220-1201 Practice Test 36 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A technician is configuring a new workstation for video editing. The user needs fast read/write speeds for large project files. Which storage technology should be selected for the primary drive?

Accepted Answer

NVMe M.2 SSD. An NVMe M.2 SSD uses the PCIe interface, offering significantly faster speeds than SATA SSDs or HDDs, ideal for video editing. SATA SSDs are slower, and HDDs are too slow for this workload.

Answer

2.5-inch SATA SSD

Answer

10,000 RPM HDD

Answer

Hybrid drive (SSHD)

Question 2

A user's 4K monitor is set to 3840x2160 resolution but text and icons appear very small and blurry. The display cable is a standard HDMI cable. What is the most likely cause of the blurriness?

Accepted Answer

The HDMI cable does not support enough bandwidth for 4K resolution. Standard HDMI cables (especially older versions) may not have sufficient bandwidth for 4K at proper refresh rates, leading to chroma subsampling and blurry text. The correct answer identifies bandwidth limitation as the cause, and the solution would be to use a high-speed HDMI or DisplayPort cable.

Answer

The monitor's refresh rate is set too high

Answer

The graphics driver is corrupted

Answer

The monitor's scaling settings are incorrect

Question 3

A technician is configuring an MFP for a law firm that requires secure printing. Users must enter a PIN at the device to release their print jobs. The MFP supports hard drive encryption and secure print release. Which feature should the technician enable to ensure print jobs are not stored unencrypted on the MFP's hard drive?

Accepted Answer

Hard drive encryption. Secure print release only holds jobs until the user enters a PIN, but the data may still be stored on the hard drive. Hard drive encryption ensures that even if the drive is removed, the data is unreadable. Both features together provide comprehensive security.

Answer

Secure Print (PIN release)

Answer

IPsec for network printing

Answer

User authentication via LDAP

Question 4

A technician is troubleshooting a laser printer that produces pages with a repeating smudge mark every 3 inches down the page. The printer uses a toner cartridge with an integrated drum. What component is most likely causing this defect?

Accepted Answer

The fuser roller is damaged.. A repeating defect at a regular interval is often caused by a damaged roller, and the interval helps identify which roller. A 3-inch interval matches the circumference of the fuser roller. The drum's circumference is typically larger, so the interval would be different.

Answer

The photosensitive drum is scratched.

Answer

The toner cartridge is low on toner.

Answer

The transfer roller is dirty.

Question 5

A user has a laptop with 8 GB of RAM and runs a Type 2 hypervisor to test a Linux VM. The VM is configured with 4 GB of RAM, but the user notices the host OS becomes sluggish whenever the VM is running. The technician checks resource usage and finds the host is using 6 GB of RAM before starting the VM. What should the technician adjust to improve performance?

Accepted Answer

Reduce the VM's RAM allocation to 2 GB. The host only has 2 GB free, but the VM requests 4 GB, causing the host to use swap memory. Reducing the VM's RAM allocation to 2 GB will allow both the host and VM to run within physical memory, avoiding swapping.

Answer

Increase the host's virtual memory page file size

Answer

Enable hyper-threading on the host CPU

Answer

Switch the VM's network adapter from NAT to bridged

Question 6

A technician is installing new cabling for a security camera system that uses PoE. The cameras are located 120 meters from the switch. The technician has Cat6 cable available. What should the technician do to ensure reliable operation?

Accepted Answer

Install a PoE extender or a switch at the 100-meter mark.. This question tests knowledge of Ethernet distance limits and solutions. The correct answer is to use a PoE extender or a switch at the midpoint, as 120 meters exceeds the 100-meter limit for Ethernet, and PoE may also have voltage drop issues.

Answer

Use a higher category cable like Cat6a to extend the distance.

Answer

Use a single-mode fiber optic cable instead.

Answer

The cable run is acceptable because Cat6 supports up to 150 meters.

Question 7

A customer says their PC randomly freezes and sometimes displays a blue screen error. You run diagnostics and find that the CPU passes all tests, but the system still crashes. Which component should you check next as a likely cause of CPU-related instability?

Accepted Answer

The CPU fan. Even if the CPU itself is functional, instability can arise from other factors. Overheating due to a failing fan can cause intermittent crashes. The CPU fan is critical for maintaining safe temperatures under load.

Answer

The hard drive

Answer

The power supply unit

Answer

The motherboard BIOS

Question 8

A customer brings in an all-in-one PC that has a cracked LCD screen. The touch function still works, but the display shows a large black area with spiderweb cracks. The customer wants the cheapest fix. What should you recommend?

Accepted Answer

Replace the whole all-in-one unit.. A cracked LCD screen requires replacement of the entire display panel, which is often as expensive as the whole unit for all-in-ones. Because the touch layer still works, the damage is to the LCD layer beneath. The most cost-effective solution is usually to replace the entire all-in-one, as screen replacement labor and parts can be prohibitive.

Answer

Replace only the touch digitizer layer.

Answer

Replace the entire LCD panel assembly.

Answer

Use a screen repair kit to fill the cracks.

Question 9

A technician is troubleshooting a laptop that will not charge. The battery is removable, and the power adapter works on another laptop. When the battery is inserted, the laptop powers on but shows '0% available (plugged in, not charging)'. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The battery is defective and needs replacement.. The 'plugged in, not charging' message often indicates a failed battery that cannot accept a charge, even though the system detects it. A defective battery cell will prevent charging. The power adapter and charging circuit are likely fine since the laptop powers on.

Answer

The charging port is loose.

Answer

The power management driver is outdated.

Answer

The CMOS battery is dead.

Question 10

A company is setting up a new branch office with 30 employees. They need to connect all workstations to the network and provide internet access. The internet connection is a fiber optic line terminating in an ONT. Which device should be placed between the ONT and the switch to route traffic and provide NAT?

Accepted Answer

Router. The ONT converts fiber to Ethernet, but it does not route or perform NAT. A router is required to connect the local network to the internet, provide NAT, and handle IP addressing. A switch alone cannot route, and a firewall is often combined with a router but is not the primary device for routing. The correct answer is a router.

Answer

Patch panel

Answer

Layer 2 switch

Answer

Firewall appliance

Question 11

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop that has a 256GB SATA SSD (C:) and a 1TB SATA HDD (D:). The user reports that the system is running very slowly, and the C: drive is nearly full. The technician runs a disk cleanup and removes temporary files, but the C: drive still has only 5GB free. What should the technician do to resolve the performance issue without replacing the SSD?

Accepted Answer

Move the user's Documents, Pictures, and other personal folders to the D: drive.. This question tests understanding of SSD performance degradation due to low free space. SSDs need free space for wear leveling and garbage collection. When an SSD is nearly full, performance drops significantly. The best solution is to move user data and large files to the D: drive to free up space on the C: drive.

Answer

Enable write caching on the SSD in Device Manager.

Answer

Defragment the C: drive to consolidate free space.

Answer

Disable the page file on the C: drive.

Question 12

After installing a new graphics card, a user's display shows distorted colors and random artifacts during boot. The system POSTs successfully. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The power supply unit is insufficient for the new card. Artifacts and color distortion after a new GPU install typically point to insufficient power delivery or a faulty card. Since the system POSTs, it's not a complete failure but likely a power or driver issue. The correct answer highlights that the power supply may not meet the card's requirements, causing instability.

Answer

The monitor is incompatible with the new card

Answer

The graphics card driver is outdated

Answer

The display cable is loose

Question 13

A company needs to deploy a virtualized environment where each VM must be isolated from others for security reasons, but all VMs share the same physical network. Which virtual networking configuration should be used?

Accepted Answer

Use a virtual switch with port groups assigned to different VLANs. VLANs provide network isolation at Layer 2, allowing VMs on the same physical network to be separated logically. This is a common security practice in virtualized environments.

Answer

Configure each VM with a different MAC address

Answer

Use bridged networking for all VMs

Answer

Assign each VM a static IP address from a different subnet

Question 14

A technician is troubleshooting a hybrid cloud environment where an on-premises application needs to access a cloud-based database. The connection is intermittent and slow. The technician checks the local network and finds no issues. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The internet connection between the sites has high latency or packet loss. In a hybrid cloud, latency and bandwidth issues often stem from the internet connection between the on-premises site and the cloud. Even if the local network is fine, the WAN link may be congested or have high latency. DNS or firewall issues would typically cause complete failures, not intermittent slowness.

Answer

The cloud database is configured with the wrong DNS records

Answer

The on-premises firewall is blocking the database port

Answer

The cloud provider is performing maintenance on the database server

Question 15

A user reports that their cloud-based application is running slowly, and the IT team discovers that the application is hosted in a different geographic region than the user. Which cloud concept is most directly affecting performance?

Accepted Answer

Latency. This scenario tests understanding of latency in a global cloud context. When an application is hosted far from the user, the physical distance increases network latency, causing slow performance. Bandwidth could be a factor but is not directly tied to geographic distance, while elasticity and fault tolerance are unrelated to the location of the host.

Answer

Bandwidth

Answer

Elasticity

Answer

Fault tolerance