ITA case studies
ITA · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The Information Technology Associate (ITA) is an entry-level credential for people who want to demonstrate a broad, practical grounding in IT rather than deep specialization in one area. It suits career changers, help-desk and desktop-support staff, students finishing a first IT program, and anyone in an adjacent role who needs to speak credibly with technical colleagues. Because it is a generalist exam, it rewards candidates who can move between hardware, operating systems, networking, security, support, data and web topics without losing their footing. The published domain weights are your best planning tool: fundamentals, operating systems, networking, security and troubleshooting each carry roughly equal weight and together make up three quarters of the blueprint, while databases, web technologies and service management fill out the remainder. The ITA case studies are 5 cases and about 2,915 words.
1The Slow Boot Mystery
A user reports that their Windows 10 desktop takes over 5 minutes to boot, whereas it used to take 30 seconds. The machine has an SSD, 16 GB RAM, and an Intel i5 processor.
532 words, about 3 min2The Shared Folder Permission Puzzle
A small office has a Windows Server 2019 file server with a shared folder named 'Finance'. The folder contains sensitive financial documents.
696 words, about 3 min3The Intermittent Network Outage
A company has a network with 50 computers connected to a 48-port switch. The switch is connected to a router that provides internet access.
615 words, about 3 min4The Phishing Email That Bypassed Filters
An employee in the accounting department received an email that appeared to come from the CEO, requesting a wire transfer of $50,000 to a new vendor. The email address was '[email protected]' but the display name was 'CEO Name'.
508 words, about 3 min5The Database Connection Pool Exhaustion
A web application uses a connection pool to a MySQL database. The application is hosted on two web servers behind a load balancer.
564 words, about 3 min