A communication method, a terminal, and a network device are provided. The method includes: determining, by a terminal, a first identifier based on a resource index number of a first resource, where the resource index number of the first resource is preset, or is indicated by a network device, the first resource is a resource used by the terminal to send a random access preamble, the first identifier is used to scramble first signaling, and the first signaling is used to schedule a random access response in a random access process; and detecting, by the terminal, the first signaling based on the first identifier.