The CompTIA Network+ certification is one of the most widely recognized ways to show that you understand how networks are built, run, secured, and fixed. If you’re coming from a help desk or A+ background, the exam can look like a mountain of ports, protocols, and acronyms. The good news is that CompTIA publishes exactly what it tests, and a study plan built around that blueprint makes a first-try pass very realistic.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the current exam format, each of the five domains and their weights, the official resources worth bookmarking, and the questions candidates ask most often.

What Is the CompTIA Network+ Exam?

CompTIA Network+ is a vendor-neutral certification from CompTIA, the nonprofit trade association behind A+, Security+, and other IT credentials. It validates the skills of an early-career networking professional: configuring switches and routers, setting up wireless, monitoring networks, applying basic security controls, and troubleshooting connectivity and performance problems.

Because it is vendor-neutral, it focuses on concepts you can apply to real-world scenarios, not one company’s command syntax. CompTIA aligns Network+ with job roles such as technical support specialist, network operations specialist, and system administrator, including DoD 8140 work roles.

What Is the CompTIA Network+ Exam Format?

Here is the current exam at a glance, based on the CompTIA Network+ certification page and the official exam objectives:

  • Exam code: N10-009 (exam version V9), launched June 20, 2024.
  • Questions: A maximum of 90 questions.
  • Question types: Multiple-choice and performance-based questions (PBQs), which ask you to complete a task in a simulated environment, such as dragging items into place or configuring a device.
  • Time: 90 minutes.
  • Passing score: 720 on a scale of 100 to 900.
  • Delivery: Pearson VUE test centers or online proctoring through OnVUE.
  • Languages: English, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish.
  • Results: You’ll see your score on screen as soon as you finish.
  • Recommended experience: CompTIA A+ plus 9 to 12 months of hands-on experience as a junior network administrator or network support technician. This is a recommendation, not a requirement.

That’s about a minute per question. PBQs often appear first and take longer, so many candidates flag them, finish the multiple-choice items, and then return to the simulations.

What Content Outline Does the CompTIA Network+ Exam Use?

The current exam is based on the CompTIA Network+ Certification Exam Objectives (N10-009). CompTIA calls its blueprint “exam objectives” rather than a content outline. The N10-009 version has five domains and 25 objectives. Here is how the domains are weighted. The approximate question counts are our estimates based on 90 questions.

  • 1.0 Networking Concepts: 23% (about 21 questions)
  • 2.0 Network Implementation: 20% (about 18 questions)
  • 3.0 Network Operations: 19% (about 17 questions)
  • 4.0 Network Security: 14% (about 13 questions)
  • 5.0 Network Troubleshooting: 24% (about 22 questions)

Domain 1.0: Networking Concepts (23%)

This is the foundation for everything else on the exam. It covers how data moves through a network and the building blocks you need to name, compare, and apply.

  • The seven layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model and what happens at each one.
  • Networking appliances such as routers, switches, firewalls, IDS/IPS, load balancers, proxies, NAS, and SAN, in physical and virtual form.
  • Cloud concepts, including network functions virtualization (NFV), virtual private clouds (VPCs), security groups, internet and NAT gateways, and SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS.
  • Common ports and protocols, such as SSH (22), DNS (53), DHCP (67/68), HTTPS (443), SNMP (161/162), LDAPS (636), and RDP (3389).
  • Transmission media, transceivers (SFP, QSFP), and connectors (LC, SC, ST, MPO, RJ45, F-type, BNC).
  • Topologies such as spine-and-leaf and three-tier (core, distribution, access), IPv4 subnetting with CIDR and VLSM, and modern use cases like SD-WAN, VXLAN, zero trust architecture, SASE/SSE, infrastructure as code, and IPv6.

Study tip: Make a port-and-protocol flashcard deck early and review it every day. Subnetting also shows up across several domains, so practice until you can find a network address and host range in under a minute.

Domain 2.0: Network Implementation (20%)

This domain moves from “what is it” to “how do you set it up.” Several objectives begin with “Given a scenario,” which signals configuration questions and PBQs.

  • Routing technologies: static routes, dynamic protocols (OSPF, EIGRP, BGP), route selection by administrative distance, prefix length, and metric, plus NAT, PAT, and first hop redundancy protocols (FHRP).
  • Switching: VLANs, switch virtual interfaces (SVIs), 802.1Q tagging, native and voice VLANs, link aggregation, speed and duplex, spanning tree, and jumbo frames.
  • Wireless: 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz bands, channel width and non-overlapping channels, WPA2 and WPA3, PSK vs. enterprise authentication, captive portals, and antenna types.
  • Physical installations: MDF and IDF locations, racks, patch panels, UPS and PDU power, and environmental factors like temperature, humidity, and fire suppression.

What questions look like: You might be shown a routing table and asked which route a packet will take. Remember that the longest prefix match wins before administrative distance or metric is considered.

Domain 3.0: Network Operations (19%)

Network operations is about keeping a network documented, monitored, recoverable, and manageable after it’s built.

  • Documentation and processes: physical and logical diagrams, rack diagrams, IP address management (IPAM), SLAs, wireless heat maps, life-cycle management (EOL, EOS), change management, and baseline or golden configurations.
  • Monitoring: SNMP (traps, MIBs, v2c vs. v3), flow data, packet capture, syslog and SIEM, port mirroring, and baseline metrics with anomaly alerting.
  • Disaster recovery: RPO, RTO, MTTR, MTBF, cold, warm, and hot sites, active-active vs. active-passive, and tabletop exercises.
  • Network services: DHCP scopes, reservations, exclusions, and relay, SLAAC, DNS record and zone types, DNSSEC, DNS over HTTPS/TLS, and time protocols (NTP, PTP, NTS).
  • Access and management: site-to-site and client-to-site VPNs, split vs. full tunnel, SSH, console, jump boxes, and in-band vs. out-of-band management.

Study tip: Learn the DNS record types by purpose (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, PTR) and be ready to pick the right one for a scenario.

Domain 4.0: Network Security (14%)

This is the smallest domain, but it overlaps heavily with Security+ and shows up inside troubleshooting and implementation questions too.

  • Core concepts: the CIA triad, risk, threat, vulnerability, and exploit, encryption in transit and at rest, PKI and certificates, and identity and access management (MFA, SSO, RADIUS, TACACS+, LDAP, SAML, RBAC, least privilege).
  • Compliance and segmentation: PCI DSS, GDPR, data locality, and separating IoT, ICS/SCADA, guest, and BYOD traffic.
  • Attacks: DoS/DDoS, VLAN hopping, MAC flooding, ARP and DNS poisoning or spoofing, rogue DHCP servers and access points, evil twins, on-path attacks, and social engineering.
  • Defenses: device hardening, port security, 802.1X, MAC filtering, ACLs, URL and content filtering, and screened subnets.

What questions look like: Expect to match an attack to its symptom (for example, clients receiving the wrong default gateway points to a rogue DHCP server) and then choose the control that stops it.

Domain 5.0: Network Troubleshooting (24%)

The largest domain puts everything together. You’ll apply CompTIA’s seven-step troubleshooting methodology and pick the right fix or tool for a scenario.

  • The troubleshooting methodology, from identifying the problem to documenting findings and lessons learned.
  • Cabling and interface issues: wrong cable type, crosstalk and attenuation, improper termination, TX/RX transposed, CRC errors, runts and giants, error-disabled ports, and PoE budget problems.
  • Network service issues: spanning tree loops, wrong VLAN assignment, ACLs, routing table problems, DHCP pool exhaustion, and incorrect IP addresses, masks, or gateways.
  • Performance: congestion, bottlenecks, latency, packet loss, jitter, and wireless interference, coverage, and roaming.
  • Tools: ping, traceroute/tracert, nslookup, dig, netstat, arp, tcpdump, Nmap, protocol analyzers, cable testers, toners, Wi-Fi analyzers, visual fault locators, and common “show” commands.

Study tip: For each symptom you study, ask “Which OSI layer is this?” and “Which tool would confirm it?” That habit is what scenario questions reward.

How Should You Use the Network+ Blueprint to Build a Study Plan?

Treat the exam objectives PDF as your master checklist. Every bullet in it is fair game.

  1. Take a baseline. Answer a mixed set of practice questions before you study anything so you know where you stand in each domain.
  2. Weight your time. Domains 1.0 and 5.0 together make up nearly half the exam. Put your first big blocks of time there, especially if subnetting or troubleshooting feels shaky.
  3. Map every miss. Tag each missed question with its objective number (for example, 3.4 for a DHCP question). Patterns show up fast.
  4. Get hands-on. Practice commands and configurations in a home lab or simulator. PBQs are easier when you’ve done the task before.
  5. Finish with timed practice. In the last two weeks, take full-length timed sets to build pacing for a 90-minute exam.

Official CompTIA Network+ Resources

Frequently Asked Questions About the CompTIA Network+ Exam

What score do I need to pass Network+?
You need a 720 on a scale of 100 to 900. It’s a scaled score, not a percentage of questions answered correctly.

Is there a prerequisite for Network+?
No. CompTIA recommends A+ and 9 to 12 months of networking experience, but anyone can register for the exam.

What happens if I don’t pass?
Under CompTIA’s retake policy, you can retake the exam right away after your first attempt. Before a third or later attempt, you must wait at least 14 calendar days. You pay the full exam price for each attempt.

How soon will I get my results?
Immediately. Your score appears on screen when you finish.

How long is Network+ valid, and how do I renew it?
Network+ is valid for three years. You can renew by earning 30 continuing education units (CEUs) through CompTIA’s Continuing Education program, by completing CertMaster CE, or by earning certain higher-level certifications.

Start Preparing for the CompTIA Network+ Exam With Pocket Prep

When you’re ready to put the blueprint into practice, Pocket Prep’s CompTIA Network+ practice questions give you 1,130 exam-style questions with detailed explanations, plus a full-length 90-question mock exam to test your pacing. Use the Weakest Subject quiz to target the domain holding you back, then build confidence with Timed Quiz sets. With a consistent Network+ study plan, you can walk into exam day ready.