Network+ is the exam where networking stops being a list of acronyms and starts being something you can reason through. The questions reward you for understanding how traffic actually moves: which device decides, at which layer, over which port, and what breaks when something is misconfigured.
The good news: N10-009 is predictable to study for. CompTIA publishes the exact objectives and domain weights, and two skills (subnetting and port numbers) show up across almost every domain. Get fast and accurate at those early and everything else gets easier.
Below you will find the exam facts, domain priorities, a 10-week plan, the concepts people most often mix up, and a game plan for PBQs and test day.
The exam at a glance
| Exam code | N10-009 (Network+ V9) |
|---|---|
| Questions | Maximum of 90 |
| Time | 90 minutes |
| Passing score | 720 on a scale of 100 to 900 |
| Question types | Multiple-choice and performance-based (PBQs) |
| Price (US voucher) | $399 USD (CompTIA store list price) |
| Prerequisites (CompTIA's recommendation) | None required. CompTIA recommends A+ and 9 to 12 months of hands-on experience in a junior network administrator or network support role. |
What each domain tests
Networking Concepts
23%The foundation: OSI, ports and protocols, addressing and subnetting, media, cloud, and modern designs.
- OSI layers and which devices and protocols live at each one
- Every port and protocol in objective 1.4, including TCP vs. UDP
- IPv4 addressing: RFC1918, APIPA, loopback, CIDR, and VLSM subnetting
- Fiber vs. copper, single-mode vs. multimode, and connector types (LC, SC, ST, MPO, RJ45)
- Cloud concepts: VPC, NAT and internet gateways, SaaS/IaaS/PaaS
- SDN, SD-WAN, VXLAN, zero trust, SASE, and IPv6 transition methods
Network Implementation
20%How you actually build the network: routing, switching, wireless, and the physical install.
- Static vs. dynamic routing (OSPF, EIGRP, BGP) and how a route is selected
- NAT vs. PAT, FHRP, and virtual IPs
- VLANs, 802.1Q trunks, native and voice VLANs, SVIs, and link aggregation
- Spanning tree purpose and MTU/jumbo frames
- Wireless: 2.4/5/6 GHz, non-overlapping channels, WPA2 vs. WPA3, PSK vs. Enterprise
- Physical installs: MDF vs. IDF, UPS vs. PDU, airflow, and environmental factors
Network Operations
19%Keeping a network documented, monitored, recoverable, and well run day to day.
- Documentation: physical vs. logical diagrams, IPAM, SLAs, and change management
- SNMP (traps, MIBs, v2c vs. v3), flow data, syslog, and SIEM
- DR metrics (RPO, RTO, MTTR, MTBF) and cold, warm, and hot sites
- DHCP scopes, reservations, exclusions, and relay; SLAAC for IPv6
- DNS record types (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, PTR) and zone types
- VPN types, jump boxes, and in-band vs. out-of-band management
Network Security
14%The smallest domain: core security concepts, common attacks, and hardening.
- CIA triad and the difference between risk, threat, vulnerability, and exploit
- Authentication options: MFA, SSO, RADIUS, TACACS+, LDAP, SAML
- Attacks: VLAN hopping, MAC flooding, ARP and DNS poisoning, rogue DHCP, evil twin, on-path
- Hardening: disable unused ports, change defaults, port security, 802.1X, NAC
- ACLs, URL and content filtering, and screened subnets
- Segmentation for IoT, OT/SCADA, guest, and BYOD networks
Network Troubleshooting
24%The largest domain: applying a methodology and the right tools to real problems.
- CompTIA's troubleshooting methodology, steps in order
- Cable and interface problems: attenuation, crosstalk, CRC errors, runts, giants, err-disabled ports
- Service issues: wrong gateway, wrong mask, duplicate IPs, pool exhaustion, STP loops, VLAN mismatches
- Performance: latency vs. jitter vs. packet loss, congestion, and wireless interference
- Command line tools: ping, traceroute/tracert, nslookup, dig, netstat, ipconfig/ip, arp, tcpdump
- Device commands like show interface, show route, show vlan, and show mac-address-table
Study plan
This plan assumes about 8 to 10 hours a week for 10 weeks. If you hold A+ or work a help desk, you can likely compress it to 6 or 7 weeks. If you are brand new to networking, stretch it to 12 to 14 weeks and give subnetting extra time. Whatever your pace, keep the official objectives PDF open and check items off as you go, since it defines the real scope of the exam.
- Weeks 1-2
OSI model, ports, and media
Learn the seven OSI layers and place every device and protocol you meet on one of them. Start the CyberExamPrep port drills on day one and spend 10 minutes on them daily for the rest of the plan. Cover cabling, fiber, connectors, and transceivers, and end each week with a short practice set.
- Weeks 3-4
IP addressing and subnetting
Learn RFC1918 ranges, APIPA, loopback, and CIDR, then the block size method in the most-missed topics below. Solve 10 to 15 problems a day by hand until you can find the network, broadcast, and usable range in under a minute. Add IPv6 basics, SLAAC, and the transition methods (dual stack, tunneling, NAT64).
- Weeks 5-6
Routing, switching, and wireless
Study static vs. dynamic routing, route selection, NAT and PAT, VLANs, trunking, and spanning tree. If you can, configure a VLAN and a trunk yourself in a free simulator. Finish with wireless bands, channels, and encryption, then filter practice questions to the Network Implementation domain and review every miss.
- Weeks 7-8
Operations and security
Cover documentation, monitoring (SNMP, syslog, flow data), DR metrics, DHCP, and DNS records. Then move to security concepts, attacks, and hardening. Make flashcards for every pair of terms you keep confusing, such as RPO and RTO or RADIUS and TACACS+. If an explanation is not clicking, ask Aurora, the CyberExamPrep AI tutor, to walk through it with a different example.
- Week 9
Troubleshooting and PBQ practice
Memorize the troubleshooting methodology in order and practice applying it to scenarios. Run ping, tracert, nslookup, ipconfig, netstat, and arp on your own computer so the output looks familiar. Work hands-on PBQ labs every day this week, since troubleshooting and configuration tasks are where simulations feel most natural.
- Week 10
Full mock exams and gap repair
Take at least two full-length timed mock exams under real conditions: 90 questions, 90 minutes, no notes. CyberExamPrep mock exams end with a score report by domain, so use it to decide what to review, and spend the days between exams fixing the two weakest domains. Redo missed questions until you can explain why each wrong answer is wrong.
- Exam week
Light review and logistics
Stop learning new material two or three days out. Do a final port drill, a subnetting warmup, and one flashcard pass. Confirm your appointment, test your OnVUE setup if testing online, and get a full night of sleep before the exam.
Most-missed topics
These concepts look alike on paper, which is exactly why they trip people up. Know the difference cold.
- Network, broadcast, and usable host addresses
- The classic off-by-two mistake is counting the network and broadcast addresses as usable. Usable hosts are 2 to the power of host bits, minus 2. Quick method: find the block size (256 minus the mask's interesting octet, so /26 is 64, /27 is 32, /28 is 16, /29 is 8, /30 is 4), list the multiples, and the address falls in one block. For 192.168.1.77/27, blocks start at 64 and 96, so the network is .64, the broadcast is .95, and usable hosts are .65 to .94.
- SFTP vs. FTPS vs. TFTP
- SFTP runs over SSH on port 22. FTPS is regular FTP wrapped in TLS. TFTP is a stripped-down UDP protocol on port 69 with no authentication, often used for pushing configs and firmware.
- Secure and insecure port pairs
- Learn ports in pairs instead of as a flat list: Telnet 23 vs. SSH 22, HTTP 80 vs. HTTPS 443, LDAP 389 vs. LDAPS 636, SMTP 25 vs. SMTPS 587, SNMP 161 (with traps on 162). Note that the official objectives list SMTPS as 587, so study to the objectives even if you have seen 465 elsewhere. Also know which run over UDP: DHCP 67/68, TFTP 69, NTP 123, SNMP 161/162, and syslog 514, with DNS 53 using both.
- OSI layer placement
- Hubs and cabling are Layer 1, switches and MAC addresses are Layer 2, routers and IP addresses are Layer 3, and TCP/UDP ports are Layer 4. Questions often hide this inside a scenario, like asking which device can separate broadcast domains (a router or Layer 3 switch, not a standard switch). When in doubt, ask what address the device reads to decide.
- RADIUS vs. TACACS+
- RADIUS uses UDP, combines authentication and authorization, and encrypts only the password. TACACS+ uses TCP port 49, separates authentication, authorization, and accounting, and encrypts the entire payload, which is why it is favored for administering network devices.
- RPO vs. RTO (and MTTR vs. MTBF)
- RPO is how much data you can afford to lose, measured back in time to your last good backup. RTO is how long you can afford to be down before service is restored. MTBF measures reliability between failures, while MTTR measures how fast you fix something once it fails.
- How a router picks a route
- People often jump straight to administrative distance, but the longest prefix match wins first: a /28 route beats a /24 for the same destination. Administrative distance only breaks ties between different routing sources for the same prefix, and metric breaks ties within one routing protocol.
- Native VLAN, voice VLAN, and 802.1Q tagging
- An access port carries one VLAN untagged, while a trunk carries many VLANs using 802.1Q tags. The native VLAN is the one VLAN a trunk sends untagged, and a native VLAN mismatch is a classic troubleshooting scenario. A voice VLAN lets an IP phone and the PC plugged into it share one switch port while staying on separate VLANs.
How to handle PBQs
Performance-based questions ask you to do something rather than pick an answer: configure a device, match items to the right category, place equipment in a diagram, or work through a troubleshooting scenario. CompTIA does not publish how many appear, and each can take several minutes, so the real risk is time. Build them into your pacing plan.
- Read the whole prompt and check every tab or device before you change anything. The key detail is often on a second screen.
- If a PBQ is eating your time, flag it, make your best partial attempt, and move on. You can come back once the multiple-choice questions are banked.
- Practice the "given a scenario" objectives, such as subnet assignments, firewall or ACL rules, wireless settings, cable and connector matching, and choosing the right troubleshooting tool.
- Use hands-on PBQ labs like the ones at pbq.cyberexamprep.com to get comfortable with drag-and-drop and configuration interfaces, so the format itself does not slow you down.
- For subnetting PBQs, write out your block sizes on the provided whiteboard (physical at a test center, digital on OnVUE) first, then fill in answers.
- Never leave a PBQ empty. Complete every part you are confident about before you move on.
Exam day
- Choose your format: a Pearson VUE test center or OnVUE online proctoring from home. For OnVUE, run the system test in advance and expect a room scan and ID photos at check-in.
- Bring ID that meets CompTIA's Candidate ID Policy. Test centers require a primary government-issued photo ID plus a secondary ID, and OnVUE does not accept U.S. military IDs. Your name must match your Pearson VUE profile.
- Start check-in about 30 minutes early, whether you are online or at a test center, so a delay does not cut into your exam time.
- The exam opens with a candidate agreement (NDA) screen that you must accept to continue. You must accept it to begin.
- Do the pacing math before you start: up to 90 questions in 90 minutes is about one minute per question. Since PBQs take longer, aim for about 45 seconds per multiple-choice item and set checkpoints such as question 30 by minute 30 and question 60 by minute 60.
- Flag anything you are unsure about, pick your best answer anyway, and keep moving. Never leave a question blank.
- Save the last 10 minutes for flagged questions and unfinished PBQs, and change an answer only for a clear reason.
FAQ
- How long should I study for Network+?
- Plan for 8-12 weeks if you're new to networking. Those with hands-on experience may be ready in 4-6 weeks. Consistent daily study beats cramming.
- What's the passing score for Network+?
- You need 720 out of 900 to pass N10-009. That's a scaled score on a 100 to 900 range, not a percentage of questions answered correctly.
- Do I need hands-on experience for Network+?
- While not required, it helps tremendously. If you lack hands-on access, use network simulators and our scenario-based questions to build practical understanding.
- Should I get A+ before Network+?
- Not required, but A+ provides helpful foundational knowledge. If you're comfortable with basic computer concepts, you can start directly with Network+.
- What's the hardest part of Network+?
- Most students struggle with subnetting and memorizing port numbers. Our platform includes dedicated practice for both. Daily flashcard review makes port memorization manageable.