Is ExamTopics legit? What exam dump sites say about themselves, and what Microsoft, CompTIA and Cisco do about it

Is ExamTopics legit? What the site says about itself

The fairest way to judge a site is by its own words. On 29 October 2026 we read ExamTopics' home page, its vendor pages and three exam pages.

The AZ-104 question page is titled "AZ-104 Microsoft Exam - Free Actual Questions and Answers" and headed "Microsoft AZ-104 Actual Exam Questions". It said it was last updated on 12 October 2026 and held 606 questions over 61 pages.

The CompTIA vendor page says: "our study guides, or 'braindumps' as industry veterans call them, are so good, our competitors steal them!" The exam pages say "Our study guides are the real thing" and advise you to "Browse at least 50% questions to maximize your chances of passing".

The home page leads with three numbers: "94% Said the test questions were almost same", "97% Passed the exams with Examtopics materials" and "98% Found the study quides effective and helpful". It says no survey or method behind them.

So on the site's own description, the product is questions that match the real exam. That description is the problem, because it is precisely what the vendors prohibit.

The same numbers on every exam

Each exam page shows a block of results. Here is what three pages showed on 29 October 2026:

• Microsoft AZ-104: 94% found the real exam almost the same, 1057 students passed, 95.1% average score.
• CompTIA Security+ SY0-701: 94%, 1057, 95.1%.
• AWS Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C03: 94%, 1057, 95.1%.

The three pages also carry the same three testimonials, word for word, signed "Terry J", "Justin W" and "Evelyn C."

Three exams from three vendors, with different formats, passing scores and candidate numbers, cannot all produce the same pass count and the same average score. Whatever those figures are, they are not a measurement of the exam on the page. You can check this yourself in two minutes by opening any two exam pages side by side.

What Microsoft, CompTIA and Cisco say about brain dumps

All three vendors have written rules on this, and they are blunt.

Microsoft. Its exam and assessment security policy defines a brain dump as "a source, such as a website, that contains exam questions or assessment lab content that has been fraudulently obtained" and says: "Because the exam or assessment lab content was fraudulently obtained, using this type of material to prepare for or during an exam or assessment lab constitutes cheating." Its list of misconduct includes "using brain dump material". The sanction: a candidate "may be permanently prohibited from taking any future credentials" and "may have any credentials (Certifications or Applied Skills) and scores revoked."

CompTIA. Its December 2024 article on brain dumps answers the question directly: "Yes, using brain dumps is considered cheating. You could face serious repercussions, such as being banned from taking CompTIA exams for at least 12 months and getting your test scores invalidated, resulting in the loss of your CompTIA certification." It adds that under its policy, it does not matter whether you knew the material was unauthorised: "if you memorize unauthorized content to pass an exam, you are in violation of the policy."

Cisco. Two members of its exam security team wrote in a February 2023 Cisco blog that dumps are covered by the Cisco candidate NDA, "so these people know what they're doing". On enforcement: "we're also invalidating certifications for people who accessed the material and giving them lifetime bans. It's severe."

Note what CompTIA's rule means in practice. "I thought it was just practice questions" is not a defence. If the content you memorised was live exam content, you are in breach whether or not you knew.

How vendors catch dump users

Most people imagine getting caught means someone spotting them on a dump site. The vendors describe something more systematic.

Microsoft says it "will use data forensics (statistical evidence improper activity during an exam) to cancel exam scores, revoke Certifications, ban candidates, close test centers." It also "reserves the right to ask any candidate to retest for any suspected fraudulent activity or anomalous testing patterns at any time." A candidate who answers leaked items quickly and correctly while struggling on fresh ones produces exactly that kind of anomalous pattern.

Cisco's team says its Exam Security Program, formalised in 2001, covers more than 100 exams and 2,700 Pearson VUE test centres, and that it is "always on the lookout for brain dumps, collusion, fraud, proxy testing, false score reports". When it finds leaked content, it changes the exam and acts against the people who used it.

There is also a plain risk that has nothing to do with forensics. ExamTopics' own answers are crowd-voted, and the site warns that "The stated answer are community vote may differ." Some AZ-104 questions on the free pages we read refer to DirSync and the old AzureRM PowerShell cmdlets. If a vendor has updated the exam, memorised answers to retired questions do you no good on the day.

The money machine: free questions, paid access

ExamTopics says on its home page, "Since we are doing this for free", and its vendor pages call the material "absolutely free. No catches." The free view does not cover everything. When we tried to open page 40 of the AZ-104 set on 29 October 2026, the site required a login. Competing question-bank sites that sell their own products report that ExamTopics charges $79.99 for one month of "Contributor Access" to a single exam; we could not confirm that price on ExamTopics' own pages, so treat it as unverified.

The model is familiar: give away enough questions to rank in search and build trust, then charge for the rest, per exam, for a limited time. The traffic comes from people searching the exam code plus "dumps". Google's autocomplete for "is examtopics" offered, on 29 October 2026, "legit", "legal", "a brain dump" and "illegal". The people paying are asking the right question before they pay.

The terms of use matter if anything goes wrong. They say disputes are under the laws of Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, with Hong Kong courts having exclusive jurisdiction, and that the site can end your access, "in which case no refund shall be made". If your certification is revoked, nothing in those terms helps you.

Has anyone actually been caught? The enforcement record

Vendors rarely publish the names of candidates they ban, so individual revocations mostly surface in forums. The cases against sellers are on the public record.

• 2003: Redmond Magazine's CertCities reported that Robert Keppel, the first braindump site owner to be criminally convicted for selling IT certification exam questions, was sentenced to 12 months and 1 day in federal prison and ordered to pay $500,000 in restitution to Microsoft.
• 2006: Microsoft filed a federal copyright suit against TestKing.com, then a leading braindump site, MCPmag reported. Analysts noted that judgments are hard to collect from operators based overseas.
• 2008: A federal judge in Connecticut issued a preliminary injunction ordering Pass4sure.com and its parent, Freetech Services, to stop distributing Microsoft materials, PCWorld reported. Microsoft's investigators said the practice exams were "identical or substantially similar" to its real exams.

The pattern since then is the one the 2006 analysts predicted. Operators moved offshore, and enforcement shifted toward the candidates, whose certifications the vendors control. That is why the rules quoted above focus on revoking and banning candidates. We found no court ruling about ExamTopics itself, and we make no claim that its operators have broken any law.

Is using ExamTopics illegal?

For a candidate, the main risk is contractual. When you book a Microsoft, CompTIA or Cisco exam you accept a candidate agreement that makes the exam content confidential. Microsoft says its agreements "legally require candidates to keep information related to exam or assessment lab content confidential", and that "obtaining, using, or distributing this content is strictly prohibited, regardless of the method employed (memorization, recording, copying, or other means)." Breaking that agreement is what triggers revocation and bans.

We are not aware of any case where a candidate was prosecuted simply for studying from a dump site, and we do not say that using one is a crime. The question that matters for your career is narrower and harsher: does the vendor regard it as cheating? All three vendors above say yes.

There is a second cost that no rule covers. Microsoft's policy puts the purpose of certification plainly: "to determine a person's ability to perform a specific job role." CompTIA warns that someone who memorised a dump "may struggle to complete these tasks on the job." Technical interviews test that directly, which is why our guides to help desk interview questions and AZ-104 jobs focus on explaining your reasoning out loud.

Red flags: how to tell practice questions from a dump

Practice tests are legitimate and useful. The difference is where the questions came from. These checks separate the two:

1. The words "actual", "real" or "latest exam questions". CompTIA lists "Actual exam questions, real exam questions" as red flags. A legitimate practice test is written from the published objectives and says so.
2. "Braindump" anywhere on the site. ExamTopics uses the word about its own study guides. Microsoft defines a brain dump as fraudulently obtained exam content.
3. Every certification from every vendor. CompTIA says a site with question lists for "an all-inclusive list of certs, everything from CompTIA, Microsoft, Cisco and more, should raise an eyebrow."
4. Identical success statistics on different exams. Open two exam pages. If the pass counts and average scores match, they are not measuring either exam.
5. Crowd-voted answers. Real practice tests explain why an answer is right, with a reference to documentation. A vote count tells you what other memorisers picked.
6. Advice to memorise a percentage of the bank. "Browse at least 50% questions" is advice about recognising items, which only works if the items are on your exam.

If you are unsure about a resource, ask the vendor before you use it. CompTIA takes questions at [email protected], and Cisco at [email protected].

The honest route: pass it in a way that survives an interview

CompTIA's own advice is a fair baseline: download the exam objectives, allow at least six weeks, study two to three hours a day, and take practice exams until you consistently score over 85%, going back to fix every mistake.

Start from the objectives for your exam. The Security+ guide, the AZ-104 guide, the AWS Solutions Architect Associate guide and the CCNA guide each list the domains, their weights and a week by week plan. Then put your exam date into the free study plan tool on this page. It works back from the date and the hours you have, and tells you whether you will be ready.

If you want practice questions, use ones written to the objectives with explanations. ExamTips Pro for Security+ adds a week by week plan, the domains that carry the most marks and practice questions with explanations, for a one-time fee. Explanations teach the reasoning, which is what the exam and the interview after it are testing. And if you are wondering whether the certificate is worth the effort at all, is Security+ enough to get a job? gives a straight answer.