CompTIA Network+
Network+ covers how traffic moves: addressing, routing, switching, wireless, the physical layer, and the troubleshooting method that turns a vague complaint into a located fault.
Ninety minutes, one exam, one fee.
Exam facts
- Exam code
- N10-009
- Level
- Associate
- Field
- Networking
- Duration
- 90 minutes
- Questions
- maximum of 90 (multiple choice and performance-based items)
- Passing score
- 720 on a scale of 100 to 900
- Languages
- English, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish
- Price
- 399 USD (read 8 September 2026)
- Validity
- 3 years, renewable
- Exam delivery
- Pearson VUE (test centre or online proctored)
Prerequisites: No formal prerequisites. CompTIA recommends A+ and nine to twelve months in a junior network administrator or network support role.
Renewal: Continuing Education: 30 CEUs within three years, or pass the current Network+ exam; Security+ and higher CompTIA certificates renew Network+ as well
Source: exam page at CompTIA · Price: CompTIA list price since the June 2026 price round (partner price list, read 2026-09-08); CompTIA shows your local price in its purchase widget
How to prepare
1. A practice test in the exam format
MeasureUp sells a practice test for N10-009 with questions in the exam format, an explanation for every answer and a timed mode; the price shows in your currency on the shop page. Affiliate link.
Practice test for N10-009 at MeasureUp (opens in a new tab)Book the exam
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The certificate that quietly unlocks the rest
Almost everything above this assumes it
Security work fails without it, because most attacks are things happening on a network. Cloud work fails without it, because a virtual network is still a network. Linux administration fails without it the first time something cannot reach something else. Candidates who skip straight to a security certificate frequently stall there, and the missing piece is almost always this material.
What it asks of you
Performance-based items appear alongside multiple choice, and the paper caps at ninety questions. CompTIA recommends A+ and the better part of a year in a junior network role, which is guidance rather than a gate. The genuine difficulty is not memorising port numbers, which candidates over-prepare, but reasoning about a described topology: where a packet would stop, which device would drop it, and which single test distinguishes two plausible causes. Subnetting is the other place people lose time, and it repays practice until the arithmetic is automatic rather than derived.
| What | N10-009 |
|---|---|
| Time | 90 minutes |
| Questions | Up to 90, multiple choice and performance-based |
| Pass mark | 720 on a scale of 100 to 900 |
| Languages | English, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish |
| Launched | 20 June 2024; CompTIA retires a version roughly three years after launch |
| Renewal | Three years; 30 continuing-education credits or a resit |
Against the CCNA
- Vendor-neutral against vendor-specific. This paper examines how networks work; Cisco's associate exam examines how Cisco equipment is configured to make them work.
- Five languages against two. For candidates outside the English and Japanese markets that alone can decide it.
- One exam each, and this one is the cheaper sitting.
- Portability. The concepts here transfer to any vendor, any cloud and any security role; the CCNA's configuration detail transfers to Cisco shops.
- Sequence. Many people sit this first and the CCNA when a target employer runs Cisco, and the second exam is far easier for having done the first.
The version clock is worth a sentence. N10-009 launched in June 2024, and CompTIA's stated practice is to retire a version about three years after launch, so a successor should be expected but has not been announced. Buy material that names the current code, and do not wait for the next one: a pass survives the changeover and the concepts do not move.
The certificate lasts three years and stays current on 30 continuing-education credits, or by resitting, and it is the certificate most people never renew directly, because passing Security+ or anything higher in CompTIA's range refreshes it automatically. That makes Network+ the cheapest rung to keep current on the whole ladder, provided you keep climbing. For anyone heading into cloud work the same logic applies with different names: a virtual private cloud is a network with a console in front of it, and the engineers who reach a ceiling there are the ones who never learned this.
What a question looks like
Written by us in the exam's style. It is not a real question from any question bank, and we do not publish those.
Users on one floor can reach internal systems but not the internet. Users elsewhere in the building are unaffected. The affected machines receive addresses automatically and can reach a server on their own segment. What should you examine first?
The symptom is partial, which eliminates the obvious answers about the connection being down. Internal traffic working while external traffic fails narrows the fault to a specific function rather than a specific device, and the exam wants the reasoning that gets you there. Candidates who memorised protocols without building a mental model of the path guess here.
What it costs to get and to keep
| Item | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Exam fee | 399 USD | partner price list after CompTIA's June 2026 price round; the vendor publishes prices only in its own purchase widget, by country (read 8 September 2026) |
| Renewal every three years | not published | 30 continuing-education credits, or sitting the current exam again. Security+ or any higher CompTIA certificate renews it automatically (read 12 September 2026) |
How much preparation, from where you are
- You support desktops and have watched networks fail
- The strongest starting point. You have seen the symptoms and lack the vocabulary and the layered model that organises them, which is exactly what the syllabus supplies.
- You administer servers without owning the network
- Half of this will be familiar from the wrong side. Concentrate on routing and switching behaviour, which you have consumed rather than configured, and on subnetting arithmetic.
- You are heading for security work
- Do this first. Security certificates assume it, and the candidates who stall partway through one are usually missing this material rather than the security content.
What passing this does not prove
- Vendor configuration. You will not type a command on any real device.
- Network design at scale, or the budget conversations that shape it.
- Wireless surveying, which is a practical craft this only describes.
- Whether you can diagnose anything while somebody stands over your desk.
Against the alternatives
- 200-301 — Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
- Cisco's exam goes deeper and ties you to one vendor's configuration. Take Network+ for portable understanding and the CCNA when a target employer runs Cisco equipment; the ideas overlap far more than the syllabuses suggest.
- 220-1201 + 220-1202 — CompTIA A+
- One exam against two, and frequently the better buy for anyone already competent with machines. Clearing it refreshes A+ for anyone already holding that.
- SY0-701 — CompTIA Security+
- The usual next step and the stronger hiring signal. Sitting it renews this one, so the sequence pays for itself if you intend to continue.
N10-009 — quick answers
Do I need A+ first?
No. CompTIA recommends it and nothing enforces it, and plenty of candidates start here. If you already support machines confidently, going straight to Network+ saves two exam fees and loses very little.
How much subnetting is there?
Enough that slow arithmetic costs you time you need elsewhere. Practise until it is automatic rather than derived each time. It is also the skill most likely to come up in an interview, so the effort is not wasted on the exam alone.
Is it worth it if I want to do cloud work?
More than most people assume. Cloud networking is the same concepts with a console in front of them, and engineers who never learned this reach a ceiling the moment something cannot reach something else. The vocabulary transfers almost intact.
Network+ or CCNA for a first networking certificate?
This one, unless a named employer runs Cisco and says so. It is vendor-neutral, offered in five languages, and everything in it carries over to the CCNA later. The reverse is less true: the CCNA teaches Cisco's way of doing what this paper teaches in general.
Should I wait for N10-010?
No. Nothing has been announced, the current version launched in mid-2024, and a pass does not lapse when a version changes. The only version check worth making is on your study material, which should name N10-009.
What comes next
Concepts this exam draws on
Glossary entries with the reason each one matters for N10-009.
- Load Balancing
Network appliances and high-availability concepts in the implementation domain.
- Web Server
Ports, protocols and services: what a web server exposes and how it is reached.
- CDN
Cloud concepts and content delivery appear in networking fundamentals.
- OSI Model
The exam speaks in layers and expects you to troubleshoot up or down them.
- TCP/IP
Ports, protocols and the transport layer are foundational objectives.
- IP Addressing
IPv4 and IPv6 addressing, public and private, is core material.
- Subnetting
The arithmetic every candidate fears, examined directly.
- Routing
Static and dynamic routing concepts, vendor-neutral.
- Switching
How switches learn, flood and avoid loops is a network implementation objective.
- VLAN
Segmentation, trunking and tagging at the vendor-neutral level.
- NAT
Translation and port forwarding appear in the network services objectives.
- DHCP
Address assignment, leases, relays and what a failed lease looks like.
- Wi-Fi
Wireless standards, channels and security are a named objective group.
Last reviewed 12 September 2026 · Getting Digital