Category: A+ Core 2 (220-1202)
The CompTIA A+ Core 2 (220-1202) examination tests the practical, day-to-day software and administrative skills required of modern technical support specialists. Entry-level and transitioning IT professionals must manage diverse client environments—including Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, and mobile operating systems—while defending systems against malware and adhering to strict change management protocols.
This category delivers structured study resources, practical walkthroughs, and performance-based question (PBQ) review material mapped directly to Core 2 exam domains. Explore step-by-step operating system recovery guides, command-line interface (CLI) cheat sheets, malware remediation procedures, and scripting basics to ensure you pass your exam and excel in operational support roles.
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SY0-701 Lab: IAM Hardening — Enforce MFA with a Policy Condition
An IAM policy grants broad access with no MFA requirement. Inspect the finding, then rewrite the policy so access is denied unless the session is MFA-authenticated — stopping stolen static credentials from being enough.
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Data Privacy Engineering: Tokenization vs Masking for Compliance
Tokenization and data masking stop a viewer from reading a full sensitive value.
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CAS-005 Lab: Dynamic Data Masking & RLS in PostgreSQL
Separate administrative access from data access. Turn on Row-Level Security so each tenant only sees its own rows, then add a masking view so a support role sees redacted PII (SSNs) while the owner sees the real values.
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Securing the Crown Jewels: Row-Level Security (RLS) and Column-Level Encryption
Full-disk encryption stops a stolen drive. It does not stop a privileged session that already sits on the database. Row-level security (RLS) and column-level encryption split who may open the system from which records and fields that session may read.
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220-1202 Lab: Managing Tickets in an ITSM Platform
A user opens a ticket: ‘I can’t print payroll and it’s due today.’ Work it end-to-end through the ITSM lifecycle in order, set the right priority, and map the ITIL concepts a helpdesk tech uses every day.
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Operational Procedures: Ticketing & Change Management
A ticket records who is blocked, which device is involved, and what you did. A change record decides whether that fix may touch a live system. CompTIA A+ Core 2 (220-1202) tests both under Domain 4.0 Operational Procedures: 4.1 covers documentation and support-system information management; 4.2 covers change-management procedures.
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220-1201 Lab: Configuring Network Printers & Spoolers
The office network printer has a jammed queue — jobs pile up and nothing prints. Restart the Print Spooler the right way: stop the service, clear the stuck spool files, start it again, and verify the printer is ready.
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Printer Troubleshooting: Laser vs Inkjet
A printer ticket is a technology ticket first. CompTIA A+ Core 1 (220-1201) splits that work across three objectives: deploy the device (3.7), maintain the right consumable for that technology (3.8), then match the printed page and the queue to a named fault (5.6). Laser and inkjet share paper, drivers, and a queue. They do…
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N10-009 Lab: Crafting Standard & Extended ACLs
Filter traffic on R1 two ways: a numbered standard ACL that permits only the management subnet, and an extended ACL that permits HTTPS to a specific server while everything else is denied. Then apply and verify.
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Network Security: Firewalls, ACLs, and IDS/IPS
A Network+ candidate stops unwanted traffic at named appliances and named rules. CompTIA tests whether you can place a firewall, apply an access control list (ACL), and tell an intrusion detection system (IDS) from an intrusion prevention system (IPS) without mixing those jobs.