Exam domains & weights
Why it matters: The official exam objectives are grouped into five domains with set weights. Knowing them tells you where most questions come from.
Overview
Supplementary — not from your PDFCompTIA's SY0-701 exam objectives are organized into five domains. Your guide follows the CompTIA course lessons rather than the domains, so the lesson-to-domain mapping below is approximate. Check the official objectives document on comptia.org for the exact list.
The five domains
| Domain | Name | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | General Security Concepts | 12% |
| 2.0 | Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations | 22% |
| 3.0 | Security Architecture | 18% |
| 4.0 | Security Operations | 28% |
| 5.0 | Security Program Management and Oversight | 20% |
Where your guide's lessons mostly fit (approximate)
| Domain | Lessons |
|---|---|
| 1.0 | L1 fundamentals and controls, L3 cryptography, parts of L14 change management |
| 2.0 | L2 threat actors and vectors, L8 vulnerabilities, L13 indicators of malicious activity |
| 3.0 | L5 enterprise network, L6 cloud and zero trust, L7 resilience, parts of L16 data protection |
| 4.0 | L4 identity, L9 network capabilities, L10 endpoints, L11 application protocols, L12 incident response and monitoring |
| 5.0 | L14 governance, L15 risk and vendors, L16 compliance and personnel |
How to use this
- Security Operations (28%) is the biggest domain, so give Lessons 4 and 9–12 plenty of practice.
- Use the Progress page to see your mastery by lesson, and put more time into the high-weight domains where you're weak.
- The weights are approximate shares of scored questions, not a guarantee for any single exam form.