CS0-004 CompTIA CySA+ Practice Exams: 500 Questions
Security operations, vulnerability management, incident response and reporting: 500 questions, all explained
Are you ready for CompTIA CySA+ CS0-004, or do you only feel ready? This practice set gives you a clear answer before you pay for the real exam.
You get five full practice tests with 100 questions each, 500 questions in total. They are written against the official CS0-004 exam objectives (version 2.0) and follow the official weighting: Security Operations 34%, Vulnerability Management 26%, Incident Response and Management 24% and Reporting and Communication 16%.
CS0-004 is not CS0-003 with a new number. The new version adds a full objective on AI in security operations, including hallucinations, model poisoning, malicious prompts and AI usage policies. It also puts EPSS next to CVSS, covers ZTNA and SASE, adds identity- and cloud-based indicators, Living Off the Land binaries and business email compromise, and names new tools such as Suricata, Zeek, YARA, MISP, OpenCTI, Nuclei, Trivy, Checkov, Atomic Red Team and Caldera. Incident response now carries more weight, and reporting includes SOC metrics such as false-positive rate and mean time to detect. Practice material written for CS0-003 prepares you for an exam that retires in December 2026.
The five tests get harder in a planned way:
1. Groundwork: one concept per question.
2. In Practice: short SOC scenarios and tool choices.
3. Trade-offs: two plausible answers, one deciding constraint.
4. Under the Hood: log lines, commands, tool output and KPI calculations.
5. Exam Day: long multi-constraint scenarios at real CS0-004 pace.
Every answer option has its own explanation, so you learn why the wrong answers are wrong, not only which one is right. Each question ends with a general explanation and a link to the official documentation it is based on, from NIST, MITRE, FIRST, CISA, OWASP and the tool projects themselves.
After each attempt PrepKiwi shows your score per domain, so you know exactly where to study next. The pass mark is 80% for tests 1 to 4 and 85% for the final simulation, higher than the real exam requires, so a pass means a real margin.
What this practice set is not: it is not a video course or a lab environment, and it does not contain real exam questions. It tests and explains, and works best alongside the official CS0-004 objectives and your study material of choice.
Groundwork: Core CySA+ Concepts and Tools
100 questions · 215 minutes · pass mark 80%
Start here. This first test checks whether the core CS0-004 knowledge is in place: logging and Zero Trust concepts, indicators of malicious activity, what each analyst tool is for, scan types, risk and control concepts, attack frameworks, the incident response phases and the basics of reporting. Questions are short and test one concept at a time. 100 questions follow the official domain weighting: Security Operations 34, Vulnerability Management 26, Incident Response and Management 24, Reporting and Communication 16. You get 215 minutes, more time than the real exam allows, so you can focus on knowledge rather than speed. Every answer option has its own explanation, and each question ends with a link to official documentation. The pass mark is 80%, deliberately higher than what the real exam requires: a practice score should prove a margin, not a near miss. Take this test cold as a baseline before you study further.
In Practice: SOC Scenarios and Tool Choices
100 questions · 210 minutes · pass mark 80%
The second test moves from definitions to short scenarios from a security operations center. You decide which tool fits an investigation, tell neighboring options apart (Zeek or Suricata, SAST or DAST, credentialed or agent-based scanning, containment or eradication), and read what an indicator really points to. Each question still focuses on one main idea, but you have to recognize it inside a realistic situation. 100 questions, same domain weighting as the exam, 210 minutes and a pass mark of 80%. Use the per-option explanations to learn why the near-miss answers are wrong, because that distinction is exactly what the real exam tests.
Trade-offs: Decisions Under Real Constraints
100 questions · 205 minutes · pass mark 80%
In this test two answers often look reasonable. One constraint in the scenario decides which one is best: an OT system that cannot be scanned aggressively, a vulnerability on the KEV list versus a higher CVSS score, a legal hold on evidence, a regulator's deadline, an asset that cannot run an agent, or a business process that cannot stop. You practice reading the scenario for the detail that changes the answer, which is how CySA+ questions separate analysts from memorizers. 100 questions, official domain weighting, 205 minutes, pass mark 80%.
Under the Hood: Logs, Commands and Tool Output
100 questions · 200 minutes · pass mark 80%
This test goes into the details an analyst works with every day: Windows event IDs and logon types, tcpdump and Wireshark filters, YARA conditions, regular expressions, encoded PowerShell, Nmap options and output, findings from Trivy, Checkov and Prowler, chain-of-custody records, and KPI calculations such as false-positive rate, mean time to detect and SLA compliance. You read short log lines and tool output and decide what they mean. 100 questions, official domain weighting, 200 minutes and a pass mark of 80%. If a question type feels unfamiliar, the explanation and the linked documentation show where to practice.
Exam Day: Full-Length CS0-004 Simulation
100 questions · 195 minutes · pass mark 85%
The final test simulates the real exam. Scenarios are long, combine several constraints and mix domains the way an actual incident does: an identity compromise that turns into a reporting question, a scan result that becomes a prioritization decision, an investigation that needs the right evidence handling. 100 questions in 195 minutes gives you the same time per question as the real CS0-004 exam. The pass mark is 85%, higher than in the earlier tests and well above what the real exam requires, so a pass here signals real readiness rather than luck. Take it in one sitting without notes, then review your domain scores before you book the exam.
What you will practice
- Test your readiness for the CompTIA CySA+ CS0-004 exam with 500 questions spread across all four domains by official weight.
- Pick the right analyst tool for each task, from Zeek, Suricata, YARA and CyberChef to Nmap, Nessus, Trivy and Checkov.
- Prioritize vulnerabilities with CVSS, EPSS, KEV and business context, and choose between patching, exceptions and compensating controls.
- Apply incident response steps correctly: triage, containment, evidence handling, chain of custody, escalation and root cause analysis.
- Learn from every answer: each option is explained, with a link to the official documentation behind the correct answer.
- Build up from single-concept questions to a full-length exam simulation at real exam pace and a higher pass mark.
- Interpret log lines, Windows event IDs, packet filters and scanner output the way a SOC analyst does in daily work.
- Recognize what CS0-004 added: AI in security operations, EPSS, ZTNA and SASE, identity-based indicators and SOC metrics.
Exam domains covered
Who is this for
This practice set is for security analysts, SOC staff, vulnerability analysts and incident responders preparing for CompTIA CySA+ CS0-004, and for IT administrators and network engineers moving into security operations. It also suits students and career changers who have finished Security+ and want an analyst-level certification, and team leads who need to understand SOC metrics, vulnerability reporting and incident communication. If you studied for the previous exam, CS0-003, note that it retires in English on 22 December 2026 and the scope has changed: CS0-004 adds a full objective on AI in security operations, EPSS, ZTNA and SASE, identity- and cloud-based indicators, breach and attack simulation tools and SOC KPIs, and shifts the weighting toward incident response. This practice set is a bank of 500 exam-style questions with explanations. It measures and explains; it does not replace a full training course or hands-on lab practice.
Requirements
- No prior practice exams are needed. You should know networking and security basics at the level of CompTIA Network+ and Security+; CompTIA recommends about four years of hands-on SOC or vulnerability analyst experience for CySA+.
- These are practice exams, not a video course. They work best alongside the official CompTIA CS0-004 exam objectives and a study guide or course, and they show you where to focus.
- A browser and time to take a 195- to 215-minute test in one sitting.
Free exam guide
Not sure what to expect? Read how the exam is built, what it covers and how to prepare.