The CompTIA A+ exam voucher costs $246 per attempt. That's before study materials, practice exams, or retakes. So when people look for free CompTIA courses, they're not chasing a deal—they're trying to avoid spending $400+ before they've confirmed the cert is worth pursuing. The good news: free resources for the A+ 1101 are genuinely usable, not just filler. The catch is knowing which ones are worth your time and where the gaps are.
This guide covers the best free CompTIA courses for the A+ 1101 (Core 1) exam, what each one actually delivers, and how to structure a study plan around them.
What Free CompTIA Courses Actually Include
Not all "free" is the same. Before building a study plan around free resources, it's worth knowing what you're getting into:
- Full free video courses — A small number of instructors publish complete A+ courses at no cost. Professor Messer is the primary example.
- Free trials that cut off — Platforms like LinkedIn Learning offer 30-day trials. You can finish a course if you move fast, but it's not truly free.
- Free content, paid practice exams — Common model: videos are free, timed test simulation costs money.
- Couponed free courses — Udemy instructors periodically release free enrollment coupons, usually for a limited window.
- Community resources — Reddit's r/CompTIA, user-created Anki decks, Quizlet sets, and YouTube walkthroughs.
Free video content for CompTIA A+ is genuinely good and widely available. Free practice exam simulators—the resource most correlated with passing—are harder to find at no cost, though not impossible. Keep that distinction in mind as you build your plan.
Best Free CompTIA Courses for A+ 1101
Professor Messer — Free A+ Core 1 Video Course
Professor Messer's free CompTIA A+ course is the benchmark. The Core 1 (220-1101) video series covers all five exam domains in sequence, aligned directly to CompTIA's official objectives. Videos average 5–15 minutes each, which makes it practical to study in short bursts. The whole series is available on his site without creating an account or entering payment details.
What's free: all video content, study group participation, and downloadable course notes in PDF form. What costs money: his practice exams ($15) and the full study group package. If budget is the hard constraint, the free tier is sufficient to cover all exam content. But if you can spend anything, his practice exams are a reasonable first paid purchase after finishing the videos.
Mike Meyers on YouTube
Mike Meyers (Total Seminars) is one of the more experienced CompTIA instructors working, and he posts free A+ content on YouTube covering hardware identification, troubleshooting scenarios, and networking fundamentals. It's not a structured course—you'll need to find and sequence the relevant videos yourself—but his explanations of ambiguous topics are consistently clearer than most paid alternatives. When Professor Messer's take on something doesn't click, check Meyers' version.
CompTIA CertMaster Learn Trial
CompTIA's own platform offers a free trial of CertMaster Learn with access to a limited subset of the full content. The value here isn't depth—it's familiarity. CompTIA has a specific way of phrasing scenario questions, and exposure to that format early reduces test-day friction. The trial also gives you a sense of whether the full CertMaster product is worth buying.
Separately and more importantly: CompTIA publishes the official 220-1101 exam objectives PDF for free on their website. Download it before starting any course. Every question on the exam traces back to those objectives, and free resources vary in how completely they cover the full list. Having the PDF lets you audit your prep.
Free Udemy Coupons
Several Udemy instructors release free enrollment coupons for CompTIA A+ courses, typically as a launch promotion or periodic discount. The most reliable places to find current coupons: Reddit's r/udemyfreebies, r/CompTIA, and coupon aggregator sites. These rotate unpredictably. Even without a free coupon, Udemy sales bring most courses to $10–15, so missing a free window isn't a significant loss.
When evaluating Udemy courses, free or paid: check the last update date. The current exam version is 220-1101. Courses tagged for 220-1001 or earlier have substantial overlap but miss updated objectives and should be treated as supplementary, not primary.
ExamCompass and Free Practice Questions
ExamCompass offers free CompTIA A+ practice questions online with no account required. The question bank is limited compared to paid simulators, and some items are dated, but it's functional for testing retention after studying a domain. Quizlet has user-created A+ flashcard sets covering most of the Core 1 objectives—filter for sets tagged "220-1101" to get content aligned to the current exam version.
For a fuller free practice experience, r/CompTIA regularly links to community-shared practice resources, including shared exam prep documents and question banks. The signal-to-noise ratio in those threads is variable, but the good material is there.
What A+ 1101 Actually Covers
The 1101 exam has five domains, each weighted differently on the final score:
- Mobile Devices (15%) — Laptop hardware components, mobile OS features, connectivity, hardware and software troubleshooting on mobile devices
- Networking (20%) — TCP/IP fundamentals, DNS, DHCP, wireless standards, cable types, common ports and protocols
- Hardware (25%) — CPU types, RAM, storage interfaces, motherboard components, peripheral connections, power supplies
- Virtualization and Cloud Computing (11%) — IaaS/PaaS/SaaS distinctions, hypervisor types, cloud storage models
- Hardware and Network Troubleshooting (29%) — The highest-weighted domain; diagnosing and resolving real-world problems with hardware, networks, and devices
That troubleshooting domain deserves proportional study time that most free video courses underweight. Lectures are well-suited to conceptual domains like Networking and Hardware. For Troubleshooting, you need practice questions that present scenarios and require you to work through a decision process—not just recall definitions.
How to Build a Free Study Plan That Holds Together
A workable sequence for purely free prep:
- Download the official 220-1101 exam objectives PDF from CompTIA's website and keep it open throughout your study
- Work through Professor Messer's free Core 1 video course, following the objectives document order rather than jumping around
- After completing each domain, do practice questions on ExamCompass or a relevant Quizlet set before moving on
- Flag topics where practice questions expose gaps; revisit with Mike Meyers' YouTube videos for alternative explanations
- At the midpoint of your prep, take a full timed practice test—community-sourced from Reddit or CompTIA's trial content—to identify your weakest domains
- Book the exam only when you're consistently scoring 80%+ on practice tests. The passing score is 675 out of 900.
A realistic assessment: free resources are sufficient to pass the 1101 if you're disciplined about structuring your own path. The main thing paid courses provide isn't better content—it's structure. A course with progress tracking, built-in quizzes, and a defined sequence can substantially reduce prep time if you're studying around a full-time job and don't have bandwidth to self-manage.
Career Context: Is A+ Worth Pursuing Before Paying for Materials?
CompTIA A+ is consistently listed as a requirement or strong preference for help desk, IT support specialist, and desktop support roles. Entry-level IT support in the US ranges roughly $38,000–$55,000 depending on location, and A+ is the most commonly cited entry-level credential in those postings. The DoD 8570 framework requires A+ for certain government IT roles, which meaningfully expands the job market for holders.
Starting with free CompTIA courses makes particular sense if you're exploring whether IT support is the right direction. Pass the A+ before committing to a longer learning path—you'll find out quickly whether the material interests you, and whether you want to continue toward Network+, Security+, or something more specialized.
FAQ
Are there truly free CompTIA courses, or do they all require a paid upgrade?
Professor Messer's video course is genuinely free with no paywall on the core content. The paid options (practice exams, extended study groups) are upsells, not unlocks—the free videos are complete and cover all exam objectives. YouTube content from multiple instructors is also fully free with no account or payment required.
Can you pass the A+ 1101 using only free resources?
Yes, many people do. The limiting factor is practice exam access. Free question banks like ExamCompass and Quizlet are available, but they're less comprehensive than paid simulators in terms of question volume, timed-test simulation, and domain-level performance analysis. If you can afford one paid resource, spend it on a practice exam package rather than another video course.
How much study time does the A+ 1101 require?
Most candidates report 80–150 hours. People with some prior IT experience or hardware familiarity land closer to 80 hours. Complete beginners with no technical background often need 120–150 hours. That's roughly 2–4 months studying part-time. The pace is entirely self-directed with free resources, which is both the advantage and the challenge.
What's the difference between A+ 1101 and 1102?
The 1101 (Core 1) focuses on hardware, networking, mobile devices, and troubleshooting physical systems. The 1102 (Core 2) covers operating systems, security, software troubleshooting, and IT operational procedures. Both exams are required to earn the A+ certification—passing one does not give you the cert. Most candidates study for and sit them sequentially. Free resources exist for both; Professor Messer covers Core 2 as well.
Do free CompTIA courses reflect the current exam version?
Professor Messer updates his courses when objectives change, and the current series aligns with the 220-1101 objectives. When evaluating any free resource, check the update date and which exam code it references. Content built for the 220-1001 or earlier has substantial overlap but misses updated objectives—use it only as supplementary material, and rely on the official objectives PDF to identify gaps.
Is CompTIA A+ still worth getting?
For entry-level IT support specifically, yes. It's one of the few certifications that consistently appears in job requirements for people with no prior IT work experience. It's vendor-neutral, accepted by large employers across sectors, and mandated for certain government IT roles under DoD 8570. The cert isn't a golden ticket, but A+ holders demonstrably ramp faster in help desk roles—which is why employers keep requiring it.
Bottom Line
If you're looking for free CompTIA courses to prep for the A+ 1101, start with Professor Messer's free Core 1 video series. It's the most complete free resource available, covers all exam objectives, and is maintained for the current exam version. Supplement with Mike Meyers' YouTube content for topics that need a different explanation, and use ExamCompass or Quizlet for practice questions between domains.
The one purchase worth making, if you make any: a full practice exam simulator with timed tests and domain-level performance tracking. That's where most candidates find out whether they're actually ready—not after watching 40 hours of video, but after failing a timed practice test and seeing exactly where the gaps are.
Free resources can get you to passing level on the A+ 1101. The variable is whether you'll structure your own study path well enough to use them effectively. The objective PDF from CompTIA is your map. Use it from day one.