Practice tests you are allowed to use

Practice questions are the single most searched-for A+ study resource, and the search results for them are the most compromised part of this subject. Sites selling "real exam questions" and "guaranteed dumps" rank well, look professional, and are the one category of study material that can cost you the certification you are studying for.

So this page starts with the rule rather than with the recommendations, because the rule is written down and quotable.

What CompTIA's candidate agreement actually says

Every candidate accepts the CompTIA Candidate Agreement before testing. Under candidate conduct, it lists among prohibited behaviours:

Seeking and/or obtaining unauthorized access to examination materials (this includes using brain dump material and/or any unauthorized publication of Exam questions with or without answers).

That clause is doing two jobs. It bans using dump material, and it bans publishing questions — so posting what you remembered after your exam is also a breach, however generous the motive. Read 24 September 2026.

There is a second clause most people have never seen. The agreement makes it your obligation to report exposure, whether or not it was deliberate:

It is your responsibility to promptly report to CompTIA if you become aware that you have been exposed to, accessed, or used any unauthorized training materials — including, but not limited to, "braindumps," leaked exam content, or any other materials that contain actual or purported CompTIA examination content — at any time before, during, or after your testing.

The agreement adds that this applies "whether the exposure or use was intentional, accidental, or if you did not realize the nature of the materials until after your testing session", and that failing to disclose may itself be treated as a violation.

What happens if CompTIA decides you crossed the line

The violations clause sets out what CompTIA may do, and the list is longer than most people expect. It may revoke the certification for the exam in question; revoke every other CompTIA certification you have been granted; make you ineligible to register for or sit any CompTIA exam for at least six calendar months; and take "any and all other appropriate action, including legal remedies".

CompTIA also says it uses statistical analysis of results — data forensics — as a basis for enforcement, and that it may invalidate scores where the validity of a score is brought into question by anomalies. You do not have to be caught with a document in your hand.

The test that tells you whether a resource is safe

CompTIA's own Unauthorized Training Materials FAQ gives a workable rule, and it is more permissive than the anxiety around this subject suggests. Free resources, including video and open forums, are explicitly acceptable "with caution" provided they do not share real exam questions or answers and follow CompTIA's copyright and exam policies. Making your own notes and joining a study group is answered with a flat "Absolutely!", on the same condition.

So the practical test is one question about any resource you are looking at:

• Is it claiming to give you the actual questions from the exam? Then it is out, whatever it calls itself.
• Is it teaching the objectives and testing you on questions someone wrote to resemble them? Then it is in.
• Is it a forum thread where people are posting what they remember seeing? That is the unauthorised publication the agreement names. Out.

CompTIA's FAQ points candidates at a Training Resource Review Tool for checking a specific resource, and tells you to report material you think crosses the line. It also warns that incorrect or outdated information in dump material "could hurt your exam results" — which is the quiet argument against dumps: the exam is V15 and most leaked content is not.

Practice material that is legitimate

CompTIA's own, free

CompTIA publishes a set of practice questions for A+ as a download, alongside the exam objectives, in exchange for an email address. It also puts a short practice quiz on the certification pages. These are written by the people who write the exam and are, definitionally, not a dump. Cost: nothing.

Free video courses with review questions

Professor Messer's A+ V15 courses — 63 videos for Core 1 and 74 for Core 2 — are free to watch, and the page says so in those words. His practice exams and course notes are separate products he sells. Recommending the free half earns this site nothing, and it is still the recommendation.

Paid practice engines

CompTIA's own CertMaster Practice is sold as timed practice exams, objective quizzes and "exam objective mastery scores", with an estimated duration of 10 to 20 hours per exam according to CompTIA's product table. Third-party courses on Udemy's CompTIA A+ topic page bundle full courses with practice exams and sell them outright rather than by subscription.

If you fail — what the rules allow

Failing is not unusual and the rules are unemotional about it. From the candidate agreement's retake policy: there is no required waiting period between your first and second attempt at an exam. Before a third attempt, or any attempt after that, you must wait at least fourteen calendar days from your last attempt.

The financial rule is in the same clause: "Candidates must pay the exam price each time they attempt the exam. CompTIA does not offer any free re-tests or discounts on retakes." CompTIA sells bundles that include a retake voucher, which is a different thing from a free retake — you have paid for it up front.

One more rule catches people going the other way: once you have passed an exam you cannot sit the same exam code again without CompTIA's consent. The agreement's own example is a candidate holding A+ V14 waiting for V15 before attempting to recertify by examination.

A note on where this leaves you

The honest summary is that the safe study path and the cheap study path are the same path. CompTIA's objectives and practice questions are free. The best-known video course is free. Study groups and your own notes are explicitly fine. The only thing you are being asked to give up is the shortcut that was never going to work against a V15 exam anyway — and which puts every certification you own at risk.

For the exam itself — what is on each half, the two pass marks and the renewal clock — see the full CompTIA A+ page. For how to structure the months before the exam, see how to study for A+.