CompTIA A+ (Core 1: 220-1201 and Core 2: 220-1202) Study Guide

The CompTIA A+ credential is widely recognized as the entry point into a professional IT career. It validates the foundational skills that help desks, field technicians, and support specialists rely on every day: assembling and troubleshooting hardware, configuring operating systems, connecting devices to networks, and applying basic security practices to protect users and data.

A+ is designed for people who are new to IT or who are formalizing skills they've picked up informally. Career changers, recent graduates, self-taught tinkerers, and military veterans transitioning to civilian tech roles all use A+ as a way to prove baseline competence to employers who might otherwise be unable to evaluate their skills. Because it does not assume prior IT work experience, it is often the very first professional certification someone earns.

Why It Matters for Your Career

Employers in help desk, desktop support, field service, and junior systems administration roles frequently list A+ as a preferred or required qualification in job postings. Holding the certification signals that a candidate understands core hardware, software, networking, and security concepts without an employer needing to take that on faith. It can also serve as a stepping stone toward more advanced, vendor-specific or specialized certifications later in a technologist's career, since it establishes the vocabulary and mental models that later material builds on.

• Demonstrates baseline competency to hiring managers with no IT background of their own
• Opens entry-level roles in help desk, desktop support, and field technician work
• Provides a common foundation before pursuing networking or security specializations

Earning the CompTIA A+ certification requires passing two separate exams rather than a single test. Candidates must pass both Core 1 (220-1201) and Core 2 (220-1202), and they may take the two exams in whichever order suits them.

Format and Timing

Each exam follows the same basic structure. Core 1 contains a maximum of 90 questions and allows 90 minutes to complete, while Core 2 also contains a maximum of 90 questions and is likewise allotted 90 minutes. In practice, that means the full certification journey involves up to 180 scored questions across the two sittings, with 90 minutes budgeted per exam.

Passing Scores

Each exam is scored on its own scale, and the two thresholds differ slightly. The passing score for Core 1 is 675 on a scale of 900, while the passing score for Core 2 is 700 on a scale of 900. Because the two exams are graded independently, a candidate must clear both bars separately rather than averaging performance across them.

What Each Exam Covers

Core 1 focuses on hardware and networking, while Core 2 focuses on operating systems and security. This split lets each exam go deeper into its respective domains rather than spreading thin across every IT topic in a single sitting.

Certification Validity

Once earned, the CompTIA A+ certification is valid for three years from the certification date. It can be renewed by earning Continuing Education Units (CEUs) without retaking the exam, and the Continuing Education renewal cycle runs three years from the date the certification was earned.

Core 1 (220-1201): Hardware and Networking

Core 1 is organized into 5 content domains, each weighted according to its importance on the exam.

• Hardware (25%) — covers desktop and laptop components, peripherals, cabling, power, and printers; the physical building blocks a technician assembles, upgrades, and replaces.
• Networking (23%) — covers network hardware, protocols, wireless standards, and basic configuration needed to get devices talking to each other and to the internet.
• Mobile devices (13%) — covers laptops, tablets, and smartphones, including their unique hardware, connectivity, and synchronization concerns.
• Hardware and network troubleshooting (28%) — the single largest domain, covering systematic diagnostic methodology applied to hardware and connectivity problems.
• Virtualization and cloud computing (11%) — covers virtual machines, hypervisors, and cloud service concepts that increasingly underpin modern IT environments.

Core 2 (220-1202): Operating Systems and Security

Core 2 is organized into 4 content domains.

• Operating systems (28%) — covers installing, configuring, and maintaining Windows, macOS, Linux, and mobile operating systems.
• Security (28%) — tied for the largest domain, covering malware, social engineering, authentication, and the practices technicians use to protect systems and data.
• Software troubleshooting (23%) — covers diagnosing and resolving OS, application, and malware-related problems using structured troubleshooting steps.
• Operational procedures (21%) — covers documentation, safety practices, professionalism, and the procedural and communication skills technicians use on the job.

Because troubleshooting, security, and operating systems carry the heaviest weight across both exams, prioritizing study time toward those areas tends to produce the strongest return on effort.

Because A+ certification requires passing two separate 90-question, 90-minute exams, most candidates find it easier to prepare for and sit Core 1 and Core 2 as two distinct study phases rather than cramming both at once.

Weeks 1-3: Core 1 Foundations

Start with hardware, since it's the most concrete and visual domain — components, ports, cabling, and peripherals are easier to internalize early. Move into networking fundamentals next, then spend dedicated time on mobile devices and virtualization/cloud concepts, which are smaller domains but still testable.

Weeks 4-5: Core 1 Troubleshooting and Review

Given that hardware and network troubleshooting is the heaviest-weighted Core 1 domain, dedicate extra time to practicing structured diagnostic methodology rather than memorizing isolated facts. Run through practice questions under timed conditions to build comfort with the 90-minute pace, then take a full practice exam before sitting the real Core 1 test.

Weeks 6-8: Core 2 Foundations

Shift focus to operating systems, since it shares the top domain weighting with security. Work through Windows, macOS, Linux, and mobile OS configuration tasks, then move into operational procedures — documentation, safety, and professionalism topics that are often underestimated.

Weeks 9-10: Core 2 Security and Software Troubleshooting

Security ties operating systems as the largest Core 2 domain, so treat it with equal priority. Pair it with software troubleshooting, since the two domains overlap heavily in real-world scenarios (malware remediation, for example, touches both). Close out with timed practice exams to confirm readiness before scheduling Core 2.

Adjust this timeline based on your existing hands-on experience — someone who has already built PCs or run a home network may compress the Core 1 phase considerably, while someone newer to IT may want to extend it.

Before Exam Day

• Confirm your testing appointment, arrive early (or complete system checks in advance for online proctoring), and bring required identification.
• Get a full night's sleep rather than cramming until the last minute — recognition and diagnostic reasoning suffer under fatigue.
• Review your weakest domain one final time, but avoid trying to learn brand-new material the day before.

During the Exam

• Since each exam contains a maximum of 90 questions in 90 minutes, pace yourself at roughly one question per minute and flag uncertain items to revisit rather than stalling on them.
• Read each question fully before looking at the answer choices — A+ questions often include a distractor that looks correct at first glance but conflicts with a detail later in the prompt.
• For performance-based questions, work through the simulation methodically rather than guessing at the interface; partial credit is often available for demonstrating correct process.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Treating Core 1 and Core 2 as interchangeable — remember Core 1 focuses on hardware and networking while Core 2 focuses on operating systems and security, and studying the wrong material for the wrong exam wastes time.
• Neglecting operational procedures and security topics because they feel less technical than hardware — both carry substantial weight on their respective exams.
• Skipping practice exams. Timed, full-length practice runs are the best predictor of whether your pacing and recall will hold up under real conditions.
• Forgetting that both exams must be passed independently — a strong score on one does not offset a weak score on the other.

Because CompTIA A+ certification hinges on passing two distinct, content-heavy exams, spreading your preparation across several study formats tends to work better than relying on a single method. Free resources available on this site are built around the same domain structure used by Core 1 and Core 2, so they can slot directly into the study plan above.

Practice Questions

Timed practice questions modeled on the real exam format help you get comfortable with the pacing implied by a 90-question, 90-minute session, and they surface which domains — hardware, networking, troubleshooting, operating systems, security, or operational procedures — need more attention before test day.

Flashcards

Flashcards are well suited to the high volume of discrete facts A+ requires: port numbers, cable types, file system differences, and security terminology all lend themselves to spaced repetition rather than passive reading.

Glossary

A searchable glossary of A+ terminology is useful for quickly clarifying unfamiliar vocabulary encountered while working through practice questions or performance-based scenarios, without having to leave your study session to search elsewhere.

Using practice questions to diagnose weak domains, flashcards to reinforce terminology and facts, and the glossary as a quick reference together covers the recall, application, and vocabulary demands of both Core 1 and Core 2.