Network+ or Security+ first? A decision, not a rule
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Short answer
There is no prerequisite. You can take Security+ today without holding Network+, and plenty of people do.
Take Network+ first if subnetting, ports, and how traffic moves through a network are still shaky for you. Go straight to Security+ if they are not — because it is the certification employers and job listings actually ask for, and it holds the DoD 8140 value.
The two-minute self-test
Skip the general advice and answer these. They are the things Security+ assumes you already have.
- Can you explain what a subnet mask does without looking it up?
- Do you know what ports 22, 443, 53 and 3389 are for, and could you say why blocking one of them breaks a particular thing?
- Can you describe what happens between a browser and a web server, roughly, from DNS lookup to the page loading?
- Do you know the difference between a switch, a router, and a firewall?
Three or four yes: go straight to Security+. Network+ would mostly be review, and review is an expensive thing to certify.
Two or fewer: Security+ is going to be much harder than its reputation suggests, because roughly a third of it assumes this material silently. Either take Network+ first, or spend three or four weeks on networking fundamentals before you start.
What the two certifications actually differ on
| Compared on | Network+ | Security+ |
|---|---|---|
| What it certifies | How networks are built, addressed, and troubleshot | How systems are attacked, defended, and governed |
| Employer demand | Solid, mostly for network and support roles | Substantially higher, and named directly in many job postings |
| Government and defense work | Recognized, narrower scope | The common baseline under DoD 8140, which is why it appears as a hard requirement on contracts |
| Exam cost | Lower | Higher — and a retake is another full voucher |
| Prerequisite for the other? | No — recommended, never required | No |
Why “Network+ first” became the standard advice
It is not arbitrary. CompTIA positions Network+ as recommended background, and the advice survives because it describes a real failure mode: people with no networking grounding take Security+, find that the questions assume a layer of knowledge nobody told them about, and fail on material that was never in the security syllabus.
The advice goes wrong when it is applied to someone who already has that grounding — a helpdesk technician, a sysadmin, a developer who has configured firewalls. For them, Network+ costs a voucher and a month to certify things they already do at work.
The case for doing both anyway
If you are new to the field and choosing between “one certification now” and “two over six months”, two is often the better play — not for the knowledge, but because a single entry-level certification on an otherwise empty résumé reads as a course completion, while two reads as a direction.
Order them Network+ then Security+ if you take that route. The reverse order works too, but you will have done the harder exam without its foundation, which is the slow way round.
Where A+ fits
A+ sits below both and answers a different question: it certifies that you can work in IT at all — hardware, operating systems, troubleshooting. If you have never held an IT job and have no way to demonstrate you can do one, A+ is the honest starting point. If you already work in IT in any capacity, skip it.
Note that A+ is two separate exams, so the cost and the time are roughly double what a single certification implies.
If security is not actually the goal
Both certifications in the title assume you are heading for security work. That assumption is worth checking before you buy a voucher, because "which exam first" and "which field first" tend to get answered in the same sitting — and only one of them is cheap to reverse.
If what you actually want is cloud work, neither is the right first step: the cloud entry certifications start from far less networking than Security+ quietly assumes, which makes them a gentler entry from outside IT. If you are not sure which field you want yet, that is the decision to make first — the certification follows from it, not the other way round.
How to decide this week
- Take the self-test above honestly. Not “I could look it up” — could you explain it to someone else right now.
- Look at five job listings you would actually apply to. Count how many name Security+ and how many name Network+. In most markets this is not a close contest, and it is your market that matters rather than the average one.
- Check whether a contract or clearance forces the answer. If a role you want lists a DoD 8140 baseline, the decision has already been made for you.
One thing not to do
Do not take Network+ as a way of postponing Security+. If the self-test says you are ready, an extra certification in between is three months of delay in exchange for a line on your résumé that the Security+ line already covers.
After you decide
Whichever you pick, the preparation question is the same one: how long it takes depends far more on your starting point than on the certification, and the readiness signal is the same — unseen questions stop surprising you.
And before you book anything, it is worth knowing what a second attempt actually costs. That number changes how carefully most people choose their exam date.
The one-line version
No prerequisite exists, so this is a judgment about you, not a rule. Comfortable with networking fundamentals? Go straight to Security+ — it is the one employers ask for. Not comfortable? Fix that first, either through Network+ or a month of fundamentals.
Security+ question bank — join the waitlist
We are writing an adaptive Security+ bank now, built from the official exam objectives. Leave an email and we will tell you when it opens. Nothing else.
Keep reading
- DoD 8140 approved certifications: why there is no single list anymoreDoD 8140 replaced the old 8570 baseline-certification chart with a work-role qualification matrix. Here is how to find the certifications that actually count for your role.
- How hard is Security+, really?Security+ is not technically deep — it is wide, and it assumes networking knowledge nobody tells you about. Here is what actually makes it hard, including the question format most people meet for the first time on exam day.
- How long does it take to study for Security+?Most people need six to twelve weeks for Security+, but the number of weeks is the wrong thing to plan around. Here is what actually determines the timeline, and the readiness signal that replaces counting.