Eight Amazon searches for the current CompTIA A+ exam codes turned up four books from established publishers. The publishers themselves list seven.
A+ is now V15, sat as Core 1 (220-1201) and Core 2 (220-1202). Search for CompTIA A+ books and you will meet Mike Meyers’ All-in-One near the top, carrying 1,210 ratings and a 4.7 average, written for 220-1101 and 220-1102. Those codes no longer have an exam page on CompTIA’s site. Sweeping Wiley’s and Pearson’s own catalogs took about a minute each and surfaced three more current-code titles that those searches had not shown, including Mike Chapple’s CertMike pair and Pearson’s 1,104-page course textbook. This guide covers the six study guides, question banks and textbooks worth buying for the current codes, what shifted in the objectives between the two versions, and what an old A+ book is still good for. Every price, rating, page count and publication date below was verified against live Amazon US listings and publisher pages in September 2026, and the exam figures come from CompTIA’s Core 1 and Core 2 pages.
The exam codes on your voucher
Read the codes on the cover before you read the reviews. CompTIA launched A+ V15 on 25 March 2025 under 220-1201 and 220-1202, and its certification pages now list no other version. The V14 exam URLs redirect to their V15 equivalents, so the retired codes no longer have an exam page of their own.
The two halves are not interchangeable, and the pass mark is not the same number on both:
| Detail | Core 1 (220-1201) | Core 2 (220-1202) |
|---|---|---|
| Questions | Maximum 90 | Maximum 90 |
| Time | 90 minutes | 90 minutes |
| Passing score | 675 of 900 | 700 of 900 |
| Domains | 5 | 4 |
| Launched | 25 March 2025 | 25 March 2025 |
Do not read the 675 and the 700 as difficulty. Scaled scores come out of separate equating runs for each exam, so 700 on Core 2 does not mean more correct answers than 675 on Core 1. The number worth acting on is a different one: CompTIA states that Core 1 and Core 2 must be taken from the same version, with no mixing allowed. If you passed one half on the retired codes and never sat the other, ask CompTIA where that leaves you before you spend anything on books.
CompTIA puts V15’s expected retirement at 2028, three years after launch, which leaves well over a year of runway on anything you buy now. That is a far easier position than CySA+ book buyers are in this year.
What actually moved between the two A+ versions
The left column is the weighting CompTIA gave each domain in the retired version, from its own December 2024 explainer. The right column is what its Core 1 and Core 2 pages carry today.
| Domain | Old (220-1101/1102) | Current (220-1201/1202) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile devices (Core 1) | 15% | 13% | down 2 |
| Networking (Core 1) | 20% | 23% | up 3 |
| Hardware (Core 1) | 25% | 25% | no change |
| Virtualization and cloud (Core 1) | 11% | 11% | no change |
| Hardware and network troubleshooting (Core 1) | 29% | 28% | down 1 |
| Operating systems (Core 2) | 31% | 28% | down 3 |
| Security (Core 2) | 25% | 28% | up 3 |
| Software troubleshooting (Core 2) | 22% | 23% | up 1 |
| Operational procedures (Core 2) | 22% | 21% | down 1 |
Three domains moved by a full three points, and two of them are in Core 2. Operating systems used to lead security by six points there. They are now tied at 28% each, so the half of A+ that people think of as the Windows exam is just as much a security exam. Networking picked up the other three points, over in Core 1.
Percentages are only half the story. CompTIA rewrote the objective statements underneath them even where the headline number held, so a book built for the retired codes is out of date in ways this table cannot show you. Treat it as evidence that the exam moved, not as a map of how much of your old book survives.
The current A+ books at a glance
Seven print titles from Sybex and Pearson IT Certification carry the current codes. Eight Amazon searches against 220-1201 and 220-1202 surfaced only four of them, and most of what came back instead carried ASINs with no ISBN behind them, including one listed at $0.51 and one at $0.00. The last three rows are retired-code books still on sale at full price.
| Book | Codes | Published | Pages | Rating | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A+ Complete Study Guide, 6th (Sybex) | 220-1201 / 1202 | Jul 2025 | 1,920 | 4.6 (184) | $38.20 |
| A+ Complete Practice Tests, 4th (Sybex) | 220-1201 / 1202 | Aug 2025 | 736 | 3.5 (12) | $22.60 |
| A+ Complete Review Guide, 6th (Sybex) | 220-1201 / 1202 | Aug 2025 | 704 | 4.4 (18) | $17.59 |
| A+ CertMike Core 1, 2nd (Sybex) | 220-1201 | Sep 2025 | 464 | 5.0 (1) | $23.51 |
| A+ CertMike Core 2, 2nd (Sybex) | 220-1202 | Sep 2025 | 688 | none yet | $24.99 |
| A+ Core 1 and Core 2 Exam Cram, 2nd (Pearson) | 220-1201 / 1202 | Sep 2025 | 1,216 | 4.2 (15) | $46.88 |
| Complete A+ Guide to IT Hardware and Software, 10th (Pearson) | V15 | Aug 2025 | 1,104 | none yet | $113.99 |
| A+ Complete Study Guide, 5th (Sybex) | 220-1101 / 1102 | May 2022 | 1,744 | 4.6 (917) | $26.98 |
| A+ All-in-One, 11th (McGraw Hill) | 220-1101 / 1102 | Jan 2023 | 1,472 | 4.7 (1,210) | $38.32 |
| A+ Cert Guide, 1st (Pearson) | 220-1101 / 1102 | Oct 2022 | 912 | 4.3 (15) | $60.00 |
The worst trap on that list is not the Meyers book. It is the fifth edition of the book at the top of it. Docter and Buhagiar’s previous CompTIA A+ Complete Study Guide is still on sale at around $26.98, eleven dollars under the current edition, carrying 917 ratings against the sixth edition’s 184 and the same 4.6 average. Same authors, same series, same cover styling. What differs is the edition number and the exam codes on the front. Sort by price or by review count and that is the book you land on.
Mike Meyers’ All-in-One works on you the same way, with more than six times the sixth edition’s ratings, because it went on sale in January 2023 against July 2025, a head start of two and a half years. Sales rank tells a better story for that pairing: on the day this was checked the current Sybex guide sat around #12,400 in Books against the All-in-One’s #32,900. Every other current-code title ranks below both, which is what a thin, new shelf looks like.
Pearson prices the retired book above the current one. Its Cert Guide from October 2022 sells at $60.00 against $46.88 for the Exam Cram written for the current codes, thirteen dollars more for the exams nobody sits any more. Nothing about the price tells you which is which.
Sybex also sells a Certification Kit bundling its study guide, review guide and practice tests, listed at $88.38 against $78.39 for the same three bought separately on the same day. Wiley lists the kit at $120.00 on its own store against $145.00 for the three components at list, so it is a real discount there. It is just not a discount on Amazon. Buy the three individually unless the kit drops below their combined price.
1. CompTIA A+ Complete Study Guide, Sixth Edition
The default choice, and for most candidates the only book that is strictly necessary. Quentin Docter and Jon Buhagiar split it into two physical volumes, one per exam, and Sybex shipped it 113 days after V15 launched, ahead of everything else on the current codes.
The two-volume format matters more than it sounds. A+ is two separate exams, and studying Core 1 from a volume that contains only Core 1 beats hauling a 1,920-page brick around. Volume 1 is Core 1, volume 2 is Core 2, and both covers carry their exam code, so you cannot open the wrong one by accident.
Registration gets you the Sybex online test bank, which the cover puts at four custom practice exams, 200 electronic flashcards and a searchable glossary. The cover also says one year of free access after activation, so the clock starts when you activate rather than when the book arrives. Leave it alone until you are actually studying.
Skip it if you want one volume you can read cover to cover, or if 1,920 pages is more than you will realistically get through. At around $38.20 with 184 ratings behind it, this is also the only current-code A+ book with enough reviews to mean much. Check the current price on Amazon.
2. CompTIA A+ Complete Practice Tests, Fourth Edition
Audrey O’Shea’s question bank carries the lowest average rating of any book on this list, and it is still the one that tells you whether you are ready to book the exam.
Wiley’s table of contents shows how it is built. Part I runs the five Core 1 domains across pages 1 to 156, Part II runs the four Core 2 domains from 157 to 348, then two full timed practice exams, one per code. The cover claims over 1,000 questions. The answers appendix runs from page 393 to the index at 641, which is 248 pages, about a third of the book, and those explanations are long enough to teach from when you get one wrong.
Be honest about that 3.5 average. It comes from 12 ratings on a book published in August 2025, which is far too few to draw a conclusion from in either direction. Some early buyers were unhappy. That is all the number establishes.
Skip it if you have not finished a study guide yet, or if the study guide’s own test bank is still throwing questions you have not seen. At around $22.60 it is cheap enough to add late rather than up front. Check the current price on Amazon.
3. CompTIA A+ Complete Review Guide, Sixth Edition
Troy McMillan’s review guide is not a second study guide. It walks the objectives in order and asks whether you know each one, which is a different job from teaching them.
At 704 pages across both exams it is roughly a third of the study guide’s length, which is the point. Used properly it is the book you open in the last fortnight, working the objective list until nothing on it makes you hesitate. Used improperly it is a study guide with the explanations taken out, and people who buy it as their only book find that out late.
Worth noticing before you buy both: the review guide advertises the same online extras as the study guide, four custom practice exams and 200 flashcards. If your budget is tight, buy the study guide first and see whether its bank is enough before adding this one.
Skip it if you have not finished a full study guide yet. Its 4.4 average comes from 18 ratings, so read it as thin evidence rather than a verdict. At around $17.59 it is the cheapest of the six here. Check the current price on Amazon.
4. CompTIA A+ CertMike, Second Edition
This is one of the titles Amazon’s search for the new codes never showed. Mike Chapple, who writes Sybex’s Security+ and CISSP guides, covers each exam in its own shorter book built around a prepare, practice, pass loop per objective.
They sell separately: Core 1 (220-1201) runs 464 pages at around $23.51, and Core 2 (220-1202) runs 688 pages at around $24.99. Wiley lists each at $50.00, so Amazon is currently running both at about half of list. Stock reads thin on Core 1, so check availability rather than assuming that price holds.
Run the arithmetic before you assume the shorter books are the cheaper route. The pair comes to $48.50 for 1,152 pages against $38.20 for the study guide’s 1,920. You pay $10.30 more for 768 fewer pages. That trade is worth it if a 1,920-page set is what stops you finishing, and it is a bad deal if you would have read the longer one anyway.
Skip it if you want depth on hardware, or if you want reviews to lean on. Core 1 has a single rating and Core 2 has none, so there is no useful signal there yet either way.
5. CompTIA A+ Core 1 and Core 2 Exam Cram, Second Edition
The Pearson option, and the one to reach for if you want a second explanation of something the Sybex book did not land. David Bayne, Mark Smith and John Pickard wrote it, published 21 September 2025.
Despite the Exam Cram name it runs 1,216 pages, so this is a full study guide with cram furniture attached: Exam Alerts through the chapters, a last-minute CramSheet, and Pearson Test Prep software carrying four complete exams. Pearson dates the copyright 2026 and prices the print edition at $59.99 list on its own store, discounted there to $47.99, which puts Amazon about a dollar under the publisher.
A detail that says a lot about the state of the A+ shelf: the description Pearson runs on its own product page for this second edition still calls it the 220-1101 and 220-1102 Exam Cram, and still says it covers the critical information needed for those exams. The title, the ISBN, the cover and the contents are all on 220-1201 and 220-1202. Only the marketing copy was left behind. Check the codes on the cover art before you order, whichever retailer you use.
Skip it if you already own the Sybex study guide, because buying both is 3,136 pages covering the same nine domains. At around $46.88 it is the most expensive single book here except the Pearson textbook below. Check the current price on Amazon.
6. Complete A+ Guide to IT Hardware and Software
Cheryl Schmidt and Christopher Lee wrote the classroom textbook, not an exam crammer. Pearson published the tenth edition on 25 August 2025, 153 days after V15 launched and four weeks ahead of its own Exam Cram.
It is also the only A+ cover here that names the version rather than the codes, printing “Core 1 and Core 2 Exams (V15)” on the front. That is worth a moment: CompTIA’s store now sells by product version rather than exam code, so the wording on this cover matches what you will see when you buy the voucher.
The price is where the reasoning has to happen. At around $113.99 for 1,104 pages it costs nearly three times the study guide, and Pearson’s own store discounts it to $106.25 from a $125.00 list, so Amazon is the more expensive of the two on this one. It earns its place if you learn better from a course text with labs and exercises than from an objective-mapped exam guide, or if you are teaching the material.
Skip it if your goal is only to pass, which for most readers it is. There are no ratings on it yet. Check the current price on Amazon.
Where the old A+ books still help
If the All-in-One is already on your shelf, do not throw it out and do not study for the exam from it. Every Mike Meyers A+ title on Amazon today carries 220-1101 and 220-1102 or older codes: the All-in-One, the Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs, its lab manual, and the Core 1 Passport. No McGraw Hill A+ book on the current codes surfaced in either Amazon or OpenLibrary searches for both exam codes, seventeen months after they launched, and Pearson updated its Exam Cram while leaving its Cert Guide on the retired ones.
What an old book is still good for is background reading, and only that. Two Core 1 domains kept their exact weighting through the version change, hardware at 25% and virtualization and cloud at 11%. Power supplies, connectors, RAM and storage did not change because a code did. But the caveat above still applies to both: CompTIA rewrote the objective statements even where the percentage held, so an unchanged weighting is not an unchanged syllabus. Read the old book to understand how the hardware works, then work the objectives from a book with 220-1201 on the cover.
For most people the honest shopping list is short: the Sybex study guide, the practice tests when you are close, and nothing else. That is roughly $61 and it covers both exams. Professor Messer also sells V15 course notes and practice exams directly on Amazon if you already follow his videos, though they carry no reviews yet. Once A+ is done, the usual next steps are Network+ books or Security+ study guides, and if the Core 2 Linux material is what caught your interest, the Linux+ books pick that thread up properly. If you are weighing the networking route against Cisco, we compared CCNA against Network+ separately.
