You can see it againUnder pressure people bring back shapes and positions long after the wording has gone.
Picture superiority · Shepard 1967, Standing 1973
COMPTIACompTIA CySA+
The CompTIA CySA+ certification validates your ability to detect, analyze, and respond to cybersecurity threats. It is designed for professionals in security operations and vulnerability management roles, emphasizing incident detection and response. Earning this certification demonstrates your skills in managing vulnerabilities and communicating critical risks effectively.
Exam formatMultiple choice and performance-based
Duration165 minutes
DeliveryPearson VUE
Passing score750 on a scale of 100 to 900
Free questions414
Content last reviewed 1 October 2023 · Up to date
The certification
What CS0-003 proves, and what it asks of you
What this certification covers, who it is written for, and what the exam itself looks like on the day.
4domains
15objectives
99concepts
US $404exam fee
What it is
What this certification is
What it validates, who it is written for, and the experience it assumes.
About this certification
The CompTIA CySA+ certification is a globally recognized credential that validates your ability to detect, analyze, and respond to cybersecurity threats. It focuses on incident detection, response, and continuous monitoring in modern environments, while managing vulnerabilities and effectively communicating critical risks.
This certification is ideal for professionals working in security operations and vulnerability management roles. It demonstrates your ability to identify and investigate suspicious activity across networks, endpoints, and cloud environments, and to communicate security findings and risks to stakeholders.
Who it’s for
This certification is intended for cybersecurity professionals who are responsible for protecting and defending networks and systems. It is suitable for those working in security operations centers (SOCs) or in roles focused on vulnerability management and incident response. Candidates should have a strong understanding of security operations processes and be able to effectively communicate security risks and findings to stakeholders.
Recommended experience
About 4 years of experience in a SOC analyst or vulnerability analyst role. Experience with security operations processes; Familiarity with threat intelligence and threat hunting; Ability to conduct vulnerability assessments and recommend mitigation strategies
The syllabus
What you’ll learn
Every domain and objective CompTIA measures, with the weight they carry on the exam.
The official CompTIA exam outline · checked 1 October 2023 · See the source
Security operations
- System and network architecture
- Malicious activity indicators
- Tools and techniques
- Threat intelligence and hunting
- Process improvement
Vulnerability management
- Vulnerability scanning
- Assessment tool output
- Vulnerability prioritization
- Mitigation controls
- Vulnerability response
Incident response management
- Attack methodology frameworks
- Incident response activities
- Incident management life cycle
Reporting and communication
- Vulnerability management reporting
- Incident response reporting
On the day
The exam itself
Everything CompTIA publishes about sitting it, and nothing we inferred.
Prerequisites
No mandatory prerequisites — this certification has no required predecessor exam or credential.
Exam codeCS0-003
CertificationCompTIA CySA+
Exam formatMultiple choice and performance-based
Duration165 minutes
Passing score750 on a scale of 100 to 900
DeliveryPearson VUE
LanguagesEnglish, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish
PricingUS $404
After you pass
Where this credential goes next
The path CompTIA lays out, how the credential is kept, and where to book.
Step-by-step path to CompTIA CySA+
Credential earnedCompTIA CySA+ Certification Renewal and maintenance
Certifications must be renewed every three years through CEUs or retaking exams. Stay current with the latest technologies and maintain your certification.
Learn more about renewal requirements Lifecycle status
This certification is currently active and available. CompTIA maintains this certification to validate current skills and industry relevance.
Exam status: ActiveMaintained by CompTIA
Exam registration
Register for the exam through Pearson VUE, CompTIA’s authorized testing partner.
Schedule your examVisit the official CompTIA certification page for exam policies and requirements.
View the official pageYour coach
And when you are serious, your coach Pip takes over
Your coach in the app reads what you have answered with the book closed and tells you one thing to do tonight. It will not count an answer you gave with the page open, and it will tell you when you are not ready.
See how the coach worksBefore you book
Questions people ask
What job roles does the CompTIA CySA+ credential map to?
It aligns with roles such as SOC analyst, vulnerability analyst, and cybersecurity analyst, focusing on threat detection and incident response.
Is there a hands-on component in the CySA+ exam?
Yes, the exam includes performance-based questions that simulate real-world cybersecurity scenarios.
What is the retake policy for the CySA+ exam?
Candidates must wait 24 hours after a first failed attempt, and 14 days before each subsequent attempt. There is no annual cap on attempts.
Can I recertify by passing a different CompTIA exam?
Yes, earning a higher-level CompTIA certification can renew your CySA+ credential without retaking the CySA+ exam.
Information freshness · Content last reviewed on 2023-10-01 Up to date
Practice free questions 414 questions, free, no account needed.
The curriculum
The whole exam, mapped and written
Every domain, every objective, and every concept CompTIA measures — each one written out.
4domains
15objectives
99concepts
89free pages
The domains, and what sits inside them
Every objective below is a page you can open and practise now, without an account.
The official CompTIA exam outline · checked 1 October 2023 · See the source
1Security operations131 questions
2Vulnerability management145 questions
3Incident response management78 questions
4Reporting and communication60 questions
Not a table of contents
Every line on this map already opens
In front of every objective the practice pages are already there, free and without an account. This is one objective, opened.
System and network architecture7 pagesOpen →
Free in front of it
33 questions on this objective, five to a page. Every range above is a real page, open now, with no account.
Reading the map is not the same as knowing the ground
The curriculum tells you what is on the exam. Proving you know it is a different job — and it is the one the closed-book run does.
Free questions
414 questions. No account, no card.
The whole bank is open. 5 questions to a page, every answer explained, and a discussion thread on each one.
414questions
89pages
15objectives
Freealways
Browse by domain
Every objective, and every page range, is a link — so you can pick up exactly where you left off.
1Security operations131 questions
2Vulnerability management145 questions
3Incident response management78 questions
What a practice page gives you
1Five to a page
Short enough to finish, long enough to matter.
2Every answer explained
Not only which one is right — why the others are wrong.
3A discussion on each
Ask, answer, and vote. Every question has its own thread.
A question, and the idea behind it
Every question comes from a concept
These are not trivia. Each one is written against a concept in the book, so when you get one wrong there is somewhere to go and find out why.
The visual book
See it once. Carry it into the exam.
The pages shown here come from our AI-900 book — an example of how each concept is written in plain language and, where the idea needs one, drawn as a full page you can take in at a glance.
99concepts
414free questions
Why a picture, and not another paragraph
Three reasons, and each one is a real finding rather than a slogan.
You can see it againThe whole idea at onceWhere it starts, what happens in the middle, what comes out, and the mistake to avoid.
Multimedia principle · MayerThe look-alikes sit togetherThe pairs the exam tests are drawn side by side, so the difference is seen, not told.
Dual coding · PaivioWhat one page is made of
You are never asked to read a poster here — only to see how one is built. After that, every other page is legible at a glance.
1A numbered strip on top
The idea as a sequence, followed with a finger before a word is read.
2Panels for the parts
What it is, how the machine learns it, when it is the right tool.
3The trap, framed
The distinction the exam tests, given its own box instead of buried in prose.
4One line at the bottom
The sentence to carry into the exam room.
Open book, on purpose
Answer it with the picture beside you
This is the part that teaches. The illustration and the written explanation stay where they are while you work, so a scenario stops being a memory test and becomes something you can simply look at.
It teaches · it does not count
A smartphone uses AI to unlock when the owner looks at the camera. Which AI capability is being used?
AImage classification
BFacial recognition
COptical character recognition
DObject detection
Look at the five steps. Detect finds a face, align straightens it, encode turns it into numbers, search compares it with a stored face, and decide answers one question: is this the same person? Classification would only say “a face”. Detection would only draw a box. Neither decides whose.
Then the page shuts, and it starts counting
The same questions come back with the book closed — that run is the one that counts. After it, your coach picks one thing for tonight, sized to the time you have, and brings pages back before you lose them.
Testing effect · Roediger & Karpicke 2006 · spacing effect · Cepeda et al. 2006
Official resources
Straight from CompTIA
Where the exam is defined, scheduled and scored.
1official link
99concepts mapped
The source
CompTIA’s own pages
We link to them rather than repeat them, so nothing here goes stale behind them.
Checked against the source
Every objective on the official CompTIA outline already has questions here
We build from the official skills outline, not from a summary of it — 15 objectives, 99 concepts written under them, and free questions against every one. When CompTIA changes the outline, this page changes with it.
15objectives on the outline→99concepts written→414free questions
An official page tells you what will be asked. It cannot tell you what you will get right.
That is the only question worth answering the night before, and no link answers it. You answer it by taking the questions with the book closed, and seeing what comes back.