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CompTIA Network+

Vendor-neutral proof that you can address, configure, secure and troubleshoot business networks, tested with performance-based tasks on a 90-minute exam

EntryCompTIA

The exam

Exam cost
$399
Study time
3-4 months
Passing score
720 (scale of 100–900)
Valid for
3 years

Before you book

  • None required
  • Recommended: CompTIA A+
  • Recommended: 9–12 months of hands-on experience as a junior network administrator or network support technician

What it covers

Security domains

Career

US pay and outlook from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the closest BLS occupation to each role this certification fits. BLS doesn't report pay by certification, and counts most of these roles only within a wider occupation, so the figures describe that occupation, not the role or the credential.

Where people with it work

  1. Entry level

  2. Mid level

  3. Senior level

Where it leads

  1. CompTIA Network+

    You are here

  2. CompTIA Security+

    Entry

    Next step. CompTIA's recommended next step, and passing it renews Network+ automatically

Study guide

Last updated

CompTIA Network+ N10-009 Study Guide: The Exam, the Domains and a Lab Plan

Network+ is CompTIA's vendor-neutral check that you can build, run and repair an ordinary business network: address it, switch and route it, secure the wireless, and find the fault when something stops working. Nothing is required before you book it. The current exam, N10-009, launched on June 20, 2024. CompTIA estimates it will retire in 2027 but hasn't set a date or named a successor, so for now there's only one exam to prepare for.

Who should take Network+, and who can skip it

The natural candidate is a help desk or desktop support technician who keeps getting pulled into network tickets, or a junior network administrator who learned on the job and wants something on paper. CompTIA recommends A+ and 9 to 12 months of hands-on work as a junior network administrator or network support technician before you sit it. It maps the certification to three US Department of Defense 8140 work roles: technical support specialist, network operations specialist and system administrator.

If you're heading into security, Network+ is the step CompTIA recommends before Security+, and the overlap is real: ports, protocols, segmentation and 802.1X all reappear there. If you already configure one vendor's switches every day, a vendor track such as CCNP Security will teach you far more of that vendor's command line. Network+ asks for only a handful of generic show commands.

N10-009 at a glance

ItemN10-009 (V9)
StatusLaunched June 20, 2024; retirement estimated 2027, no date announced
QuestionsUp to 90, multiple-choice and performance-based
Time90 minutes
Passing score720 on a 100–900 scale
Price (US list)$399 voucher; $519 with one retake
DeliveryPearson VUE test center or OnVUE online proctoring
LanguagesEnglish, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish
PrerequisitesNone required; A+ and 9–12 months of network support recommended
ValidityThree years; renew with 30 CEUs and a $150 fee, or other routes below

What the five domains cover

Weights from CompTIA's N10-009 objectives:

  • Networking Concepts: 23%
  • Network Implementation: 20%
  • Network Operations: 19%
  • Network Security: 14%
  • Network Troubleshooting: 24%

Troubleshooting carries the most weight, and four of its five objectives begin "Given a scenario": cabling and interface faults, network service problems, performance issues, and choosing the right tool. Across the whole outline, 10 of 23 objectives are written that way, so expect to configure, trace and diagnose as well as recall. Objective 5.1 spells out CompTIA's seven-step troubleshooting method in order, from identifying the problem to documenting the findings, so learn the steps as a sequence.

Some of the outline is plain memorization. Objective 1.4 is a table of 20 protocols with their port numbers, from FTP on 20/21 to SIP on 5060/5061, and 1.7 covers IPv4 classes, RFC 1918 ranges and subnetting with CIDR and variable-length masks. The physical layer gets more space than newcomers expect: single-mode against multimode fiber, SFP and QSFP transceivers, CRC errors, runts, giants and an exceeded PoE power budget.

The newer material sits in objective 1.8, "evolving use cases": SD-WAN, VXLAN, zero trust architecture, SASE and SSE, infrastructure as code with version control, and IPv6 transition methods including dual stack and NAT64. Wireless covers 6GHz and WPA3. Security is the smallest domain at 14%, and only one of its three objectives is scenario-based, so expect concepts there rather than configuration.

A study plan that starts in a lab

Print the N10-009 objectives PDF and use it as your checklist; it's the document you're scored against. Then split your time three ways. We'd put roughly a third into reading or video, a third into lab work and a third into practice questions and review, weighted toward troubleshooting and concepts since they make up nearly half the exam.

For the reading, pick one main source. Professor Messer's N10-009 video course is free. Todd Lammle and Jon Buhagiar's Network+ Study Guide for N10-009 (Sybex, sixth edition) runs to 1,024 pages and includes online practice questions. CompTIA's CertMaster Learn ($499) is the official self-paced option.

Give the lab hours real attention. Cisco Packet Tracer, free through Cisco Networking Academy, lets you build VLANs, 802.1Q trunks, inter-VLAN routing and DHCP relay without buying hardware, and it gives you a switch command line for practising the show commands in objective 5.5. On your own machine, capture a DHCP exchange, a DNS lookup and an ARP request in Wireshark, then run ping, traceroute, nslookup, dig and netstat until you can predict their output. Subnet by hand every day until a /27 takes you under a minute. CertMaster Labs ($189) covers similar ground if you'd rather not build your own.

In the final two weeks, take timed practice sets at the real pace of 90 questions in 90 minutes, and re-drill any objective you keep missing. CertMaster Practice costs $209.

Renewal and what comes next

Network+ is valid for three years. To renew through continuing education you need 30 continuing education units (CEUs) and a $150 fee for the three-year cycle, which you pay only when you upload CEUs. The fee is waived if you renew another way: pass the newest Network+ exam, complete CertMaster CE ($199; CompTIA's product page currently describes it as an 8-to-10-hour course for N10-008 holders), or earn a higher CompTIA certification. Security+, CySA+, PenTest+ and SecurityX all sit above Network+ in CompTIA's hierarchy, so passing any of them renews it. CompTIA won't let you resit N10-009 once you've passed it; you wait for the next version.

Where to go next:

  • Security+, CompTIA's own suggested next step. Its SY0-801 version launches on November 17, 2026.
  • CCNP Security, if your network is Cisco: one core exam, 350-701 SCOR, plus one concentration exam, with no formal prerequisites.
  • CySA+, later, once you're working in a security operations center.

Our view

Network+ is a fair test of breadth. It checks that you understand the stack from cable to DNS and can follow a fault through it, and the performance-based items stop it from being a vocabulary quiz. That breadth costs depth: it proves little about any one vendor's equipment, and it's too light on security to stand in for Security+. We'd buy it at $399 if you're moving from help desk into network or systems work, or if a DoD contract role lists it. If you already run production switches and routers, put the money toward Security+ or a vendor certification instead.

Sources