A Security+ study plan, paced to your exam date

What there is to cover

Start with the version you will sit: SY0-801 has 27 objectives and SY0-701 28, each in five domains; the objectives pages for SY0-801 and SY0-701 list them all. If you haven’t booked yet, plan for SY0-801 (the exam guide explains why). In the course, covering a version means:

• Its lessons of three to seven minutes each: 145 for SY0-801, about 13 hours in all, or 103 for SY0-701, about 10 hours.
• Reviews of the questions each lesson introduces, scheduled by spaced repetition for the day you are about to forget them. They are what turns a lesson into something you still know on exam day.
• Its practice exams of 90 questions in 90 minutes, planned at 120 minutes each including the review of the report: 10 for SY0-801 and 10 for SY0-701.

How long it takes

There is no official answer. For SY0-801, CompTIA recommends two years of hands-on experience as a security administrator; for SY0-701, Network+ and two years in a security or systems administration role. Both are recommendations, not requirements, and the time you need depends mostly on how much of the material is new to you.

What can be counted is the course: about 13 hours of lessons for SY0-801 (10 for SY0-701), plus 120 minutes for each practice exam you sit. Reviews come on top and depend on you: the more you get wrong, the more comes back, which is the point. The plan turns those totals into a daily figure for your date.

How the plan paces it

Set your exam date and a daily goal in the course (the goal starts at 30 minutes), and the home screen shows a countdown, today’s targets and the week ahead. The plan follows a few rules:

1. The last 2 days before the exam are for review only. No new lessons at the end: clear your reviews and revisit weak spots.
2. Practice exams go in the later part of the time. With two weeks or more, the first comes once about 40% of the time has passed and the last two days before the exam, at least two days apart; with less, they start straight away. A day with a practice exam gets no lesson.
3. Lessons are spread evenly over the other days, the earlier days taking the extra one when they don’t divide evenly, and never more than twice your daily goal’s worth on one day.
4. Reviews come from your real schedule: the questions due each day, plus the new ones lessons bring in (15 a day by default) while lessons remain, at about 50 seconds a question.
5. It is worked out again every day from what you have actually done, so lessons you missed are spread over the days left instead of piling onto tomorrow.

Against your daily goal, the plan says whether you are Ahead (the rest needs no more than three quarters of your goal), On track (up to 10% over it), Behind (more than that) or Tight (more than twice your goal, or lessons that won’t fit even at twice the goal).

What the plan asks for

The plan for someone starting from scratch with the default settings (a 30-minute goal and 15 new questions a day), worked out by the same code the course runs, for each course as it is today:

SY0-801

Weeks to the exam	Lessons on day one	Practice exams that fit	Minutes a day	At 30 min a day
4	8	8 of 10	74	Tight
8	4	10 of 10	48	Behind
12	2	10 of 10	36	Behind
16	2	10 of 10	30	On track

SY0-701

Weeks to the exam	Lessons on day one	Practice exams that fit	Minutes a day	At 30 min a day
4	6	8 of 10	68	Tight
8	3	10 of 10	44	Behind
12	2	10 of 10	34	Behind
16	2	10 of 10	28	On track

The minutes are the average over the whole plan and count lessons, practice exams and the new questions. Reviews of questions you have already met come on top: they grow as you learn more, and the plan adds them each day as they fall due. Read each row as the least that date asks for.

When the plan says Tight

Tight means the date and the goal don’t fit together. The plan says how many lessons won’t fit, or how many minutes a day the whole plan needs, and lists the three objectives it most wants you to work on, with their share of the exam and your mastery. Two instructions come with it: keep your reviews at zero every day, and take one full practice exam to rehearse the timing. The other levers are a higher daily goal, longer sessions on some days, or a later exam date.

Choosing a date

If you haven’t booked yet, start from the hours you can honestly give each week, compare them with the totals above, and leave room at the end for the practice exams and the final review. A date is realistic when the plan says On track at a goal you can keep, and you are ready when you can recall every objective and your practice exams are consistently clear of the pass mark. The practice exams page covers when to take them, and the exam guide covers the format and scoring.

CompTIA expects SY0-801 on or around 17 November 2026 and lists 11 June 2027 as the retirement date for the English SY0-701 exam (other languages: 13 August 2027), so a date after that means sitting SY0-801. The course covers both, and each version has its own exam date and plan; switching keeps your progress wherever the material is shared. Dates can move; check comptia.org before you book.