CompTIA Security+ Diagnostic Quiz

Not sure where to start? This 24-question diagnostic samples every SY0-701 domain in proportion to its weight on the real exam, then tells you which domains to study first. It takes about 8 minutes, there is no timer, and nothing leaves your browser.

24 questions about 8 minutes 5 domains free, no sign-up

Find your weak spots

24 questions, about 8 minutes, no timer. Every domain is sampled, weighted the way the real exam weights it. You get a band for each domain and a study-first list, not a pass prediction.

24 questions~8 min5 domains

No feedback until the end. Your result is saved in this browser only.

Sample SY0-701 diagnostic questions

These are real items from the SY0-701 bank, one from each of three domains, shown with their answers so you can see the format before you start. The diagnostic itself draws 24 questions from 120 SY0-701 terms , and does not reveal answers until the end.

  1. Security Program Management and Oversight

    Which best describes “Acceptance”?

    • · The level of risk before any controls are applied.
    • ✓ Choosing to live with a risk because mitigation costs more than the impact.
    • · Reducing risk by applying controls — the most common risk response.
    • · The level of risk remaining after controls are applied.

    Exam tip: Document the rationale, owner, and review date for every accepted risk.

  2. Security Operations

    Initial sorting of alerts or incidents by severity and impact to focus response.

    Which term does this describe?

    • · Detection
    • · Playbook
    • ✓ Triage
    • · Monitoring

    Exam tip: Tier-1 triage is where many SOC programs live or die — well-tuned alerts make the difference.

  3. General Security Concepts

    Which best describes “Encryption”?

    • · Hiding part of sensitive data — for example, showing only the last four digits of a card.
    • · Multi-factor authentication — combining two or more distinct factor categories.
    • · The practice and study of techniques for securing communication in the presence of adversaries.
    • ✓ Transforming plaintext into ciphertext using a key so only authorized parties can read it.

    Exam tip: Symmetric (AES) is fast and best for bulk data; asymmetric (RSA, ECC) is best for key exchange.

What the SY0-701 diagnostic covers

The quiz mirrors the exam blueprint. Security Operations carries the most weight on the real SY0-701, at about 28% of the test, so it gets the most questions here; General Security Concepts, at about 12%, gets the fewest, but never fewer than 3, because a band should never rest on a single question. The questions draw on the site's SY0-701 term bank, so they measure how well you know the concepts and vocabulary the exam is built on. They are not full-length scenario items.

  1. Security Operations

    28% of the exam

    Exam Domains

    Domain 4 — day-to-day operations: monitoring, IAM, vulnerability management, incident response, and digital forensics.

    24 terms · 2 study sets

  2. Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations

    22% of the exam

    Exam Domains

    Domain 2 — attack types, malware families, vulnerabilities, and the mitigations and controls that stop them.

    24 terms · 2 study sets

  3. Security Program Management and Oversight

    20% of the exam

    Exam Domains

    Domain 5 — risk management, governance, compliance frameworks, third-party risk, and security awareness.

    24 terms · 2 study sets

  4. Security Architecture

    18% of the exam

    Exam Domains

    Domain 3 — designing secure networks, cloud, virtualization, and resilience: segmentation, zero-trust, redundancy, backup.

    24 terms · 2 study sets

  5. General Security Concepts

    12% of the exam

    Exam Domains

    Domain 1 — the foundational vocabulary of security: the CIA triad, AAA, cryptographic primitives, IAM, and zero-trust.

    24 terms · 2 study sets

How your result is scored

Each domain comes back as a band rather than a percentage: Needs work (under 50% correct), Developing (50% to 79%), or Solid (80% and up). A handful of questions per domain is enough evidence to say "this needs work"; it is not enough to trust a number like 67%, so we do not show one.

The study-first list ranks domains by the share of the exam each one puts at risk: its blueprint weight multiplied by the fraction you missed. On the SY0-701 that maths has teeth, because the domains are not equal — Security Operations is worth about 28% and General Security Concepts about 12%, so half-knowing Security Operations costs you roughly 14 points of the exam while barely knowing General Security Concepts costs about 10. Up to three domains make the list; if all 5 come back Solid, the list is empty and the full-length mock exam is the next real test.

Every question you miss is written into that study set's flashcard deck as due now, so the review queue starts with your actual gaps — across the 2 study sets in Security Operations alone, that is the difference between re-reading things you already know and drilling the ones you do not. Your attempts are kept in this browser (the last five), and a retake shows which domains moved up or down since last time.

This is a study map, not a prediction. The real SY0-701 runs 90 questions in 90 minutes and is administered by CompTIA; this is 24 untimed questions drawn from the same blueprint. No sample that short can estimate a result on it, and the site's own mock exam uses a 83% practice target rather than a pass prediction for the same reason.

What to do with your result

  1. Step 1

    Open your first focus domain

    Start with the top of the study-first list. Its study sets are linked right on the results screen; flashcards for the terms you missed are already due.

  2. Step 2

    Drill the set, then quiz it

    Flashcards build recall; the per-set quiz checks it with confusable distractors drawn from related terms.

  3. Step 3

    Retake, then take the mock exam

    After a study block, retake the diagnostic to see which bands moved. When the focus list is empty, the timed SY0-701 mock exam is the next real test.

All CompTIA Security+ study modes → · How to pass the SY0-701 →

Frequently asked questions

How long is the SY0-701 diagnostic quiz?
24 questions, untimed. Most people finish in about 8 minutes. Every domain gets at least 3 questions, and the rest are spread in proportion to each domain's weight on the real exam.
Does the result predict whether I will pass?
No. A 24-question sample can tell you which domains need work; it cannot estimate a real SY0-701 result. Treat it as a study map, then measure progress with the full-length mock exam.
Where is my result stored?
In your browser only, using local storage. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed. Retake the quiz later and the results screen compares the two attempts domain by domain.
What happens to the questions I miss?
Each missed term is scheduled as due in that study set's flashcards, so your next review session starts with exactly the gaps the diagnostic found.