CompTIA Server+ (SK0-005) Practice Exam
Cover all four Server+ objective areas — server hardware, administration, security and disaster recovery, and the troubleshooting that runs through them — with objective-mapped practice questions, instant feedback in Learn mode, and a full timed simulation in Exam mode. Start with a 24-hour free trial.
Start 24-hour free trial →CompTIA Server+ (SK0-005) exam at a glance
- Vendor
- CompTIA
- Exam code
- SK0-005
- Certification
- CompTIA Server+
- Level
- Intermediate / server & data-center administration
- Blueprint
- Exam version V5, launched May 18, 2021 (current edition)
- Format
- Maximum of 90 questions; multiple-choice and performance-based
- Duration
- 90 minutes
- Passing score
- 750 on a scale of 100–900
- Delivery
- Pearson VUE test center or online proctored
- Recommended experience
- CompTIA A+ (or equivalent) plus about two years of hands-on server experience (recommended, not required)
- Languages
- English, Japanese
- Renewal
- Valid three years; renew through CompTIA continuing education
Source: CompTIA — Server+ certification (exam details & V5 objectives). Verify current details with CompTIA before scheduling.
About the CompTIA Server+ (SK0-005) certification
CompTIA Server+ is the vendor-neutral credential for the people who run servers — not just a desktop or a network link, but the physical and virtual machines that carry an organization’s workloads. It validates the full lifecycle: racking and powering hardware, installing and administering server operating systems, building high availability and virtualization, hardening security, planning disaster recovery, and troubleshooting when any of it breaks. Unusually for CompTIA, Server+ has no expiration tied to a single exam version, which has long made it a steady reference for data-center and on-premises roles.
The current exam is version V5 (series code SK0-005). It delivers up to 90 questions — a mix of multiple-choice and hands-on performance-based items — across four objective areas, and the weighting is decisive: Server administration (30%) is the single heaviest area, with Troubleshooting (28%) close behind. More than half the exam lives in running and fixing servers rather than in initial hardware install. Every PowerKram practice question maps to one of the four areas, so a weak score points you at the exact objective to revisit. For context on the certification-versus-degree decision many infrastructure candidates weigh, see our guide to choosing certifications over a college degree.
Server+ (SK0-005) exam objectives and weights
CompTIA splits the V5 exam across four objective areas. The weights below are CompTIA’s own and sum to 100% — plan your study time roughly in proportion to them.
Installing server operating systems; configuring network services (IP, DNS, DHCP, VLANs); managing roles, monitoring, and performance; high availability (clustering, load balancing, failover); virtualization; scripting basics; and asset management.
Diagnosing hardware faults (power, storage, connectivity), software and OS errors, patching failures, network issues such as latency and misconfiguration, and validating disaster-recovery backups and failover.
Data security and encryption, physical and environmental controls, identity and access management with MFA, mitigation strategies (DLP, SIEM), server hardening, decommissioning and media destruction, and backup/recovery planning.
Racking, cabling, power, and cooling; deploying and managing storage including RAID and shared storage; and hardware maintenance such as out-of-band management, firmware upgrades, and hot-swappable components.
Source: CompTIA Server+ (V5) exam objectives.
Who the Server+ exam is for
Server+ is built for working IT professionals who manage servers: systems administrators, data-center and infrastructure technicians, and support staff moving into server operations. CompTIA recommends A+ (or equivalent knowledge) plus about two years of hands-on server experience — a heavier expectation than its entry-level exams, though still a guideline rather than a hard gate. If you have not yet built that foundation, our A+ Core 1 practice exam and Network+ practice exam are the usual steps before Server+.
If you are mapping out where a server-administration credential like this can take you, the IT Administrator role guide in our career hub lays out the day-to-day work, the salary range, and the certifications that build on Server+.
What this Server+ practice exam delivers
Score by objective area
Every question is tagged to one of the four V5 areas, so your report shows whether Administration or Troubleshooting — the two heaviest — is dragging your score, not just an overall percentage.
Learn mode
Immediate feedback after each question with a full explanation of why the right answer is right and why the others are wrong — built for the operational, judgment-based reasoning Server+ tests.
Exam mode
A timed, 90-question-style simulation that mirrors the 90-minute format and its mix of multiple-choice and performance-based questions, so test day feels familiar.
No setup, no download
Runs in the browser with nothing to install. Your 24-hour trial unlocks the full bank and both modes — no credit card required.
Sample Server+ practice questions
Ten free questions spanning the four objective areas, each with a full explanation. The complete bank is available with the 24-hour trial.
A server suddenly powers off during peak usage hours. What is the most probable cause?
- Overheating from a failed cooling component
- A faulty network cable
- An unpatched operating system
- A disconnected monitor
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — overheating from a failed cooling component. A sudden, load-correlated power-off is a classic thermal-protection shutdown: a failed fan or blocked airflow lets temperatures spike under peak load, and the server cuts power to protect itself.
Why not the others: a faulty network cable (B) breaks connectivity, not power; an unpatched OS (C) is a security and stability concern but does not cut power; a disconnected monitor (D) has no bearing on a server’s operation.
Source: CompTIA Server+ objectives — Troubleshoot hardware →A company needs its servers to stay running through short power outages. Which solution should be implemented?
- An uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
- Additional hard drives
- Cable-management trays
- External speakers
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — a UPS. A UPS supplies battery-backed power that bridges brief outages and allows a graceful shutdown during longer ones — the standard way to keep servers available through power interruptions.
Why not the others: extra hard drives (B) add storage or redundancy, not power continuity; cable-management trays (C) organize wiring; external speakers (D) are irrelevant to server uptime.
Source: CompTIA Server+ objectives — Power and cooling → Further reading: PowerKram — platform administration guide →A server administrator must prevent unauthorized physical access to server racks. What is the best method?
- Install locking rack doors
- Add more cooling fans
- Install additional network cards
- Apply OS updates
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — locking rack doors. Physical access control — locked rack doors, ideally with logging or badge access — is the direct defense against someone tampering with hardware. It is a core physical-security control for a server room.
Why not the others: cooling fans (B) manage heat; network cards (C) add connectivity; OS updates (D) harden software. None of them controls who can physically touch the rack.
Source: CompTIA Server+ objectives — Physical security → Further reading: PowerKram — security practices guide →A business wants to minimize downtime during server hardware maintenance. Which approach is most effective?
- Implement server clustering with failover
- Upgrade the monitor
- Change the desktop wallpaper
- Disable antivirus
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — server clustering with failover. Clustering lets another node take over the workload while one server is taken offline for maintenance, so the service stays available — the textbook high-availability answer.
Why not the others: a monitor upgrade (B) and wallpaper change (C) have nothing to do with availability; disabling antivirus (D) reduces security and does nothing for uptime.
Source: CompTIA Server+ objectives — High availability →A technician must replace a failed drive in a RAID 5 array. What is the safest first step?
- Positively identify and label the failed drive
- Reboot the server immediately
- Reset the RAID controller
- Format all the drives
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — identify and label the failed drive. In a RAID 5 array, pulling the wrong (still-healthy) drive can collapse the array and cause data loss. Confirming exactly which physical drive failed before touching anything is the critical first step.
Why not the others: rebooting (B) can change drive ordering and complicate identification; resetting the controller (C) risks the array configuration; formatting all drives (D) destroys the data you are trying to protect.
Source: CompTIA Server+ objectives — Storage troubleshooting (RAID) →A server’s performance degrades after several virtual machines are added. What is the most likely cause?
- Insufficient physical RAM or CPU resources
- An incorrect IP configuration
- An expired SSL certificate
- A disconnected keyboard
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — insufficient RAM or CPU. Each VM consumes a slice of the host’s physical memory and compute. Over-provisioning more guests than the hardware can support causes contention and the slowdown described.
Why not the others: a wrong IP (B) breaks connectivity, not general performance; an expired SSL cert (C) causes trust warnings, not resource exhaustion; a disconnected keyboard (D) has no effect on a running server’s performance.
Source: CompTIA Server+ objectives — Virtualization & resource allocation → Further reading: PowerKram — platform administration guide →A server administrator must apply security patches while minimizing the risk of an outage. What is the safest method?
- Test patches in a lab or staging environment before production deployment
- Apply patches immediately to all production servers
- Disable all user accounts
- Reduce the screen brightness
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — test in a lab/staging environment first. Validating patches against a representative non-production environment catches conflicts before they can take down live services — the disciplined change-management approach Server+ expects.
Why not the others: patching all production at once (B) risks a fleet-wide outage if a patch misbehaves; disabling accounts (C) and changing brightness (D) are unrelated to safe patching.
Source: CompTIA Server+ objectives — Server hardening & patching →A critical server is rebooting unexpectedly and without warning. Which troubleshooting step is most appropriate first?
- Check the system event logs for errors
- Replace the chassis fans
- Update the printer drivers
- Change the desktop wallpaper
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — check the system event logs first. Following the troubleshooting methodology, you gather information before changing anything. Event and hardware logs (and any out-of-band/IPMI logs) usually record the cause of an unexpected reboot — thermal events, power faults, kernel or driver crashes — which then directs the fix.
Why not the others: replacing the fans (B) is swapping hardware on a guess before confirming a thermal cause; updating printer drivers (C) is unrelated to a server reboot; changing wallpaper (D) is irrelevant.
Source: CompTIA Server+ objectives — Troubleshooting methodology → Further reading: PowerKram — platform administration guide →A company wants to protect server data against fire or flood damage at its primary site. Which measure best addresses this risk?
- Regular offsite (or cloud) backups
- Installing a new RAID controller
- Increasing the server’s RAM
- Upgrading the network switch
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — offsite backups. A site disaster destroys everything on premises at once, so the only protection is a copy held elsewhere — offsite or cloud backups that survive the loss of the building.
Why not the others: a RAID controller (B) protects against a single drive failure, not a site loss; more RAM (C) is performance, not protection; a network switch (D) is connectivity. None survives fire or flood at the primary site.
Source: CompTIA Server+ objectives — Disaster recovery & backup →A server rack sits in a room with poor airflow and rising temperatures. What is the most effective solution?
- Improve cooling and airflow (e.g., hot/cold aisle, added cooling capacity)
- Add more USB hubs
- Disable unused network ports
- Lower the monitor brightness
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — improve cooling and airflow. Rising temperatures from poor airflow are an environmental problem solved by environmental means: better aisle containment, unblocked vents, blanking panels, or additional cooling capacity to keep equipment within its thermal range.
Why not the others: USB hubs (B) and network ports (C) do not affect room temperature; monitor brightness (D) has no thermal impact on the rack.
Source: CompTIA Server+ objectives — Cooling & environmental controls →Keep going: study guides and career paths
Server+ proves you can run the infrastructure other systems depend on — it pays off fastest when you pair it with the next skill and a clear sense of where it leads. Two PowerKram hubs back this exam up.
Deep dive: Server+ exam structure, scoring, study path & what comes next
Exam structure and how it’s scored
The V5 Server+ exam (SK0-005) delivers a maximum of 90 questions in 90 minutes, combining multiple-choice items with performance-based questions that put you in a simulated configuration or troubleshooting task. Scoring is scaled from 100 to 900, and the passing mark is 750 — the highest bar among CompTIA’s core infrastructure exams. Performance-based items are time-consuming and tend to appear early, so flagging and skipping them, clearing the multiple-choice questions, then returning is a common pacing tactic. See our server & infrastructure study guides →
Where the weight actually sits
Server+ has four areas, and the two operational ones dominate: Server administration (30%) and Troubleshooting (28%) together make up 58% of the exam. Security and disaster recovery (24%) is substantial, while initial hardware install and management (18%) is the smallest slice. The practical takeaway is that running and fixing servers — not racking them — is where most of the marks are. PowerKram’s objective-level scoring surfaces which of the four is dragging your readiness in your first practice run. Read the security practices guide →
Realistic study path
Server+ assumes real experience — CompTIA recommends A+ plus roughly two years working with servers — so most candidates need six to ten weeks of focused review: work the four areas, drill objective-tagged practice questions, and re-weight each week toward your weakest area, usually administration depth or disaster-recovery planning. Hands-on practice matters: standing up a VM host, configuring RAID and clustering, scripting a routine task, and walking a backup-and-restore drill build the judgment the performance-based questions assume. A full timed simulation in the final days converts knowledge into exam pace. Read certifications vs. a college degree →
Recommended experience, cost, and delivery
CompTIA recommends A+ certification (or equivalent knowledge) plus about two years of hands-on server experience — a heavier expectation than its entry-level exams, but still a guideline rather than a hard gate. The exam is delivered through Pearson VUE at a test center or online with a proctor; the online option needs a quiet, private room and a webcam system check. It is offered in English and Japanese. Fees and renewal rules vary by region and change over time, so confirm the current voucher price and continuing-education requirements on CompTIA’s site before you book. CompTIA’s official Server+ page →
What comes after Server+
Server+ sits at the infrastructure layer, validating that you can run servers in data-center, on-premises, and hybrid environments. From here, many professionals deepen into a security track such as Security+ or into vendor-specific server, virtualization, and cloud platforms. Each builds directly on the administration and disaster-recovery fundamentals Server+ establishes. For role-by-role context on where infrastructure paths lead, browse our Career Hub. Network Engineer role guide →
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