This CompTIA PenTest+ cheat sheet distills the PT0-003 exam objectives into a printable rundown of the facts examiners test most. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free PenTest+ toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
CompTIA PenTest+ exam at a glance
- Questions: Maximum of 90 (multiple-choice and performance-based)
- Time: 165 minutes
- Passing score: 750 on a scale of 100–900 (scaled scoring — no fixed percentage correct)
- Exam code: PT0-003 (launched December 17, 2024; replaced PT0-002)
- Cost: About $404 USD (verify current pricing with CompTIA); valid 3 years, renew via CEUs
What’s on the CompTIA PenTest+ cheat sheet
- Attacks & Exploits (35%) — the largest domain — network, host, web, wireless, cloud, and social-engineering attacks, plus the tools and payloads to run them.
- Reconnaissance & Enumeration (21%) — passive OSINT, active Nmap scanning, and enumeration of shares, users, and service versions.
- Vulnerability Discovery & Analysis (17%) — scanning with Nessus/OpenVAS, validating findings, and prioritizing with CVSS.
- Post-exploitation & Lateral Movement (14%) — privilege escalation, persistence, pivoting, pass-the-hash, and credential harvesting.
- Engagement Management (13%) — scoping, Rules of Engagement, authorization and legality, and the anatomy of a report.
How to use it in your final week
- Front-load Attacks & Exploits (35% of the exam). It's over a third of your score — if you master one domain from the sheet, make it this one, and it pairs with Reconnaissance & Enumeration (21%) for more than half the exam.
- Drill the Nmap flags until they're automatic — -sS (SYN/stealth), -sV (service version), -O (OS detection), -sU (UDP), and the -T0 to -T5 timing templates that trade speed for stealth. These are guaranteed performance-based content.
- Read the sheet the morning of the exam for a final pass on the memory hooks — 750 passing scaled score (100–900), 90 questions max in 165 minutes, and the web-attack fixes: parameterized queries for SQLi, output encoding for XSS, anti-CSRF tokens for CSRF.
- Don't cram in isolation — pair each review pass with a short timed practice set so the 165-minute clock and the tool-selection PBQs feel routine on exam day.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your CompTIA PenTest+ practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
CompTIA PenTest+ cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the CompTIA PenTest+ cheat sheet is 100% free to download as a PDF, with no sign-up required. It's part of Career Employer's free PenTest+ toolkit alongside the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
The cheat sheet condenses the highest-yield PT0-003 facts into a quick reference: the five official domains and their weights, must-know tools (Nmap, Metasploit, Burp Suite, Responder), high-yield web attacks and their fixes, and the scoping and reporting rules the exam tests most.
It's built from CompTIA's current PT0-003 exam objectives — the version that launched December 17, 2024 and replaced PT0-002 — and we review it against CompTIA's published content guide regularly.
No — the cheat sheet is a review and last-week cram aid, not a substitute for hands-on lab practice. PT0-003 is heavy on performance-based questions that require applying real tools, so use the sheet to lock in facts and a home lab plus the practice test to build your readiness toward the 750 scaled passing score.
Click the download button (or the preview card) at the top of this page to open the PDF instantly. Bookmark this page so you can find it again in your final week before the exam.
References
- 1.CompTIA. “PenTest+ (PT0-003) Certification.” comptia.org, 2026. ↑
- 2.CompTIA. “PenTest+ Content Guide (PT0-003 objectives and domain weights).” comptia.org. ↑
- 3.Pearson VUE. “CompTIA Exam Scheduling.” Pearson VUE. ↑
Career Employer
Career Employer is the ultimate resource to help you get started working the job of your dreams. We cover topics from general career information, career searching, exam preparation with free study materials, career interviewing, and becoming successful in your career of choice.
All PostsCareer Employer’s Editorial Process
Here at Career Employer, we focus a lot on providing factually accurate information that is always up to date. We strive to provide correct information using strict editorial processes, article editing, and fact-checking for all of the information found on our website. We only utilize trustworthy and relevant resources. To find out more, make sure to read our full editorial process page here.