CompTIA issues more Security+ certifications than any other vendor-neutral security credential — over 700,000 active holders as of 2025. A large chunk of them prepped on Udemy, not because it's the flashiest platform, but because the top Security+ instructors there update their courses within weeks of exam version changes, not months. When CompTIA released SY0-701 in November 2023 and retired SY0-601 in July 2024, Udemy courses were current before most textbooks had gone to print.
That said, Udemy Security+ options vary wildly in quality. Some are 30-hour deep dives built by former network engineers. Others are padded with filler content and haven't been touched since the SY0-501 era. This guide breaks down how to evaluate Udemy Security+ courses, what the exam actually demands, and how to build a study plan that doesn't waste time.
What the SY0-701 Exam Actually Tests
The current Security+ exam (SY0-701, active since November 2023) has five domains:
- General Security Concepts (12%) — controls, cryptography basics, authentication
- Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations (22%) — attack types, social engineering, malware analysis
- Security Architecture (18%) — network segmentation, cloud models, infrastructure design
- Security Operations (28%) — the heaviest domain: incident response, log analysis, endpoint security, IAM
- Security Program Management and Oversight (20%) — governance, risk, compliance, data privacy
Security Operations at 28% is where most candidates underperform. They memorize acronyms and definition-level content from videos, then hit performance-based questions (PBQs) requiring them to configure a firewall rule or analyze a SIEM alert — and freeze. The best Udemy Security+ courses address this directly with labs and simulated PBQs; the weak ones treat it like a vocabulary list.
The exam is 90 questions, maximum 90 minutes, with a passing score of 750 out of 900. Multiple choice and PBQs. Most working IT professionals with 1-2 years of hands-on experience need 60-90 hours of focused study. Career changers with no IT background should plan for 120-150 hours.
Why Udemy Security+ Courses Are a Legitimate Option
Udemy gets dismissed by people who haven't used it recently. The reality is the top Security+ instructors on the platform — names like Jason Dion, Mike Chapple, and Darril Gibson — are actively credentialed professionals who teach this material for a living. Dion's Security+ course alone has 300,000+ students and a 4.7-star rating across 50,000+ reviews. That's a sample size that filters out flukes.
The economics also matter. A Udemy Security+ course on sale (which is effectively always) costs $12-20. The CompTIA official study guide is $50. Professor Messer's course bundle is $40. CertMaster Learn from CompTIA is $289. If you're self-funding this certification, Udemy is a rational starting point.
The legitimate knock on Udemy is platform consistency. Video quality, pacing, and lab depth vary by instructor. There's no standardized curriculum. You're betting on a specific creator, not an institution. That's fine once you know what to look for — and it's a problem if you just buy whatever shows up first in search results.
How to Evaluate a Udemy Security+ Course Before Buying
Before committing to a course, check these things in order:
Exam Version Currency
The course must cover SY0-701 objectives explicitly — not "updated for SY0-701" as an afterthought patch to an SY0-601 course. Look at the course update date and the curriculum breakdown. If the five domain percentages listed in the syllabus don't match what CompTIA publishes for SY0-701, move on.
Practice Question Coverage
A course without an integrated practice test set is incomplete. You need at least 300-500 practice questions, and they should be exam-style (not just true/false or fill-in). The best Udemy Security+ courses include separate practice exam courses as bundles or companion products. If a course has great video content but no practice questions, pair it with a dedicated question bank.
PBQ Coverage
Search the course reviews for mentions of "performance-based questions," "PBQ," or "hands-on." If no one mentions them, the course probably doesn't cover them well. This is the single biggest gap in mediocre Security+ prep material.
Instructor Background
Look for instructors who list active certifications (not just Security+ — CISSP, CEH, or similar signals deeper domain knowledge) and who have professional experience in security operations, not just training. Check the instructor's update history on their course page: if the last update was 18+ months ago, that's a red flag regardless of star rating.
Total Video Hours vs. Actual Content Density
A 25-hour course isn't automatically better than a 15-hour course. Some instructors pad runtime with slow delivery, repeated recaps, and lengthy intros. Watch the free preview sections at 1.5x speed and estimate how much is new information per hour. 45-50 minutes of dense material per hour of video is a reasonable benchmark.
Building a Udemy Security+ Study Plan That Works
Most people fail Security+ not because they didn't watch enough videos, but because they watched videos passively and never forced active recall. Here's a structure that works for employed adults with limited study time:
Phase 1: Domain Survey (2 weeks)
Watch the full Udemy course at 1.25-1.5x speed without stopping to take notes. The goal is orientation — you want a mental map of the five domains before you start drilling details. Flag sections that cover Security Operations (28%) for re-watch in Phase 2.
Phase 2: Active Recall (3-4 weeks)
Re-watch Security Operations and Threats/Vulnerabilities sections in full. After each section, close the video and write out everything you remember on paper. Take practice tests domain-by-domain, not as full exams. Anything below 70% on a domain means rewatching that section before moving on.
Phase 3: Full-Exam Simulation (1-2 weeks)
Take timed, full-length practice exams under actual exam conditions — no pausing, no looking things up. Aim for consistent 80%+ before booking the real exam. The passing score is 750/900, but 80%+ on practice sets gives you buffer for the tougher PBQs on exam day.
Top Courses
The following courses are available through the Udemy platform and relevant to understanding how Udemy's ecosystem works for certification training and content delivery.
Udemy Business Onboarding Course for Admins
If you're managing Security+ training for a team rather than studying solo, this course covers how to deploy Udemy Business at the admin level — including content assignment, license management, and learner progress tracking. Rated 9/10, it's the most efficient way to understand how to roll out Udemy-based certification prep across an organization.
Achieve Udemy Success with Course Marketing
For security professionals who train others or want to understand how top-performing Udemy Security+ courses get built and promoted, this course (rated 8.8) breaks down the instructor side of the platform — useful context for evaluating why some courses dominate the rankings and others don't.
Amazon Video Direct, Skillshare and Udemy (Unofficial)
A platform comparison course that puts Udemy's certification content ecosystem in context alongside competing video learning platforms — helpful for learners who want to understand the full landscape before committing to a Security+ study plan on one platform.
How to Create and Sell Courses on Udemy (Unofficial)
Useful for IT trainers and security professionals building their own Security+ prep content or supplemental study materials — covers the mechanics of how Udemy instructor-created courses reach students and what quality benchmarks the top courses meet.
Udemy Security+ vs. Other Prep Options
Udemy isn't the only route. Here's an honest comparison:
- Professor Messer (professormesser.com): Free video content with paid study groups and practice exams. Messer is meticulous about exam alignment and has been the benchmark for vendor-neutral Security+ prep for years. The free tier is genuinely useful; the paid materials are competitive with Udemy's top courses.
- CompTIA CertMaster Learn: Official content, well-aligned to exam objectives, expensive at $289. Worth it if your employer reimburses certification costs or if you want official CompTIA branding on your study materials.
- Mike Chapple's LinkedIn Learning course: Co-author of the official CompTIA study guide. Dense, authoritative, and included with LinkedIn Premium. Good complement to a Udemy video course if you need depth on specific domains.
- Darril Gibson's books: The print study guides remain the deepest treatment of Security+ content available. Not a replacement for video and practice questions, but the right supplement for people who learn better through reading.
The combination most exam-passers report: one strong Udemy Security+ video course + Darril Gibson or Chapple's study guide + Jason Dion's practice exam set. Total cost: $40-60. That's less than a single CBT Nuggets month.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Udemy Security+ worth it compared to free resources like Professor Messer?
Professor Messer's free videos are legitimately excellent and exam-aligned. Udemy Security+ courses add value through structured delivery, practice questions bundled into one place, and often more hand-holding for career changers who aren't sure what to prioritize. If you're disciplined and self-directed, Messer plus a paid practice question bank may be all you need. If you want everything in one course package, Udemy is worth the $12-20 sale price.
Which exam version should I study for — SY0-701 or SY0-601?
SY0-601 retired in July 2024. There is only one current exam: SY0-701. If you find a Udemy Security+ course that still prominently features SY0-601, it hasn't been meaningfully updated. The domain structure and objective weightings changed between versions — SY0-701 reduced some legacy network security content and expanded cloud, automation, and zero-trust topics. Study for SY0-701 only.
How long does it take to prepare using a Udemy Security+ course?
Realistic ranges: IT professionals with 1-2 years of network or systems experience typically need 60-90 hours of study spread over 4-8 weeks. Career changers with no IT background should budget 120-150 hours over 10-14 weeks. The video content alone (usually 15-30 hours) isn't enough — the remainder is practice questions, lab work, and review of weak domains.
Do Udemy Security+ courses include practice exams?
Some do, some don't. The better ones include 300-500 practice questions as part of the course or bundled as a companion product. Check the course syllabus before buying. If a course you want doesn't include practice questions, Jason Dion sells standalone Security+ practice exam sets on Udemy separately — they're widely considered the closest match to actual exam question style.
Does Security+ open up government and DoD jobs?
Yes — Security+ is listed under DoD 8570/8140 as a baseline certification for IAT Level II and IAM Level I roles. This means it's a required or qualifying credential for many federal IT security positions and defense contractor roles. It's one of the few vendor-neutral certs that directly unlocks a specific job category rather than just signaling general competence.
Can I pass Security+ with just a Udemy course?
Candidates do pass using only a Udemy Security+ course plus practice tests — it happens regularly. But most exam post-mortems on Reddit and TechExams suggest that supplementing with a physical study guide for the domains you're weakest on meaningfully improves pass rates on first attempt. The PBQs in particular reward hands-on familiarity that video courses can only partially simulate.
Bottom Line
Udemy Security+ courses are a legitimate and cost-effective path to the SY0-701 exam — with the caveat that course quality varies enough that you shouldn't just buy the first result. Prioritize courses explicitly built for SY0-701 (not retroactively updated from SY0-601), with integrated practice questions and visible coverage of performance-based question types.
For most people, the winning combination is a top-rated Udemy Security+ video course at the $15-20 sale price, paired with either the CompTIA study guide or Darril Gibson's book for the two or three domains where you're scoring below 70% on practice tests. If you're studying for a DoD or federal role, add the CertMaster Labs for hands-on practice — the PBQs in government-sector positions tend to be heavier than typical IT job Security+ requirements.
Budget 8-10 weeks of consistent study if you're working full-time. Book the exam when you're hitting 80%+ on timed full-length practice sets. That benchmark has a strong correlation with first-attempt passes.