💻 CompTIA A+ 2026: It's Two Exams, Two Scores

Here is exactly how the CompTIA A Plus exam works, and how to pass it, in just a few minutes. A Plus is the entry point into IT. It is vendor neutral, and it is the certification most often named in help desk and technical support job postings. The current version is the Core Series, exam codes twelve oh one and twelve oh two.

The older eleven oh one and eleven oh two exams retired in September of twenty twenty-five, so if a course or a practice bank still says eleven oh one, it is out of date. Now the thing that catches almost everyone. A Plus is not one exam. It is two.

Core one and Core two. You have to pass both to be certified, and you buy them, schedule them, and sit them separately. Each one is a maximum of ninety questions in ninety minutes, mixing multiple choice with drag and drop and performance based questions, which are small hands-on simulations. And here is the detail that even people who know it is two exams tend to miss.

The two exams do not have the same passing score. Core one is six seventy-five. Core two is seven hundred. Both on a scale of nine hundred.

So Core two is the harder cut, and if you are going to be short on preparation for one of them, do not let it be that one. Let's look at where the points are, starting with Core one. Hardware and network troubleshooting is twenty-eight percent. Hardware is twenty-five.

Networking is twenty-three. Mobile devices is thirteen. And virtualization and cloud computing is eleven. Notice that troubleshooting is the single biggest slice of Core one, and hardware and networking sit right behind it.

Those three together are seventy-six percent of the exam. Core one is a practical exam about physical machines and the networks they sit on. Core two splits differently. Operating systems is twenty-eight percent.

Security is also twenty-eight. Software troubleshooting is twenty-three. And operational procedures is twenty-one. That is a much flatter spread.

There is no small domain in Core two, so there is nothing you can safely skim. Operating systems and security are tied at the top, and together they are more than half of it. Let's do three real questions. First, from Core two, security.

Which statement correctly distinguishes a worm from a Trojan? A worm copies itself to other systems across a network on its own. A Trojan has to be launched by the user, usually because it is disguised as something the user wanted. Self-spreading versus user-launched is the whole distinction, and it is a favorite exam question.

Second, still Core two. A user's documents have all been replaced with encrypted copies, and a message demands payment for the key. What is the best response? Restore the affected data from a recent, tested backup that was kept offline or otherwise isolated.

Not pay, and not hunt for a decryptor first. And notice the word offline. A backup the ransomware could reach is not a backup. Third, from Core one, troubleshooting.

A technician theorizes that a workstation's intermittent network drops come from a failing network adapter, replaces it, and the problem continues. What is the next step? Establish a new theory of probable cause, or escalate if no theory can be formed. The exam tests the troubleshooting methodology as a sequence, and when a theory is disproven you go back and form a new one.

You do not jump ahead to implementing another fix. So, how do you prepare? Tip one. Treat these as two separate study projects, because they test genuinely different things.

Core one is hardware, networks, and physical troubleshooting. Core two is operating systems, security, and procedure. Many people pass Core one comfortably, assume Core two is more of the same, and get surprised. Tip two.

Get hands on, especially for Core one. Open a machine. Install an operating system. Set up a home network.

The performance based questions ask you to do things, not describe them, and the fastest way to lose time on this exam is to meet a simulation of a task you have only ever read about. Tip three. Learn the troubleshooting methodology as an ordered list, and practice naming which step you are on. A whole family of questions is really just asking, what comes next in the process.

Those are free points once the sequence is automatic. Tip four. Log every miss with the reason, and re-drill by domain rather than by question. And weight your time by the published percentages, not by what you find interesting.

Virtualization is eleven percent of Core one. Troubleshooting is twenty-eight. Study accordingly. Quick recap.

A Plus is two exams, Core one and Core two, and you need both. Each is up to ninety questions in ninety minutes. The passing scores are different: six seventy-five for Core one, seven hundred for Core two, out of nine hundred. Core one is troubleshooting, hardware and networking.

Core two is operating systems and security, with no small domain to skip. You can practice A Plus questions free at quibank.com/en/a-plus, in English, Chinese, or Spanish, with no sign up.