You just cleared A+, or you are a week out from your second exam and already thinking about what comes next. The advice online splits fast. Some people tell you to go straight to Security+ because that is the one recruiters recognize. Others say Network+ is the natural next step but never explain why it earns its place in the middle. So you are stuck deciding whether Network+ is worth the weeks it will cost you, or whether you should skip it and let Security+ pull double duty. And underneath that, a more practical worry: even if you commit to Network+, how do you actually study for it without wasting a month on the wrong things?
I want to give you a straight answer to both. I build the practice-question banks that people drill on for these exams, so I spend a lot of time looking at where candidates actually break. And I have a specific, opinionated take on the order. Here is the plan I would run.
The quick answer
Do Network+ next. Do not skip it on your way to Security+. Treat the official N10-009 objectives as your syllabus and refuse to study anything that is not on that list. Drill subnetting by hand until it is boring. Read a domain once, then spend the rest of your time answering questions on it, not re-reading notes. And book the exam when your scores on questions you have never seen before clear 720 consistently, not the day your course video count hits 100 percent.
That is the whole method. The rest of this is why each piece matters, and where I have seen people lose weeks they did not need to lose.
What Network+ actually is (N10-009, one exam)
Network+ is currently on exam code N10-009, the version that succeeded N10-008. Unlike A+, which is two separate exams, Network+ is a single exam. You sit it once.
The format is up to 90 questions in 90 minutes, and it includes performance-based questions, the PBQs, not just multiple choice. Passing is 720 on a scale that runs from 100 to 900, so the scale is not a percentage and you should not treat it like one. There is no formal prerequisite, but CompTIA suggests A+ level knowledge plus roughly 9 to 12 months of networking experience as the ideal starting point. That “ideal” matters less than it sounds if you study deliberately, but it tells you the exam assumes you have touched real networks, not just read about them.
The five domains on N10-009 are Networking Concepts, Network Implementation, Network Operations, Network Security, and Network Troubleshooting. In plainer language, that means the OSI model, subnetting and IP addressing, routing and switching, ports and protocols, network topologies, wireless, cloud networking, network hardening, and a formal troubleshooting methodology. Here is what each domain actually demands of you.
| Domain | What it really tests |
|---|---|
| Networking Concepts | OSI model, ports and protocols, IP addressing, subnetting, cloud basics. The vocabulary everything else is built on. |
| Network Implementation | Routing, switching, wireless standards, choosing and placing the right hardware. |
| Network Operations | Monitoring, documentation, disaster recovery, keeping a network healthy over time. |
| Network Security | Hardening, common attacks, physical and logical controls. The bridge into Security+. |
| Network Troubleshooting | A repeatable methodology for cable, wireless, and general connectivity problems. |
Notice that security is one of the five domains, not a footnote. That is the seam that connects this exam to your next one.
Why order matters: A+ then Network+ then Security+
This is the part I feel strongly about. When I was delivering webinars on network performance for a software vendor a few years back, the clearest pattern I saw across every audience was this: almost every security problem people worried about was really a networking problem wearing a costume. Firewall placement, segmentation, where traffic actually flowed, what a port was doing open, why performance cratered under a particular load. You could not reason about the security of a thing until you understood how the traffic moved through it. Security sits on top of networking. It does not replace it.
That is why the order is A+, then Network+, then Security+, and not A+ straight to Security+.
Security+ assumes you already understand networking, so skipping Network+ does not remove the networking study, it just moves it to a worse place: the Security+ exam room, mid-question, with no foundation under you. People who jump from zero networking into Security+ tend to do fine on the policy and concept questions and then quietly bleed points on everything network-heavy, which is a large and growing slice of that exam.
Here is the sequence at a glance.
| Cert | Sits on top of | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| A+ | Nothing, this is the base | Hardware, operating systems, basic troubleshooting |
| Network+ | A+ level knowledge | How machines actually talk: the layer everything else runs on |
| Security+ | Network+ knowledge | How to defend that layer, which only makes sense once you have it |
You can technically take these in any order. CompTIA does not gate them. But the study effort does not disappear when you skip a rung. It just shows up later, compounded, on a harder exam. Doing Network+ in the middle means the security material lands on something solid instead of hanging in the air.
Every security question is a networking question you have not finished answering yet.
The study loop that works
Here is the mistake I see most, and it is not laziness. It is the opposite. People who just passed A+ are motivated, so they pour that energy into consuming content. They watch the full free video course, they read the study guide cover to cover, they take beautiful notes, and then they book the exam because the material “feels familiar.” Familiar is not the same as recallable, and the exam only rewards recall.
The loop that actually works is simple. Read or watch a domain once to build the mental map. Then stop consuming and start retrieving. Spend the majority of your hours answering questions, getting them wrong, reading why they were wrong, and going again. If you are spending more time reading than answering after your first pass through a domain, you have the ratio backwards.
Subnetting is a doing skill, not a reading skill, and so is most of Network+: you do not learn it by understanding it once, you learn it by drilling it until it is automatic. The people who watch a subnetting video, nod, and move on are the same people who freeze on a subnetting PBQ with the clock running. The gap between “I follow this” and “I can do this fast, under pressure, without notes” is the entire exam.
Professor Messer’s free course is genuinely excellent and I would use it as your primary read-once layer. r/CompTIA is a good sanity check for what the exam feels like this month. But neither of those is the work. The work is the drilling that comes after.
Subnetting and the topics that actually trip people
If you drill one thing by hand, drill subnetting. It is the topic candidates fear most and the one they most need to practice with pen and paper, not just recognize on a slide. Learn to go from a CIDR notation to the number of hosts, the network address, the broadcast address, and the usable range without a calculator and without hesitating. Do it until it is muscle memory, because on the exam it needs to be.
After subnetting, the topics that quietly cost people points tend to be: the OSI model when they memorized the layer names but cannot say what actually happens at each one, ports and protocols when they know the famous ones but not the long tail, wireless standards and their real-world differences, and the troubleshooting methodology when they know networking but have not memorized CompTIA’s specific ordered steps. That last one is a free win. The methodology is a fixed list. Learn the order and you bank those questions.
Cloud networking is a growing slice on N10-009 too, so do not treat it as an afterthought the way older study plans did.
A realistic 4-to-6 week plan after A+
If you just did A+, a realistic window is about 4 to 8 weeks of steady study, and I would aim for the 4-to-6 range if you can put in consistent daily time. This is a hedge on purpose. Your A+ prep already gave you momentum and some shared vocabulary, but Network+ goes deeper on the networking layer than A+ ever asked you to.
Here is roughly how I would spend it.
- Week 1: Read-once pass through Networking Concepts and start subnetting drills the same week. Do not let subnetting wait. It needs the most reps, so it gets the most time.
- Week 2: Network Implementation, routing and switching, wireless. Keep a daily subnetting warm-up going the whole time.
- Week 3: Network Operations and Network Security. Start mixing in full practice questions across everything you have covered, not just the current domain.
- Week 4: Network Troubleshooting and the methodology. Shift the balance hard toward answering questions over reading.
- Weeks 5 to 6 (buffer): Full-length practice forms only. You are no longer learning new material, you are finding and closing your weak domains and getting used to the clock.
If you can build a home lab or spin up virtual devices, do it. Hands-on time is what turns exam facts into things you actually understand, and it is exactly the “networking experience” CompTIA is hinting at.
The PBQs
The performance-based questions are the part people psych themselves out over. They are interactive tasks, things like configuring or matching or ordering, and they usually sit at the front of the exam. That placement is a trap for the anxious. A hard PBQ at question two can eat your time and rattle you for the 88 questions that follow.
The honest handling: if a PBQ is not resolving quickly, flag it, move on, clear the multiple choice you can answer fast, and come back with your remaining time. PBQs are not worth abandoning the rest of the exam for. And the best PBQ prep is not a special trick, it is the hands-on and subnetting drilling you were already doing, because that is exactly the kind of doing they test.
Where I’m coming from, and what I’d use to prep
Straight with you on my background, because it shapes the advice and you should weigh it accordingly. I am a software engineer by training, out of NUST, and I have spent years building ML and product tools. I am not a certified exam-passer. I do not hold Network+ or Security+, and I am not going to pretend I sat in that chair.
My connection to this world is two-sided. Across 2022 and 2023 I delivered 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. That was marketing work with cybersecurity companies, not a security career, and I want to be honest about the size of it. But it did put me in front of the material and the audiences repeatedly, and it is where I formed the view that networking is the layer everything else sits on. The other side is that I build the practice-question banks people use to drill for these exams, which means I spend my time staring at where candidates actually break. Both of those are why I am confident about the sequencing and the read-once-then-drill method, and neither of them is a certification.
For the drilling itself, the tool I would use is the PrepClubs Network+ bank. Start with the free 25-question diagnostic before you spend anything. It tells you which of the five domains is your weak one so you are not drilling the stuff you already know. After that there are ten full-length practice forms to work through. Access is a one-time payment with 30-day access and a Pass Guarantee, not a subscription, which fits the 4-to-6 week window well. These are original practice questions, not the real exam, and we are not affiliated with CompTIA. If you are running the full ladder, you can stack it with the A+ bank and the Security+ bank and drill the whole sequence the same way.
FAQ
How long does it take to study for Network+?
For someone who just passed A+, plan on about 4 to 8 weeks of steady study, and aim for the shorter end if you can study consistently every day. Less if you already have real networking experience, more if networking is genuinely new to you.
Should I take Network+ before Security+?
Yes. Security+ assumes you understand networking, so taking Network+ first means the security material lands on a real foundation instead of forcing you to learn networking under exam pressure later.
Is Network+ harder than A+?
It goes deeper on one specific area rather than being broadly harder. A+ is wide and shallow across hardware and operating systems. Network+ is narrower but demands real depth on the networking layer, especially subnetting, which is why it feels harder to people who skated through A+ on recognition.
Do I need A+ before Network+?
No, there is no formal requirement. But A+ level knowledge is the assumed starting point, and doing A+ first gives you vocabulary and momentum that make Network+ noticeably smoother.
How do I study subnetting for Network+?
By hand, repeatedly, with pen and paper. Practice converting CIDR notation to host counts, network and broadcast addresses, and usable ranges without a calculator until it is automatic. Watching a subnetting explanation is not studying subnetting. Doing the reps is.
Does Network+ have performance-based questions?
Yes. N10-009 includes PBQs, interactive tasks that usually appear near the start of the exam. If one stalls you, flag it and come back after clearing the questions you can answer quickly.
Read once, drill until it is boring, and do Network+ in the middle where it belongs, and both this exam and the Security+ that follows get a great deal easier.