Can You Pass Security+ With No Experience?

Q: Can I take Security+ with no experience?

Yes. CompTIA recommends about two years of IT experience and Network+ knowledge, but neither is a hard requirement and there is no prerequisite to sit the exam. Plenty of career changers pass with no prior IT background — they just budget more study time and start with networking fundamentals.

Q: How long does Security+ take to study with no background?

Plan for 8-12 weeks at roughly 8-10 hours a week. People with IT experience often do it in 6-8 weeks, but as a true beginner you should add a week or two up front for networking basics (IP addressing, ports, the OSI model), which the exam assumes you understand.

Q: What is the hardest part of Security+ for beginners?

Two things: the networking assumptions (the exam expects you to reason about how networks work) and the performance-based questions, which are interactive tasks rather than multiple choice. Both reward hands-on practice over memorization, so use a lab and practice exams.

Q: Will Security+ get me a job with no experience?

It gets your resume past filters and meets the DoD baseline, but on its own it rarely lands a job. Pair it with demonstrable practice — a home lab, TryHackMe or Hack The Box, and ideally a help-desk or IT support role — and it becomes a strong signal for entry-level SOC and security-admin jobs.

Q: Should I do the Google Cybersecurity Certificate before Security+?

If you have zero background, it is a good warm-up: self-paced, cheaper, and skills-focused. Many beginners do Google first, then Security+ a month or two later. If you already know networking basics, you can go straight to Security+.

Updated: June 2026 · Read time: 9 min · Level: Beginner

Short answer: yes. People with zero IT background pass CompTIA Security+ every month. CompTIA recommends about two years of experience and Network+ knowledge, but neither is required, and there's no prerequisite to sit the exam. You'll just need more study time and the right starting point. Here's a realistic plan.

What "no experience" really means for you

You can sit and pass the exam with no experience. The two things that make it harder for beginners — and how to handle them:

The exam assumes you can reason about networks. It won't teach you what an IP address or a port is; it expects you to know. So networking fundamentals are your first stop, not an afterthought.
It's not all multiple choice. The first questions are usually performance-based questions (PBQs) — interactive tasks like configuring a firewall rule or reading a log. These reward hands-on practice, which beginners have less of. Build a tiny home lab and use practice exams to close that gap.

Everything else is learnable from scratch in a couple of months. Thousands of career changers prove it.

How long will it take?

Your starting point	Realistic timeline (~8–10 hrs/week)
Some IT experience (help desk, sysadmin)	6–8 weeks
No IT background at all	8–12 weeks

Don't rush the booking. The goal is to score consistently in the mid-80s%+ on full-length practice exams before you schedule the real thing.

A from-scratch study plan (no background assumed)

Weeks 1–2 — Networking fundamentals first This is the step beginners skip and regret. Learn IP addressing, common ports and protocols, and the OSI model until they're second nature. (CompTIA's Network+ material is a great primer even if you never take that exam.)

Goal: explain how a request gets from your laptop to a website and back.

Weeks 3–4 — Core security concepts (Domain 1)

The CIA triad, types of security controls, basic cryptography (hashing, symmetric vs. asymmetric, PKI)
Goal: explain confidentiality/integrity/availability and why each control exists in your own words.

Weeks 5–7 — Threats, operations & architecture (the heavy domains)

Threat actors, malware, social engineering, and mitigations (Domain 2)
Hardening, monitoring, logging, incident response, vulnerability management (Domain 4 — the biggest at 28%)
Secure network design, cloud, zero trust (Domain 3)
Practice PBQs every session — this is where beginners lose points.
Goal: given a scenario, name the attack and a realistic mitigation; walk the incident-response steps.

Week 8 — Governance & risk (Domain 5)

Policies, frameworks, risk and compliance, vendor risk. Heavy on terminology — drill definitions.

Weeks 9–12 (beginners) — Practice exams & gap-fixing

Take full-length, timed practice exams. Review every wrong answer until you know why.
Re-drill your two weakest domains.
Goal: mid-80s%+ on practice tests before you book.

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Get hands-on (this is what replaces "experience")

Reading isn't enough, and it's also how you make up for not having a job in the field yet:

Spin up a free home lab — a couple of VMs (a Linux box and a Windows box) on your laptop go a long way.
Practice on TryHackMe or Hack The Box — beginner paths walk you through real tools and concepts interactively.
Use quality practice exams — they surface your blind spots and get you used to PBQ-style questions.

Doing this gives you something concrete to talk about in interviews, which matters more than the cert alone.

Will Security+ get you a job with no experience?

Be realistic: the cert opens doors, it doesn't walk you through them. Security+ gets your resume past automated filters and satisfies the DoD baseline, but employers still want to see some applied ability. The winning combination for career changers is:

Security+ (the recognized credential) +
demonstrable practice (home lab, TryHackMe/HTB, a GitHub or blog write-up) +
ideally a help-desk or IT support role as a stepping stone.

That package lands entry-level SOC analyst and security-admin roles. The cert by itself, with nothing behind it, is a weaker story.

Should you do the Google Cybersecurity Certificate first?

If you're starting from absolute zero, it's a solid warm-up: self-paced, cheaper, and skills-focused, and it builds a portfolio. Many beginners do Google first, then Security+ a month or two later. If you already know networking basics, you can skip it and go straight to Security+. We compare them in detail here: Security+ vs the Google Cybersecurity Certificate.

FAQ

Can I take Security+ with no experience? Yes. Experience and Network+ are recommended, not required, and there's no prerequisite to sit the exam. Beginners just need more study time and should start with networking fundamentals.

How long does Security+ take to study with no background? Plan for 8–12 weeks at ~8–10 hours/week, with the first week or two on networking basics.

What is the hardest part of Security+ for beginners? The networking assumptions and the performance-based questions. Both reward hands-on practice over memorization.

Will Security+ get me a job with no experience? It gets you past filters and meets the DoD baseline, but pair it with a home lab and practice (and ideally a help-desk role) to actually land entry-level security jobs.

Should I do the Google Cybersecurity Certificate before Security+? With zero background, it's a good warm-up. Many do Google first, then Security+. With networking basics already, go straight to Security+.

Bottom line

No experience is not a blocker — it's just a longer runway. Start with networking, study 8–12 weeks, get hands-on to stand in for work experience, and pair the cert with a portfolio. That's a proven path from zero into a first cybersecurity job.

→ Next: The full Security+ (SY0-701) guide · Security+ vs Google Cybersecurity Certificate

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