Practice for the CCNA exam with 23 exam-style practice questions, instant answer reveals, and concise explanations of every correct answer. Topics include: What is a characteristic of a collapsed-core network topology?. Follow @CertPunch and visit certpunch.com for more certification practice exams and study content.
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What you will practice
- What is a characteristic of a collapsed-core network topology?
- How is RFC 1918 addressing used in a network?
- What is the purpose of using First Hop Redundancy Protocol on a specific subnet?
- What is a requirement when configuring or removing LAG on a WLC?
- Which command displays the IPv4 routing table on a Cisco IOS device?
- What occurs when overlapping Wi-Fi channels are implemented?
Answers and explanations
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Q1. What is a characteristic of a collapsed-core network topology?
Answer: D. D. It allows the core and distribution layers to run as a single combined layer.
A collapsed-core network topology combines the core and distribution layers into a single logical tier. This design is typically implemented in smaller campus networks to reduce hardware costs and configuration complexity while maintaining adequate performance.
Q2. How is RFC 1918 addressing used in a network?
Answer: C. C. They are used with NAT to preserve public IPv4 addresses.
RFC 1918 private IP addresses are used internally within a network and must be translated using Network Address Translation to access the internet. This translation process allows multiple internal devices to share a single public IP address, preserving the limited IPv4 space.
Q3. What is the purpose of using First Hop Redundancy Protocol on a specific subnet?
Answer: B. B. provides a redundant default gateway for hosts on a subnet
First Hop Redundancy Protocols provide gateway redundancy by allowing multiple routers to share a single virtual IP address. If the active default gateway fails, another router assumes the virtual IP, ensuring continuous network access for hosts without requiring reconfiguration.
Q4. What is a requirement when configuring or removing LAG on a WLC?
Answer: C. C. The controller must be rebooted after enabling or reconfiguring LAG
Enabling, disabling, or reconfiguring Link Aggregation on a Wireless LAN Controller requires a reboot to apply the physical port changes. Interface assignments are negotiated automatically when Link Aggregation is active.
Q5. Which command displays the IPv4 routing table on a Cisco IOS device?
Answer: A. A. show ip route
The show ip route command displays the active IPv4 routing table, including connected, static, and dynamic routes. The show ip interface brief command only displays interface statuses, not routing logic.
Q6. What occurs when overlapping Wi-Fi channels are implemented?
Answer: A. A. Users experience poor wireless network performance.
Overlapping Wi-Fi channels cause adjacent-channel interference, resulting in packet retransmissions and poor network performance. Proper channel planning, like using channels one, six, and eleven, mitigates this degradation.
Q7. Which wireless security protocol relies on Perfect Forward Secrecy?
Answer: D. D. WPA3
WPA3 uses Simultaneous Authentication of Equals to provide Perfect Forward Secrecy. Older protocols like WPA2 lack this feature, making them vulnerable to offline dictionary attacks if the passphrase is compromised.
Q8. Which QoS per-hop behavior changes the value of the ToS field in the IPv4 packet header?
Answer: D. D. Marking
Marking modifies the Type of Service field in the IPv4 header to assign a specific class of service. Classification only identifies traffic, while policing and shaping manage traffic flow without altering headers.
Q9. Which protocol is implemented when an organization must verify network performance, troubleshoot issues, and use an agent to communicate between monitoring tools and end devices?
Answer: D. D. SNMP
The Simple Network Management Protocol uses an agent-based model to collect performance data and troubleshoot devices. The manager queries these agents, distinguishing it from file transfer or unrelated protocols.
Q10. Which network plane is centralized and manages routing decisions?
Answer: D. D. control plane
The control plane manages routing decisions and builds routing tables. In Software-Defined Networking, this plane is centralized within a controller, which programs the underlying data plane devices.
Q11. In which circumstance would a network architect decide to implement a global unicast subnet instead of a unique local unicast subnet?
Answer: D. D. when the subnet must be routable over the internet
Global unicast IPv6 addresses are publicly routable on the internet. Unique local addresses function similarly to private IPv4 ranges and are not routed externally, making internet routability the deciding factor.
Q12. How do TCP and UDP differ in the way they provide reliability for delivery of packets?
Answer: B. B. TCP provides flow control to avoid overwhelming a receiver by sending too many packets at once, UDP sends packets to the receiver in a continuous stream without checking.
TCP uses flow control mechanisms like windowing to prevent overwhelming a receiver. UDP operates as a continuous, connectionless stream without these reliability checks, clearly distinguishing the two protocols.
Q13. What is a function of MAC address learning?
Answer: C. C. It dynamically learns source MAC addresses and builds a MAC address table to enable frame forwarding
MAC address learning dynamically records source addresses and their ingress ports to build a MAC address table. This enables efficient unicast frame forwarding instead of flooding, defining core switch operation.
Q14. What is a characteristic of a Layer 2 switch?
Answer: D. D. uses the data link layer for communications
A Layer 2 switch operates at the data link layer of the OSI model to forward frames using MAC addresses. Routers create separate broadcast domains, while switches rely on MAC tables for transmission.
Q15. An organization has decided to start using cloud-provided services. Which cloud service allows the organization to install its own operating system on a virtual machine?
Answer: D. D. infrastructure-as-a-service
Infrastructure as a Service provides virtualized computing resources where customers install their own operating systems. Platform and Software as a Service limit this control, making infrastructure the required model.
Q16. Which syslog severity level is considered the most severe and results in the system being considered unusable?
Answer: B. B. Emergency
Syslog level zero, known as Emergency, indicates the system is completely unusable. The lower the numerical value in syslog, the higher the severity, making Emergency more critical than Alert or Critical.
Q17. Which type of port is used to connect the wired network when an autonomous AP maps two VLANs to its WLANs?
Answer: C. C. trunk
A trunk port is required when multiple VLANs must traverse a single physical interface. Because the autonomous access point maps two VLANs to its wireless networks, the switch port must carry tagged traffic for both VLANs.
Q18. Which Rapid PVST+ port state does a port operate in without forwarding frames or updating the MAC address table?
Answer: D. D. discarding
In Rapid Spanning Tree, the discarding state replaces the traditional blocking and listening states. A port in this state does not forward data frames or learn MAC addresses, but it still processes BPDUs to maintain loop-free topology.
Q19. Which configuration is needed to generate an RSA key for SSH on a router?
Answer: C. C. Assign a DNS domain name.
Generating an RSA key pair requires a hostname and a DNS domain name to create the crypto identity. While configuring VTY access is necessary for remote login, the key generation itself strictly requires the domain name.
Q20. Which mode must be used to configure EtherChannel between two switches without using a negotiation protocol?
Answer: B. B. on
Setting the channel group mode to on forces the interface to form an EtherChannel without using any negotiation protocol. Both sides must be manually configured with this mode for the bundle to form successfully.
Q21. What is the effect when loopback interfaces and the configured router ID are absent during OSPF process configuration?
Answer: D. D. The highest up/up physical interface IP address is selected as the router ID.
If no router ID is manually configured and no loopback interfaces exist, OSPF automatically selects the highest IP address on an active physical interface. The protocol selects the highest IP address rather than modifying it or failing to run.
Q22. Which IPsec encryption mode is appropriate when the destination of a packet differs from the security termination point?
Answer: D. D. tunnel
Tunnel mode encapsulates the entire original IP packet within a new packet with a separate outer header. This is necessary when the security termination points differ from the actual traffic source and destination, which is common in site-to-site VPNs.
Q23. What does a switch do when it receives a frame whose destination MAC address is missing from the MAC address table?
Answer: D. D. It floods the frame unchanged across all remaining ports in the incoming VLAN.
When a switch receives a frame with an unknown destination MAC address, it treats it as unknown unicast and floods it unchanged. This forwarding occurs out all other ports within the incoming VLAN except the receiving port.
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