comptia a+ practice test Advanced Practice Exam: Hard Questions 2025

A technician is troubleshooting a laptop that powers on but displays nothing on the screen. An external monitor works perfectly when connected. The laptop screen remains black, but when a flashlight is shined on it at an angle, faint images are visible. The laptop was working fine until the user reported it suddenly went dark during use. What is the MOST likely cause and appropriate solution?

A network administrator configures a new office with a /26 subnet mask on network 192.168.10.0. After assigning IP addresses sequentially starting from 192.168.10.1, users on IP 192.168.10.65 report they cannot communicate with users on 192.168.10.62. All devices can reach the router at 192.168.10.1. What is the problem?

A server administrator needs to configure storage for a database server that requires maximum redundancy against drive failures, can tolerate the loss of two drives simultaneously, and needs to maximize usable storage capacity. The server has six available drive bays. Which RAID configuration should be implemented?

A company is migrating their on-premises file server to a cloud solution. They need employees to access files from any location, require version control and rollback capabilities, want automatic synchronization across devices, and need to maintain compliance with data residency requirements that mandate data stay within their country. What cloud computing model and service type combination should they implement?

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop computer that randomly shuts down without warning, particularly under heavy load. The system passes POST, boots successfully, and runs fine for basic tasks. CPU temperatures reach 95°C under load before shutdown. The technician verifies the CPU cooler is properly seated with fresh thermal paste, all fans are operational, and airflow is unobstructed. The issue persists. What should the technician investigate NEXT?

A mobile device technician receives a smartphone that won't charge. The device shows no charging indicator when plugged in with multiple known-good cables and chargers. The technician opens the device and finds visible corrosion on the charging port connector pins. After cleaning the corrosion, the device still won't charge. Testing with a multimeter shows no continuity between the charging port and the battery charging circuit on the motherboard. What is the MOST likely cause and solution?

A network technician troubleshoots connectivity issues where users can access local network resources but cannot reach the internet. The technician runs 'ipconfig' on a Windows workstation and sees: IP address 10.0.50.25, subnet mask 255.255.255.0, default gateway 10.0.50.1, DNS server 8.8.8.8. Pinging 10.0.50.1 succeeds, but pinging 8.8.8.8 fails. Pinging the ISP router at 203.0.113.1 from the gateway also fails. What is the MOST likely problem location?

An IT administrator needs to provision virtual machines for a development environment where developers need to test applications across Windows, Linux, and macOS simultaneously on their workstations. The host machines are high-end workstations with 64GB RAM and 8-core CPUs. The VMs frequently need to be reset to clean states and developers need to test network isolation scenarios. What virtualization configuration approach provides the BEST balance of performance, flexibility, and management?

A technician is upgrading RAM in a workstation currently running four 8GB DDR4-2666 modules in dual-channel configuration (slots 1, 2, 3, 4 populated). The motherboard supports quad-channel memory and has eight DIMM slots. The user wants to upgrade to 128GB total. The technician installs four additional 16GB DDR4-3200 modules in slots 5, 6, 7, and 8. The system boots but runs slower than before. What is causing the performance degradation?

A company's wireless network has multiple access points configured with the same SSID for roaming. Users report that when moving between conference rooms, their smartphones and laptops often remain connected to distant APs with weak signals instead of connecting to nearby APs with stronger signals, resulting in poor performance. All APs are on non-overlapping channels (1, 6, 11) and use WPA3 encryption. What is the MOST effective solution to improve roaming behavior?