Network+ performance-based questions

What a PBQ is on this exam

Multiple choice, multiple response, and performance-based questions. The performance-based items drop you into a simulated console, network diagram, or configuration screen and score what you actually do.

CompTIA, Network+ exam details ↗

Ours are written from the published objectives, never from anyone’s memory of a live exam. What follows is what each shape asks you to do.

The four shapes

• Matching

  4 tasks

  Pair each item with the one that fits it, from a pool holding more options than slots, so the last pair cannot fall out by elimination.

• Log and output analysis

  3 tasks

  Read a log extract, a config, or a network diagram, and answer what it shows. The artifact is on screen and the answer is in it.

• Sequencing

  3 tasks

  Put steps in the order a process actually runs. Getting the steps right and the order wrong scores the way it does on the exam, which is partly.

• Sorting

  2 tasks

  Drop each item into the category it belongs to. Several items per category, so knowing one does not give you the rest.

Every task is scored slot by slot, so a sequence with two steps out of place is not marked the same as one with none right. Partial credit is how the real exam scores these, and a practice set that marks them all-or-nothing tells you less than the number it prints.

Coverage against the published blueprint

CompTIA publishes the weight of each domain. The set is written to those weights rather than to whichever domain is easiest to build a task from, which is the difference between a sample of the exam and a pile of exercises.

• Networking Concepts3 tasks · 23% of the exam
• Network Implementation2 tasks · 20% of the exam
• Network Operations2 tasks · 19% of the exam
• Network Security2 tasks · 14% of the exam
• Network Troubleshooting3 tasks · 24% of the exam

What each answer rests on

Every task carries the page its answer was checked against, and the link is in the walkthrough where you can open it. Here they are up front, so you can check us before starting rather than after.

• IETF5 pages · 5 tasks
• ieee802.org1 page · 2 tasks
• iana.org1 page · 1 task
• man7.org1 page · 1 task
• Microsoft1 page · 1 task
• NIST1 page · 1 task
• wi-fi.org1 page · 1 task

• IEEE 802.1Q, Bridges and Bridged Networks2 tasks
• IANA, Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry1 task
• man7.org, ip(8) network device configuration1 task
• Microsoft Learn, tracert1 task
• NIST SP 800-34 Rev. 1, Contingency Planning Guide1 task
• RFC 1918, Address Allocation for Private Internets1 task
• RFC 2131, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol1 task
• RFC 792, Internet Control Message Protocol1 task
• RFC 826, An Ethernet Address Resolution Protocol1 task
• RFC 9293, Transmission Control Protocol1 task
• Wi-Fi Alliance, Wi-Fi security1 task

Every source behind the N10-009 question bank