CompTIA CySA+

Measured data

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CompTIA CySA+

CS0-004

We scored 85 real CompTIA CySA+ exam questions 1-10 on question complexity and broke the result down by exam domain.

85 questions scored
4 domains
2.0/10 overall complexity

Complexity by exam domain

Higher scores mean more demanding question formats. The exam score is computed over the whole bank, not averaged across domains.

Exam complexity score2.0/10Gentle · measured across 85 bank questions
  • Incident Response and Management20 questions · complexity 2.0/10 · Gentle

    35% multi-select · 0% scenario · 30% interactive

  • Reporting and Communication14 questions · complexity 2.0/10 · Gentle

    36% multi-select · 0% scenario · 29% interactive

  • Security Operations29 questions · complexity 2.0/10 · Gentle

    34% multi-select · 0% scenario · 31% interactive

  • Vulnerability Management22 questions · complexity 1.9/10 · Gentle

    32% multi-select · 0% scenario · 32% interactive

Full per-domain breakdown

Blueprint weight, bank size and question format mix for every domain of the exam.

DomainBlueprintQuestionsSingleMultiInteractiveComplexity
Incident Response and Management24%207762.0/10Gentle
Reporting and Communication16%145542.0/10Gentle
Security Operations34%29101092.0/10Gentle
Vulnerability Management26%228771.9/10Gentle

How the score is calculated

The formula is fixed and public, so anyone can reproduce these numbers from the same bank.

Every question in the CompTIA CySA+ bank is measured on four signals that can be read directly from the database. Each signal is expressed as a share of the questions in the domain, and the four shares are combined with fixed weights:

  • Multi-select questions (40% weight). Items with more than one correct answer. The candidate has to find all of them, which is the single hardest format in the bank.
  • Scenario questions (30% weight). Questions longer than 150 characters, which describe a situation instead of a definition and therefore test reasoning rather than recall.
  • Interactive questions (20% weight). Items that require reading code or a configuration snippet.
  • Deep explanations (10% weight). Questions whose explanation runs past 300 characters, which signals a concept with real nuance behind it.

The combined share is multiplied by ten to produce a 1-10 score. The exam-level score is computed over the whole bank rather than averaged across domains, so a small domain cannot distort the total. Figures on this page are recomputed from the live bank on every crawl.

Data set: Certilum CompTIA CySA+ Foundation question bank, 85 questions, 4 domains. Published by CERTILUM. This is Certilum’s own measurement of its own question bank and is not an official CompTIA statistic.

Questions analysed
85
Exam domains
4
Hardest domain
Incident Response and Management (2.0)
Most approachable domain
Vulnerability Management (1.9)
Question mix
30 single · 29 multi · 26 interactive
Measured on
Foundation

Frequently asked questions

What our CompTIA CySA+ complexity numbers mean and how they are produced.