake, and the rules for a second try are covered in our retake policy guide.

So, how hard is it?

Security+ is challenging but fair. It rewards understanding over memorisation, it punishes poor time management on the PBQs, and it assumes a working familiarity with how networks and systems fit together. If you respect the breadth, study the operations and architecture domains harder than the rest, and practise applying ideas rather than reciting them, it is a very achievable certification. For most people it is the first cert that feels like real security work, which is exactly why it carries the weight it does with employers.