IT Support Technician practice questions with answers

Updated 15 September 2026 · 2 min read

The questions here mirror the mix a support technician handles in a working day: hardware and operating systems first, then IT fundamentals, networking, customer service and security. Answer each one as though a real user were waiting. Decide what you would do and why, then open the explanation and compare your thinking with it.

How this guide was made

Written for this site with AI assistance, then checked automatically before publishing. The topic table, sample questions, worked examples and study plan are generated from this site’s question bank: each worked example is recalculated by separate code, and each sample answer says where it came from.

The guide deliberately states no salaries, grades, pass marks or exam dates. Those change, and they could not be checked here, so take them from the advert itself.

This site is independent and is not affiliated with MIFOTRA or any employer.

Practice questions

You run sfc /scannow and it reports Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. What is the NEXT best step?
1. Run the DISM tool to repair the Windows image.
2. Boot into Safe Mode and run it again.
3. Reinstall Windows completely.
4. Run chkdsk /r.
Show the answer
A. Run the DISM tool to repair the Windows image.
DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) can repair the underlying Windows component store that SFC uses to fix corrupted files.
Original practice question, written against published exam objectives. Open this question
Which of the following is a Linux distribution?
1. Windows
2. macOS
3. iOS
4. Ubuntu
Show the answer
D. Ubuntu
Ubuntu is a Linux distribution. macOS and iOS are Apple's Unix-derived systems but are not Linux; Windows is unrelated.
Real past-paper question; answer cross-checked against the original session. Open this question
What is the purpose of a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)?
1. To increase processing speed
2. To protect against viruses
3. To connect multiple devices
4. To provide backup power
Show the answer
D. To provide backup power
A UPS supplies battery power during an outage so equipment can ride through it or shut down cleanly.
Real past-paper question; answer cross-checked against the original session. Open this question
A technician suspects a device driver is causing system instability. Which tool allows them to view hardware conflicts, update drivers, or roll back to a previous driver version?
1. Event Viewer
2. Task Manager
3. msconfig
4. Device Manager
Show the answer
D. Device Manager
Device Manager is the centralized Microsoft Management Console snap-in used to manage hardware devices and their drivers.
Original practice question, written against published exam objectives. Open this question
A user’s laptop connects to the Wi-Fi but shows "No Internet Access". The IP address assigned is 169.254.x.x. What does this indicate?
1. The user typed the wrong Wi-Fi password
2. The DHCP server is unreachable and APIPA assigned the IP
3. The DNS server is down
4. The router is blocking the MAC address
Show the answer
B. The DHCP server is unreachable and APIPA assigned the IP
A 169.254.x.x address is an Automatic Private IP Address (APIPA), assigned by the OS when it cannot reach a DHCP server.
Original practice question, written against published exam objectives. Open this question
An employee reports that a local network printer is printing garbled text instead of the actual document. What is the most probable cause?
1. The printer is out of toner
2. The print spooler service has stopped
3. The network switch is dropping packets
4. An incorrect or corrupted printer driver
Show the answer
D. An incorrect or corrupted printer driver
Garbled or "gibberish" printouts occur when the printer receives data it cannot understand, almost always due to an incorrect or corrupted driver.
Original practice question, written against published exam objectives. Open this question
Group Policy Objects (GPOs) are applied in a specific order. According to the LSDOU model, which policy is applied LAST and has the highest precedence?
1. Organizational Unit (OU)
2. Local
3. Domain
4. Site
Show the answer
A. Organizational Unit (OU)
GPOs are processed in the order of Local, Site, Domain, and finally OU. The last applied policy wins in the event of a conflict.
Original practice question, written against published exam objectives. Open this question
Users report that their web browsers are failing to negotiate TLS encryption with a newly deployed internal server. Which OSI layer is failing to establish this secure connection?
1. Presentation
2. Session
3. Application
4. Transport
Show the answer
A. Presentation
Objective 1.1: The Presentation layer (Layer 6) handles encryption/decryption like TLS. Application handles HTTP, Session handles teardown, Transport handles TCP.
Original practice question, written against published exam objectives. Open this question

Picture the user behind the question

Support questions are easier when you imagine the situation. Who is the user, what were they doing, and what changed? A computer that stopped printing after an update is a different problem from one that never printed at all. Reading the stem as a small story helps you notice the detail that decides the answer.

Build a symptom list

Every time you get a hardware or software question wrong, add a line to a symptom list: the symptom, the real cause, and the cause you wrongly chose. By the end of your preparation that list is a personal troubleshooting guide, and reviewing it takes minutes.

After these questions

The worked examples below practise binary conversion, file transfer times, storage capacity and subnetting, which come up in support work more often than candidates expect. The full-bank questions after them are real practice items across the same areas; you can read every one, and an access code opens their answers.

Two calculations to try

Try each one on paper first. Every figure is generated and then recalculated by separate code before it is published.

Converting an octet from decimal to binary
Convert 242 to an 8-bit binary octet.
Show the working
1. Subtract the largest place value that fits, mark a 1, and repeat: 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1.
2. 242 = 128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 2
3. Mark those places with 1 and the rest with 0: 11110010
Answer: 11110010
How long a file takes to transfer
How long does a 1.5 GB file take to copy over a 20 Mbps link? Use decimal units (1 GB = 1,000 MB) and ignore protocol overhead.
Show the working
1. Storage is sized in bytes, link speed in bits. Multiply megabytes by 8 to get megabits.
2. 1500 MB × 8 = 12000 Mb
3. Time = 12000 Mb ÷ 20 Mbps = 600 s ≈ 10 minutes
4. Real transfers take longer: TCP/IP headers, retransmissions and disk speed all eat into the link rate.
Answer: 10 minutes

Common questions

Why are there calculation questions for a support role?

Technicians configure IP addresses, estimate how long a data transfer will take and set up storage, so basic calculations appear in real work and in tests.

How can I practise hardware questions without equipment?

Use clear photos and videos of components, manufacturer documentation, and virtual machines for the software side. If you can borrow an old computer to take apart, the hands-on experience makes symptom questions much easier to reason about.