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5 free, original PBQs for Server+ (SK0-005), with firewall rules, the Linux command line and drag-and-drop. Do each task, check it, and read why the answer is right.
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CompTIA Server+
You do each task instead of picking an answer. Every question is explained after you check it, and you get a score at the end.
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OpenpassAI’s practice sessions add performance-based questions, with command-line and network topology tasks, to full timed exams, AI explanations and a readiness score.
The questions
Each one with its scenario and task. Try it above first, then open the explanation.
Question 1 · Matching · Server Hardware Installation and Management
You’re specifying storage for five servers, and each one has a different need for speed, capacity and protection against drive failure.
Match each description to the RAID level it describes.
RAID 0 stripes data for speed and has no redundancy at all. RAID 1 mirrors two drives. RAID 5 stripes with one drive’s worth of parity and survives one failure; RAID 6 uses two drives’ worth and survives two. RAID 10 stripes across mirrored pairs, which gives speed and redundancy at the cost of half the capacity. JBOD simply presents the drives one after another, with no striping or protection.
Question 2 · Linux command line · Server Administration
A nightly backup script has been copied to srv02, and it will run as the service account svcbackup. The script’s folder for backups doesn’t exist yet, and the script itself can’t be executed. Operators in the backupops group must be able to run it and read the backups; nobody else should.
Create the backup folder and set the ownership and permissions the tasks ask for.
mkdir -p creates the folder (and any missing parents). chown user:group hands it to the service account and the operators’ group, and mode 770 gives those two full access and everyone else none. For the script, the group gets read and execute (750) so operators can run it but only root can change it: a script that runs as a privileged job must never be writable by the people who run it.
Question 3 · Matching · Security and Disaster Recovery
The business continuity plan is being rewritten, and the draft uses five terms that the finance director keeps mixing up.
Match each description to the term it defines.
A hot site is a running duplicate that can take over almost at once; a warm site has the equipment but needs data restored first; a cold site is only space, power and cooling. The recovery time objective is how long the business can be without a service, and the recovery point objective is how much recent data it can afford to lose, which decides how often backups must run.
Question 4 · Firewall rules · Security and Disaster Recovery
A firewall separates the user network from two servers: an application server and the database behind it. At the moment users can connect straight to the database and anyone can open Remote Desktop on the application server, while the application itself can’t reach its database.
Edit the rules until all five requirements pass. The first matching rule decides, and anything unmatched is denied.
Users only ever need the application’s HTTPS port. The database should accept connections from the application server alone, so the rule from the user network to port 1433 goes and a rule from the application server replaces it. Remote Desktop is narrowed from the whole user network to the one admin workstation. This is least privilege applied to a network: each source reaches only the port it needs.
Question 5 · Matching · Troubleshooting
It’s Monday morning in the data center, and five alerts are waiting. You want a first theory for each before you start work.
Match each symptom to the most likely cause.
An amber drive light with a degraded array is a failed member drive: replace it and let the array rebuild. Less memory at startup than is fitted means a module has failed or worked loose. Kerberos rejects logins when clocks differ by more than five minutes, so drifting time breaks authentication. Temperature alarms followed by a shutdown are a cooling failure. Reaching a server by address but not by name is a DNS record problem.
CompTIA lists Server+ among its certifications with simulation performance-based questions: tasks in an approximation of a real tool, such as a firewall, a network diagram or a terminal window. CompTIA’s page on performance-based questions, read on November 12, 2026.
Guide
CompTIA describes performance-based questions as exam items that test your ability to solve problems in real-world settings. Most are simulations: an approximation of a tool such as a firewall, a network diagram, a terminal window or an operating system.
You don’t pick an answer. You do the task, and there can be more than one correct way to do it.
Try each question cold. Getting it wrong first and then reading why teaches more than reading the answer and nodding along.
A right answer reached by guessing is a wrong answer waiting for exam day. Every question here explains why each part is what it is.
CompTIA says a simulation question can be skipped and returned to later, with your work saved. If one is eating your time, move on, answer the multiple-choice questions and come back.
14 free labs in your browser: Linux and Windows command line, firewall rules and SOHO router setup, checked as you go.
Open the toolFree performance-based questions for 19 CompTIA exams: firewall rules, network diagrams, command-line tasks and drag-and-drop.
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Open the toolFAQs
Find quick answers or contact our support team.
Yes. CompTIA lists Server+ among its certifications with simulation performance-based questions: tasks in an approximation of a real tool, such as a firewall, a network diagram or a terminal window. That is from CompTIA’s page on performance-based questions, read on November 12, 2026.
No. They’re original tasks written to each exam’s published objectives. Using leaked real exam questions breaks every vendor’s exam rules.
CompTIA says a performance-based question can have more than one correct way through it, that its scoring allows for the different approaches, and that partial credit may be given. Here, each question is scored by its parts, so you can see which part you missed.
CompTIA says a simulation question can be skipped and returned to later, and that your work on it is saved when you move on. A virtual-environment question has to be completed when you reach it: a warning screen tells you so first.
No. It’s a practice terminal that runs in your browser. It understands the real commands the task needs and answers the way the real system would, but it isn’t a full operating system: nothing is installed, and nothing you type can break anything.
No. The questions run in your browser and nothing is saved. Sign up only if you want full practice exams and progress tracking.
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