Best Resources to Pass the CompTIA CySA+ CS0-003 Exam

Introduction

I recently earned the “Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+)” certification from CompTIA, and wanted to post about the resources and study habits I used to enable this victory.

I ended up finishing with a 789/900 and for those who are unfamiliar with CompTIA’s scoring you need a 750 to pass. I definitely did not feel great from about halfway in until I clicked submit. And more annoying still after a CompTIA exam you need to complete a survey after submitting before you see your score. So I am sweating bullets unable to focus on any of the things its asking me in order to just see if I passed… but I digress, it was tough.

I will start with the most important resources I used first and work down to less useful. After that I will dive into the study habits I used in order to get the most out of everything.

I should also mention I maintained a full time job and social activities while utilizing all of these strategies. 

Resources Used

1. CompTIA CySA+ Study Guide + Practice Test Combo from Sybex

At risk of sounding like a sellout, I have to say the value gained from these books is immense. There is a reason everyone touts it as one of the go-to sources for CompTIA exams, and for CySA+ in particular it is no different. I did not use Sybex when I pursued Security+ last year, but due to some of my Security+ resources not having CySA+ material (looking at you Messer!) I needed to add something.

The main reason this is so valuable are the practice tests & questions at the end of a chapter. They are the closest I have come to from the various practice tests I have taken to the actual exam. I was pretty confident from the various sources I read that this was the case, so I am simply adding on to that pile by confirming it’s true.

The best way to prepare for CySA+ is to utilize these books.

2. LinkedIn Learning: CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+) Course from Mike Chapple

It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the authors of the above study guide would make a good video course. The content is short and sweet, and if you are like me and listen to these regularly you will be hearing a lot of the same content in order to – hopefully – better retain it. Because of this I put the speed usually at 1.5x for this and a lot of YouTube content for stuff I am learning. Only if something is much more dense, new and requires focus will I slow down and really listen in.

I do believe you need to be a premium member in order to access any content on LinkedIn learning, and premium is not the cheapest of subscriptions. But if you can afford it this is definitely a resource to use. If you can’t spring for premium though I wouldn’t be alarmed, there are some great YouTube resources I will start getting into next.

3. Certify Breakfast’s CySA+ Full Course on YouTube (FREE)

This was one of the first things I listened to when getting ready for this exam, this was before I bought any books or premium memberships. It was a good way to ‘warm up’ to the content for me. I have heard of quite a few people focusing on this content though in order to pass the exam. I will honestly say this seemed comparable to Mike Chapple’s LinkedIn course, it’s simply a different person explaining things to you. And sometimes a different person teaching can reach someone better and more effectively than someone else. To be honest you should probably try this content before making the decision to purchase LinkedIn premium to access the CySA+ course.

4. Cyberkraft’s CySA+ Performance Based Questions Walkthrough on YouTube (FREE)

When I said in the introduction that I did not feel good about passing the test, I really meant that. But what I do feel like I crushed is the performance based questions. I think these are weighted quite heavily and I believe that it was doing well here that gave me my passing score. That being said, I did not have many questions where I “flagged” or was between a couple different answers, the questions and answers to choose from just didn’t feel “great” if that makes any sense.

This YouTube channel was so helpful in going over the types of questions you will experience in the exam and I honestly believe it was an excellent resource to utilize in order to prepare.

5. Cyber James’s CompTIA CySA+ Practice Exam Part 1 & 2 on YouTube (FREE)

Along the same lines as cyberkraft but instead of performance based questions we are instead just focusing on the multiple choice aspect. Each of these videos goes over 20 questions that are EXTREMELY similar to the exam. James does a great job of explaining not only why the answer is the way that it is, but also why it’s not other answers. This goes a long way in setting your expectations for the exam.

6. Jason Dion’s CySA+ Practice Exams on Udemy

I will say out of the gate these tests are not really realistic as far as preparing for the CompTIA exam. However what they actually do is expose knowledge gaps. I utilized these tests in conjunction with creating flashcards for topics I didn’t know(more on that later). I do not think this should be your only practice test source, but you can certainly gain value from this product especially if you take advantage of the frequent sales that arise on Udemy.

Study Habits and Strategy

I have been in the field at this point for about 7 years, I currently am dual hatted as an ISSO / System Administrator. Last year I also got the Security+ certification from CompTIA, that needs to be mentioned here because there is a decent amount of overlap with the CySA+ exam. I would not say it is required to have Security+ first, it does help for sure.

Like I mentioned above, I first began studying by watching/listening to “Certify Breakfast’s” CySA+ YouTube series. While this was certainly helpful in getting familiar with some of the concepts that I would have to learn, it was not the most efficient method for me to learn. What I am going to list here is what I did in the final few weeks and what I found to be the most helpful form of studying. Obviously what works for you may be different, and cybersecurity is a field that requires you to stay up to date with the latest threats and response strategies. Learning how to learn will be critical.

Study Strategy 1:

I started off with taking Jason Dion’s practice tests over the course of the week. After the test was taken, I thoroughly went over the answers for EVERY QUESTION. Making flashcards along the way for anything that didn’t make 100% sense to me. Even with the questions I got right, if there was another answer which I didn’t recognize and it was a part of the CySA+ knowledge and not made up, then I wrote that down. There are 6 tests in Jason Dion’s Practice Exams and while not the best in terms of preparation, it definitely helps shore up some knowledge gaps.

Study Strategy 2:

Utilize a video source of your choosing whenever you can. Whether that is Mike Chapple’s LinkedIn learning course or Certify Breakfast’s YouTube series. At this point you are still early on with studying and soaking up material through every medium possible should be a priority. I am someone who frequently listens to something while driving and working out, having something like this playing constantly goes a long way and you will retain more than you realize by listening regularly.

Study Strategy 3:

After doing Strategies 1 and 2 for a couple weeks I realized I needed to switch things up. I started remembering questions from Dion’s tests and that is never a good way to get a passing grade. This is when I bought the Sybex study guide and practice test combo. After receiving it I decided the first thing I needed to do was take a practice test, so that’s what I did. I sat down the next morning and took the first one and scored a 63%. And to be honest that actually made me feel pretty good about getting that score kinda early on. I am generally a positive and confident person, so my mindset was “cool… I only need to get enough knowledge to score about 17% more points.” Which made the process seem much easier.

From here I replaced strategy 1 with this: Every day I would do 30 questions from domain 1. And the next day I would do 30 from the next domain. At about a week in I started to see the domains where I was having the biggest issue (pro tip- Domain 1 is Security Operations and accounts for about 33% of the exams grade) and started to focus on those areas where I was lacking by skimming through the study guide(same domain as the part I practiced on) and taking notes and making flash cards the same way I did with strategy 1/

The Sybex practice test book has 2 “full” practice exams at 85 questions apiece. But – including the exams – the test book has about 1000 practice questions. So doing 30 a day will last you quite a while, and obviously you can do more. But I found 30 to be good for me to find some things to focus on in digestible chunks.

I did this until the percentage of questions I was getting wrong in each domain was about 7-8 per 30. This seemed like a good goal to me and that’s what I was aimed for.

Study Strategy 4:

If you are missing 7-8 out of 30 on every domain I would say you are probably ready to go for the real deal. But instead of scheduling a couple days out, I like scheduling 2 weeks out. Some people schedule extremely early on to have that drive from the beginning but this is how I have always done it and it has served me well so far. But regardless when you do it, once you set a test date it switches the “urgency” in your brain. 

At this point I also switched from the visual material of Certify Breakfast/ LinkedIn Learning to Cyberkraft (number 4 on resources) and started preparing for the performance based questions. This channel does an excellent job of walking through these types of questions and setting your expectations for the exam. I think this channel is one of the reasons I crushed my PBQ’s and ended up passing likely because of it.

Study Strategy 5:

We are now a few days before the exam. I would take the 2nd Practice Exam a few days prior and still study any gaps you may find. The day after this you should take your FIRST practice exam again and compare your scores, see if there are any questions you got wrong BOTH times and take extra time to KNOW WHY that happened. Read the study guide that has to do with those questions.

In addition to this watch the 2 videos from Cyber James on youtube. He goes over 20 questions in each video and goes over why each answer is what it is. It is EXTREMELY helpful in getting into the “mindset” of the test. I even listened to this on the way to the exam as a “warm up”.

CompTIA CySA+ Test Taking Tips

Read the question…twice

CompTIA makes things more complicated on purpose. Really understanding what the question is asking. For instance the “best” answer versus the “easiest” MAY be different.

Process of elimination

You’ve probably heard this one before but I am saying it again. There are usually one or two answers that you can eliminate out of the gate if you think for a couple seconds. Doing this stacks the odds in your favor if you need to guess, which will probably happen on a few to be fair.

Time

I had 74 questions and 2 ½ hours to complete it, in my opinion this was A LOT of time. You have plenty of it, so take a deep breath and work through your analytical process.

Logs

You should understand how to read log output. This is PROBABLY one of the main expectations a role will have of you if they hire you based on this certification. Do not let them down, understand log output and abnormal traffic associated with them.

Flag Questions for Review

If you really are stuck, flag a question to come back to it. Sometimes there will be a question later on that might answer, or atleast trigger something in your brain to remember the earlier question. It isn’t often, but during my test taking career(barf!) this has actually happened a few times.

Conclusion

CompTIA’s CySA+ exam is a good certification, but it isn’t going to get you a job on it’s own. In fact no certification is really going to get you a job on it’s own. But it does demonstrate some requisite knowledge and ability to complete a goal, this one is no different. But combining this certification with any sort of help desk, system administrator experience, or even those who primarily have gained their hands on skills from lab exercises, you may find you are able to make the jump into a cyber security analyst position and find yourself actively working on a blue team doing real-world impact work. 

Best of luck to you, don’t click links from strangers….

Bryce