Practice for the CompTIA A+ Core 1 (220-1201) exam with 20 exam-style practice questions, instant answer reveals, and concise explanations of every correct answer. Topics include: You are working at the service desk when a customer calls up and complains that their laptop's monitor looks strange. Wh. Follow @CertPunch and visit certpunch.com for more certification practice exams and study content.
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What you will practice
- You are working at the service desk when a customer calls up and complains that their laptop's monitor looks…
- Dion Training has recently purchased a new wireless printer and has asked you to configure it in their office…
- What type of services can allow you to get more storage and more resources added to the cloud as fast as poss…
- Which of the following tools would provide detailed information on the wiring of a CAT 6 cable?
- Susan has a 3-year-old iPad. The iPad used to get 8 hours or more of usage before running out of battery, but…
- A projector is creating a distorted image when in use. The technician measures the top of the screen at 72" w…
Answers and explanations
Tap a question to expand the answer and the exam reasoning. Try to commit to your own pick first.
Q1. You are working at the service desk when a customer calls up and complains that their laptop's monitor looks strange. When pressed for further details, they state that there are black bars on the left and right sides of the screen and that…
Answer: A. Incorrect display resolution
Black bars and a squashed image indicate an incorrect display resolution setting. Displays have a native resolution, and choosing a mismatched aspect ratio causes the image to distort. Color depth affects color quality, while bad video cards or interference cause artifacts, not squashing.
Q2. Dion Training has recently purchased a new wireless printer and has asked you to configure it in their office. You have installed the necessary printer drivers on your workstation and have plugged the printer into the power outlet. You jus…
Answer: C. You connected the printer to the guest wireless network instead of the corporate wireless network
Connecting the printer to the guest wireless network isolates it from the corporate network, preventing workstations from communicating with it. Guest networks are heavily restricted for security. Printers do not require workstations to act as DHCP servers or use IPP for local network printing.
Q3. What type of services can allow you to get more storage and more resources added to the cloud as fast as possible?
Answer: A. Rapid elasticity
Rapid elasticity allows cloud environments to quickly scale up or allocate additional storage and resources based on demand. Resource pooling combines hardware, while metered services strictly handle the billing and usage tracking of those allocated resources.
Q4. Which of the following tools would provide detailed information on the wiring of a CAT 6 cable?
Answer: C. Cable tester
A cable tester validates wiring maps and electrical properties like crosstalk and attenuation in copper cabling. Multimeters and loopback plugs check basic electrical continuity or port functionality, whereas a crimper simply attaches connectors.
Q5. Susan has a 3-year-old iPad. The iPad used to get 8 hours or more of usage before running out of battery, but now it only lasts 30-60 minutes between charges. Which of the following actions should be taken to repair this device?
Answer: D. Replace the battery
Lithium-ion batteries naturally degrade over years of charge cycles, leading to severely reduced battery life. Since the device successfully charges but drains rapidly, replacing the battery restores normal hardware function and resolves this specific symptom.
Q6. A projector is creating a distorted image when in use. The technician measures the top of the screen at 72" wide and the bottom of the screen at only 66" wide. The projector's resolution and the operating system's display settings are both…
Answer: C. Keystone
Adjusting the keystone setting corrects trapezoidal distortion that occurs when a projector is angled improperly relative to the screen. Brightness, contrast, and color depth only manipulate visual color properties and lumens, having no effect on the projected image geometry.
Q7. Which of the following is NOT considered part of the Internet of Things?
Answer: B. Laptop
A laptop is a standard host computer rather than a dedicated Internet of Things endpoint like a smart television or industrial control system. IoT devices are specialized equipment communicating over a network without requiring constant human interaction.
Q8. Which of the following tools is used to identify why an 802.11g network is intermittently dropping network traffic?
Answer: B. WiFi analyzer
A WiFi analyzer detects signal strength, channel overlap, and interference causing dropped traffic. Cable testers, multimeters, and tone generators only diagnose physical cabling, not wireless issues.
Q9. A user needs their smartphone to last all day at a conference where electrical outlets are scarce and the phone must remain available for updates from their team. What should they use?
Answer: A. Use a smartphone case with a built-in battery
A battery case extends usage throughout the day while keeping the phone mobile and connected. Airplane mode severs communications, while charging pads and power strips still rely on scarce wall outlets.
Q10. Which of the following technologies could be used in an unlicensed long-range fixed wireless system?
Answer: A. Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi can use unlicensed frequencies with directional antennas for long-range fixed wireless links. Cellular requires licensed spectrum, while Bluetooth and NFC are designed for very short-range communications.
Q11. Your college has several campuses located across the city. Within each campus, the buildings are interconnected with a campus area network. If you connect each of the campuses across the city, what type of network would this become?
Answer: C. MAN
Connecting campuses across a city forms a metropolitan area network. A wide area network typically spans countries or continents, while LANs and personal area networks cover much smaller geographic areas.
Q12. Which of the following ports should a client use to automatically request an IP address from the server?
Answer: C. 67
A client uses UDP port 68 to request an IP address, while the DHCP server listens on port 67. Port 69 is TFTP, port 123 is NTP, and port 25 is SMTP.
Q13. A laptop's wired network connection isn't working. The NIC light is steady instead of blinking. What is the MOST likely the issue?
Answer: B. No network activity
A steady network interface card light indicates a physical link exists but there is no active data being transmitted. Transmission attempts from incorrect configurations would cause blinking lights, whereas radio frequency issues only apply to wireless connections.
Q14. Your boss is looking for a recommendation for a cloud solution that will allow for onsite systems and cloud services to work together seamlessly. What type of cloud model should you recommend?
Answer: B. Hybrid Cloud
A hybrid cloud model seamlessly integrates local onsite systems with public or private cloud services. Public, private, and community clouds describe specific hosting environments rather than the combined infrastructure approach required here.
Q15. Using the image above, which of the following correctly indicates the port labeled as J? (This is a simulated PBQ. If you had this question on the real exam, you would be asked to drag-and-drop a label with the component's name onto the pr…
Answer: D. USB 2.0
Standard USB 2.0 Type-A ports are typically color-coded black on the motherboard port cluster. USB 3.0 ports are usually blue, while FireWire and eSATA have distinctly different connector shapes.
Q16. Which of the following ports is used for the request and distribution of DHCP configuration information?
Answer: A. 67
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) uses UDP port 67 for the server to send configuration data to a client. Port 80 is HTTP, port 53 is DNS, and port 162 is used for SNMP traps.
Q17. Which laptop accessory includes a small, pressure-sensitive nub that is commonly used as a pointing device?
Answer: D. Track point
A trackpoint is a small, pressure-sensitive nub located between laptop keyboard keys used to control the cursor. A stylus interacts with touchscreens, a trackpad is a flat touch surface, and a drawing pad is an external graphic input device.
Q18. After a Windows 10 security update, network speeds dropped from 1 Gbps to 100 Mbps across all workstations. What is MOST likely the cause?
Answer: B. The network card drivers were updated last night
Security updates can overwrite device drivers, reverting network cards to generic versions and lower speeds. Incorrect DHCP or DNS settings would cause complete connection failures, not just a speed reduction across all workstations.
Q19. Which option would you MOST likely use to configure PXE to set up remote imaging on a computer during a deployment?
Answer: B. BIOS boot option
Configuring a Preboot Execution Environment boot requires modifying network boot settings within the BIOS or UEFI. Secure boot validates driver signatures, the Windows boot menu loads an existing operating system, and power management controls energy states.
Q20. A customer's system clock is continually resetting itself, causing discrepancies with the date and time. Which of the following components of the system should you investigate as the root cause of this issue?
Answer: D. BIOS
The system clock resets when the motherboard CMOS battery fails and can no longer maintain BIOS hardware settings. While the BIOS configuration stores this data, investigating the CMOS battery is the required hardware fix.
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