CompTIA A+ Practice Questions With Answers (2026)

Quick Answer

CompTIA A+ practice questions should cover all nine domains across both Core exams, mix recall questions with troubleshooting scenarios, and explain every answer option. Because A+ requires passing two separate exams, practice should be organized per Core exam rather than blended, so you can confirm readiness for each one independently.

Exams

2 (Core 1 + Core 2)

Domains

9

Cost

Free daily questions

Readiness Target

Mid-80s per Core exam

A+ Uses Two Very Different Question Styles

Recall questions. These test whether you know a fact: a port number, a connector type, a RAID level, a command-line switch, a laser printing stage. A+ contains more of these than any other CompTIA exam, and they are pure preparation — you either did the memorization or you did not. Flashcard-style practice serves these well.

Scenario questions. These describe a symptom and ask for the most likely cause or the correct next step. A workstation posts but no display output. A printer produces a repeating defect down the page. A user cannot reach a network share but can browse the internet. These questions test the troubleshooting methodology and the ability to reason from symptom to layer.

Most candidates over-practise the first type and under-practise the second, because recall questions feel productive — you get immediate right answers and a rising score. But troubleshooting carries substantial weight on both Core exams and is where failures concentrate.

A balanced practice diet is roughly even between the two, with a deliberate bias toward scenarios in the final weeks. When you review a scenario miss, do not just learn the answer — identify which stage of the troubleshooting methodology the question was actually asking about, since the same symptom can key differently depending on whether the question wants a theory or an action.

Practise Per Core Exam, Never Blended

Track Core 1 and Core 2 as entirely separate preparations with separate readiness bars. There are two reasons.

First, you sit them separately, often weeks apart, and readiness for one says nothing about readiness for the other. A blended eighty-two percent could be ninety on Core 1 and seventy-four on Core 2 — a profile that passes one exam and fails the other.

Second, the content is genuinely different in character. Core 1 is physical and diagnostic; Core 2 is procedural and software-oriented. Candidates almost always find one considerably easier, and the blended average conceals which.

The practical routine: while studying Core 1, run only Core 1 domain-restricted sets, then Core 1 mixed sets, then Core 1 timed full-length. Reach your readiness bar, book and sit that exam. Then repeat the cycle for Core 2.

An important scheduling note: passing Core 1 does not start the certification clock, but there is a window in which you should complete the second exam while the first remains valid for certification purposes, and CompTIA can retire exam versions in the meantime. Practically, do not leave a large gap. Momentum matters as much as policy — candidates who pause after Core 1 frequently lose months and have to re-study material they had already mastered.

Turning Misses Into a Study Plan

The mechanism that makes practice questions worth more than rereading is attribution: mapping each miss to a specific objective bullet rather than logging it as a wrong answer.

Keep a simple table with three columns: the objective bullet, how many times you have missed something from it, and what you did about it. After a few sessions, patterns appear that individual questions never reveal. Six misses spread across printers, RAID levels, and display technologies is a general hardware depth problem. Six misses all involving the order of malware removal steps is one memorization gap you can close in fifteen minutes.

Then act on the table in priority order: high-frequency misses in heavily weighted domains first, isolated misses in light domains last. This is the entire difference between studying efficiently and studying a lot.

Re-test attributed gaps specifically rather than running general sets and hoping the topic reappears. If your table says malware removal order, run questions restricted to Core 2 security until that stops being a miss.

One more habit worth building: review questions you answered correctly but hesitated on. Hesitation is the earliest signal of a soft area, and catching it before it becomes a miss costs almost nothing.

Knowing When You Are Ready for Each Exam

CompTIA scales A+ scoring, and the two Core exams have different passing thresholds, so practice percentages are approximate. Consistency is the real signal.

Aim for stable scores in the mid-eighties on timed, full-length practice for the specific Core exam you are about to sit, drawn from more than one question source. The multi-source rule prevents the familiarity effect, which is particularly strong on A+ because recall questions are easy to memorize by accident.

Check domain distribution within that Core exam. On Core 1, a weak troubleshooting score is the most dangerous pattern because troubleshooting is heavily weighted and integrative. On Core 2, weak operating systems or security scores carry the same risk.

Also confirm you have practised performance-based style questions. A+ includes them, they typically appear early, and they consume time disproportionately. Knowing in advance that you will flag and return to them prevents the most common time-management failure.

When your target Core exam is stable in the mid-eighties, no domain trails badly, and you have completed at least two full-length timed sessions, book it. Further study past that point tends to produce anxiety rather than points — and the second Core exam is still waiting.

Expert Insight

A+ is the certification where attribution discipline pays off fastest, because the objective list is long and highly specific. Candidates who keep a miss-to-bullet table typically cut their remaining study time significantly around the halfway point, since the table exposes that most of their errors cluster into a handful of topics rather than being spread across the whole blueprint.

Study Tips

• Track Core 1 and Core 2 scores separately. A blended average hides which exam you are actually ready for.

• Map every miss to a specific objective bullet, then re-test that bullet directly rather than hoping it reappears.

• Review questions you answered correctly but hesitated on — hesitation is the earliest warning of a soft area.

• Bias practice toward troubleshooting scenarios in the final weeks; recall questions feel productive but are usually already solid.

• Do not leave a long gap between Core exams. Momentum and retention both decay faster than people expect.

Common Mistakes

• Blending Core 1 and Core 2 practice into a single score that conceals a weak exam.

• Over-practising recall questions because they produce satisfying scores, while troubleshooting stays weak.

• Logging wrong answers without attributing them to objective bullets, so study never becomes targeted.

• Meeting performance-based question formats for the first time on exam day and losing time to them.

• Passing Core 1 and then pausing for months, which forces a partial re-study before Core 2.

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