About This Study Plan

This 7-day study plan breaks the SECPLUS (Security+) exam preparation into 7 focused study sessions with 28 actionable tasks. The plan covers all 5 exam domains — General Security Concepts, Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations, Security Architecture, Security Operations, Security Program Management — ensuring complete coverage. Intensive 7-day review for CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) covering threats, architecture, implementation, operations, and governance.

7Study Sessions

28Total Tasks

5Domains Covered

Prerequisites

Network+ or equivalent knowledge
5–7 hours per day

Study Schedule

Day 1Threats, Attacks & Vulnerabilities

Malware types: ransomware, trojans, rootkits, fileless malware
Social engineering: phishing, smishing, vishing, pretexting, watering hole
Application attacks: SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, buffer overflow
Network attacks: MITM, replay, DDoS, DNS poisoning, ARP spoofing

Day 2Security Architecture

Zero trust model and defense-in-depth
Network segmentation, DMZ, micro-segmentation
Cloud security: shared responsibility, CASB, SASE
Secure infrastructure: SDN, IaC, containerization security

Day 3Security Implementation

Cryptography: symmetric (AES), asymmetric (RSA), hashing (SHA-256)
PKI: certificates, CAs, certificate lifecycle, OCSP
Authentication: MFA, passwordless, SAML, OAuth, OpenID Connect
Endpoint protection: EDR, DLP, HIDS, application whitelisting

Day 4Security Operations

Incident response lifecycle: preparation → detection → containment → eradication → recovery
SIEM, SOAR, threat intelligence, and vulnerability scanning
Digital forensics: chain of custody, evidence preservation, order of volatility
Log analysis, monitoring, and alerting

Day 5Governance, Risk & Compliance

Risk management: assessment, mitigation, acceptance, transference
Frameworks: NIST CSF, ISO 27001, CIS Controls, SOC 2
Regulations: GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS
Security policies, procedures, and awareness training

Day 6Practice Exam

Take a full timed practice exam (90 questions, 90 minutes)
Review every incorrect answer with explanations
Focus on cryptography and attack identification
Run flashcards for acronyms and frameworks

Day 7Final Review

Cryptography algorithms cheat sheet
Attack types quick reference
Review weakest domain
Light review and rest

Study Tips

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Threats/Attacks is the heaviest domain — know attack types and their indicators.

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Memorize cryptographic algorithms and their key sizes.

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Understand zero trust principles — they appear throughout the exam.

Recommended CompTIA Study Resources

Supplement this study plan with the official CompTIA CertMaster labs and practice tests. Download the free exam objectives PDF from CompTIA's website and use it as a checklist — cross off each objective as you master it. Professor Messer's free video series covers every CompTIA exam objective and is widely regarded as one of the best free resources available.