I passed CompTIA SecAI+ with a perfect score. The exam shows you the score right after you finish, but the official report only says “Pass.” My previous highest CompTIA score was an 885 on Security+ back in 2014, so this one felt good. I used CertMaster through our academic partnership, which also covered the voucher. I also did the TryHackMe AI Path, and that combination made a big difference. SecAI+ is not something I would recommend approaching only through the exam outline or a few theory notes. I have seen people in the forums say they studied just from the outline, and yes, maybe you can pass that way, but you missed sooooooo much approaching the exam just as another bunch of questions you go and try to wing. In the real world that won't help, and the bigger question is: can you actually do what the certification says you should be able to do in real life?

That is where CertMaster shines. It is not just a bank of questions or a traditional PBQ-style experience. The best part of the preparation was the applied work. The 19 activities put you in scenarios where you have to compare AI types, work with prompt engineering, process data, conduct threat model analysis, build defensive policies, handle access requests, apply data masking and anonymization, audit AI behavior, analyze AI life cycle decisions, work through model inversion or theft, complete post-incident analysis, perform AI-assisted vulnerability analysis, identify deepfakes, review AI-assisted approvals, design governance structures, conduct risk assessments, create compliance reports, and analyze an organization’s AI structure. All activities are done via interaction with the CompTIA AI agents that guide you through the process like you have to do in real life. Then another AI agent corrects your work, gives you feedback and ask you if you want to try again

The 17 live labs were even more valuable because they made the material feel connected to actual security work. I worked through prompt engineering and bias detection, prompt design and optimization, RAG solutions, data integrity, AI threat analysis using public resources, AI threat modeling frameworks, Azure OpenAI deployment, structured prompt templates, securing Azure OpenAI, data sanitization for AI analysis, AI log analysis, prompt injection testing, AI-assisted attack vector identification, AI-assisted scripting, documentation transformation, and workflow automation. That is not just “study material.” That is the kind of work that helps you understand how AI systems are built, where they break, how they expose risk, and how security controls have to be applied.

The TryHackMe AI Path helped from a different angle. It gave me a more hands-on, attacker-and-defender view of AI security. You learn how AI-enabled systems behave, then you perform prompt injection, jailbreak, indirect prompt injection, make an agent leak or misuse information, poison the data of a model, perform threat modeling and get to a point where you change the application to the point where the system you are probing is no longer just deterministic code. That part matters because AI security is not only about knowing vocabulary. You have to understand behavior, context, trust boundaries, controls, and failure modes and actually perform AI pentesting.

That is the real value of SecAI+. Passing is nice. But the goal should not be just to collect another certification. Using CertMaster and THM AI Path will help you walk away with practical skills. For us; educators, this is exactly the kind of material we need to bring into the classroom. Students do not need only AI definitions. They need to understand how AI systems are designed, how they fail, how they are attacked, and how they are defended. I just received access to the Auto OPS+ Cert Master and it's the same amazing methodology with a lot of labs and AI powered activities. SecOT+ will be on the same line as informed to me by one of the SME's that also created the Cert Master and teaches OT Pentesting, OSINT and OT Fundamentals, workshops that I took. If you are looking for any of those 3 certs please, use Cert Master or take trainings, you will kill the tests.

Very happy with this one.

Video training

Does CompTIA still offer complementary certification vouchers for instructors?

So... I've had a CompTIA SecurityX exam voucher sitting in my account for quite a while. I must have rescheduled this test a dozen times because of work commitments, family schedules, not enough time to study, kids screaming in the background, and life in general.

Last night, while the kids were outside following the classic rule of "come home when the streetlights come on," I headed to my home office testing center and finally sat for the exam.

I felt calm, focused, and confident. But I knew that Linux simulation question was coming, the one you can't go back to. It showed up around question 10, and honestly... I completely botched it. At that moment, I was convinced the exam had beaten me. After all, it had defeated me back in February 2025 and my older version recently expired.

I pushed forward, finished the remaining questions, went back through my flagged items, and even had some fun working through the Performance Based Questions (PBQs).

Then came the infamous 13 question survey. If you've ever taken a CompTIA exam, you know exactly what I'm talking about! I clicked Submit, and unlike most CompTIA exams, there was no immediate pass or fail message. I walked away wondering where I stood.

This morning, I was texting my friend Nancy, who is a huge part of my Facebook community, and I was telling her all about my experience. I was convinced I hadn't passed.

Then... I received an email from CompTIA congratulating me and asking me to accept my digital badge.

Wait... what?!

I logged into the CompTIA portal, pulled up my score report, and there it was.

PASS!

The biggest lesson I took away from this experience is simple. Don't doubt yourself. One tough question, or even one tough exam experience, doesn't define the outcome. Set a goal, commit to it, and keep moving forward. Sometimes the biggest obstacle standing in your way is your own self-doubt.