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Check your readiness for the CompTIA CySA+ CS0-004 exam with 50 exam-style questions across all four domains, each with an instant explanation. Free to take, with a 90-minute timer that matches the pace of the real exam, and retake it as often as you want.
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Enter your details, then choose a 25-question Quick Test or the full 50-question, 90-minute practice test.
This free CompTIA CySA+ practice test checks your readiness for the CS0-004 exam with 50 exam-style questions across all four domains, each with an explanation for every answer choice, on a 90-minute timer that mirrors the roughly two-minutes-per-question pace of the real exam. Built by Training Camp, an authorized CompTIA partner, and drawn from the same objectives we teach in our CySA+ Boot Camp. New to the exam? Learn more about the CySA+ certification.
CS0-004 is the current version of the CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst exam. It launched on June 23, 2026, and the CS0-003 English exam retires on December 22, 2026. The exam has four weighted domains: Security Operations (34%), Vulnerability Management (26%), Incident Response and Management (24%), and Reporting and Communication (16%). You get 165 minutes for a maximum of 85 questions, a mix of multiple-choice items and performance-based questions that drop you into a simulated console or log view, and you need a scaled score of 750 on a scale of 100 to 900 to pass.
The biggest change from CS0-003 is a new objective on AI in security operations inside the Security Operations domain: the risks of using AI tools (hallucinations, data exposure, model poisoning, malicious prompts), governance through usage policies, and practical use cases such as log analysis and event correlation. There are no formal prerequisites. CompTIA recommends CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Security+ or equivalent knowledge, plus about four years of hands-on work in a SOC analyst or vulnerability analyst role. The certification expires three years from the date you earn it and is renewed through CompTIA's continuing education program.
Take it once without notes to get an honest baseline, then read the explanation for every answer, including the ones you got right. The incorrect-choice explanations are where the distinctions the exam likes to test (atomic versus behavioral indicators, credentialed versus non-credentialed scans, CVSS base score versus active exploitation, containment versus eradication) get spelled out. Study your weakest domain and retake the test in a week. The 90-minute timer over 50 questions keeps you honest about pacing: the real exam gives you 165 minutes for up to 85 questions, so practice reading a log excerpt or scan result, deciding in about two minutes, and moving on.
Domains Covered · CS0-004
Log analysis, indicators of malicious activity, SIEM and EDR tooling, threat intelligence, and AI in the SOC.
Scanning methods, reading scanner output, CVSS and KEV prioritization, remediation and compensating controls.
Attack frameworks, the incident response lifecycle, containment, evidence handling, and root cause analysis.
Vulnerability and incident reporting, stakeholder communication, metrics and KPIs, and after-action reviews.
Four questions from the bank, one per domain, with the reasoning behind every answer. The full test has 50.
A SOC analyst at a regional hospital is reconstructing a suspected credential theft. The SIEM shows the VPN concentrator recorded the attacker's login at 02:14, yet the domain controller logged the same account's Kerberos ticket request at 02:09, five minutes before the VPN session existed. Both timestamps were written by the devices themselves, both devices are healthy and neither log has gaps. What is the most likely cause?
Correct. Reliable correlation depends on time synchronization: every log source should sync to the same NTP hierarchy so events from different devices can be ordered. A device with a clock five minutes off makes a single attack look like two disconnected events, which is why logging configuration and time sync sit in objective 1.1.
A vulnerability analyst at a county government runs weekly unauthenticated scans against 600 Windows servers. The reports list operating systems as probable guesses and miss most of the missing patches that the patch team knows are outstanding. Which change would give the analyst accurate patch and configuration data?
Correct. A credentialed (authenticated) scan logs in to the host and reads the installed patches, registry settings and software inventory directly instead of inferring them from banners and network responses. It produces far fewer false positives and negatives, which is why objective 2.1 treats the credentialed versus non-credentialed choice as a core scanning decision.
Which of the following frameworks describes an intrusion event using the four core features of adversary, capability, infrastructure and victim?
Correct. The Diamond Model of Intrusion Analysis places adversary, capability, infrastructure and victim at the four corners of a diamond. Analysts use the known corners of an event to pivot toward the unknown ones.
A vulnerability analyst at a manufacturer reports that a critical finding on the plant scheduling server has been open for 90 days. The system owner explains that the vendor's support contract is voided if any patch not certified by the vendor is applied, and the next certified release is months away. In the report to management, how should the analyst characterize this obstacle?
Correct. Objective 4.1 names contractual agreements, legacy systems, business interruption and patch availability among the remediation inhibitors a report should explain. Management needs to see why the finding is open, what interim control reduces the exposure, and when the certified patch is expected, so they can accept or escalate the situation knowingly.
Every one of the 50 questions works this way: an explanation for the right answer and for the one you picked, so a wrong answer teaches you something. Questions last reviewed against the current CompTIA CySA+ (CS0-004) objectives.
Quick answers about the test, the CompTIA CySA+ (CS0-004) exam, and how to prepare.
Yes. Training Camp's CompTIA CySA+ practice test is free to take. You get 50 exam-style questions across all four CS0-004 domains, with a written explanation for every answer choice.
It is 50 multiple-choice scenario questions drawn from all four CS0-004 domains, with an instant explanation after each answer and a 90-minute timer that mirrors the pace of the real exam. You can retake it as often as you want. Treat it as a readiness check rather than a substitute for full preparation.
The CompTIA CySA+ CS0-004 exam has a maximum of 85 questions and a 165-minute time limit. It mixes multiple-choice items with performance-based questions that ask you to analyze logs, scan output or a simulated environment.
You need a scaled score of 750 on a scale of 100 to 900 to pass the CompTIA CySA+ CS0-004 exam.
CS0-004 covers four domains: Security Operations (34%), Vulnerability Management (26%), Incident Response and Management (24%), and Reporting and Communication (16%). Security Operations is the largest and now includes an objective on AI in security operations.
CS0-004 launched on June 23, 2026 and keeps the same four domain names, but the weights moved from 33/30/20/17 in CS0-003 to 34/26/24/16. It adds AI in security operations as a new objective (1.6), covering AI risks, governance and use cases in the SOC, and CompTIA also cites expanded EPSS-based prioritization, Zero Trust and SASE architecture, and SBOM and software supply chain coverage. The CS0-003 English exam retires on December 22, 2026.
There are no formal prerequisites. CompTIA recommends CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Security+ or equivalent knowledge, plus about four years of hands-on work in a SOC analyst or vulnerability analyst role. The exam assumes you have read real logs and scan results, so lab time matters as much as reading.
Start with the CS0-004 exam objectives and get hands-on with a SIEM, a packet analyzer and a vulnerability scanner, then use practice questions like these to find your weak domains. If you want a structured path with an instructor and your exam voucher included, our CySA+ Boot Camp covers all four domains.