Performance-based
SY0-701Security+ performance-based questions
The SY0-701 exam does not end at multiple choice. These are 21 original tasks in the four shapes the format uses, scored slot by slot the way the real one is, with the reasoning and the official page behind every answer.
No account. Every walkthrough and every source link open on all 5.
- 21tasks
- tasks
- 4interaction types
- interaction types
- 5of 5 exam domains
- of 5 exam domains
- 18official pages cited
- official pages cited
What a PBQ is on this exam
Multiple choice, multiple response, and performance-based questions. The performance-based items drop you into a simulated console, network diagram, or configuration screen and score what you actually do.
CompTIA, Security+ exam details ↗
Ours are written from the published objectives, never from anyone’s memory of a live exam. What follows is what each shape asks you to do.
The four shapes
Matching
6 tasksPair each item with the one that fits it, from a pool holding more options than slots, so the last pair cannot fall out by elimination.
Sequencing
6 tasksPut steps in the order a process actually runs. Getting the steps right and the order wrong scores the way it does on the exam, which is partly.
Sorting
5 tasksDrop each item into the category it belongs to. Several items per category, so knowing one does not give you the rest.
Log and output analysis
4 tasksRead a log extract, a config, or a network diagram, and answer what it shows. The artifact is on screen and the answer is in it.
Every task is scored slot by slot, so a sequence with two steps out of place is not marked the same as one with none right. Partial credit is how the real exam scores these, and a practice set that marks them all-or-nothing tells you less than the number it prints.
Coverage against the published blueprint
CompTIA publishes the weight of each domain. The set is written to those weights rather than to whichever domain is easiest to build a task from, which is the difference between a sample of the exam and a pile of exercises.
- General Security Concepts2 tasks · 12% of the exam
- Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations4 tasks · 22% of the exam
- Security Architecture4 tasks · 18% of the exam
- Security Operations7 tasks · 28% of the exam
- Security Program Management and Oversight4 tasks · 20% of the exam
What each answer rests on
Every task carries the page its answer was checked against, and the link is in the walkthrough where you can open it. Here they are up front, so you can check us before starting rather than after.
- NIST13 pages · 15 tasks
- MITRE ATT&CK2 pages · 2 tasks
- OWASP1 page · 2 tasks
- CIS1 page · 1 task
- IETF1 page · 1 task
- NIST SP 800-161, Supply chain risk management2 tasks
- NIST SP 800-53, Security and Privacy Controls2 tasks
- OWASP Top 10, Broken access control2 tasks
- CIS Benchmarks, secure configuration guidance1 task
- MITRE ATT&CK framework1 task
- MITRE ATT&CK, Password spraying1 task
- NIST glossary, brute force password attack1 task
- NIST glossary, Data states1 task
- NIST SP 800-12, An Introduction to Information Security1 task
- NIST SP 800-207, Zero Trust Architecture1 task
- NIST SP 800-30, Guide for Conducting Risk Assessments1 task
- NIST SP 800-34, Contingency Planning Guide1 task
- NIST SP 800-40, Enterprise patch management1 task
- NIST SP 800-41, Firewall policy guidelines1 task
- NIST SP 800-61, Incident handling guide1 task
- NIST SP 800-63B, Authentication and lifecycle management1 task
- NIST SP 800-88, Media Sanitization1 task
- RFC 3227, Evidence collection and archiving1 task
Sit all 21
5 are free with no account, and every one of them opens its full walkthrough and the page its answer rests on. The other 16 come with Security+ for $49, along with the Security+ question bank and every full-length practice exam on it. Untimed, and you can run them again as often as you like.