You can see it againUnder pressure people bring back shapes and positions long after the wording has gone.
Picture superiority · Shepard 1967, Standing 1973
COMPTIACompTIA Network+
The CompTIA Network+ certification validates your knowledge of essential networking tools and concepts. It is ideal for technical support, network operation, and system administration roles. Earning this certification demonstrates your ability to manage network connectivity, documentation, service configuration, and security hardening.
Exam formatMultiple choice and performance-based
Duration90 minutes
DeliveryPearson VUE
Passing score720
Free questions1076
Content last reviewed 1 October 2023 · Up to date
The certification
What N10-009 proves, and what it asks of you
What this certification covers, who it is written for, and what the exam itself looks like on the day.
5domains
34objectives
335concepts
US $399exam fee
What it is
What this certification is
What it validates, who it is written for, and the experience it assumes.
About this certification
The CompTIA Network+ certification is designed to validate your ability to manage and troubleshoot networks. It covers essential networking tools and concepts, including network connectivity, documentation, service configuration, data centers, cloud, virtual networking, monitoring, troubleshooting, and security hardening.
This certification prepares you for roles in technical support, network operation, and system administration. It demonstrates your capability to deploy wired and wireless devices, understand documentation and configuration management, apply cloud concepts, monitor networks, and establish secure networks.
Who it’s for
This certification is ideal for individuals seeking roles in technical support, network operation, and system administration. It is suitable for those who wish to validate their skills in managing and troubleshooting networks, including network connectivity, documentation, and security hardening.
Recommended experience
CompTIA recommends having CompTIA A+ certification and 9 to 12 months of hands-on experience in a junior network administrator or network support technician role. CompTIA A+ certification; 9 to 12 months of hands-on experience in a junior network administrator role; Experience in network support technician role
The syllabus
What you’ll learn
Every domain and objective CompTIA measures, with the weight they carry on the exam.
The official CompTIA exam outline · checked 1 October 2023 · See the source
Networking concepts
- OSI model layers
- Networking appliances
- Cloud concepts
- Ports and protocols
- Traffic types
- Transmission media
- Transceivers and connectors
- Network topologies
- IPv4 addressing
Network implementation
- Routing technologies
- Switching technologies
- Wireless devices
- Physical installations
Network operations
- Documentation
- Life-cycle management
- Change management
- Configuration management
- Network monitoring
- Disaster recovery
- Network services
- Access and management
Network security
- Logical security
- Physical security
- Deception technologies
- Security terminology
- Audits and compliance
- Network segmentation
- Types of attacks
- Security features and defense
Network troubleshooting
- Troubleshooting methodology
- Cabling and physical interface issues
- Network services issues
- Performance issues
- Tools and protocols
On the day
The exam itself
Everything CompTIA publishes about sitting it, and nothing we inferred.
Prerequisites
No mandatory prerequisites — this certification has no required predecessor exam or credential.
Exam codeN10-009
CertificationCompTIA Network+
Exam formatMultiple choice and performance-based
Duration90 minutes
Passing score720
DeliveryPearson VUE
LanguagesEnglish, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish
PricingUS $399
After you pass
Where this credential goes next
The path CompTIA lays out, how the credential is kept, and where to book.
Step-by-step path to CompTIA Network+
Credential earnedCompTIA Network+ Certification Renewal and maintenance
The CompTIA Network+ certification is valid for three years. Renew before it expires by completing CEUs or retaking the exam. Stay current with the latest technologies and maintain your certification.
Learn more about renewal requirements Lifecycle status
This certification is currently active and available. CompTIA maintains this certification to validate current skills and industry relevance.
Exam status: ActiveMaintained by CompTIA
Exam registration
Register for the exam through Pearson VUE, CompTIA’s authorized testing partner.
Schedule your examVisit the official CompTIA certification page for exam policies and requirements.
View the official pageYour coach
And when you are serious, your coach Pip takes over
Your coach in the app reads what you have answered with the book closed and tells you one thing to do tonight. It will not count an answer you gave with the page open, and it will tell you when you are not ready.
See how the coach worksBefore you book
Questions people ask
Is any part of the N10-009 exam hands-on or lab-based?
Yes. In addition to multiple-choice items, N10-009 includes performance-based questions that simulate real-world networking scenarios.
What job roles does the CompTIA Network+ credential map to?
It aligns with roles such as technical support specialist, network operations specialist, and system administrator.
If I fail N10-009, when can I retake it?
You must wait 24 hours after a first failed attempt, and 14 days before each subsequent attempt. There is no annual cap on attempts.
Can I recertify by passing a different CompTIA exam?
Yes. Earning a higher-level CompTIA certification can automatically renew this credential without taking the N10-009 renewal assessment.
Information freshness · Content last reviewed on 2023-10-01 Up to date
Practice free questions 1076 questions, free, no account needed.
The curriculum
The whole exam, mapped and written
Every domain, every objective, and every concept CompTIA measures — each one written out.
5domains
34objectives
335concepts
229free pages
The domains, and what sits inside them
Every objective below is a page you can open and practise now, without an account.
The official CompTIA exam outline · checked 1 October 2023 · See the source
1Networking concepts271 questions
OSI model layers10 concepts · 7 pagesOpen →Networking appliances11 concepts · 8 pagesOpen →Cloud concepts7 concepts · 6 pagesOpen →Ports and protocols15 concepts · 10 pagesOpen →Traffic types6 concepts · 5 pagesOpen →Transmission media7 concepts · 5 pagesOpen →Transceivers and connectors7 concepts · 5 pagesOpen →Network topologies8 concepts · 6 pagesOpen →IPv4 addressing10 concepts · 7 pagesOpen →
2Network implementation113 questions
3Network operations235 questions
Documentation10 concepts · 8 pagesOpen →Life-cycle management5 concepts · 4 pagesOpen →Change management7 concepts · 6 pagesOpen →Configuration management9 concepts · 5 pagesOpen →Network monitoring10 concepts · 7 pagesOpen →Disaster recovery9 concepts · 7 pagesOpen →Network services9 concepts · 7 pagesOpen →Access and management8 concepts · 6 pagesOpen →
4Network security299 questions
Logical security12 concepts · 8 pagesOpen →Physical security7 concepts · 6 pagesOpen →Deception technologies7 concepts · 5 pagesOpen →Security terminology12 concepts · 6 pagesOpen →Audits and compliance8 concepts · 7 pagesOpen →Network segmentation9 concepts · 6 pagesOpen →Types of attacks30 concepts · 17 pagesOpen →Security features and defense11 concepts · 8 pagesOpen →
Not a table of contents
Every line on this map already opens
In front of every objective the practice pages are already there, free and without an account. This is one objective, opened.
OSI model layers7 pagesOpen →
Free in front of it
33 questions on this objective, five to a page. Every range above is a real page, open now, with no account.
Reading the map is not the same as knowing the ground
The curriculum tells you what is on the exam. Proving you know it is a different job — and it is the one the closed-book run does.
Free questions
1076 questions. No account, no card.
The whole bank is open. 5 questions to a page, every answer explained, and a discussion thread on each one.
1076questions
229pages
34objectives
Freealways
Browse by domain
Every objective, and every page range, is a link — so you can pick up exactly where you left off.
1Networking concepts271 questions
2Network implementation113 questions
3Network operations235 questions
4Network security299 questions
5Network troubleshooting158 questions
What a practice page gives you
1Five to a page
Short enough to finish, long enough to matter.
2Every answer explained
Not only which one is right — why the others are wrong.
3A discussion on each
Ask, answer, and vote. Every question has its own thread.
A question, and the idea behind it
Every question comes from a concept
These are not trivia. Each one is written against a concept in the book, so when you get one wrong there is somewhere to go and find out why.
The visual book
See it once. Carry it into the exam.
The pages shown here come from our AI-900 book — an example of how each concept is written in plain language and, where the idea needs one, drawn as a full page you can take in at a glance.
335concepts
1076free questions
Why a picture, and not another paragraph
Three reasons, and each one is a real finding rather than a slogan.
You can see it againThe whole idea at onceWhere it starts, what happens in the middle, what comes out, and the mistake to avoid.
Multimedia principle · MayerThe look-alikes sit togetherThe pairs the exam tests are drawn side by side, so the difference is seen, not told.
Dual coding · PaivioWhat one page is made of
You are never asked to read a poster here — only to see how one is built. After that, every other page is legible at a glance.
1A numbered strip on top
The idea as a sequence, followed with a finger before a word is read.
2Panels for the parts
What it is, how the machine learns it, when it is the right tool.
3The trap, framed
The distinction the exam tests, given its own box instead of buried in prose.
4One line at the bottom
The sentence to carry into the exam room.
Open book, on purpose
Answer it with the picture beside you
This is the part that teaches. The illustration and the written explanation stay where they are while you work, so a scenario stops being a memory test and becomes something you can simply look at.
It teaches · it does not count
A smartphone uses AI to unlock when the owner looks at the camera. Which AI capability is being used?
AImage classification
BFacial recognition
COptical character recognition
DObject detection
Look at the five steps. Detect finds a face, align straightens it, encode turns it into numbers, search compares it with a stored face, and decide answers one question: is this the same person? Classification would only say “a face”. Detection would only draw a box. Neither decides whose.
Then the page shuts, and it starts counting
The same questions come back with the book closed — that run is the one that counts. After it, your coach picks one thing for tonight, sized to the time you have, and brings pages back before you lose them.
Testing effect · Roediger & Karpicke 2006 · spacing effect · Cepeda et al. 2006
Official resources
Straight from CompTIA
Where the exam is defined, scheduled and scored.
1official link
335concepts mapped
The source
CompTIA’s own pages
We link to them rather than repeat them, so nothing here goes stale behind them.
Checked against the source
Every objective on the official CompTIA outline already has questions here
We build from the official skills outline, not from a summary of it — 34 objectives, 335 concepts written under them, and free questions against every one. When CompTIA changes the outline, this page changes with it.
34objectives on the outline→335concepts written→1076free questions
An official page tells you what will be asked. It cannot tell you what you will get right.
That is the only question worth answering the night before, and no link answers it. You answer it by taking the questions with the book closed, and seeing what comes back.