How to Pass the CompTIA CySA+ Exam

In February, I was finally promoted from my university’s IT Help Desk to its Security Operations Center. Seeing that my new job title and responsibilities aligned with the certification, I studied for the CompTIA CySA+ CS0-003 in 2-3 weeks and passed with an exceptional score of 834/900. Here are my thoughts on the certification.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, the certification was very underwhelming. For a certification that is placed higher on the CompTIA totem pole above the A+, Network+, and Security+, the CySA+ felt somewhat like a joke. Almost half of the Security+ exam objectives were thrown into the CySA+ exam objectives, and the rest of the exam objectives are concepts, tools, policies, processes, and procedures that I am already familiar with because of my job. Additionally, because the CySA+ is a CompTIA certification, the vast majority of its questions are multiple-choice and multiple-select questions, which hurts its reputation in my opinion. A more hands-on blue team certification is Security Blue Team’s BTL1, but that is currently out of my budget unfortunately.

General Tips and Tricks

If you have already passed the Security+, the CySA+ should not be a difficult barrier to overcome. Here are some exam-specific tips that I can share for the CySA+.

• Like all CompTIA exams, the CySA+ contains extreme word salad. There is always a key word or phrase that changes the correct answer. As long as you can parse through the word salad, you can answer the multiple-choice and multiple-select questions correctly.
• CompTIA heavily emphasizes automation. If the question is about automation, think about SOAR and what could make security operations more efficient.
• The PBQs will feel overwhelming at first because there is a great amount of information to parse, analyze, and understand. Make sure that your answers to the PBQs can be proven logically and that your story makes sense.

Recommended Training Material

Because Professor Messer does not have CySA+ training material, I purchased an annual subscription for PluralSight Skills and used PluralSight’s CompTIA CySA+ CS0-003 certification path, which contains courses created by Dale Meredith. Dale is a decent instructor, as he covers concepts in layman’s terms and is quick to the point, but he skips large sections of the exam objectives. Thus, his video courses alone are not sufficient to pass the CySA+ exam. I purchased the Sybex CySA+ CS0-003 Study Guide on Amazon and downloaded the official exam objectives, which was enough to cover all of the exam objectives and pass the exam.

Would I recommmend PluralSight? If you want access to a massive library of courses, then yes, but I cannot vouch for their quality. Regardless, I am planning to use one of their certification paths again for the Cisco CyberOps Associate exam, which I will take in Fall 2024.

Final Thoughts

The CompTIA CySA+ is a somewhat easy certification if you have already taken the Security+ and have relevant work experience, such as myself. However, it still gives a good introduction into the world of security operations, vulnerability management, incident response, and reporting and communication, all of which are vital responsibilities of a cybersecurity analyst in the modern era.