220-1201 Practice Test 23 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A customer reports that their laptop's touchpad is unresponsive after they spilled a small amount of liquid on the keyboard. The laptop still powers on and the keyboard works. What is the most likely issue?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

The touchpad ribbon cable is damaged or disconnected.. The most likely issue is that the liquid spill has physically damaged or disconnected the touchpad's ribbon cable, which connects the touchpad to the motherboard. Since the keyboard still works, the spill likely affected only the touchpad's dedicated connection path, not the main keyboard controller or system board. A damaged ribbon cable is a common consequence of liquid ingress, even if the laptop powers on normally.

Answer

The touchpad driver is corrupted.

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The battery is swollen and pressing on the touchpad.

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The touchpad is disabled in the BIOS.

Question 2

A customer reports that their external monitor connected via HDMI flickers intermittently. They have tried a different HDMI cable and a different monitor, but the issue persists. The laptop display works fine. Which component is most likely causing the problem?

Accepted Answer

The laptop's HDMI port. Since the issue persists after swapping both the HDMI cable and the external monitor, the problem is isolated to the laptop's HDMI port. A faulty or damaged HDMI port can cause intermittent signal loss due to poor physical contact, bent pins, or internal solder fractures, leading to flickering. The laptop's internal display works fine, ruling out the graphics driver as the primary cause.

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The laptop's graphics driver

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The HDMI cable

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The external monitor

Question 3

A technician is setting up a small office with five computers that need to share files and a printer. The office is in a single room, and no internet access is required yet. Which network type should be created?

Accepted Answer

Local Area Network (LAN). A Local Area Network (LAN) is the correct choice because it connects devices within a limited physical area, such as a single room or office, enabling file sharing and printer access without requiring internet connectivity. LANs typically use Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) or Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) to provide high-speed, low-latency communication between the five computers and the printer, making it ideal for this small office setup.

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Personal Area Network (PAN)

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Wide Area Network (WAN)

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Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

Question 4

A small business owner wants to use a smartphone as a point-of-sale (POS) terminal for credit card payments. They ask which accessory is essential for this setup. What should you recommend?

Accepted Answer

A magnetic stripe reader that plugs into the headphone jack.. A magnetic stripe reader that plugs into the headphone jack is the essential accessory for using a smartphone as a POS terminal for credit card payments. This reader captures the magnetic stripe data from the card and transmits it to the smartphone via the analog audio interface, enabling the payment processing app to read the card information. Without this reader, the smartphone cannot physically read the magnetic stripe, which is the most common method for swiping credit cards at a POS.

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A portable Bluetooth speaker for transaction alerts.

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A rugged case to protect the phone from drops.

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A high-capacity power bank for extended use.

Question 5

A technician is configuring a kiosk that uses a tablet to display digital signage. The tablet must be powered continuously and connected to a wired network for reliability. The tablet has a single USB-C port. How should the technician provide both power and network connectivity?

Accepted Answer

Connect a USB-C hub that provides both Ethernet and Power Delivery charging.. A USB-C hub with Power Delivery (PD) and Ethernet allows the tablet to receive both power and wired network connectivity through a single USB-C port. USB-C PD supports up to 100W (20V/5A) for charging, while the hub's Ethernet controller provides a stable wired network connection, meeting the requirements for continuous power and reliability.

Answer

Use a USB-C to Ethernet adapter and charge the tablet wirelessly.

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Use a Wi-Fi connection and a standard USB-C charger.

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Connect the tablet to the network via Bluetooth tethering to a phone.

Question 6

A large conference center needs to provide Wi-Fi for 500 attendees. The IT team installs multiple 802.11ax access points. During the event, attendees report slow speeds and frequent reconnections. Analysis shows many clients are on the same channel despite multiple APs. Which advanced feature should be configured to distribute clients more evenly?

Accepted Answer

Configure all APs to use the same SSID and enable band steering and load balancing.. Band steering and load balancing are advanced features designed to distribute clients evenly across access points and frequency bands. Band steering encourages dual-band clients to use the less congested 5 GHz band, while load balancing monitors AP utilization and steers new clients to less loaded APs. This directly addresses the problem of many clients clustering on the same channel despite multiple APs being available.

Answer

Enable WPA3-Enterprise for all SSIDs.

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Set each AP to a different SSID and instruct users to connect to the least crowded one.

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Reduce the beacon interval on all APs to 50 ms.

Question 7

A user reports that their laptop can see multiple Wi-Fi networks but cannot connect to any of them. Other devices in the same location connect without issue. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The laptop has an incorrect or outdated Wi-Fi password saved for the networks.. The laptop can see multiple Wi-Fi networks (indicating the wireless adapter is functional and scanning is successful) but fails to connect to any of them. This points to a common credential mismatch issue: if the saved password for a network is incorrect or outdated, the 4-way handshake (WPA2/WPA3) will fail, preventing association even though the SSID is visible. Other devices connecting successfully rules out router-side problems.

Answer

The laptop's wireless adapter is disabled in Device Manager.

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The Wi-Fi router is out of range.

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The laptop's Bluetooth is interfering with Wi-Fi.

Question 8

A multinational corporation has offices in New York, London, and Tokyo. They need a private, dedicated network to connect all offices with high reliability and low latency. Which network type should be implemented?

Accepted Answer

Wide Area Network (WAN). A Wide Area Network (WAN) is the correct choice because it is designed to connect geographically dispersed locations, such as offices in different cities or countries, over a large area. WANs provide private, dedicated circuits (e.g., MPLS, leased lines) that offer high reliability and low latency, meeting the multinational corporation's requirements for interconnecting New York, London, and Tokyo.

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Local Area Network (LAN)

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Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

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Personal Area Network (PAN)

Question 9

A technician is setting up a Windows 10 tablet for a field worker who needs to use a legacy line-of-business (LOB) app that only runs in 32-bit mode. The tablet has a 64-bit processor and Windows 10 Pro. How should the technician ensure the app runs correctly?

Accepted Answer

Install the app normally; 32-bit apps are supported on 64-bit Windows.. Windows 10 64-bit includes the Windows-on-Windows 64-bit (WOW64) subsystem, which provides full compatibility for 32-bit applications without any additional configuration. Since the legacy LOB app is a 32-bit x86 application, it will run natively under WOW64 on the 64-bit version of Windows 10 Pro. No virtualization, compatibility mode changes, or separate 64-bit version is required.

Answer

Install the app in a virtual machine running 32-bit Windows.

Answer

Enable Windows 8 compatibility mode for the app.

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Download and install the 64-bit version of the app from the vendor.

Question 10

A customer brings in a smartphone with a cracked glass digitizer that still responds to touch, but the LCD underneath is intact. They want the cheapest repair that restores full functionality. Which component should you replace?

Accepted Answer

Replace only the digitizer.. The digitizer (touch layer) is the only damaged component; the LCD is intact and the touch function still works. Replacing only the digitizer restores full functionality at the lowest cost, as it avoids the expense of replacing the undamaged LCD panel.

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Replace the entire screen assembly (LCD + digitizer).

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Replace only the LCD panel.

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Apply a glass screen protector and ignore the crack.

Question 11

A user reports that their Android tablet frequently crashes when using a specific note-taking app, but other apps work fine. They have already cleared the app cache and data. What should you do next to resolve the issue?

Accepted Answer

Uninstall and reinstall the note-taking app.. Since the issue is isolated to a single app and persists after clearing cache and data, the next logical step is to uninstall and reinstall the app. This replaces the app's APK and all its associated files, eliminating any corrupted installation or misconfigured permissions that clearing data did not fix. A factory reset or hardware replacement is premature when the problem is application-specific.

Answer

Perform a factory reset on the tablet.

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Disable the tablet's antivirus software.

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Replace the tablet's battery.

Question 12

A user reports that their Android phone's battery drains quickly after installing a new social media app. The phone worked fine before. What is the most efficient first troubleshooting step?

Accepted Answer

Check the app's permissions and disable background activity.. The most efficient first step is to check the app's permissions and disable background activity because the new social media app is likely consuming battery by running background services (e.g., location polling, push sync, or wake locks). This approach isolates the problem without removing the app, allowing you to confirm the cause before taking further action. It aligns with the CompTIA A+ troubleshooting methodology of identifying the most probable cause first.

Answer

Uninstall the social media app immediately.

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Perform a factory reset of the device.

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Update the phone's operating system.

Question 13

A technician is asked to set up a network for a new branch office that will connect back to the main headquarters using a leased line. The branch has 50 employees who need access to centralized databases and email. Which network type best describes the branch office's internal network?

Accepted Answer

Local area network (LAN). The branch office's internal network connects 50 employees within a single physical location, providing shared access to local resources like printers and servers. This fits the definition of a Local Area Network (LAN), which operates over a limited geographic area and uses high-speed technologies such as Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11). The leased line to headquarters is a separate WAN connection, but the internal network itself remains a LAN.

Answer

Wide area network (WAN)

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Metropolitan area network (MAN)

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Personal area network (PAN)

Question 14

A user reports that their laptop's built-in display shows distorted colors and horizontal lines, but when they connect an external monitor via VGA, the external display works perfectly. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The laptop's LCD panel or its video cable is damaged. The external monitor works perfectly via VGA, which bypasses the laptop's internal LCD panel and its video cable. Distorted colors and horizontal lines on the built-in display, combined with a flawless external display, isolate the fault to the LCD panel assembly or the LVDS/eDP cable connecting the panel to the motherboard. The GPU and driver are shared between both displays, so they cannot be the cause when the external display functions correctly.

Answer

The laptop's GPU is failing

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The VGA cable is defective

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The display driver is corrupt

Question 15

A technician is configuring a wireless network for a high-density environment such as a conference hall. The network must support hundreds of simultaneous connections with minimal interference. Which configuration will best achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Deploy multiple access points with reduced transmit power and non-overlapping channels. In a high-density environment like a conference hall, deploying multiple access points with reduced transmit power and non-overlapping channels (e.g., 1, 6, 11 for 2.4 GHz) minimizes co-channel interference and allows efficient frequency reuse, supporting hundreds of simultaneous connections. This design increases overall capacity by creating smaller, manageable cells that reduce contention and improve throughput per client.

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Use a single high-power access point to cover the entire hall

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Disable the 5 GHz band to reduce complexity

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Enable WPS for faster client connections