Chris Rees has spent 25 years in security and taught it to more people than most conference keynotes reach in a career. These are the same exam-mapped explanations, written down: every published objective for Security+ SY0-701, CISSP, CCSP, CySA+ CS0-004 and SecAI+ CY0-001, with 1,985 exam-style questions you answer in the browser.
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 Security+ Domain 1, one of 27 guides, 2,913 pages. Read a real excerpt 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.
27 guides. 2,913 pages. 1,985 exam-style questions. Every published objective on every exam we cover, nothing skipped, nothing padded.
27 guides across 5 certifications. You do not need all of them. You need the ones covering what you keep getting wrong.
Take the free readiness quiz. Five minutes, scored by domain, so you finish knowing you're solid on cryptography and shaky on incident response, instead of a vague sense that you should study more. If two domains carry you, buy those two guides and skip the rest.
Take the readiness quizEach guide walks the published objectives in order (1.1, 1.2, 1.3) with worked examples and hand-built diagrams, then hands you 60 to 90 exam-style questions you answer in the browser. Every answer explains why the right one is right and why the plausible wrong one is wrong, because that's the distinction the exam is testing. Download the PDF to mark up on the train.
By the time you've worked all 375 Security+ questions or all 270 SecAI+ questions, the question format isn't a variable any more. Only the content is. Pass it, add it to your profile, and go after the roles that list it as a requirement rather than a nice-to-have.
See what the credential is worthEvery guide maps to the published objectives, with practice questions you answer right here and a PDF you can download and mark up.
All four CY0-001 domains: 100% exam coverage in one purchase.
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.
$79 one-time
Buying the 4 guides separately costs $99.80. The Collection saves you $20.80.
Get the Collection for $79All four CS0-004 V4 domains: 100% exam coverage in one purchase.
$59 one-time
Buying the 4 guides separately costs $79.80. The Collection saves you $20.80.
Get the Collection for $59All eight CISSP domains: 100% exam coverage in one purchase.
$129 one-time
Buying the 8 guides separately costs $199.60. The Collection saves you $70.60.
Get the Collection for $129All six CCSP domains: 100% exam coverage in one purchase.
$99 one-time
Buying the 6 guides separately costs $149.70. The Collection saves you $50.70.
Get the Collection for $99All five SY0-701 domains: 100% exam coverage in one purchase.
$49 one-time
Buying the 5 guides separately costs $59.80. The Collection saves you $10.80.
Get the Collection for $49Best after the readiness quiz tells you which domain is costing you marks. Take the quiz first →
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.
Every safeguard an organization deploys — a firewall rule, a policy document, a fence, a log review — 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.
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.
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 →
These are the public numbers. Every one is linked so you can check it yourself, and we've flagged the one that comes from vendor surveys rather than government data.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median annual wage for information security analysts at $124,910. For computer user support specialists, the help desk role most people are trying to leave, the median is $60,340, and for network support specialists $73,340. Security+ is the credential that most often gets a résumé past the filter for that second column.
Both May 2024. BLS: Information Security Analysts · BLS: Computer Support Specialists
BLS projects employment of information security analysts to grow 29% between 2024 and 2034, one of the fastest rates of any occupation it tracks. Over the same decade, employment of computer support specialists is projected to decline 3%. You are not choosing between two stable paths. You are choosing between a growing one and a shrinking one.
Security+ is an approved baseline certification for IAT Level IIroles under the DoD cyber workforce framework, the legacy 8570 categories that DoD 8140 and DoD Manual 8140.03 are transitioning into DCWF work roles. A great many contractor postings still list “Security+ CE or equivalent, IAT II” as a hard requirement you must already hold on day one.
Verify against the current matrix: DoD Cyber Exchange: 8570 to 8140
Estimated, vendor-sourced: Industry salary surveys, not government data, consistently report a certification premium on the order of $20,000 between certified and uncertified peers at the same level. Treat that as directional rather than authoritative: it is self-reported survey data, with the selection bias that implies.
A $49 Collection against a $64,570 median gap is not really a purchasing decision.
We still put a 30-day money-back guarantee on it, because you should be able to change your mind.
See the CollectionsPublic, on Pluralsight right now
Go and look. That's the profile, and Chris doesn't control what it says, including the reviews that aren't flattering.
See the Pluralsight profileFrom the author dashboard, which isn't public
Tracked monthly since 2014. Pluralsight doesn't publish per-author enrollment, so you'll have to take Chris's word for these two, which is exactly why we're telling you where they come from instead of just asserting them.
Twenty-five years in IT. Skillthropic is that same material, rewritten for people who'd rather read and drill than watch. We lead with numbers instead of testimonials because numbers are checkable and testimonials aren't.
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.
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 $79 is about 23 cents a page and 29 cents a question, priced higher because CY0-001 is a brand-new exam with very little credible material written for it, 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.
What you don't get
Worth stating plainly, because it should factor into your decision. There is no video here, no lab environment, and no instructor you can email at 11pm. If you want a live classroom, a bootcamp at $1,795–$2,699 is the honest answer and we won't pretend otherwise. What these are is the reading-and-drilling layer: the objective-by-objective explanation and 645 questions, written by someone who has taught this material to 700,000 people.* Most candidates pair them with hands-on work and free video. That combination is why the price is $49 and not $450.
| 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 | $79 | 270, with explanations | Yes | Yes, all 4 domains | Lifetime, free |
| Skillthropic single domain guide | $0–$24.95 | 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 as published at time of writing and change without notice. We cite them because they're the alternatives we'd point you to ourselves, not because we think you shouldn't check.
Enrollment figure from Chris's Pluralsight author dashboard, tracked monthly since 2014. It isn't public, so we're telling you where it comes from rather than just asserting it.
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.
Subscribe for everything, or buy just what you need: a single guide, or a complete exam collection.
Every guide we release: all Security+, CISSP, CCSP, CySA+ and SecAI+ guides today, and everything we publish next.
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Pluralsight course reviews, not reviews of these guides
Read this before the quotes. Every review below is feedback on one of my Pluralsight video courses, not on a Skillthropic study guide. The guides launched recently and I don't yet have enough verified reader feedback to publish honestly, so I'm not going to manufacture any. When I have it, it will appear in its own section labeled as such, and this section will stay exactly where it is. If a quote references a course, that course is on my Pluralsight profile. Go read the unfiltered reviews there, including the bad ones.
Chris Rees
“I'd failed Security+ once studying on my own. Chris's course cut the noise. I knew exactly what the exam tested and passed two weeks later with room to spare.”
4.6 / 5
across 2,007 ratings on Pluralsight
More reviews, including the critical ones, are on the public profile. We don't curate that page and can't.
Read them yourselfCompTIA 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.
Security+ guides are $14.95 and SecAI+ guides are $24.95, one-time and yours forever. A Complete Collection covers a whole exam ($49 for Security+, $79 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.
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 covers the foundational AI concepts every security professional needs first.
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.
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.
For a lot of candidates, yes. For some, no, and we'd rather say so than take $49 and hope.
The guides cover the knowledge dimension completely. 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 do is give you hands. There's no lab environment here. If you've never touched a SIEM, never read a packet capture, never configured an ACL, the exam's scenario questions will feel abstract regardless of how well you've read. Pair the guides with a home lab, your day job, or free lab material. That combination is what works.
Two honest recommendations. If you learn better from video, watch Professor Messer's free Security+ series alongside the guides; they complement each other well. And if you're starting from zero with no IT background at all, consider Network+ first, because Security+ assumes networking fundamentals you'd otherwise be learning twice.
If after reading you conclude we've oversold it, the 30-day money-back guarantee is there for exactly that.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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