CompTIA credentialCER0412

Network+

Exam code: N10-009
Official provider page
CompTIA
Credential
Certification
Level
Certification
Exam duration
90 min

credential overview

About this credential

Networking certification validating essential networking concepts and tools across connectivity, documentation, service configuration, cloud and virtual networking, monitoring, troubleshooting, and security hardening.

Who this is for

Learners and professionals preparing for technical support, network operations, and system administration roles.

Assessment

Exam details

N10-009
Duration
90 min

English, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish

Exam blueprint

Skills measured

Networking concepts (23%)9 topics
  • Explain OSI model layers.
  • Identify networking appliances including routers, switches, firewalls, IDS/IPS, load balancers, proxies, NAS, SAN, and wireless devices.
  • Explain cloud concepts including NFV, VPC, security groups, cloud gateways, deployment models, and SaaS/IaaS/PaaS.
  • Identify common ports and protocols including FTP, SFTP, SSH, Telnet, SMTP, DNS, DHCP, HTTP, HTTPS, SNMP, LDAP, RDP, and SIP.
  • Differentiate unicast, multicast, anycast, and broadcast traffic.
  • Compare wireless and wired transmission media.
  • Identify transceivers and connectors such as SC, LC, ST, MPO, RJ11, RJ45, F-type, and BNC.
  • Compare network topologies including mesh, hybrid, star/hub-and-spoke, spine-and-leaf, point-to-point, three-tier, and collapsed core.
  • Apply IPv4 addressing including public/private ranges, APIPA, RFC1918, loopback, subnetting, VLSM, CIDR, and address classes.
Network implementation (20%)4 topics
  • Implement static and dynamic routing including BGP, EIGRP, OSPF, route selection, NAT, PAT, FHRP, VIP, and subinterfaces.
  • Configure switching technologies including VLANs, interfaces, spanning tree, MTU, and jumbo frames.
  • Configure wireless channels, frequencies, SSIDs, encryption, guest networks, authentication, antennas, and access points.
  • Evaluate physical-installation, power, and environmental considerations.
Network operations (19%)8 topics
  • Create and maintain physical/logical diagrams, rack diagrams, cable maps, asset inventory, IPAM, SLAs, and wireless surveys.
  • Manage EOL, EOS, software lifecycle, and decommissioning.
  • Apply change-management request tracking.
  • Manage production, backup, and baseline configurations.
  • Monitor networks using SNMP, flow data, packet capture, metrics, log aggregation, APIs, and port mirroring.
  • Plan disaster recovery using RPO, RTO, MTTR, MTBF, site types, active-active/passive, and testing.
  • Configure services including DHCP, SLAAC, DNS, NTP, PTP, and NTS.
  • Use VPN, SSH, GUI, API, and console access methods.
Network security (14%)8 topics
  • Apply encryption, PKI, IAM, MFA, SSO, RADIUS, LDAP, SAML, TACACS+, time-based authentication, authorization, least privilege, RBAC, and geofencing.
  • Apply physical security such as cameras and locks.
  • Use deception technologies such as honeypots and honeynets.
  • Explain risk, vulnerability, exploit, threat, and the CIA triad.
  • Explain data locality, PCI DSS, and GDPR compliance considerations.
  • Segment IoT, IIoT, SCADA, ICS, OT, guest, and BYOD networks.
  • Identify attacks such as DoS/DDoS, VLAN hopping, MAC flooding, ARP/DNS poisoning, rogue devices, evil twins, on-path attacks, phishing, dumpster diving, shoulder surfing, and tailgating.
  • Apply hardening, NAC, key management, ACLs, URL/content filtering, trusted/untrusted zones, and screened subnets.
Network troubleshooting (24%)5 topics
  • Apply the troubleshooting methodology from problem identification through documentation.
  • Troubleshoot cabling, interface, PoE, transceiver, and signal issues.
  • Troubleshoot switching, routing, address pool, gateway, IP, and subnet-mask issues.
  • Troubleshoot congestion, latency, packet loss, and wireless interference.
  • Use protocol analyzers, command-line tools, cable testers, and Wi-Fi analyzers.

Before you certify

Requirements and recommended experience

Recommended

CompTIA A+ certification

Recommended experience

9-12 months of hands-on experience in a junior network administrator or network support technician role

Corporate certification enablement

Turn this pathway into a team capability plan

We can align the learning path, instructor support, practice environment and delivery schedule to your team’s roles and certification target.