SY0-801 CompTIA Security+ V8 Practice Tests: 500 Questions
Threats and attacks, security architecture, operations and governance: 5 full SY0-801 exams, 500 explained questions
Are you ready for CompTIA Security+ SY0-801, or do you only feel ready? A timed practice exam answers that question before the real one does.
This practice set gives you five full practice exams, 500 original questions, built on the official CompTIA Security+ SY0-801 V8 exam objectives (document version 2.0). The questions follow the official domain weighting: General Security Concepts 16%, Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Attacks 24%, Security Architecture 19%, Security Operations 27%, and Security Program Management and Oversight 14%.
SY0-801 is not a small refresh of SY0-701. The domain weights have shifted, governance takes up less of the exam and threats and attacks more, and there is a new objective on the risks of artificial intelligence: prompt injection, poisoning, jailbreaking, hallucinations and data loss. LLMs and identity providers now appear as attack surfaces, and topics such as quishing, deepfakes, MFA bypass, passkeys, Security Service Edge, group managed service accounts and agentic AI in security operations are new. Practice material written for SY0-701 prepares you for the old exam.
The five tests get harder step by step:
– Test 1, Groundwork: direct questions on core concepts, one idea per question.
- Test 2, In Practice: short scenarios that separate concepts that are easy to confuse.
- Test 3, Trade-offs: two answers look right, and one constraint decides.
- Test 4, Under the Hood: records, values, calculations and the correct order of steps.
- Test 5, Exam Day: long mixed-domain scenarios at real exam pace.
Every answer option has its own feedback, so you learn why a distractor is wrong and what it actually is. Every question also has a general explanation with a link to an authoritative source such as NIST, the IETF RFCs, MITRE ATT&CK or OWASP.
After each attempt PrepKiwi shows your score per domain, so you know exactly where to focus. The passing mark is 80 percent for tests 1 to 4 and 85 percent for the final simulation: deliberately above what the real SY0-801 requires, so you walk into the test center with a margin.
What this practice set is not: it is not a video course and it does not contain real exam questions. It is an independent set of practice exams that tests your knowledge and explains every answer. Use it next to a study guide or CompTIA's official material to find and close your gaps.
Groundwork: Core Security+ SY0-801 Concepts
100 questions · 120 minutes · pass mark 80%
Your baseline for SY0-801. 100 direct questions across all five exam domains: control types, cryptography, threat actors and vectors, malware and attack indicators, data protection, resilience, identity, monitoring, incident response and governance. Each question tests one concept with a short, clear stem, so you can see what you already know before the scenarios get harder. 12 questions are multi-select (choose two). You have 120 minutes. The passing mark is 80 percent, higher than you strictly need on the real exam: the goal here is solid recall, because every later test builds on it. Take it cold, then read the explanation for every answer, including the ones you got right, and use the domain report to plan what to review.
In Practice: Short Security Scenarios
100 questions · 115 minutes · pass mark 80%
100 short workplace scenarios that ask you to tell apart concepts that are easy to confuse: hashes and digital signatures, honeynets and honeytokens, tokenization and masking, warm and hot sites, role-based and time-based access, NetFlow and port mirroring. The stem describes what happened or what is needed; you pick the control, attack, tool or process that fits. 14 questions are multi-select. You have 115 minutes and need 80 percent to pass. Every option has its own feedback, so a wrong answer tells you exactly which neighbouring concept you mixed up.
Trade-offs: When Two Answers Look Right
100 questions · 110 minutes · pass mark 80%
In this test two options are usually defensible. One constraint in the scenario decides: cost, a legacy application, availability, a regulation, least disruption, or what must happen first. This is the reasoning the real exam rewards. 100 questions across all five domains, 14 of them multi-select. You have 110 minutes and need 80 percent to pass. Read the stem twice, find the deciding requirement, and then check the explanation to see why the runner-up loses.
Under the Hood: Values, Records and Order
100 questions · 105 minutes · pass mark 80%
The technical detail behind the concepts: what SPF, DKIM and DMARC records do, how OCSP and CRLs work, key lengths and hashing choices, ALE, SLE and ARO calculations, RTO and RPO values, SCAP and syslog details, port and protocol behaviour, order of volatility, and the correct sequence of steps in change management and incident response. 100 questions, 16 of them multi-select. You have 105 minutes and need 80 percent to pass.
Exam Day: Full SY0-801 Simulation
100 questions · 100 minutes · pass mark 85%
Your readiness check. 100 long, realistic scenarios that mix domains and carry several constraints per question, at real exam pace: 100 minutes for 100 questions, the same one minute per question as the real 90-question, 90-minute exam. 16 questions are multi-select. The passing mark is 85 percent, deliberately above what the real exam requires, because practice conditions are easier than the test center and a margin protects you on exam day. Take it in one uninterrupted sitting after you have worked through tests 1 to 4. If you pass comfortably, you are ready to book.
What you will practice
- Test yourself on all five SY0-801 V8 domains with 500 original questions weighted like the official exam objectives
- Recognize threat actors, attack vectors, malware and indicators of compromise, including the new AI-related risks
- Choose the right control, protocol or process in realistic scenarios where two answers look plausible
- Learn from every mistake with feedback on each answer option and an explanation linked to an authoritative source
- Build up from core concepts to a full 100-question exam simulation at real exam pace
- Find your weakest domain with PrepKiwi's per-domain report and target your review where it counts
- Apply risk, compliance, privacy and third-party risk concepts, including ALE, SLE and ARO calculations
- Work through identity, monitoring, incident response and investigation scenarios from the Security Operations domain
Exam domains covered
Who is this for
This practice set is for anyone preparing for CompTIA Security+ SY0-801 (V8): system and network administrators moving into security, help desk and IT support staff taking their first security certification, SOC analysts in training, students and career changers, and professionals who need Security+ for a role or contract, including government and defense positions. It is also for candidates who studied for SY0-701: that version retires in 2027, and SY0-801 reweights the domains, adds a dedicated objective on AI risks, and brings in topics such as LLM attack surfaces, quishing, deepfakes, passkeys, Security Service Edge and agentic AI in security operations. If you prepared with 701 material, these tests show what you still need to cover. This is a set of practice exams with detailed explanations. It tests and explains; it does not replace a full course or hands-on practice.
Requirements
- Basic IT and networking knowledge (IP addresses, ports, operating systems) is enough to start; the tests explain every answer.
- CompTIA recommends about two years of hands-on security administration experience for the exam itself; these tests show where you still have gaps.
- These are practice tests, not a video course. Use them alongside a study guide or CompTIA's own learning material, not instead of it.
Free exam guide
Not sure what to expect? Read how the exam is built, what it covers and how to prepare.