CompTIA A+ Core 2 Certification Exam 220-1202 Practice Test 3

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| Questions: 25 | Updated: Sep 11, 2026
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1. A company decommissioning old servers needs to both guarantee the drives are unreadable and obtain formal proof for its compliance records that destruction occurred. Which two should be arranged?

Explanation

Physical destruction methods like shredding or degaussing ensure the data is unreadable, and a certification of destruction provides the formal compliance documentation required. Standard formatting alone can leave recoverable data, and renaming files or compressing content don't destroy or securely erase data.

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About This Quiz
CompTIA A+ Core 2 Certification Exam 220-1202 Practice Test 3 - Quiz

This practice assessment focuses on the essential skills and knowledge required for the CompTIA A+ Core 2 Certification Exam 220-1202. It evaluates your understanding of topics such as operating systems, security, and troubleshooting techniques. This resource is invaluable for those preparing for the certification, ensuring you are well-equipped with the... see morenecessary competencies to succeed in the IT field. see less

2.

What first name or nickname would you like us to use?

You may optionally provide this to label your report, leaderboard, or certificate.

2. Match each AI policy concept to its correct definition.

Explanation

Each AI policy concept addresses a distinct concern: bias relates to unfair skew in outputs, hallucination is confidently stated false information, data privacy concerns whether submitted data stays confidential or feeds a public model, and a plagiarism policy addresses originality expectations for AI-assisted content.

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3. A Linux server administrator wants to write a shell script to automate a nightly backup job. Which file extension is conventionally used for this kind of script?

Explanation

.sh is the conventional file extension for shell scripts on Linux/Unix systems, matching the described nightly automation task. .bat and .ps1 are Windows batch and PowerShell extensions, and .py is used for Python scripts, not shell scripts specifically.

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4. A company discovers an employee installed a free trial version of specialized software on their work computer without checking if it was approved for business use, and the license terms explicitly prohibit commercial/business use for the free tier. What policy issue does this represent?

Explanation

Using a personal-use-only license in a business context violates the software's EULA and licensing terms, which is specifically a licensing policy issue. It isn't a data retention, physical security, or change management concern.

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5. A technician needs to move a heavy tower server case by themselves to a lower rack position. Which safety practice should be followed to avoid injury?

Explanation

Proper lifting technique, and asking for help with an especially heavy load, directly prevents back and other physical injuries when moving heavy equipment. Disconnecting power, wearing an ESD strap, or thermal paste are unrelated to the physical safety of lifting.

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6. IT wants to quickly determine which employee currently has a specific laptop assigned, when its warranty expires, and its original purchase cost, all from one central lookup rather than searching multiple spreadsheets. Which practice/tool addresses this?

Explanation

A CMDB, populated with asset tags and IDs, tracks exactly this kind of device-level detail, assigned user, warranty, and cost, in one central system. Incident reports, SOPs, and knowledge base articles serve different documentation purposes.

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7. A workstation shows repeated desktop alerts claiming your antivirus protection has expired, but these alerts appear even though the company's managed antivirus is confirmed active, and the alerts have a slightly different visual style than the real antivirus software's usual notifications. What does this indicate?

Explanation

Alerts that visually differ from the real antivirus product's notifications, appearing despite the antivirus being confirmed active, indicate a fake alert generated by adware or another malicious program impersonating the real software. Reinstalling the antivirus, license renewal, or a password reset don't address a spoofed notification from a different source.

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8. A user's phone was recently used to install an app from a website outside the official app store, and the phone now shows an unusually high number of ads outside that specific app, along with unexpected app behavior like apps opening on their own. Which two should the technician do?

Explanation

An app installed from an unofficial source is a common source of ad injection and unexpected behavior, so removing it and reviewing what permissions it or other apps were granted directly addresses the reported symptoms. Autorotate, wallpaper, and call history are unrelated.

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9. A user's phone shows a persistent OS update failed notification every time it attempts to install a pending system update overnight, and free storage is confirmed to be very low. What is the most likely fix?

Explanation

OS updates need sufficient free storage for the downloaded package and temporary installation files, so low storage is a common and direct cause of repeated update failures. Battery, network settings, and Bluetooth are unrelated to update installation space requirements.

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10. A user's phone screen no longer rotates when the device is turned sideways, even though the rotation lock icon shows unlocked, and this started right after an OS update. What should be checked first?

Explanation

OS updates occasionally reset or affect display-related settings, so verifying and re-enabling autorotate in settings is the direct first step for a rotation issue appearing right after an update. SIM, Wi-Fi, and battery are unrelated to screen orientation behavior.

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11. A domain-joined desktop repeatedly loses several minutes of accuracy on its system clock every day, causing intermittent failures authenticating to the domain. Other machines on the same network keep accurate time. What is the most likely cause?

Explanation

A failing CMOS battery is a common cause of a single workstation losing track of time even though it periodically re-syncs, since the clock drifts significantly between syncs. This differs from network-wide time issues, and password expiration, cabling, or drive failure don't produce clock drift specifically.

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12. A desktop that was working fine yesterday now displays No bootable device found immediately after POST, and the technician confirms in BIOS that the boot drive is still detected. What should be checked next?

Explanation

A No bootable device error with the drive still detected in BIOS often points to a boot order or boot mode mismatch, such as UEFI vs Legacy/CSM, which can occur after a BIOS update or battery replacement resets settings. CPU or RAM reseating and GPU drivers don't typically produce this specific symptom when the drive itself is detected.

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13. Match each browser security setting to what it actually does.

Explanation

Each browser security setting targets a distinct concern: pop-up blockers stop unwanted windows, private browsing avoids leaving local traces, ad blockers filter advertising and trackers, and secure DNS encrypts the DNS lookup itself so eavesdroppers can't observe which sites are being visited.

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14. A user's photography backup drive is used exclusively with a MacBook Pro running the latest macOS, and they want maximum compatibility with Time Machine and native macOS features like snapshots. Which filesystem should the drive be formatted with?

Explanation

APFS is Apple's native filesystem and natively supports Time Machine and other macOS-specific features like snapshots on modern macOS. exFAT, NTFS, and FAT32 lack native support for these macOS-specific capabilities.

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15. A company allows employees to use personal phones for work email, but wants to enforce a minimum PIN length and remotely wipe only the corporate email and data, not personal photos, if the phone is lost. Which policy/technology fits this specific requirement?

Explanation

MDM under a BYOD policy can enforce PIN requirements and perform a selective wipe of corporate data or containers without touching personal content. A full-device wipe erases everything, and content filtering or antivirus don't address selective data wipe or BYOD policy enforcement.

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16. An auditor recommends preventing anyone from booting a laptop from a USB drive to bypass Windows login, even with physical access to the machine. Which setting addresses this specific risk?

Explanation

A BIOS/UEFI password can restrict changes to boot order and boot device selection, preventing someone from booting from USB to bypass the OS login. A Windows account password, screen lock, and guest account settings don't prevent boot-order manipulation at the firmware level.

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17. A company wants to authenticate Wi-Fi users against the same centralized username/password database used for VPN and wired network access, rather than a single shared wireless password. Which authentication protocol should be deployed on the wireless network?

Explanation

RADIUS provides centralized authentication against a shared user database across wired, wireless, and VPN access rather than a single shared password. WEP and TKIP are outdated encryption methods, and a pre-shared key is a single shared password model, not centralized per-user authentication.

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18. A standard user needs to occasionally run a specific legacy application that requires administrator rights, but the company doesn't want to make the user a full administrator. Which Windows feature allows a specific action to be elevated without changing the user's overall account type?

Explanation

UAC allows a standard user to elevate a specific action by providing admin credentials at that moment, without permanently changing the account's privilege level. BitLocker encrypts drives, EFS encrypts files, and a guest account is unrelated to elevation.

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19. A data center wants an authentication method for its server room door that cannot be lost, shared, or given to someone else the way a badge or key could be. Which control best fits?

Explanation

Biometric authentication is tied to a physical characteristic of the individual and can't be lent out or duplicated the way a badge, fob, or smart card could. Video surveillance monitors activity but doesn't authenticate entry.

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20. A company migrating to cloud-based productivity tools wants to make sure that when an employee is terminated, their email, chat, and shared file access are all revoked in one action, and that their number of licensed seats decreases accordingly. Which two configuration areas should be addressed?

Explanation

Disabling or removing the synchronized identity revokes access across all connected cloud services at once, and adjusting licensing assignment frees the seat for reassignment. Videoconferencing settings, spreadsheet permissions alone, and presentation templates don't address account-wide access revocation or licensing changes.

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21. A company wants to deploy a new accounting application company-wide, but a compliance review flags that the application requires an external USB hardware token for licensing verification on every workstation, which the standard laptop docking stations don't support well ergonomically. Which impact consideration is most relevant here?

Explanation

The requirement for an external USB hardware token is a device-level impact consideration that affects hardware and docking station compatibility across the fleet. Storage requirements, application bitness, and network requirements are unrelated to this specific hardware token issue.

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22. A Linux administrator needs to search recursively through every file in a directory for a matching text string, such as a hardcoded secret. Which single command, combined with the -r flag, accomplishes this?

Explanation

grep searches file contents for a matching string, and the -r flag makes that search recursive through subdirectories, exactly matching the described requirement. find searches by filename rather than content, and cat only displays a single file's contents.

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23. A user switches from their iPhone to their MacBook mid-task and wants to keep working on the same document, and also wants to answer phone calls or texts from their Mac. Which macOS feature enables this cross-device experience?

Explanation

Continuity enables features like Handoff, continuing tasks across devices, and answering calls or texts from a Mac when paired with an iPhone. Mission Control manages desktops and windows, Spotlight is search, and Keychain stores passwords.

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24. A user reports that a specific internal file server is unreachable, while every other internal resource works fine. The technician wants to see exactly which network hop between the workstation and the server is dropping or delaying packets. Which command should be used?

Explanation

tracert maps the path a packet takes hop by hop and shows where delays or drops occur along that path, directly answering which specific hop is the problem. ipconfig /all shows local adapter configuration, nslookup tests DNS resolution rather than path routing, and hostname simply reports the local machine's name.

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25. A workstation's hard drive is failing and needs replacement, but the technician wants to preserve the exact existing Windows setup, applications, and files by moving them to a new drive without reinstalling anything. Which approach fits this requirement?

Explanation

Creating an image of the existing drive and deploying it to new hardware preserves the exact OS setup, apps, and files without a fresh installation. Clean install starts over, repair install fixes a broken existing install, and zero-touch deployment is for automated deployment of a standard image to many machines, not preserving one specific existing configuration.

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A company decommissioning old servers needs to both guarantee the...
Match each AI policy concept to its correct definition.
A Linux server administrator wants to write a shell script to automate...
A company discovers an employee installed a free trial version of...
A technician needs to move a heavy tower server case by themselves to...
IT wants to quickly determine which employee currently has a specific...
A workstation shows repeated desktop alerts claiming your antivirus...
A user's phone was recently used to install an app from a website...
A user's phone shows a persistent OS update failed notification every...
A user's phone screen no longer rotates when the device is turned...
A domain-joined desktop repeatedly loses several minutes of accuracy...
A desktop that was working fine yesterday now displays No bootable...
Match each browser security setting to what it actually does.
A user's photography backup drive is used exclusively with a MacBook...
A company allows employees to use personal phones for work email, but...
An auditor recommends preventing anyone from booting a laptop from a...
A company wants to authenticate Wi-Fi users against the same...
A standard user needs to occasionally run a specific legacy...
A data center wants an authentication method for its server room door...
A company migrating to cloud-based productivity tools wants to make...
A company wants to deploy a new accounting application company-wide,...
A Linux administrator needs to search recursively through every file...
A user switches from their iPhone to their MacBook mid-task and wants...
A user reports that a specific internal file server is unreachable,...
A workstation's hard drive is failing and needs replacement, but the...
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