The CompTIA Network+ certification is designed to help candidates build a career in IT infrastructure and evaluates how skilled they are in dealing with configuring, managing, and troubleshooting networks. The peculiarity of this certification is that Network+ certified professionals are able to support networks based on any platform, not a certain one. Besides, this accreditation equips you with specific tech skills that any network professional should possess.
So, the skills assessed in the Network+ certifications include:
- networking fundamentals: you should be able to work with the basic networking concepts, such as physical connections, network services, cloud connectivity, and architecture;
- network security: means that you are able to secure networks against threats;
- network implementations: you can apply ethernet solutions and configure wireless technologies, you are familiar with networking devices, as well as routing technologies;
- network troubleshooting: you possess skills to troubleshoot a wide range of issues related to networking;
- network operations: you are able to provide network’s availability and performance.
To become CompTIA Network+ certified, you are to take either N10-007 or N10-008 certification exam. The latter one has been launched in September 2021, and the first one will be retired in June 2022. Each exam is priced at $338 and includes 90 questions that are to be completed within an hour and a half. Both exams contain multiple choice and performance-based questions, still, N10-008 offers one more question type, such as drag and drops. To succeed in the evaluation, candidates need to score at least 720 points out of 900. Though, there are no strict requirements, before enrolling in the process of passing the Network+ exam, candidates are offered to gain the A+ certification and have a least 9-12 month of experience related to networking.
Though the two exams mentioned above lead to the same accreditation and have much in common, still, they also have some characteristics. The N10-007 exam spins around the critical security concepts, cloud computing best practices, newer virtualization techniques as well as hardware. Additionally, the knowledge of concepts helps candidates gain skills to keep the network resilient.
The N10-008 exam unlike N10-007 is focused more on software-defined networking, which means that exam-takers are capable to deal with network integrations and use the cutting-edge technologies in deployments. So, your understanding of network architecture will be checked. In addition, your skills to implement wireless standards and technologies while deploying networks will be assessed. One more specific feature to mention is that HA and network performance monitoring are covered separately. And the last distinctive feature concerns network security, which has been optimized, to secure networks and their critical aspects in particular against malicious attacks and protect network deployments against unintended data leaks.
Having the CompTIA Network+ certification, you can easily build a career as a network engineer, cable technician, system administrator, NOC technician, cable technician, to name a few. To add more, you can be hired in such worldly recognized companies, as Apple, Dell, HP, Intel, and Canon. With this designation under your belt, you can earn annually about $72,858, and getting more experience and developing your skills your pay check can reach the mark of $137,500 per year, as it is indicated on the ZipRecruiter website.
This CompTIA certification is valid for 3 years, and before the expiry date, you have to renew your certification, for example, by earning the one of a higher level, such as Security+, for instance.