Every SecAI+ objective, explained and drilled.
CompTIA's new exam on securing AI, covered in 345 pages and 270 exam-style questions you answer in the browser. Domains 2 to 4 follow one company as it secures a live AI agent, puts AI to work in its SOC, and governs it all. A book gives you the reading. This gives you the reading and the drilling, for $59.
- All 4 CY0-001 domains
- 270 exam-style questions
- Free updates
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Also: Security+, CySA+, CISSP, CCSP
Student and hours figures come from Chris's Pluralsight author dashboard, tracked monthly since 2014. Course count and rating are public on his profile.
Actual pages from SecAI+ Domain 1, one of 27 guides, 2,913 pages. Read the whole guide free →
Guides written by a veteran Pluralsight author
Courses, rating and ratings count are public on Chris's author page. Go check them →
† Student total comes from Chris's Pluralsight author dashboard, which isn't public, tracked monthly since 2014.
Take a whole exam, or just the domain that's failing you
Every guide maps to the published objectives, with practice questions you answer right here and a PDF you can download and mark up.
Complete SecAI+ Collection
All four CY0-001 domains: 100% exam coverage in one purchase.
- 4 domain guides
- 345 pages
- 270 questions
Written as a story, not a checklist. Domains 2, 3 and 4 follow the same fictional company (Northstar Financial) through one continuous build: a security engineer securing a live customer-facing AI agent, a SOC lead putting AI to work defensively, and a governance lead chartering the AI Center of Excellence.
$59 one-time
Buying the 4 guides separately costs $74.85. The Collection saves you $15.85.
Get the Collection for $59Or buy a single domain
Best after the readiness quiz shows which domain is costing you marks. Take the quiz first →
AI Foundations for Security Professionals
Models, training data and the full AI lifecycle, explained without hand-waving.
Read it free: all 67 pagesSecuring AI Systems, End to End
Threat-model, control, monitor and defend a production AI agent.
Get this guide for $24.95Putting AI to Work in the SOC
AI-enabled defense, AI-powered attackers, and the automation between them.
Get this guide for $24.95AI Governance, Risk and Compliance
EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, and who actually signs off.
Get this guide for $24.95Complete Security+ Collection
All five SY0-701 domains: 100% exam coverage in one purchase.
- 5 domain guides
- 460 pages
- 375 questions
$49 one-time
Buying the 5 guides separately costs $59.80. The Collection saves you $10.80.
Get the Collection for $49Or buy a single domain
Best after the readiness quiz shows which domain is costing you marks. Take the quiz first →
The Security Vocabulary Everything Else Is Built On
Control types, CIA triad, change management and every cryptographic solution tested.
Read it free: all 82 pagesKnow the Attack, Know the Countermeasure
Every threat actor, attack vector and indicator the exam asks about.
Get this guide for $14.95How Secure Systems Are Actually Built
Cloud to ICS, data protection, resilience and recovery, architected properly.
Get this guide for $14.95Security Operations: The Actual Day Job
Hardening, monitoring, IAM, incident response and forensics, all nine objectives.
Get this guide for $14.95Running the Security Program
Governance, risk, third parties, compliance, audits and awareness, the manager's domain.
Get this guide for $14.95Complete CISSP Collection
All eight CISSP domains: 100% exam coverage in one purchase.
- 8 domain guides
- 967 pages
- 640 questions
$129 one-time
Buying the 8 guides separately costs $199.60. The Collection saves you $70.60.
Get the Collection for $129Or buy a single domain
Best after the readiness quiz shows which domain is costing you marks. Take the quiz first →
How Security Decisions Actually Get Made
Ethics, governance, law, risk and the vocabulary the whole exam assumes.
Get this guide for $24.95Know What You Hold and What It's Worth
Classification, handling, the data lifecycle, and destruction that actually works.
Get this guide for $24.95Designing Systems That Hold Up
Design principles, security models, cryptography and fifteen architectures assessed.
Get this guide for $24.95Networks Built to Be Defended
Every layer, three grades of segmentation, and the channels people actually use.
Get this guide for $24.95Who Gets In, and What They Can Reach
Authentication strategy, federation, six authorization models, and the protocols.
Get this guide for $24.95Proving the Controls Work
Assessment strategy, ten testing techniques, honest metrics and real audits.
Get this guide for $24.95The Day Job, All Fifteen Objectives
Forensics, monitoring, incidents, recovery, physical security and personnel safety.
Get this guide for $24.95Where Governance Meets the Code
Secure SDLC, pipeline controls, acquired software, and the API flaws that matter.
Get this guide for $24.95Complete CCSP Collection
All six CCSP domains: 100% exam coverage in one purchase.
- 6 domain guides
- 663 pages
- 380 questions
$99 one-time
Buying the 6 guides separately costs $149.70. The Collection saves you $50.70.
Get the Collection for $99Or buy a single domain
Best after the readiness quiz shows which domain is costing you marks. Take the quiz first →
What Cloud Actually Means
Definitions, roles, shared responsibility, and the AI objective ISC2 just added.
Get this guide for $24.95Data You No Longer Hold
Lifecycle, encryption, tokenization, deletion that reaches every copy.
Get this guide for $24.95The Platform Underneath Everything
Components, the management plane, data center design, risk and recovery.
Get this guide for $24.95Software on Somebody Else's Platform
Secure SDLC, four threat models, assurance testing, supply chain and IAM.
Get this guide for $24.95Running It, Every Day
Operations, service management, forensics without the media, and the SOC.
Get this guide for $24.95Where the Contract Is the Control
Jurisdiction, privacy, audit reports, enterprise risk and cloud contracts.
Get this guide for $24.95Complete CySA+ Collection
All four CS0-004 V4 domains: 100% exam coverage in one purchase.
- 4 domain guides
- 478 pages
- 320 questions
$59 one-time
Buying the 4 guides separately costs $79.80. The Collection saves you $20.80.
Get the Collection for $59Or buy a single domain
Best after the readiness quiz shows which domain is costing you marks. Take the quiz first →
The Detection Half of the Analyst's Job
Read the indicators, pick the right tool, hunt, plus the new AI objective.
Get this guide for $19.95Fix What Actually Matters First
Scan selection, honest tool output, and prioritizing on evidence not severity.
Get this guide for $19.95When Something Gets Through
Attack frameworks, the seven phases, and evidence that survives scrutiny.
Get this guide for $19.95Making the Work Count Outside the SOC
Reports people act on, honest inhibitors, and metrics that resist gaming.
Get this guide for $19.95Want to compare everything at once? See all 27 guides on one page →
This is what the writing actually looks like.
Not a description of the writing. The writing itself. Below is the real opening of Module 1.1 and two of the practice questions, answerable right here. Everything on this page is from the guide we give away in full.
Compare and contrast various types of security controls
Every safeguard an organization deploys (() is a security control. This objective gives you the two-axis classification system CompTIA uses everywhere else on the exam: category (how the control is implemented and by whom) and type (what the control does relative to an incident).
A security control is any measure put in place to reduce risk: to prevent, detect, or recover from a security event, or to discourage or redirect the behavior that causes one. Because organizations deploy hundreds of controls, security professionals classify them along two independent axes. The category answers "who implements this, and through what mechanism?" The type answers "when does this act relative to an incident, and what does it accomplish?" Every control has exactly one obvious category on the exam, but a single control can serve different types depending on how it's used: a camera detects intrusions and deters intruders who can see it.
Control categories: how a control is implemented
CompTIA defines four categories. Learn them by their implementation mechanism, not by memorizing example lists: technical controls are enforced by systems, managerial controls by governance and planning, operational controls by people executing day-to-day processes, and physical controls by the tangible world.
And these are the questions. Try them.
Every answer explains why the right one is right and why the attractive wrong one is wrong, which is the distinction the exam is really testing.
1. A company installs a chain-link fence topped with razor wire around its data center property. Which control category does this represent?
2. A DDoS attack makes a company's customer portal unreachable for six hours. Which element of the CIA triad was PRIMARILY violated?
2 of 60 questions in this guide alone. Or take the full readiness quiz →
Not sure which of the 27 guides you actually need?
Take the five-minute readiness quiz. Ten exam-style questions, scored domain by domain, so you finish knowing which one is costing you marks, and you see your score without handing over an address.
Do the math before you buy anything, including this.
The study material is the cheapest line item in your certification. Here's exactly where it sits.
The exam is the expensive part
A Security+ voucher is $439. A SecAI+ voucher is $298. Neither includes a free retake, so the true cost of walking in underprepared isn't a bad afternoon. It's another $439. Against that, the Complete Security+ Collection is $49: about 11% of a single voucher. That's the entire pricing argument. The rest is detail.
What it works out to
At $49, the Security+ Collection is roughly 11 cents a page and 13 cents per practice question. The SecAI+ Collection at $59 is about 17 cents a page and 22 cents a question, priced higher because CY0-001 is a new exam with only a handful of prep resources so far, and its guides were built from the published objectives rather than adapted from something older. Both are one-time purchases with lifetime updates, so that number only goes down.
Where these fit
These are the reading-and-drilling layer: every objective explained, plus 645 practice questions, from someone who has taught this material to 700,000 people.* Pair them with hands-on practice and free video and you have the full kit for $49, not a $1,795 bootcamp.
| What you'd buy | Price | Practice questions | Answer in-browser | Mapped objective-by-objective | Updates included |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skillthropic Security+ Complete Collection | $49 | 375, with explanations | Yes | Yes, all 5 domains | Lifetime, free |
| Skillthropic SecAI+ Complete Collection | $59 | 270, with explanations | Yes | Yes, all 4 domains | Lifetime, free |
| Skillthropic single domain guide | $0–$0 | 60–90, with explanations | Yes | Yes, that domain | Lifetime, free |
| Sybex Security+ Study Guide (print/ebook) | ~$52 | Yes, online test bank | Book is static | Yes | New edition = new purchase |
| Professor Messer notes + practice exams bundle | $50 | Yes | PDF-based | Yes | Per-edition |
| CompTIA CertMaster Learn | $450 | Yes | Yes | Yes, official | Per-edition |
| Instructor-led bootcamp | $1,795–$2,699 | Varies | Live instruction | Yes | Per-course |
| CompTIA Security+ exam voucher | $439 | n/a | n/a | n/a | Retake not included |
| CompTIA SecAI+ exam voucher | $298 | n/a | n/a | n/a | Retake not included |
Third-party prices are list prices at time of writing and may change.
Enrollment figure from Chris's Pluralsight author dashboard.
Every purchase is covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee. Read the whole thing, work every question, and if it wasn't worth $49, ask for a refund and we'll send your money back.
One domain, one exam, or everything
Buy the domain that's costing you marks, the whole exam in one purchase, or subscribe to every guide we make.
Single guide
Just the domain you need. Domain 1 of Security+ and SecAI+ is free.
- One domain, yours forever
- Interactive guide + downloadable PDF
- Lifetime updates to that guide
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Complete Collection
Every domain of the exam you're sitting, for less than buying them one by one.
- SecAI+ · 4 domains$59
- Security+ · 5 domains$49
- CISSP · 8 domains$129
- CCSP · 6 domains$99
- CySA+ · 4 domains$59
- Every domain of one exam, one purchase
- All that exam's practice questions
- Lifetime updates, including the next exam version
- 30-day money-back guarantee
All-Access
Studying for more than one exam? Every guide, current and future.
Or $199 a year
Same access, billed once, and about 5 months free compared with paying monthly.
This is a recurring subscription. You will be charged $29 every month, and it renews automatically until you cancel. Cancel any time from Account → Subscription: one click, no email required, and access continues to the end of the period you have already paid for.
Covered by our 30-day money-back guarantee. Terms · Refund Policy
- Every guide for all five exams
- Everything we publish next
- Interactive guides + downloadable PDFs
- Cancel anytime, in one click
Secure checkout via Stripe · no account needed · instant access · about 30 seconds
30-day money-back guarantee · Cancel any time in one click
Frequently asked questions
Which certifications do you cover?
CompTIA Security+ (all 5 SY0-701 domains), ISC2 CISSP (all 8 domains of the 2024 outline), ISC2 CCSP (all 6 domains of the outline effective 1 August 2026), CompTIA CySA+ (all 4 CS0-004 V4 domains) and CompTIA SecAI+ (all 4 CY0-001 domains) are all available now. All-Access members automatically get every new guide as it's released.
What's the difference between a single guide, a Collection, and All-Access?
Domain 1 of Security+ and of SecAI+ is free. The other Security+ guides are $14.95 and the other SecAI+ guides are $24.95, one-time and yours forever. A Complete Collection covers a whole exam ($49 for Security+, $59 for SecAI+) and costs less than buying its domains one at a time. All-Access is $29/month or $199/year and unlocks every study guide, including new ones as they launch, for as long as you're subscribed. Cancel any time in one click.
What is CompTIA SecAI+?
CompTIA SecAI+ (exam CY0-001) is CompTIA's new certification for securing AI. It covers basic AI concepts, securing AI systems, AI-assisted security, and AI governance, risk and compliance. Our Domain 1 guide, free in full, covers the foundational AI concepts every security professional needs first.
Why did the prices go up? And is this worth it when so much is free?
Because the old prices didn't reflect what's in these guides, and low prices were signalling something untrue about the quality. 27 guides, 2,913 pages and 1,985 written-and-explained practice questions is not a $9.95 product. The previous pricing was an early-days number and it's been corrected.
On the free question: the free material is genuinely good and we'd be lying to say otherwise. Professor Messer's videos are excellent and you should watch them. His notes-and-practice-exams bundle is around $50 and worth it.
What you're paying $49 for here is a different thing: a single continuous written treatment of every objective, in order, with the questions attached, so you're not assembling a curriculum out of forty browser tabs and hoping you didn't miss objective 4.7. Some people don't need that. If you're one of them, save your money. Genuinely. If you've already tried the free-and-scattered approach and it isn't sticking, the structure is the product.
Either way, the 30-day money-back guarantee means the experiment costs you nothing but the time to run it.
What happens when SY0-701 retires and SY0-801 launches? Do I have to buy again?
No. You never pay twice for the same certification. When CompTIA retires SY0-701 and releases the next version, the updated guides land in your account for free, and the same applies to your PDFs. If you bought the Security+ Complete Collection for $49, that $49 covers the current exam and the next one, permanently.
We'll also keep the retiring version available during the overlap window, because if you've already booked SY0-701 you shouldn't be forced onto a blueprint you're not sitting. The same applies to CISSP, CCSP, CySA+ and SecAI+. The CISSP guides follow the outline effective 15 April 2024, which ISC2 has not announced a successor to, and the CCSP guides follow the outline effective 1 August 2026, which replaced the 2022 one.
One exception worth stating plainly: our CySA+ guides cover CS0-004 (V4) only. CompTIA retires the CS0-003 (V3) English exam on 22 December 2026, so if you have already booked V3 these guides are mapped to a different blueprint. Sit V3 before it retires, or move your booking to V4.
Are the guides alone enough?
For most candidates, yes. They cover every objective, in the order CompTIA publishes them, with 1,985 exam-style questions and an explanation on every answer covering why the right one is right and why the attractive wrong one is wrong. If your gap is "I don't know the material," this closes it.
What they don't give you is hands-on time. If you've never touched a SIEM, read a packet capture or configured an ACL, pair the guides with a home lab or free lab material so the scenario questions don't feel abstract.
If you learn better from video, Professor Messer's free Security+ series pairs well with them. If you have no IT background at all, start with Network+.
Can I download the guides as PDFs?
Yes. Every guide includes a downloadable PDF for offline study and printing, alongside the interactive online version with practice questions you answer right in your browser.
Do you offer refunds?
Yes, a 30-day money-back guarantee on every purchase. If a guide isn't the right fit, ask within 30 days and you get your money back. No form, no retention call.
Who writes the guides?
They're written by Chris Rees, a Pluralsight author with 25+ years in IT and 51 published certification courses, rated 4.6/5 across 2,007 ratings. You can check the course list and the rating on his Pluralsight author page.
The SecAI+ exam costs $298. The preparation costs $59.
27guides written by an instructor 700,000 students have already learned from, mapped objective by objective to what CompTIA actually publishes. One purchase, lifetime access, free updates through the next exam version. If it doesn't earn its keep, the 30-day money-back guarantee gets your money back.
Only need one domain? Single guides start at $14.95 →
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