Security+ Pass Rate 2026: No Official Rate, Scoring Guide

If you're searching for an official CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) pass rate, here's the honest answer up front: there isn't one. CompTIA states that it does not publish exam passing rates because exam questions and passing rates are subject to change without notice. Any "Security+ pass rate" percentage you see quoted online is an estimate or a training provider's internal number — not an official figure from the certification body.

How the SY0-701 exam is scored

Security+ is not graded on a simple percentage-correct basis. CompTIA uses a scaled score, and the passing score is 750 on a scale of 100 to 900. Because the score is scaled, you can't reliably map "I need X% correct" onto 750 — the scale accounts for the relative difficulty of the specific questions you were served.

The exam itself contains a maximum of 90 questions and has a length of test of 90 minutes. Those questions come in two formats: multiple-choice and performance-based. The performance-based questions (PBQs) are interactive, scenario-driven tasks that ask you to actually configure something, order steps, or analyze output — and they typically carry more weight than a single multiple-choice item, which is why rushing through them is a common way to leave points on the table.

What's actually on the exam: the five domains

The exam measures five content domains, and they are not weighted equally. Knowing the weighting tells you exactly where your study hours pay off:

• Domain 1.0 — General Security Concepts: 12% of the exam.
• Domain 2.0 — Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations: 22% of the exam.
• Domain 3.0 — Security Architecture: 18% of the exam.
• Domain 4.0 — Security Operations: 28% of the exam.
• Domain 5.0 — Security Program Management and Oversight: 20% of the exam.

Security Operations at 28% and Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations at 22% together make up half the exam. If your time is limited, those two domains are where a weak spot costs you the most scaled points — and where strengthening your knowledge moves the needle fastest.

What drives pass/fail outcomes

Because there's no published pass rate to benchmark against, the practical predictors of success are experience and exam-specific readiness. CompTIA recommends a minimum of 2 years of experience in IT administration with a focus on security, and it further suggests candidates hold CompTIA Network+ and have two years of experience working in a security or systems administrator job role. That recommendation exists for a reason: the exam leans heavily on applied, operational judgment — especially in the performance-based questions — that's hard to fake with pure memorization.

The most common ways candidates fail tend to be structural rather than a lack of intelligence: mismanaging the 90-minute clock, freezing on PBQs early instead of flagging and returning to them, and under-preparing for the two heaviest domains while over-studying the lighter 12% General Security Concepts domain.

How to improve your odds

Since 750 is a fixed target on the 100–900 scale, your job is to build enough breadth that a handful of tough items can't sink you. A few concrete moves:

• Weight your study by domain percentage. Spend the most time on Security Operations (28%) and Threats/Vulnerabilities/Mitigations (22%) — together they're half your score.
• Drill performance-based questions specifically. They're worth more per item and take longer, so practice them under time pressure, not just multiple-choice.
• Rehearse the clock. With a maximum of 90 questions in 90 minutes, budget your time so PBQs don't eat the minutes you need for the rest.
• Take realistic practice tests. Simulating the exam reveals your weak domains before test day, when you can still fix them. Try our free Security+ practice exam to gauge where you stand against the passing threshold.

A quick note on timing your attempt: the SY0-701 exam launched in November 2023, and CompTIA typically retires an exam version three years after launch. Planning to sit for SY0-701 well before its retirement window keeps you studying against the current objectives rather than a version being phased out.

Why there is no pass rate, and what that tells you

CompTIA's stated reason for withholding the figure is worth reading closely: exam questions and passing rates are subject to change without notice. That is less evasion than a description of how the exam is maintained. A scaled 750 on a 100–900 range is a fixed standard, but the item pool behind it is refreshed continuously, so a pass rate measured against one pool would not describe the next one.

The practical consequence is that every Security+ pass rate in circulation comes from a training provider's own students — a self-selected group who paid for a course and were counted by the company that sold it. Those numbers run high for reasons that have nothing to do with the exam, and there is no denominator anyone outside CompTIA can audit. The only benchmark actually available to you is your own performance against 750 under timed conditions, which is also the only one that predicts anything.

The date that does exist

CompTIA will not give you a pass rate, but it does publish something with a deadline attached. SY0-701 launched on 7 November 2023, and CompTIA's certification page states that a version retires "usually three years after launch," giving 2026 as the estimate for this one — an estimate that now points inside the current year. CompTIA has not published a firm retirement date, and that is worth knowing rather than guessing around. Three things follow:

• Check the exam code before you buy anything. A voucher, course or question bank bought now should say SY0-701. Material written for SY0-601 describes a different objectives list, not an older edition of the same one.
• The version is keyed to when you sit, not when you paid. This is the rule that catches people out whenever a version turns over, on any certification.
• A retirement window is not a reason to rush a weak attempt. The certification itself does not expire when the exam version does — you renew it with 50 CEUs, never by re-sitting the exam.

What the certification is worth

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 190,650 information security analysts employed nationally, with median annual pay of $129,180 against a mean of $132,510; the tenth percentile sits near $75,090 and the ninetieth near $199,850. Security+ is an entry-level credential inside that occupation rather than a ticket to its midpoint, and CompTIA's own positioning agrees — it recommends roughly two years of IT administration experience with a security focus before you sit. Read together, those two facts describe what the exam actually does: it validates early-career security work rather than substituting for it.

After you pass

Passing isn't the end of the commitment. Security+ is renewable rather than a one-time credential: renewing it requires earning 50 Continuing Education Units (CEUs), which can come from training, higher education, industry activities, and completing additional certifications — so you can keep the certification current without ever retaking the exam.

Bottom line: there's no official Security+ pass rate to aim for, but there is a hard, knowable target — a scaled score of 750. Study by domain weight, master the performance-based questions, and manage your 90 minutes, and you control the variables that actually decide the outcome.