Basic CCNA Interview Questions AND Answers

What is Routing?

Routing is the process of selecting best paths in a network and forward data from
source to destination through it. Routing is usually performed by a dedicated
device called a router.

What is Protocol?

A 'protocol' is a set of invisible computer rules that enable two devices to

connect and transmit data to one another. Protocols determine how data are
transmitted between computing devices and over networks.

Explain difference between Router, Switch and Hub?

Hubs, switches, and routers are all computer networking devices with varying
capabilities. Let's look in detail

Hub

A hub is typically the least expensive, least intelligent, and least complicated of
the three. Its job is very simple anything that comes in one port is sent out to
the others. Hub has single collision domain and single broadcast domain

Switch

Switch is a device that filters and forwards packets between LAN segments. Switches
operate at the data link layer (layer 2) and sometimes the network layer (layer 3)
of the OSI Reference Model and therefore support any packet protocol. Switches have
multiple collision domains and have a single broadcast domain

Router

Router is a device that forwards data packets along networks. A router is connected
to at least two networks, commonly two LANs or WANs or a LAN and its ISP's network.
Routers won't forward broadcast. If a router is present in a network, we may have
at least TWO broadcast domains.

Explain broadcast and collision domain?

A broadcast domain is a logical division of a computer network, in which all nodes

can reach each other by broadcast at the data link layer.

A collision domain is a section of a network where data packets can

collide with one another when being sent on a shared medium or through repeaters

What is the size of IP Address?

32 bit for IPv4 and 128 bit for IPv6

IEEE standard for wireless networking?

IEEE 802.11
What is the range of class A address?

Class A Range from 1.0.0.1 to126.255.255.254 and Supports 16 million hosts on each
of 127 networks.

What is the range of class B address?

Class B range from 128.1.0.1 to191.255.255.254 and Supports 65,000 hosts on each of
16,000 networks.

What is the range of class C address?

Class C range is from 192.0.1.1 to223.255.254.254 and Supports 254 hosts on each of
2 million networks.

What is PoE (Power over Ethernet)?

Power over Ethernet or PoE describes the technology which pass electrical power
along with data on Ethernet cabling. This allows a single cable to provide both
data connection and electrical power to devices such as wireless access points or
IP cameras.

What is a peer-peer process?

A peer-to-peer (P2P) network is a type of decentralized and distributed network

architecture in which individual nodes in the network (called "peers") act as both
suppliers and consumers of resources. There will be no centralized system we
usually seen like Client server model. Simply in p2p, network devices act as both
client and server

What is ping? Why you use ping?

Ping [Packet Internet Groper PING] a computer network tool used to test whether a
particular host is reachable across an IP network

What is the difference between tracert and traceroute

Both Tracert and traceroute commands do similar purpose. On a router or switch you
would use the command traceroute and on a pc you would use tracert .

What is Round Trip Time?

Round-trip time (RTT), also called round-trip delay, is the time required for a
packet to travel from a specific source to a specific destination and back
again.Source is the computer sending the packet and the destination is a remote
computer or system that receives the packet and retransmits it. A user can
determine the RTT to and from an IP address by pinging that address

Define the terms Unicast, Multicast and Broadcast and Anycast?

Unicast One to One communication Eg: http

Multicast One to a group Communication Eg: SLP

Broadcasting One to All communication Eg: ARP

Anycast One to nearest Communication Eg : 6to4

Where do we use cross and standard cable?

To connect same group device use Cross Cable

To connect different group device use Straight Cable

For Example:

To connect one PC to another PC use Cross Cable

To connect one comp to switch OR one switch to router use straight cable

What are the differences between static ip addressing and dynamic ip addressing?

Dynamic IP addresses can change each time you connect to the Internet, while static
IP addresses are reserved for you statically and don't change over time. In short,
Dynamic IP addresses are provided by DHCP server and static IP addresses are given
manually

Difference between CSMA/CD and CSMA/CA?

Carrier Sense Multiple Access With Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) is a media access
control method used in local area networking using early Ethernet technology to
overcome collision when it happened while Carrier sense multiple access with
collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) is used in wireless network to avoid collision

What is DHCP scope?

A Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) scope is the consecutive range of

possible IP addresses that the DHCP server can lease to clients on a subnet.

What is Checksum?

A simple error-detection scheme in which each transmitted message is accompanied by

a numerical value based on the number of set bits in the message. The receiving
station then applies the same formula to the message and checks to make sure the
accompanying numerical value is the same. If not, the receiver can assume that the
message has been garbled.

What is Redundancy?

Network redundancy is a method which provide a back up for the primary device or
route and thereby ensuring network will be available even the primary device or
route become failed or unavailable
What are the different memories used in a CISCO router?

ROM

ROM is read-only memory available on a router's processor board. The initial

bootstrap software that runs on a Cisco router is usually stored in ROM. ROM also
maintains instructions for Power-on Self Test (POST) diagnostics.

Flash Memory

Flash memory is an Electronically Erasable and Re-Programmable memory chip. The

Flash memory contains the full Operating System Image (IOS, Internetwork Operating
System).Flash memory retains content when router is powered down or restarted.

RAM

RAM is very fast memory that loses its information when the router is shutdown or
restarted. On a router, RAM is used to hold running Cisco IOS Operating System, IOS
system tables and buffers RAM is also used to store routing tables,RAM Provides
temporary memory for the router configuration file of the router while the router
is powered on.

RAM Stores running Cisco IOS Operating System, Active program and operating system
instructions, the Running Configuration File, ARP (Address Resolution Protocol)
cache, routing tables and buffered IP Packets.

NVRAM (Non-volatile Random Access Memory)

NVRAM is used to store the Startup Configuration File. This is the configuration
file that IOS reads when the router boots up. It is extremely fast memory and
retains its content when the router is restarted.

What are the different types of passwords used in securing a CISCO router?

Here are the five passwords you can set on a Cisco router:

Console

Aux

VTY

Enable password

Enable Secret

What is the use of "Service Password Encryption"?

"Service Password Encryption" command allows you to encrypt all passwords(including

clear text) on your router so they cannot beviewed from your running-config
Define and explain the five conversion steps of data encapsulation.

Data encapsulation is a process that makes use of the layered model concept in that
each layer depends on the layer above and below relative to OSI. The lower layer
uses encapsulation to put the data from the upper layer into its own encapsulated
data field i.e., the information in a protocol is wrapped, or contained, in the
data section of another protocol.

In the process of encapsulation, header information is added to the data from the
above layer.

The five steps of conversion are

Step

Action

Layers Involved

Keyword

Step 1

Alphanumeric input from user converted into Data

Application/Presentation/Session

DATA

Step 2

Data converted into segments

Transport

SEGMENTS

Step 3

Segments converted into Packets or Datagrams and Network Header is added

Network

PACKETS

Step 4

Packets or Datagrams are built into Frames

Data Link

FRAMES

Step 5

Frames are converted into bits( 1s and 0s) for transmission

Physical

BITS

In configuring a router, what command must be used if you want to delete the
configuration data that is stored in the NVRAM?

#erase startup-config

Which command is used to copy the configuration from RAM to NVRAM

#Copy running-config startup-config

Differentiate Logical Topology from Physical Topology?

Physical topology is the network what we can see and Logical topology is the
network which data packets are send from source to destination

What is AS (Autonomous System)?

An autonomous system (AS) can be said as either a single network or a group of

networks that is controlled by a common network administrator (or group of
administrators) on behalf of a single administrative entity (such as a university,
a business enterprise, or a business division). An autonomous system is also
sometimes referred to as a routing domain. An autonomous system is assigned a
globally unique number, sometimes called an Autonomous System Number (ASN).

What is the difference between Private IP and Public IP?

Public IP is used across internet and Private IPs are used within the local LAN

Explain different cable types?

Straight cable To connect different group devices (Switch Router)

Cross Cable - To connect same group device (PC PC, Switch Switch)

Rollover cable To connect Console port to Computer

How does RIP differ from EIGRP?

The major difference between both is that EIGRP is Cisco propriety and RIP is
open standard

Some internal differences between them are:

AD value of Rip is 120 and AD value for EIGRP is 90 internal / 170

external.

RIP uses Bellmen ford algorithm to calculate the path while Eigrp use Dual
method to calculate the routes paths
 Maximum hop count for RIP is 15 that is after 15 counts the packet is
dropped while that of EIGRP is 100 by default and upto 255 by configuration.

RIP(ver 1) is classfull protocol where as EIGRP is classless protocol

In RIP full routing table exchanged, but in EIGRP missing routes are
exchanged

For RIP protocol, hello timers every 30 seconds but in EIGRP hello timer
every 5 seconds

RIP v1 sends updates as broadcast while EIGRP send updates as Multicast

EIGRP uses an Autonomous number to determine which domain it belongs to

which is not the case with RIP protocols.

RIP is mostly used for smaller networks which EIGRP is used for larger
networks.

RIP is a distance vector routing protocol while EIGRP is an hybrid routing

protocol.

RIP sends full update whenever network change occurs whereas EIGRP sends
triggered updates

Differentiate User Mode from Privileged Mode

Privileged mode has access to the entire router or switch configuration. User EXEC
mode only has limited options. Specifically, to do any configuration changes, you
need to enter privileged mode first.User EXEC mode is used mainly for running show
commands and to collect details

What is 100BaseFX?

100BaseFX is a version of Fast Ethernet that is often used for wiring campus
backbones.

Differentiate full-duplex from half-duplex?

Full-duplex means that communication can occur in both directions at the same
time. Half-duplex means communication can only occur in one direction at a time

What does the "show protocol" display?

To display the configured protocols, use theshow protocols command in user

EXEC or privileged EXEC mode.

#show protocols [interface-name interface-number]