CompTIA Security+ All-in-One Exam Guide, Fifth Edition

by William Arthur Conklin, Greg White, Dwayne Williams

This fully updated study guide covers every topic on the current version of the CompTIA Security+ exam

Take the latest version of the CompTIA Security+ exam with complete confidence using the detailed information contained in this highly effective self-study system. Written by a team of leading information security experts, this authoritative guide addresses the skills required for securing a network and managing risk and enables you to become CompTIA Security+ certified.

CompTIA Security+ All-in-One Exam Guide, Fifth Edition (Exam SY0-501) covers all exam domains and features 200 accurate practice questions. To aid in study, the book features learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter, exam tips, practice exam questions, and in-depth explanations. All questions mirror those on the live test in style, format, and difficulty. Beyond fully preparing you for the challenging SY0-501 exam, the book also serves as a valuable on-the-job reference for IT professionals.

- Provides 100% coverage of every objective on exam SY0-501
- Electronic content includes 200 practice questions and a secured book PDF
- Written by a team of experienced IT security academics

685 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 5, 2018

Reviews

[Mike Lamberth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, this book sure is bad. The only thing that it had going for it was that all of the information was technically there. But reading this book is like reading the dictionary and not in the "well it's a boring textbook" kind of way. Every chapter is it's own entity and in each chapter, the structure is always the same. Broad concept for the chapter, then Heading>paragraph, Heading>paragraph, Heading>paragraph, ad naseum, with each heading just being a subconcept. You would get a paragraph or two explaining each subconcept and then it moves on to the next until you reach the end of the chapter and get 12-15 questions for review. I read the entire book and I don't really feel I understand anything more. None of the concepts were ever tied together in a meaningful way and in each chapter, if something was talked about again, it was introduced as if it was a brand new topic. There was probably 12 different sections on Printers and each time it was discussed as if the reader had never heard of a printer before. This entire book reads as if each chapter was written by a different person and then sent in to an editor that just put them in an arbitrary order and published it.

[Nick Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I combined this with Professor Messer's online YouTube course, and managed to pass the exam with a decent score, so I have to give the book a decent rating - it does what it's supposed to do. This one will go into a fair bit of detail on all the subjects you need to know about, so it's a really good grounding. I was a bit surprised to find that Mike Meyers didn't write this one, as he did for A+/Net+, so if you're doing them in order, this is a lot more formal and less in Meyers's conversational style. There's also a lot more specific focus on the exam, and less of "this is how it works in the real world" that Meyers usually provides.

The big downside is that the questions aren't really in the style that CompTIA will ask on the exam. The exam very much asks you "What's your best judgement?" or "What's most likely?" style, whereas the questions in this are much more straightforwardly factual. I'd recommend finding some practice tests separate from the book if you want to have a go at getting the qualification.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very good at teaching you the information, but not so good at getting you ready for the exam. Especially the practice test stuff on the included CD-Rom. The questions are too basic, and don't break down in to scenarios. I receommend this book as part of your studying, but it is not a complete package. Definitely look for better written scenario driven questions and interactive performance based to help prepare for the test after reading this.

As someone who passed on the first time, I would never have done it with this book alone.

[Gerald Jakabosky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a hard time finishing this. I thought I wanted to get into security, but by the end of this (and after finishing A+ & Net+) I now know I want to go into networking. I finished this because I hear that it might be required for some jobs and I paid for all 3 CompTIA vouchers on the Earth Day sale.

I'm going to go pass the test and then be on my merry way to start my CCNA.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good preparation for the test, practice questions tend towards the easy side. I would say I feel about 80-85% ready for the test from reading this book.

[Artem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Useful and interesting book

Great and interesting book, especially who just started to learn security. It contains pretty full information to continue dive deep.

[Nick Atwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a great book for reference, but you will need other books in studying for the exam.

[Sam Rivera · Rating 4 out of 5]

It helped me pass my security plus 601 test even though this is the test for the previous version and it had a nice CD with more exam questions.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edit: Im leaving my original review below but thanks to this book I passed so I'm boosting it up to a 3/5 stars. I'm going to explain how you should use this book.

If you are studying for the Security+ this book is an absolute must. You should not use this book as a way to learn the concepts from the test. This books (as stated below) is horrible organized. Atrociously organized. It takes what the objective goals are from the Comptia website and organizes it like that. So you will learn about Authentication before Encryption. If you don't understand why that can be a problem I would really recommend you use Darril Gibson's CompTIA Security+ Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-501 Study Guide instead. That book is organized so you understand concepts rather than just memorize terms. It is designed to stack terms on top of each other in a clear way you can understand.

The security+ requires you to know and understand concepts rather than just know vocab. This book does not allow for that to happen unless you have a learning plan associated. Rather I would recommend you to own this book as a resource. After you take practice tests and fail them use this book to review the stuff you need. The information in this book is fantastic, but it's just organized in an awful way.

3/5

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Original Review:
Rating this book a 2 stars out of 5 because it is AWFUL to learn from.

If you are in between which book to get for studying/learning the Security+ please check out Darril Gibson's CompTIA book instead.

This book is structured as an encyclopedia on everything the Security+ has. Since it is structured in this way I can not and WILL not recommend anyone learn from it because it makes the Security+ way too hard to understand. Learning should be structured and not a bunch of terms thrown at you at once. I've read if you want to pass this test you need to understand how everything works Instead of just smashing your brain in with a bunch of terms. I would highly recommend this book ONLY if you need more information from other sources you are learning from.

No look, the information within this tome is fantastic. When I am studying for the test (as of 8/13/2020 I have yet to attempt it.) It's been great to use as a reference for stuff I feel the need to hammer in better, maybe Darril Gibson's book skimmed over something that may be important to know. But the issue is that I originally bought this book thinking it would be a good way to learn the test. The other All-in-One book I purchased was Mike Myer's Network+ book. That book was structured extremely well, things built on top of each other and I actually GOT these abstract concepts that can be difficult to learn. I did fail that test but it was because I refused to review the 5.0 Objectives. I guess my lesson was learned.

I really want to stress the reason why I'm giving this book a low rating is because it's awful to learn with. Objectives for this test are very much intermingled with other objects, you can not just go through the test point by point it makes the Security+ more daunting than it needs to be.

[Cody Reavis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do not have much to say for this textbook. It broke down each concept into paragraphs which was easy for taking notes and making note cards and there were some examples of real world applicability. I do not think there were enough examples though. There were some grammatical/spelling errors, but nothing to convolute the message.

My biggest gripe is that it was highly repetitive and the titles for the concepts were not explanatory. I had to remind myself what terminology pertained to what topic by going back to the main header. Also, after speaking with individuals who have taken the SYO-501 exam, it seems that this book is not sufficient for test preparation.

All this being said, I took an online class at university so this was my primary means of learning the material. I ended up with a good grade, but it did take time to read even though the structure of the chapters are seemingly simple.

[Trekka12 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Love the CompTIA books for A+, Network+ and Security+ - they are Amazing! These "All-in-one Exam Guides" are meant to be study material for proper official educational programmes in USA (maybe other countries have as well) for Computer Technicians (A+), Network Technicians (Network+) and Computer/IT Security Experts (Security+). They offer great insight about how it all works, with pedagogical walkthroughs and texts explaining concepts as well as offering useful tools with instructions. For anyone actively interested or working in IT/Computer fields, these books can really Level-Up your insight, knowledge and skillset to reach higher within your chosen field. Must-reads in my humble opinion for any IT tech working with- or interested in these fields.