A+ is two exams, not one. That single fact reshapes how you should study for it, and it's the thing most first-timers underestimate. You don't pass A+ by cramming for "the A+ exam." You pass it by treating Core 1 (220-1101) and Core 2 (220-1102) as two related but distinct projects, usually two months apart.
The rest of this CompTIA A+ study guide is built around that assumption. What's actually on each exam, how long it realistically takes, what trips people up, and the specific things I'd spend more time on than the average study plan tells you to.
The Basics You Need Before Anything Else
Both exams have the same shape: 90 questions, 90 minutes, a mix of multiple choice and performance-based questions (PBQs). Core 1 passes at 675/900, Core 2 at 700/900. That 25-point gap matters more than people realize — Core 2 is harder, and it has a higher bar. Don't plan your study time evenly.
PBQs are the scenario questions where you actually do something: drag components, simulate a terminal, match items to a diagram. They're weighted similar to multiple choice, but they eat more time. Usually 6–10 of them per exam, near the start. A lot of candidates freeze on the first PBQ, burn 12 minutes, and then panic through the rest of the exam. More on that later.
Core 1 (220-1101): The Hardware Half
Core 1 is the tangible side of IT — what the parts are, how they connect, and what breaks. The five domains and their weights:
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Mobile Devices | 15% |
| Networking | 20% |
| Hardware | 25% |
| Virtualization and Cloud | 11% |
| Hardware and Network Troubleshooting | 29% |
Troubleshooting is the biggest domain. Hardware is the second biggest. Together they're more than half the exam. If you've ever cracked open a desktop and replaced RAM, you're already partway there.
The part that catches most people off-guard: printers. Printers show up constantly on Core 1 — not because they're glamorous, but because CompTIA loves them. Laser printer imaging process (the seven steps, in order), inkjet vs. thermal vs. impact vs. 3D, paper jams, toner issues, driver and connectivity problems. I've seen candidates with years of IT experience fail Core 1 on the printer questions alone because they figured "printers are easy" and skipped the detailed review. They aren't. Budget a full study session just for printers.
Networking is the other domain worth extra time. The port-number memorization is unavoidable — HTTP 80, HTTPS 443, FTP 21, SSH 22, Telnet 23, DNS 53, DHCP 67/68, POP3 110, IMAP 143, LDAP 389, SMB 445. Add SMTP 25, RDP 3389, and a few others. Make flashcards. You will see at least a handful of these questions and there's no way to reason your way to the answer.
Mobile devices, virtualization, and cloud are more skim-friendly. Know the difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS (more responsibility = lower in the stack), know what a Type 1 vs. Type 2 hypervisor is, know what an MDM actually does. You don't need to go deep.
Core 2 (220-1102): The Harder One
Core 2 is software, security, and process — and it's where people who assumed A+ was "easy" start struggling. The weights:
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | 31% |
| Security | 25% |
| Software Troubleshooting | 22% |
| Operational Procedures | 22% |
Operating Systems is almost a third of the exam on its own. That's Windows 10/11 navigation, Windows command line, macOS fundamentals, and Linux commands. The Linux piece is the one people skip. They see five or six commands on the objectives list and think "I'll memorize those in a night." Then the exam asks about chmod notation (what does 755 actually grant?), the difference between sudo and su, what grep -r does, how ls -la output is structured. Spend real time with a Linux VM or WSL. Running the commands is worth more than reading about them.
Security on A+ is conceptual, not technical. Malware types and what each one does. Social engineering. Wireless encryption evolution from WEP through WPA3 (know why each was deprecated). Authentication vs. authorization. If you're coming from any other security background, this domain is fast.
Software troubleshooting is where Windows utilities live — Task Manager, Event Viewer, Device Manager, Services, MSConfig, Resource Monitor. These are exactly the tools you'd use on the job, and the exam tests them as scenarios: "a user reports slow performance, which tool do you use first?" Hands-on practice on an actual Windows machine beats any flashcard for this domain.
Operational procedures covers the boring-but-testable stuff: change management, documentation standards, environmental controls, incident response, professionalism. It reads like common sense until you realize CompTIA has a very specific "right answer" for what you do first in a given scenario. The documentation-first / safety-first / escalation-when-appropriate instinct is what they're testing. When in doubt, pick the answer that involves documenting something or checking with a supervisor.
Which Exam First
Core 1. Almost always.
Hardware before software maps to how the field actually works — you need to know what's in the box before troubleshooting the OS running on it. Core 1's passing score is lower, so you build some confidence. And CompTIA's own data shows candidates who pass Core 1 first have higher Core 2 pass rates, though they don't publish exactly how much higher.
The one exception: if you've been doing Windows admin or helpdesk work for a while and barely know what's inside a computer, consider Core 2 first while your OS knowledge is fresh. But this is rare. Most people should take Core 1 first.
Gap between exams: 4–8 weeks is the sweet spot. Less than 4 and you're burned out from the first exam. More than 8 and your momentum is gone. Book Core 2 within a week of passing Core 1, even if the test date is six weeks out — having the date locked in keeps you from drifting.
How Long to Study
Without prior IT experience: 8–12 weeks total, 10–15 hours per week. Split roughly evenly across both exams, with the exam dates stacked.
With some IT experience (helpdesk, building PCs, light Windows admin): 6–8 weeks. You'll still learn new things, but mostly you're filling gaps and learning CompTIA's specific language.
With several years in IT: 3–5 weeks. Your challenge isn't the content — it's learning how CompTIA asks questions. The "most correct" answer on A+ is sometimes not what you'd actually do in the field. You need to practice questions until your instincts match CompTIA's.
One pattern I've noticed: people who study for A+ while working full-time in a non-IT job consistently overestimate how many hours they'll actually study. The first two weeks go great. By week four, life interferes, and the plan collapses. If you're working full-time, plan for 8–10 hours a week, not 15. A plan that assumes you're a robot will fail in ways a realistic plan won't.
A Study Approach That Actually Works
The broad shape: foundation first, then heavy practice questions, then full-length practice exams under real conditions.
The foundation phase is short — maybe two weeks. Pick one primary resource (Wiley's A+ Study Guide is thorough, Professor Messer's free videos are excellent, CompTIA CertMaster is official but expensive) and use it to build a rough mental map of the material. Don't try to master everything here. You're building a scaffold, not a house.
Then move to practice questions as fast as possible. This is where most of the learning actually happens. The feedback loop of "try a question, get it wrong, understand why, try a related question" is what wires the knowledge in. Twenty-five to fifty questions a day, reviewing every wrong answer in detail. Not just "oh, it was B." Understand why A, C, and D were wrong. CompTIA's wrong answers are usually wrong in specific, testable ways.
Flashcards for the brute-memorization stuff — ports, laser printer imaging steps, wireless standards, RAM types, Linux commands. Fifteen minutes a day. Anki or Quizlet, doesn't matter. What matters is that you hit them daily.
In the last two weeks, do full-length timed practice exams. Two or three minimum, per exam. Same conditions you'll face: 90 minutes, quiet room, no notes, no phone. This is where you find out whether you can actually finish in time and whether your stamina holds up in the last 20 questions. Most candidates who fail didn't fail on content — they failed on pacing.
Another pattern I've seen: candidates who only do practice questions 25 at a time feel confident going into the real exam and then hit a wall at question 60 because they've never sat in front of a screen for 90 straight minutes. The stamina piece is real.
Hands-On Is the Unfair Advantage
A+ rewards people who have actually touched hardware and used the tools. The knowledge sticks differently. If you can:
Open a desktop (powered down, unplugged, grounded). Identify the CPU, RAM slots, storage, PSU, motherboard. Swap RAM. Reseat a drive.
Enter the BIOS/UEFI on any machine you have access to. Change boot order. Look at the hardware info screens. It's five minutes and it makes half the hardware domain concrete.
Install VirtualBox or VMware Workstation Player. Spin up a Windows 10 VM and a Linux VM (Ubuntu is fine). Run commands. Break things. Fix them. You'll remember ifconfig vs. ipconfig forever after doing it twice.
Use Windows admin tools on your actual machine. Open Event Viewer, find a warning, click into it. Open Task Manager and end a process. Use MSConfig (now mostly folded into Task Manager startup) to see startup items.
None of this requires a lab budget. The hands-on is worth more than an extra video course.
The PBQs — Don't Let Them Eat Your Time
Here's the mistake: PBQs come at the start of the exam, they're intimidating, and candidates spend 15 minutes on the first one trying to get it perfect. That leaves 75 minutes for the remaining 80+ questions. Bad trade.
The right approach: if a PBQ isn't clicking within 3–4 minutes, flag it and move on. Finish the multiple-choice questions first. They're faster, and you'll have cleared most of the exam by the time you come back. Then use your remaining time on the PBQs with a clearer head.
PBQs are also partial-credit — you don't need a perfect answer to get points. Get what you can get, then move on. A half-right PBQ plus 15 correct multiple choice answers beats a perfect PBQ and a guessed-through final section.
The Topics That Most Often Cost People the Exam
Printers on Core 1. Already covered. Go back and spend a study session on this.
Linux commands on Core 2. Memorizing them without running them doesn't stick. Use WSL or a VM.
Port numbers. There's no shortcut — flashcards, daily, until they're automatic.
Laser printer imaging process. Seven steps, specific order: processing, charging, exposing, developing, transferring, fusing, cleaning. You will be tested on this.
Wireless encryption. Know WEP (broken), WPA (better), WPA2 (AES), WPA3 (current). Know what "enterprise" mode means vs. "personal."
Windows command line. ipconfig, ping, tracert, nslookup, netstat, sfc, chkdsk, gpupdate. What each does and when you'd use it.
Cloud models. IaaS is the most responsibility, SaaS is the least. Who manages what at each level.
After A+
Most people going for A+ are aiming for the CompTIA "trifecta": A+, Network+, Security+. That combination is the standard entry-level IT package, and it opens most helpdesk, support, and junior security roles. If that's your path, start Network+ within 2–3 months of passing A+. The networking knowledge overlaps, and you'll get through Network+ faster while Core 1 material is still fresh.
If your target is specifically cybersecurity, consider skipping straight from A+ to Security+ — you can, and it's a valid route. Network+ is genuinely useful but not strictly required.
One Last Thing
If you're about to start studying, the most useful thing you can do today isn't buy another course — it's figure out where you actually stand. Most people overestimate their hardware knowledge and underestimate how much Linux and Windows command line they'll need. A 30-minute diagnostic tells you that before you commit to a plan.
LearnZapp has a free CompTIA A+ diagnostic that covers both Core 1 and Core 2 objectives, sourced from the Wiley A+ Official Study Guide. No signup, domain-level results so you can see where your real gaps are: Take the free CompTIA A+ diagnostic.