CySA+ Practice Exams

CompTIA CySA+ (CS0-003) is the intermediate-level certification for security analysts working in detection and response. The exam covers four domains: Security Operations (33% — system and network architecture in security operations, log analysis, threat intelligence, and identifying/analyzing malicious activity with tools like SIEM, EDR, and packet analysis), Vulnerability Management (30% — discovery and scanning methods, CVSS-based analysis and prioritization, and responding to vulnerabilities with patching, compensating controls, and secure coding), Incident Response and Management (20% — attack frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK and the Cyber Kill Chain, the incident-response lifecycle, containment, eradication, recovery, and forensics), and Reporting and Communication (17% — vulnerability and incident reporting, stakeholder communication, metrics, and KPIs). The exam has a maximum of 85 performance-based and multiple-choice questions in 165 minutes, with a passing score of 750 on a 100–900 scale. CompTIA recommends Network+, Security+, and about four years of security-analyst experience.

• 1The natural blue-team step after Security+ — focused on the day-to-day work of a SOC/security analyst
• 2Hands-on and performance-based: detection, log analysis, vulnerability management, and incident response
• 3Approved under the U.S. DoD 8570/8140 baseline for CSSP Analyst and related roles
• 4Maps directly to in-demand roles: SOC analyst tiers 1–2, threat hunter, and vulnerability analyst

• ✓Analyze logs and telemetry across operating systems, networks, and cloud services in a SIEM
• ✓Apply threat intelligence (OSINT, feeds, TTPs) and frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK to detection and hunting
• ✓Identify indicators of malicious activity across network, host, and application layers
• ✓Use core analyst tools: packet capture, EDR, sandboxing, email analysis (SPF/DKIM/DMARC), and log queries
• ✓Run vulnerability management end to end: discovery, credentialed/uncredentialed scanning, and validation
• ✓Interpret and prioritize findings with CVSS, asset criticality, and exploitability context
• ✓Respond to vulnerabilities: patching, configuration management, compensating controls, and exceptions
• ✓Recognize and mitigate application attacks: SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, overflow, and traversal
• ✓Execute the incident-response lifecycle: preparation, detection/analysis, containment, eradication, recovery
• ✓Preserve evidence with proper forensics, chain of custody, and order of volatility
• ✓Report to stakeholders: vulnerability and incident reports, metrics/KPIs (MTTD, MTTR), and lessons learned