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How to study to pass the CompTIA-XK0-005, Linux Plus

Is this exam for you?

At present, it is mandatory to know Linux if you are looking to acquire a decent job in IT. Linux is a requirement in most fields including but not limited to: systems engineer, DevOps engineer, cloud architect, network engineer, frontend and backend development, data science, and many more.

I went into this exam thinking that is was going to be like the other CompTIA exams. Having a CCNA under my belt I was quite confident that after passing that monster that the Linux+ was going to be a breeze. A friend of mine had just passed the Network+ and studied about 3 months with no background in IT. Another friend of mine had passed the A+ in a month. Youtuber’s were constantly reiterating about how CompTIA exams are “entry level” and that passing these exams would only take “a couple months”. So, I figured I’d take a shot at it as my CCNA landed me my first helpdesk job. I knew that I would be using Linux in the field and I already had a grasp of the basic command line. It couldn’t be that hard right?

Boy was I in for a rude awakening. Heed my warning, Passing this exam is no small feat. There are ample amounts of commands you need to learn in this curriculum. CompTIA themselves recommend at least 1 year in a Linux admin position to pass this exam.

While I believe this is slightly overkill, I will say this… It took me 6 months of studying and labbing 3+ hours per day on average, 6 days a week to pass the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) Which is considered one of the hardest intermediate level exams. The Linux+ exam took me 7 MONTHS of studying and labbing 3+ hours every day to pass. Though I did pass with a 794.

The exam is scored out of 900 which put me at about an 89%. Not bad, but it took 7 months and 600 hours of studying to get there! I will describe to you, in detail the best to study for this exam.

How I passed and resources I used

The exam is about 60 questions mostly multiple choice, with some drag and drop and a couple PBQ’s.

The Course

My favorite resource to use was the ITProTV Comptia Linux+ course.

Disclaimer: I am no way sponsored or affiliated with ITProTV or any parent companies. This is simply my opinion.

The course offers 17+ hours of video instruction that are supplemented with labs and notes. While the labs have a lot to be desired, the course itself was in depth and easy to understand. At $35 dollars a month, this was more than reasonable.

Note Taking

As I followed along with the course I would take hand written notes in a notebook.

Flashcards

As I completed each video, I would then create flashcards of the commands I had written in my notes with software called ANKI (that I also used for passing my CCNA). I highly recommend downloading this software as I will provide 500+ flashcards that I have created for you to download and use with this software throughout your journey.

Though I took the XK0-004 exam, I would say about 85-90% of the topics are the exact same on the new XK0-005 Linux plus exam. These flash cards I have created are for the XK0-004, but most of them will still be relevant in the new 005 exam.

I also highly suggest you create your own flash cards as you progress through the chapters. Continue to study them every day in your free time. I would suggest studying flash cards about a half hour a day.

Anki Software – https://apps.ankiweb.net/                                                                                                                                                                                               Flashcards I created (APKG files are what anki uses) – https://mega.nz/folder/chlWFZhQ#M92e-fadqZNgYgo0JkmArg                                                                       Once downloaded you can import the files into your ANKI instance:

 

 

Reading Material

I purchased the official Linux+ Study guide to supplement everything I was learning in the course. Which you can buy on amazing for about $50 https://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Linux-Study-Guide-XK0-005/dp/1119878942

I did not read the entire book cover to cover. I would say I read about 80% of it. I would use the book where the video course lacked in explanation of a subject. If I felt there were exam topics that the video course did not cover at all, or only covered in passing I would read about that topic in the exam guide, which does indeed hit every topic in depth.

Labbing

Lastly, labbing daily is key to passing this exam. As I followed along with the course I would always make sure that I was following along in a Linux shell. To set up your own lab environment you can do one of three things:

  1. Spin up a Linux virtual machine in Virtualbox or Vmware workstation. You can download this software from their websites.
  2. Image a dedicated server with proxmox or vmware ESXI and spin up your linux VMs in a bare metal hypervisor (more advanced: this is what I did).
  3. Image a dedicated machine with linux

I would suggest using the first two options as it will be much easier to navigate and manipulate.

You will need to spin up a Centos 8 image and an Ubuntu 22.04 image. If you don’t know how to do it, its 2023 just YouTube it! “How to install Ubuntu on vmware workstation”

Consistency is Key

Lab everything you are learning at least 2 or 3 times, things you need more practice with lab more often. I suggest for users new to Linux to lab 3-4 hours a day. Those familiar may only need 1 or 2 hours per day. This exam is basically command memorization and knowing what commands to use in a specified situations.

To Sum it up

  1. ITProTV Linux plus course (17+ hours of video)
  2. Flashcards (30 minutes per day)
  3. Comptia XK0-005 official study guide (Supplement video material)
  4. Lab Lab Lab! (2-4 hours per day)

I wish you the best of luck on your journey and feel free to reach out to me at kieldavignon2@yahoo.com if you have any question or would like to chat J

Good Luck!!!