CompTIA A+ Core 2 practice quiz

Question 1

A user cannot copy a 6 GB video file to a USB flash drive, even though the drive shows 30 GB free. The drive is formatted FAT32. What is the cause?

Accepted Answer

FAT32 cannot store a single file larger than 4 GB

Answer

FAT32 cannot hold more than 1,000 files per folder

Answer

The flash drive needs a driver before large copies

Answer

Windows blocks video files on removable media

Question 2

A technician adds a new 4 TB data drive to a Windows PC. Disk Management only lets the technician use about 2 TB of it. What should the technician do?

Accepted Answer

Initialize or convert the disk with a GPT partition table

Answer

Format the full drive as FAT32 to unlock the space

Answer

Create four primary partitions on the existing table

Answer

Replace the SATA cable with a shorter data cable

Question 3

PC Health Check says an office PC cannot run Windows 11. It has a 64-bit 2 GHz quad-core CPU, 8 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD. Which missing item most likely blocks the upgrade?

Accepted Answer

Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0

Answer

A dedicated graphics card with 4 GB of VRAM

Answer

A second network adapter for Windows Update

Answer

An optical drive for the installation media

Question 4

A small business wants full BitLocker drive encryption on a laptop that currently runs Windows 11 Home. What must change first?

Accepted Answer

Upgrade the laptop to Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise

Answer

Install the BitLocker app from the Microsoft Store

Answer

Switch the user to a local account instead of Microsoft

Answer

Turn off Secure Boot in the UEFI settings

Question 5

Windows shows errors that point to damaged system files after a failed update. Which command scans protected system files and repairs damaged ones?

Accepted Answer

sfc /scannow

Answer

chkdsk /f

Answer

gpupdate /force

Answer

ipconfig /flushdns

Question 6

An administrator changed a domain Group Policy setting and wants a workstation to apply it now, without waiting for the next refresh or a reboot. Which command should be run on the workstation?

Accepted Answer

gpupdate /force

Answer

gpresult /r

Answer

net user /domain

Answer

whoami /groups

Question 7

A technician must copy a user's D:\Projects folder tree to a new drive and keep the copy identical over time, including deleting files at the destination that no longer exist at the source. Which command fits?

Accepted Answer

robocopy D:\Projects E:\Projects /mir

Answer

copy D:\Projects E:\Projects /y

Answer

md E:\Projects /mirror

Answer

move D:\Projects E:\Projects

Question 8

A laptop moved to a different office network still shows its old IP address. Which pair of commands drops the old DHCP lease and requests a new one?

Accepted Answer

ipconfig /release, then ipconfig /renew

Answer

ipconfig /flushdns, then ipconfig /registerdns

Answer

netstat -a, then netstat -r

Answer

ping 127.0.0.1, then tracert 8.8.8.8

Question 9

On a Linux workstation, a script needs permissions so the owner can read, write and run it, while the group and everyone else can only read and run it. Which command sets this?

Accepted Answer

chmod 755 script.sh

Answer

chmod 644 script.sh

Answer

chown 755 script.sh

Answer

chmod 777 script.sh

Question 10

A Linux administrator wants to see where the system keeps users' hashed passwords, which normal users must not be able to read. Which file is it?

Accepted Answer

/etc/shadow

Answer

/etc/passwd

Answer

/etc/hosts

Answer

/etc/fstab

Question 11

A Mac user wants extra protection so no one can read the startup disk's data if the laptop is stolen, without the user's login password or recovery key. Which macOS feature should be turned on?

Accepted Answer

FileVault

Answer

Time Machine

Answer

Spotlight

Answer

Mission Control

Question 12

An authenticator app shows a new six-digit code every 30 seconds. What kind of one-time password is it, and why does the code change?

Accepted Answer

TOTP: the code comes from a shared secret plus the current time

Answer

SMS OTP: the bank's server texts the app a fresh code

Answer

HOTP: the code changes only when the user presses a button

Answer

Static PIN: the app rotates through a fixed list stored on the phone

Question 13

A coffee shop's Wi-Fi uses a shared password that customers sometimes guess. Which change gives the strongest built-in protection against offline password-guessing attacks?

Accepted Answer

Move the network to WPA3-Personal

Answer

Keep WPA2-Personal but use TKIP

Answer

Hide the SSID from the network list

Answer

Turn on MAC address filtering only

Question 14

A company wants each employee to sign in to Wi-Fi with their own directory credentials instead of one shared key, checked by a central server. Which setup fits?

Accepted Answer

WPA2/WPA3-Enterprise with 802.1X and a RADIUS server

Answer

WPA2-Personal with a longer pre-shared key

Answer

WPA3-Personal with a separate guest SSID

Answer

An open network with a captive portal page

Question 15

Files on a shared drive suddenly have a new extension and will not open, and a note demands cryptocurrency for a decryption key. What type of malware is this?

Accepted Answer

Ransomware

Answer

Spyware

Answer

Adware

Answer

Rootkit

Question 16

An employee gets a text message saying their payroll account is locked, with a link to "verify" their login. What kind of attack is this?

Accepted Answer

Smishing

Answer

Vishing

Answer

Whaling

Answer

Tailgating

Question 17

A web form passes whatever a user types straight into a database query. An attacker enters ' OR '1'='1 into the login box and gets in without a password. What attack is this?

Accepted Answer

SQL injection

Answer

Cross-site scripting

Answer

Brute-force attack

Answer

On-path attack

Question 18

A technician has confirmed malware on a Windows 11 Home PC and has disconnected it from the network. According to the CompTIA malware removal steps, what comes next?

Accepted Answer

Disable System Restore so infected restore points are not kept

Answer

Educate the user on how the infection probably happened

Answer

Enable System Restore and create a fresh restore point

Answer

Schedule weekly scans and turn on automatic updates

Question 19

A company's password policy forces a change every 60 days and demands one symbol, one number and one capital. Which change follows current NIST digital identity guidance?

Accepted Answer

Require long passwords and force a change only after evidence of compromise

Answer

Shorten the change interval to 30 days and add a second required symbol

Answer

Keep the 60-day change but allow any password shorter than eight characters

Answer

Drop expiration and let users reuse any of their last five passwords

Question 20

A company is retiring laptops with solid-state drives and plans to degauss the drives before recycling. Why is that a poor plan?

Accepted Answer

Degaussing does not reliably sanitize flash-based storage such as SSDs

Answer

Degaussing an SSD only erases the partition table, not the files

Answer

Degaussing needs the SSD to be powered on and connected by SATA

Answer

Degaussing works on SSDs but voids the recycler's certificate

Question 21

A standard user installs a program and Windows dims the screen and asks for an administrator's approval first. Which feature is doing this?

Accepted Answer

User Account Control (UAC)

Answer

Windows Defender Firewall

Answer

Encrypting File System (EFS)

Answer

BitLocker To Go

Question 22

A PC started showing blue screen (stop) errors right after the user installed a new graphics driver. What is the best first step?

Accepted Answer

Boot into Safe Mode and roll back or remove the new driver

Answer

Replace the graphics card with a new card of the same model

Answer

Reinstall Windows from scratch with a clean image

Answer

Run disk defragmentation on drive C:

Question 23

Every HTTPS site on one laptop shows a certificate warning, while other computers on the same network open the same sites normally. What should the technician check first?

Accepted Answer

The laptop's system date and time

Answer

The laptop's screen resolution

Answer

The network switch's port speed

Answer

The browser's pop-up blocker setting

Question 24

A user's browser home page changed to an unknown search site, and searches keep redirecting to ad pages. Nothing changed in the network. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

A malicious browser extension or browser hijacker

Answer

An expired certificate on the company router

Answer

A failing hard drive in the user's laptop

Answer

A DNS server that is temporarily offline

Question 25

A phone app freezes every time the user opens it, while other apps work normally. What should the technician try first?

Accepted Answer

Force close the app and reopen it, then update it if it still freezes

Answer

Perform a factory reset of the phone to clear all settings

Answer

Replace the phone's battery because it cannot power the app

Answer

Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth permanently on the phone

Question 26

After a user installed a free game from a third-party app store, their Android phone shows constant ads, drains its battery fast and uses unusual mobile data. What should the technician do?

Accepted Answer

Uninstall the game, scan the phone and allow apps only from the official store

Answer

Increase the screen brightness so the ads are easier to dismiss

Answer

Buy a larger data plan to cover the extra mobile data use

Answer

Enable developer mode so the game can be debugged

Question 27

A PC's clock keeps drifting several minutes out of sync with the domain, and users now get sign-in failures. Why does the drift matter?

Accepted Answer

Kerberos sign-in fails when a client's clock is too far from the domain controller's

Answer

The drift makes the hard drive spin down and corrupt the user profile

Answer

Group Policy deletes accounts whose clocks are wrong by more than a minute

Answer

DHCP refuses to renew leases for PCs with the wrong time zone

Question 28

A Windows PC runs slowly. Task Manager shows memory use at 97% and one browser process using most of it. What should the technician do first?

Accepted Answer

End or restart the process using the memory and watch whether performance returns

Answer

Defragment the solid-state drive to free up memory for the browser

Answer

Replace the motherboard because the memory controller has failed

Answer

Disable Windows Update so it stops using memory in the background

Question 29

A company backs up fully every Sunday and runs incremental backups Monday through Saturday. The server fails on Thursday morning. Which backups are needed to restore everything?

Accepted Answer

Sunday's full backup plus the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday incrementals

Answer

Only Wednesday's incremental, because it holds every change since Sunday

Answer

Sunday's full backup plus Wednesday's incremental, skipping the others

Answer

Only Sunday's full backup, since incrementals cannot be restored

Question 30

A small office wants a backup plan that survives a ransomware attack or a fire. Which plan follows the 3-2-1 rule?

Accepted Answer

Three copies of the data, on two types of media, with one copy offsite

Answer

Three backups a day, kept for two weeks, on one external drive

Answer

Three external drives, all kept in the same locked office cabinet

Answer

One cloud backup, checked twice a year, restored once every three years

Question 31

Before replacing a RAM module, what should a technician do to protect the components from electrostatic discharge?

Accepted Answer

Unplug the PC and wear a grounded ESD wrist strap

Answer

Leave the PC plugged in and running so the case stays grounded

Answer

Wear rubber-soled shoes and work on a carpeted floor

Answer

Spray the RAM module with compressed air to remove static

Question 32

A technician replaced a laptop's swollen lithium-ion battery. How should the old battery be handled?

Accepted Answer

Take it to a battery recycler or hazardous waste site, with the terminals taped

Answer

Put it in the regular trash inside a sealed plastic bag

Answer

Puncture it so the pressure is released before throwing it out

Answer

Store it in the laptop bag until the next laptop replacement

Question 33

A technician needs to know how to clean up spilled toner powder and what to do if it gets in someone's eyes. Where is this information found?

Accepted Answer

The toner's safety data sheet (SDS, formerly MSDS)

Answer

The printer's end-user license agreement

Answer

The company's acceptable use policy

Answer

The printer driver's release notes

Question 34

A technician finds a still-running PC that may hold evidence of an insider attack. Which evidence should be captured first?

Accepted Answer

The contents of system memory (RAM)

Answer

A full image of the hard drive

Answer

The printed archive of last year's logs

Answer

Photos of the office floor plan

Question 35

A technician removes a suspect's hard drive for an investigation. Why must every person who handles the drive be written down with times and reasons?

Accepted Answer

To keep a chain of custody so the evidence stays admissible

Answer

To calculate the drive's warranty and replacement cost

Answer

To meet the drive maker's recycling program terms

Answer

To decide which backup rotation scheme to use

Question 36

A team plans to update the payroll server's software on Saturday night. Which part of the change request tells them how to get back to the working version if the update fails?

Accepted Answer

The rollback plan

Answer

The scope of the change

Answer

The end-user acceptance

Answer

The change board approval

Question 37

A technician double-clicks a new PowerShell script (.ps1) on a fresh Windows 11 PC, and it will not run. A default security setting is blocking it. What is that setting?

Accepted Answer

The PowerShell execution policy

Answer

The Windows Defender Firewall profile

Answer

The User Account Control slider

Answer

The BitLocker recovery key

Question 38

A firewall rule must allow Remote Desktop to an office PC that uses default settings. Which port does Remote Desktop Protocol listen on?

Accepted Answer

TCP 3389

Answer

TCP 22

Answer

TCP 5900

Answer

TCP 443

Question 39

A frustrated customer explains a laptop problem and keeps repeating details. What should the technician do to show active listening?

Accepted Answer

Let the customer finish, then restate the problem to confirm it

Answer

Interrupt to save time once the likely cause is clear

Answer

Start typing notes on a phone while the customer talks

Answer

Tell the customer the issue is common and not worth worrying about

Question 40

A company wants to keep using a Windows version after Microsoft's end-of-support date. What is the main risk?

Accepted Answer

It no longer gets security updates, so new vulnerabilities stay unpatched

Answer

It stops booting on the end date until a new license key is entered

Answer

Its files convert to a read-only format that newer PCs cannot open

Answer

It loses network access because Microsoft disables its drivers