comptia a+ practice test Intermediate Practice Exam: Medium Difficulty 2025

A technician is troubleshooting a laptop that powers on but displays no image on the screen. When an external monitor is connected, the display works properly. The technician shines a flashlight on the laptop screen and can faintly see the desktop image. What is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

A small business wants to implement a cloud solution where they maintain control over their applications and data but rely on the cloud provider for the underlying infrastructure including servers, storage, and networking. Which cloud service model should they choose?

A user reports that their smartphone battery drains rapidly and the device feels warm even when not in use. After checking, the technician notices multiple apps running in the background and high cellular data usage. What should be the technician's FIRST step to address this issue?

A network administrator needs to configure a wireless network for a medical office that handles sensitive patient data. The network must support modern encryption and strong authentication. Which combination of settings provides the BEST security?

A technician is building a workstation for video editing that requires high-performance storage for 4K video files and fast random access for editing operations. The budget allows for two storage devices. Which storage configuration would be MOST appropriate?

A desktop computer intermittently shuts down during intensive gaming sessions. The technician observes that the shutdowns occur more frequently during graphically demanding scenes. The system passes POST and runs normally during light use. What is the MOST likely cause?

An organization wants to implement a virtualization solution where multiple servers can share resources and virtual machines can be migrated between hosts without downtime. Which technology components are MOST essential for this implementation?

A user's smartphone can connect to Wi-Fi at home but cannot access the internet or send emails, though other devices on the same network work fine. The phone shows full Wi-Fi signal strength. What should the technician check FIRST?

A technician is setting up mobile device management for a company's BYOD program. The company needs to protect corporate data while respecting employee privacy on personal devices. Which approach provides the BEST balance?

A company has a network printer that multiple departments access. Recently, users report that print jobs are taking significantly longer to complete, but the printer's hardware diagnostics show no issues. Network connectivity tests show normal speeds. What is the MOST likely cause?

A technician needs to replace RAM in a laptop that currently has 8GB installed as a single module. The laptop has two SODIMM slots and supports dual-channel memory architecture. Which upgrade approach will provide the BEST performance improvement?

A user reports that their tablet will not charge when connected to the original charging cable and adapter. The device still powers on using remaining battery. Which troubleshooting steps should the technician perform in the correct order?

A company is implementing a network segmentation strategy. They need to separate guest Wi-Fi traffic from the corporate network while using the same physical wireless infrastructure. What technology should they implement?

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop computer that displays a continuous beep pattern during startup and shows no video output. The computer was working fine yesterday, and no hardware changes were made. What should the technician do FIRST?

An organization uses cloud-based email services, productivity applications, and storage accessed through web browsers. Users don't manage any of the underlying infrastructure, platforms, or applications. What type of cloud computing model is this?

A user's smartphone screen is unresponsive to touch in certain areas, but the display shows images correctly. The device has no physical damage and was recently exposed to high humidity. What is the MOST appropriate troubleshooting step?

A technician is configuring a new workstation that will run three virtual machines simultaneously for testing purposes. Each VM requires 4GB of RAM. The host OS requires 8GB. What is the MINIMUM amount of RAM needed, and what additional consideration should be made?

A network user reports intermittent connectivity issues. Sometimes they can access network resources, and other times they receive IP address conflict warnings. What is the MOST likely cause and solution?

A technician is upgrading a computer's power supply. The new PSU has a 24-pin ATX connector, but the motherboard only has a 20-pin connector. The PSU also has multiple PCIe power connectors. What should the technician do?

A workstation is experiencing frequent application crashes and system instability. The technician runs memory diagnostics and finds no errors. The crashes occur randomly across different applications. Event Viewer shows multiple application errors but no hardware errors. What should the technician investigate NEXT?