You are standing at the very first fork in the CompTIA road, and it is a surprisingly confusing one. You want to break into IT, everyone keeps naming these two certs in the same breath, and the internet keeps telling you “it depends” without ever telling you what it depends on. So you are left wondering whether you should sit A+ first, jump straight to Network+, or whether the two even overlap enough to matter.
Here is the short version so you can stop refreshing forum threads. For almost every true beginner, start with A+. It is the broad foundation the rest of the CompTIA world assumes you already have, and it is the cert that proves you can actually work on a computer, not just diagram a network. Skipping straight to Network+ is only defensible in a narrow set of cases, which I will lay out below. If you want the map of the entire road first, I wrote a longer walkthrough of the full CompTIA certification path across A+, Network+, and Security+ that this piece sits inside.
A+ vs Network+ at a glance
The cleanest way to think about it: A+ is a mile wide and a foot deep, Network+ is narrow and deep. A+ tries to make you a competent generalist who can fix a laptop, reimage an OS, set up a phone, and yes, understand the basics of a network. Network+ takes that one slice, networking, and drills all the way down into it.
| CompTIA A+ (220-1201 / 220-1202) | CompTIA Network+ (N10-009) | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Broad entry-level IT: hardware, operating systems, mobile, cloud basics, networking basics, troubleshooting, security basics, operational procedures | Dedicated, vendor-neutral networking: topologies, addressing, routing and switching, network services, security and troubleshooting |
| Exams | Two exams required: Core 1 (220-1201) and Core 2 (220-1202) | One exam: N10-009 |
| Format | Each core up to 90 questions, 90 minutes; Core 1 passes at 675/900, Core 2 at 700/900 | Up to 90 questions, 90 minutes; passes at 720/900 |
| Best fit | Help desk, desktop support, field tech, IT generalist starting from zero | Junior network admin, NOC, anyone specializing toward networking |
| Start order | First for almost everyone | After A+, or first only in the narrow cases below |
One housekeeping note, because it trips people up: the current A+ is the V15 series, exams 220-1201 and 220-1202. The old 220-1101/220-1102 codes were retired on September 25, 2025, so if a course or a Reddit post is quoting those, it is out of date. A+ is not one exam. You pass both cores or you do not hold the cert. Because it is two exams, expect it to cost roughly double a single-exam cert like Network+ (exact prices change, so check current list price).
The confusion: A+’s networking domain is not Network+
This is the single most common mix-up I see from beginners, and it is worth slowing down on. A+ contains a networking domain. Network+ is a separate certification. Those are not the same thing, and treating them as interchangeable is how people talk themselves into skipping a cert they actually needed.
Inside A+, networking is one domain, a slice of one of the two core exams. It covers the fundamentals: ports and protocols, common hardware like routers and switches, wireless standards, the basics of setting up a small network. It is real, but it is shallow by design, because A+ has seven other things to teach you in the same breath.
Network+ takes that slice and makes it the whole meal. Subnetting you actually have to calculate, routing and switching concepts, network services, monitoring, hardening, and troubleshooting methodology applied specifically to networks. So when someone on a forum asks “what is the difference between the A+ network part and Network+,” the honest answer is: depth, and about eighty percent of the material.
Holding the A+ networking domain is like knowing where the kitchen is. Holding Network+ is knowing how to cook in it.
If a job posting or a mentor says you need Network+, having passed the networking questions on A+ does not satisfy that, and it never will. They are different certifications with different exam codes and different weight on a resume. Clearing that up early saves you a genuinely expensive misunderstanding.
Why I’d start with A+ for almost everyone
Start with A+ because it is the cert that assumes nothing. It does not expect you to already know how an IP address works or why a machine will not boot. It teaches you the physical and logical ground floor of computing, and that ground floor is exactly what every later cert, Network+ included, quietly builds on.
There is also a practical, unglamorous reason. The jobs a true beginner can actually get, help desk, desktop support, field tech, are the jobs A+ was designed for. Network+ points you at roles that usually want you to have already done a stretch of hands-on IT work. Starting with A+ matches the cert to the job you can realistically land first, which means the cert starts paying you back sooner.
And A+ makes Network+ easier when you get there. By the time you sit Network+, you have already met the vocabulary, touched real hardware, and built the mental model of how a device joins a network. You are deepening knowledge instead of meeting it cold. That ordering is the whole reason CompTIA lists A+ as a recommended, though not required, prerequisite for Network+.
Who should skip A+ and start at Network+
Now the honest exception, because “always do A+ first” is lazy advice. There is a real profile of person for whom starting at Network+ is defensible.
Skip A+ and go straight to Network+ if you already have the general IT fundamentals A+ certifies, just without the paper. Concretely, that is someone who has spent nine to twelve months in a hands-on role, has been building and fixing machines as a serious hobby for years, is coming from an adjacent technical field like software or sysadmin work, or is aiming dead-set at a networking-specific role where the hiring manager explicitly asks for Network+ and would not care about A+.
The test is simple: if the A+ objectives look like a review rather than a syllabus, you have permission to skip it. If most of A+ would be new information, that is your answer that you are not in this group, no matter how much you would rather leap ahead.
One caveat even for this group. If you are early-career and building a resume from scratch, two certs still read better than one, and A+ is cheap insurance against a recruiter’s checklist. Skipping it is a judgment call about your specific situation, not a universally smarter move.
A quick FAQ
Is Network+ or A+ harder?
Different kinds of hard. A+ is broader, so it is harder to cover, you are responsible for a huge surface area across two separate exams, and the memorization load is real. Network+ is narrower but conceptually deeper, so it is harder to understand, subnetting and routing logic trip up a lot of people. Most beginners find A+ more exhausting and Network+ more genuinely difficult in the moment.
Do I need A+ if I have Network+?
Technically, no. Neither cert is a hard prerequisite for the other, and if you already hold Network+ you have clearly cleared the networking bar. But A+ still covers hardware, operating systems, and general troubleshooting that Network+ never touches, so for a generalist help desk or desktop role, employers may still want to see it. If you are going pure networking, you can likely leave it.
How many people fail A+?
CompTIA does not officially publish exam pass rates, so treat any number with real caution. The figures you see quoted in forums, often somewhere in the seventies-percent range for first-time passes, are anecdotal estimates from students and instructors, not confirmed data. Useful only as a rough reality check: it is a real exam that punishes cramming, and a meaningful share of people do need a retake.
Should I take A+ before Network+?
For almost everyone starting from zero, yes. Take A+ first, then Network+. Only reverse that order if you fit the “skip A+” profile above.
Who I am, and what I’d actually use to prep
I should be straight with you about where I sit. I am a software engineer by training, out of NUST, and I have spent years building machine learning systems and product tools, and now I run a small software company. I do not hold A+ or Network+, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. My connection to this world is from the security side of the table: across 2022 and 2023 I delivered a run of cybersecurity webinars for a software vendor, GFI Software, sometimes solo and sometimes alongside their regional channel manager, on things like security directives, email security, network performance, and firewall-as-a-service, plus a good amount of marketing work with cybersecurity companies. So I have watched a lot of people learn this material and try to certify around it, even though the exam credential itself is not mine to claim.
That vantage point is exactly why my team built PrepClubs. Watching people study, the pattern was always the same: reading is not the hard part, and the exam does not test whether you read the book. It tests whether you can answer the question under time pressure. The fix is doing questions until the format stops surprising you.
So here is how I would actually use it. Start with the free diagnostic, genuinely free first, then paid, to find out where you actually stand before you spend a rupee or a dollar. If you follow the start-order advice in this piece, you can stack the two straight through, running the A+ practice questions first and then the Network+ practice questions once A+ is behind you. Access is a one-time payment for 30 days, not a subscription that quietly renews, and it comes with a Pass Guarantee. Two honest caveats: these are original practice questions written to mirror the exam, not leaked or real exam items, and PrepClubs is not affiliated with CompTIA.
The cert order is the strategy. The practice is how you make the strategy actually land. Start with A+ unless you have a specific, honest reason not to, and then go earn the thing.